The shopping portal Rakuten is offering a $400 bonus for opening a new SoFi Checking/Savings account by clicking through the portal link and making a $500 direct deposit within 45 days. This version is the best that SoFi has ever offered.
The bonus can either be taken as cash or converted into Amex Membership Rewards (MR) points at a rate of 1 cent each, which is our preferred choice since we value MR at ~1.55 cents each.
The Rakuten promo will stack with SoFi’s direct $300 sign-up bonus for a total of up to $700 (or $300 and 40K MR) back when opening a new online account and completing qualifying direct deposits.
The elevated Rakuten bonus may be good for today only.
The Deal
- Open a SoFi Checking/Savings account and get a $50-300 bonus when completing between $1000 and $5000 in qualifying direct deposits (see table below for amounts).
See Doctor of Credit’s list of what SoFi considers a direct deposit
- Stack with Rakuten for an additional ~$400/40,000 Membership Rewards points when opening a new account through the portal and completing a direct deposit of at least $500 within 45 days.
If you’re not a Rakuten Member and would like to use one of our referral links, you’ll find them below:
Key Terms
Rakuten
- Cash Back is only available for new SoFi Checking and Savings customers.
- Only one per account.
- To qualify for cash back, the customer must apply for a new SoFi Checking and Savings account directly through the Rakuten link and set up direct deposit with their INITIAL deposit totaling a minimum of $500 within 45 days of clicking the Cash Back link.
- The INITIAL deposit needs to be a direct deposit to qualify.
- Cash Back amount subject to change and determined based on date customer clicks on Rakuten link.
- Cash Back will be automatically added to your Rakuten account within 45 days after a direct deposit is posted to your SoFi Checking & Savings account.
- Direct Deposit means a recurring deposit of regular income to an account holder’s SoFi Checking or Savings account, including payroll, pension, or government benefit payments (e.g., Social Security), made by the account holder’s employer, payroll or benefits provider or government agency (“Direct Deposit”) via the Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) Network during a 30-day Evaluation Period (as defined below).
- Deposits that are not from an employer or government agency, including but not limited to check deposits, peer-to-peer transfers (e.g., transfers from PayPal, Venmo, etc.), merchant transactions (e.g., transactions from PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc.), and bank ACH funds transfers and wire transfers from external accounts, or are non-recurring in nature (e.g., IRS tax refunds), do not constitute Direct Deposit activity.
SoFi Checking
- Promotion Period: 12/7/23 12:01AM ET to 1/31/26 11:59PM ET.
- Must be a new user to SoFi.
- In order to qualify for eligibility for a bonus, SoFi must receive at least one Direct Deposit (as defined below) from an Eligible Participant, the first of which must be received on or after 12/7/2023.
- Eligible Direct Deposit means a recurring deposit of regular income to an account holder’s SoFi Checking or Savings account, including payroll, pension, or government benefit payments (e.g., Social Security), made by the account holder’s employer, payroll or benefits provider or government agency (“Eligible Direct Deposit”) via the Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) Network.
- Deposits that are not from an employer, payroll, benefits provider, or government agency (such as check deposits; P2P transfers such as from PayPal or Venmo, etc.; merchant transactions such as from PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc.; and external bank ACH transfers not from employers) do not qualify for this Direct Deposit Promotion. The amount of the bonus, if any, will be calculated during the Direct Deposit Bonus Period as described and defined below.
- The Direct Deposit Bonus Period begins when SoFi receives a Direct Deposit within the Promotion Period and ends 25 calendar days later (the “Direct Deposit Bonus Period”). For the avoidance of doubt, the Direct Deposit Bonus Period shall not extend beyond the Promotion Period. The bonus amount will vary based on the total amount of Direct Deposits received during the Direct Deposit Bonus Period. Once the Direct Deposit Bonus Period has elapsed, SoFi will determine if you have met the offer requirements and will deposit any earned bonus into your checking account within seven (7) business days. For example, if SoFi receives between $1,000.00 and $4,999.99 in Direct Deposits during the Direct Deposit Bonus Period, you will receive a one-time cash bonus of $50. A member may only qualify for one bonus tier and will not be eligible for future bonus payments if Direct Deposits subsequently increase after the Direct Deposit Bonus Period.
| Total Direct Deposit Amount in Direct Deposit Bonus Period | Cash Bonus Tier |
|---|---|
| $1,000.00 – $4,999.99 | $50 |
| $5,000.00 or more | $300 |
- The Direct Deposit Bonus Period begins when SoFi receives a Direct Deposit within the Promotion Period and ends 25 days later (the “Direct Deposit Bonus Period”). For the avoidance of doubt, the Direct Deposit Bonus Period shall not extend beyond the Promotion Period. The bonus amount will vary based on the total amount of Direct Deposits received during the Direct Deposit Bonus Period. Once the Direct Deposit Bonus Period has elapsed, SoFi will determine if you have met the offer requirements and will deposit any earned bonus into your checking account within seven (7) business days. For example, if SoFi receives between $1,000.00 and $4,999.99 in Direct Deposits during the Direct Deposit Bonus Period, you will receive a one-time cash bonus of $50. A member may only qualify for one bonus tier and will not be eligible for future bonus payments if Direct Deposits subsequently increase after the Direct Deposit Bonus Period.
- SoFi will credit members who meet qualification criteria within seven (7) business days of the end of the Direct Deposit Bonus Period.
- Bonuses are considered miscellaneous income and may be reportable to the IRS on Form 1099-MISC (or Form 1042-S, if applicable).
Quick Thoughts
$300 from SoFi and $400 from Rakuten is the best offer that we’ve seen. In order to max out these offers, you just have to sign up for the checking account through the Rakuten link and then do a total of $5000 in direct deposits.
In terms of timing, if you make your first direct deposit on August 28th (for instance), then you have until September 20th to meet the $5,000 in combined total direct deposits to qualify for the full $300 bonus…it doesn’t need to happen all in one shot but it does need to happen within 25 days of the first direct deposit. Note that the money doesn’t need to stay in the account in order to qualify for the $5,000 total.
SoFi is known for being fairly strict with what it considers a direct deposit (see DOC methods list here). Last year, I was able to trigger both Swagbucks and SoFi by making a $5,000 transfer from Wells Fargo and putting “Payroll Direct Deposit T. Steinke” in the reference (this was based on a few positive comments I saw in the DOC thread). But, of course, YMMV.
SoFi offers up 3.8% APY for account holders who do a monthly “direct deposit,” so it can be a decent option if you actually need an online checking account. I have an account, and the 3.8% APY rate is kept active by doing an electronic transfer using Plastiq.
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My Rakuten transaction is properly tracked, current status pending but the cash back amount show $0. Do you think it will properly update later? My first DD was for over 1K.. But now I noticed that in order to add the new Sofi acct to the direct payment originator, I received a 1 cent deposit as a verification process, now i’m afraid that rakuten is showing $0 cash back because the initial deposit on the new Sofi acct could be the 1 cent transaction. I’m hoping that would not be the case
Data point:
Set up an ACH direct deposit form my Chase business checking to my SoFi account ($2.50 per ACH).
Had some hassles with Chase’s fraud department, but finally got it cleared.
I got an email from Rakuten the day it hit telling me I was getting 40,000 MRs. I need to do a second ACH to get me to the $5000 figure and the $300 SoFi credit, but the deposit shows on SoFi as a “direct deposit.”
Is there a spending requirement at Rakuten to receive the $400?
what about the savings? I went to my sofi account and it has both checking and saving. understood about 5k dd – so this will cover both sofi and rakuten offer for my checking. how about the savings account in sofi? Can you please help on this? it’s quite confusing.
PS – be careful. The initial deposit is key. When I was able to sign up after the ID check; the website asked me to link another bank account and deposit some cash. I believe if folks end up doing that, they might lose out on the 40k points since this may count as the initial deposit. I went in and canceled the transfer (I hope this does not disqualify me since the deposit never officially came through and was posted).
Is this a DD of $500 or $5000? Article cites both numbers.
Both. As it says in the post, in order to trigger the Rakuten portion, you have to do an initial DD of at least $500. In order to trigger the entire SoFi portion, you have to do a total of $5000 within 25 days of the first DD.
So if I previously had a sofi account that I closed a few years ago, I’m not eligible for either?
same boat. just tried and said I am an existing customer even though I closed the account three years ago
…” just tried and said I am an existing customer”…
Who said?
I can’t move past the cloudfare human check. Tried different browsers. When the human check shows success, it still does not let me go to the next page to process/apply.