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Update 1/30/24: Reader Alex points out in the comments that the terms of this offer indicate that it sounds targeted and apparently the bonus is not necessarily available nationwide.
TD Bank is out with a couple of really good bank bonuses whereby you can earn a bonus of up to $400 with a new checking account and qualifying direct deposit activity and up to $600 with a new savings account when you leave money with TD for a few months. Read on for more details.
The Deal
- TD Bank is offering checking and savings account bonuses offering the chance to earn up to $1,000 as follows (Update: This offer appears to be targeted):
- Open a TD Beyond checking account, get $2,500 in direct deposits within the first 60 days and get a $400 bonus
- Open a TD Signature Savings account, make a deposit as per the tiers below and earn a bonus based on the minimum balance you maintain for 90 days from the 20th day from account opening:
- Deposit and maintain $10,000 to earn $200
- Deposit and maintain $20,000 to earn $300
- Deposit and maintain $30,000 to earn $400
- Deposit and maintain $40,000 to earn $500
- Deposit and maintain $50,000 to earn $600
- Direct link to this deal
Key Terms
- TD Beyond Checking has a $25 monthly fee that is waived if you meet one of the following requirements:
- Get $5,000 in direct deposits per statement cycle
or - Maintain an average daily balance of $2,500
or - Have $25K combined daily balance across eligible TD accounts
- Get $5,000 in direct deposits per statement cycle
- TD Beyond Checking also has a $3 paper statement fee (avoid this by opting for electronic statements)
- TD Signature Savings has a $15 monthly fee that is waived if you meet one of the following requirements:
- Maintain $10K minimum daily balance
or - Link your savings account to a TD Beyond checking account
- Maintain $10K minimum daily balance
- Checking Bonus: You will not qualify for the Checking Bonus if you are an existing TD Bank personal checking Customer OR had a previous personal checking account that was closed within the preceding 12 months OR have received a prior personal checking account bonus at any time.
- Savings Bonus: You will not qualify for the Savings Bonus if you are an existing TD Bank personal savings or money market Customer OR had a previous personal savings or money market account that was closed within the preceding 12 months OR have received a prior personal savings or money market account bonus at any time.
Quick Thoughts
I got a Facebook ad last night for a $300 TD Bank checking account bonus. I had opened TD Bank checking & savings accounts a few years ago for a bonus and the entire process was very simple, so that caught my eye. I went searching to see if Doctor of Credit had this bonus listed, and they do — but then in the comments of their post I found a link to this even better offer. A key note: Doctor of Credit mentions that the terms exclude those who have had a TD account that was closed within the preceding 12 months, but I noticed (and subsequently see that quite a few commenters at DoC have also noticed) that the terms also now state that you are not eligible if you have received a prior personal checking account bonus at any time. Terms on those sort of things aren’t always enforced, but I would assume at first glance that I am not eligible to get the bonus since I received one a few years ago.
The $400 checking account bonus does require $2500 in direct deposits over the first 60 days. I always recommend checking Doctor of Credit for things that may work to trigger that requirement.
Do note that in order to avoid the $25 monthly maintenance fee, you’ll need to either get direct deposits of $5K or more per statement cycle or maintain a $2,500 minimum daily balance or have a $25,000 combined daily balance across your TD Bank accounts.
On the savings side, you’ll need to deposit $50,000 to get the full $600 bonus. That’s a lot of cash on hand, but for those who keep that kind of cash balance, the bonus might make it worthwhile. Note that you should earn the “bump rate” on your savings if you have both checking and savings, which would mean 2.5% interest on the $50K — not industry-leading, but combined with the $600 it’s probably not a sacrifice over keeping the money in a higher-yield savings account.
At the low end of the spectrum, the TD account might not be your best option. For instance, if you were only going to deposit $10K to go after the $200 bonus, you’d probably want to alternatively consider the current M1 Finance brokerage account offer whereby you can earn a $250 bonus when opening an account through a referral and depositing $10K and keeping it there for only 30 days (see our post about that offer here). The hold period is shorter and the bonus is higher if you’ve only got $10K cash on hand and it’s an either/or situation (and if you’re in a 2-player household, you should be able to sign up for that and then refer Player 2 and end up with $750 between the two of you with a total of $20K tied up for 30 days). That said, the TD bonus does keep things simple in having both accounts under one roof (or maybe you’re doing both deals, already have M1, etc).
A quick sift through the comments at Doctor of Credit indicates that the checking account bonus posts pretty quickly with TD, which matches my past experience. When I decided that I no longer wanted/needed the account, I was able to close it online and it was quick and painless.
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Didn’t work in CA or TX. Anyone have success with any other state(s)?
Targeted, probably better off applying for the public offer of $300.
[…] HT: Frequent Miler […]
According to the DoC writeup, this isn’t available nationwide. The TD terms also state that the bonus can take up to 180 days to post, and the bonus may be clawed back if you close the account within 180 days, so using 90 days to calculate an effective return seems overly optimistic. with a 180-day hold, the effective rate of less than 5% isn’t enticing.
I didn’t catch that it wasn’t nationwide — I’ll see if I can find some more info and update.
Regarding the 180 days, I meant to note that it says that the bonus can take that long to post. However, there isn’t a 180-day hold — the requirement is to have the money in there for 90 days beyond the 20th day after account opening. After that, you could (at least theoretically) withdraw all but a dollar or whatever from the savings account and put it somewhere else. It doesn’t say you need to maintain the balance until the bonus posts (at least that wasn’t my read).
I agree, I shouldn’t have implied you need to hold the full amount 180 days; but if you just leave a dollar in the account for the 6 months you’ll be dealing with account maintenance fees unless you jump through some more hoops, which again could potentially reduce the return… I’m not eligible due to my location, but the slim return on this one would probably leave me on the sidelines anyway.
I don’t think there is a maintenance fee on the savings account so long as you also have checking. True that you would have to maintain an average daily balance of $2500 in the checking account though then in order to avoid a fee on the checking account.
Do you know if I can open just the checking account now and the Savings later when the funds are available?
No, I don’t know.
I’m concerned about this statement: “Offer valid from December 26, 2023, through February 29, 2024, and is available only to the person addressed in the mailer or email. ” Seems targeted, isn’t it?
I missed that — I searched the terms for things like “targeted” and “recipient” — I missed that line. Will update.
I might stop by the bank and talk to them.
I tried to open an account for a similar bonus last year and was informed I wasn’t eligible for a bonus because I “have received a prior personal checking account bonus at any time.” “AT ANY TIME” – it’s real.
Bummmmmmmer.
a quick math shows the higher tier bonus for saving account is not worth it considering the high interest world we live in currently. Best deal is the lower tier bonus
$600 in 90 days is like 4.8% annualized, right? Add the 2.5% you’ll earn at TD and I don’t think you’re going to beat that in anything else right now, are you?
somehow missed the “bumped rate” of 2.5%. Then if that’s the case, the higher tier interest is worth doing it.
On a related-ish note, does anyone know of an online resource that keeps track of various federal income-limit/phaseout levels for different benefits? For example, the tax credits for higher education expenses (American Opportunity Tax Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit) start phase out from MAGI of $160K to $180K (married filing jointly). There are other thresholds like the eligibility for Roth IRA contributions, and the Child Tax Credit, but I do not know them all and I would be glad if someone else was keeping track of all of them.
I am fortunate/unfortunate to be in a spot where we will qualify for the full $2500 in AOTC based on expenditures, but my MAGI is in the phase-out range. Thus for each additional $1K of income (which these bank bonuses would include), I am giving up $250 in AOTC tax credit. Stacking that with the already-taxable nature of the bonuses means I am only netting <50% of the face value.
So are you still going to try for this despite having a prior personal account? Or is the fine print enough to dissuade you?
A combination of the fine print and the lack of desire to add another account to my spreadsheet right now is enough to dissuade me unless I see some positive data points. As things stand, I need to clean things up and reduce the number of accounts I have open as it is, so I don’t really want to oppose that effort for the sake of science.
That said, I would be willing to work against myself if I knew I were eligible. And I believe my wife hasn’t done TD before, so we’ll probably go after it for her after I consolidate and get rid of some accounts.
I need to do the same thing. I’m not very good at the “always be closing” part of the bank account bonuses.
I usually wait about a month after getting the bonus and then withdraw / transfer / bill pay all funds out of the account and then contact the bank to close the account. This resets the clock for accounts that have a 1 or 2 year waiting period. Bummed to see this account has a once per lifetime restriction, but we will see if there are any positive data points about twice per lifetime 🙂
Is this nationwide?
Not nationwide. I tried, from Colorado, no go.