Bank of the West New Account Promotions – $250 or $600 for Checking

Bank of the West is a regional bank with an enormous footprint in the Midwest and Western United States. With over 600 branches and 9,000 employees, it’s headquartered in San Francisco and is a subsidiary of financial giant BNP Paribas.

Bank of the West is FDIC insured up to $250,000 under FDIC certificate #3514 as a State Chartered Bank and regulated by the FDIC.

In December 2021, BMO Bank reached an agreement to acquire Bank of the West for $16.3 billion. BMO Bank runs bank promotions so now you’ll want to look at those as Bank of the West will no longer be, at least under their name, be offering them. We will keep you updated as we learn more.

🚨 BMO Bank has a $250 bonus available!

They periodically run some good promotions but at the moment both are expired. (likely because of the acquisition)

They had previously offered two – one for $250 and one for $600, here were the details:

💵 U.S. Bank – up to $400

Earn up to $400 when you open a new U.S. Bank Smartly® Checking account and complete qualifying activities. Subject to certain terms and limitations. Offer valid through April 3, 2024. Member FDIC.

Offer may not be available if you live outside of the U.S. Bank footprint or are not an existing client of U.S. Bank or State Farm.

Learn more about this offer

Table of Contents
  1. Bank of the West Checking Bonus — $250 [EXPIRED]
  2. Bank of the West Premier Checking Bonus — up to $600 [EXPIRED]
  3. Bonus Offer Restrictions
  4. How Does This Offer Compare?

Bank of the West Checking Bonus — $250 [EXPIRED]

Bank of the West has a checking account bonus of $250 when you open an Any Deposit Checking account (except for UCB Student Checking and Bank of the West Premier Checking) with any opening deposit amount (a penny or more).

Then, set up a direct deposit with your employer or benefits provider and make direct deposits totaling $1,000 or more per month for three months in a row. Check the offer qualification periods and key dates in the terms and conditions for all the details.

That’s the only active requirement – after that, you get the bonus.

The account has a $10 monthly fee that you can waive if:

  • You make any deposit per statement cycle (this can be using the mobile app, in-branch, via ATM, or directly into the account)
  • You are under the age of 25

Otherwise, no minimum balance and it takes just ten minutes to open the account.

You can open an account online (it’ll enter the promo code automatically) or go into a branch but you must be a resident of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin or Wyoming.

Learn more about the Bank of the West promotion
(Offer expires 9/30/2022)

Bank of the West Premier Checking Bonus — up to $600 [EXPIRED]

This offer is higher because the requirements are a bit higher.

First, you get $500 when you open a Premier Checking account by 8/6/2021 and deposit at least $25,000 that same month and maintain a $25,000 average monthly balance for three full calendar months.

Then, you get an additional $100 when you open a Choice Money Market Savings account by 8/6/2021. You must deposit a minimum of $10,000 in funds new to Bank of the West and maintain an average monthly balance of $10,000 for three full calendar months to get the extra $100.

The Premier Checking has a $25 monthly service charge that is waived for the first two statement cycles. It’s also waived with a $25,000 average monthly combined balance, which you’ll meet if you meet the bonus requirements.

You can open an account online (it’ll enter the promo code automatically) or go into a branch but you must be a resident of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin or Wyoming.

Learn more about the Bank of the West promotion
(Offer expires 8/6/2021)

Bonus Offer Restrictions

There are a few restrictions on both offers (confirm this on the offer page, we may be out of date):

  1. You can’t have had an open consumer checking account as of 8/15/2021
  2. You can only get one consumer bonus between 2/1/2020 and 2/27/2022
  3. One individual per residential address
  4. Must keep the account in open status and with a positive balance as of 1/31/2022

How Does This Offer Compare?

This is an above average bonus for a checking account with no minimum and no maintenance fee (with a direct deposit), you typically see offers like this at around the $200 – $250 range so this offer is good.

Barclays – $200

Barclays Bank will give you a $200 if you open a new savings account and deposit $25,000 or more within 30 days and maintain at least $25,000 for the next 120 days. The savings account also pays a competitive interest rate of 4.35% APY while you wait.

👉 Click here to learn more


BMO Relationship Checking – $400

BMO Bank is offering a $400 bonus* when you open a BMO Relationship Checking and when you have at least $7,500 in qualifying direct deposits within the first 90 days. It is a very straightforward offer that is available nationwide.

*Conditions apply

👉 Click here to learn more


Bank of America – $200 Bonus Offer

Bank of America offers a $200 Bonus Offer cash bonus if you open a new account and Set up and receive qualifying direct deposits totaling $2,000 or more into that account within 90 days of account opening. It has a monthly fee that is easy to have waived.

👉 Click here to learn more


Chase Total Checking® – $300

Chase Bank will give you $300 when you open a Total Checking account and set up and receive direct deposits totaling $500 or more within 90 days. There is a $12 monthly fee that is waivable with a monthly direct deposit of just $500, so no gotchas on this deal!

👉 Click here to learn more


HSBC Premier Checking – up to $4,000

HSBC has an offer where you can get up to $4,000 for eligible new customers who open an HSBC Premier checking account, make a sizable deposit, and make recurring monthly qualifying direct deposits of at least $5,000 for 3 consecutive months.

👉 Click here to learn more

If you can get this Bank of the West promotion, it’s a solid offer that’s easy to satisfy.

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About Jim Wang

Jim Wang is a forty-something father of four who is a frequent contributor to Forbes and Vanguard's Blog. He has also been fortunate to have appeared in the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Entrepreneur, and Marketplace Money.

Jim has a B.S. in Computer Science and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. in Information Technology - Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. His approach to personal finance is that of an engineer, breaking down complex subjects into bite-sized easily understood concepts that you can use in your daily life.

One of his favorite tools (here's my treasure chest of tools,, everything I use) is Personal Capital, which enables him to manage his finances in just 15-minutes each month. They also offer financial planning, such as a Retirement Planning Tool that can tell you if you're on track to retire when you want. It's free.

He is also diversifying his investment portfolio by adding a little bit of real estate. But not rental homes, because he doesn't want a second job, it's diversified small investments in a few commercial properties and farms in Illinois, Louisiana, and California through AcreTrader.

Recently, he's invested in a few pieces of art on Masterworks too.

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Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank or financial institution. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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Comments

About the comments on this site:

These responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

    • Jim Wang says

      When you click through to the bank page, the page says that the promo code is applied automatically.

  1. Meri Orshansky says

    Hi,
    I just call Bank of the West to make an appointment to open the account for $500.00 bonus promotion, but the banker said that I have to have a “mailer” from the bank in order to do so or I have to have a promotional code. It does not say “Targeted” on your website. Am I mistaken and the bank is right? Any suggestion? I have only couple days to open it, if so. I know you will suggest to do it online, but I always prefer to go to the branch. I live just 2 miles from it.
    Warmest Regards,
    Meri

    • Jim Wang says

      Hi Meri – unfortunately I don’t have any more information than what you see. If it was targeted, it doesn’t say so on the page I was sharing because it says your promo code will be applied automatically.

  2. Michael L. says

    Bank of the West didn’t give me the 500 bonus and after 9 months of asking what was the reason this is what they told me:

    “Your checking account was opened on March 25, 2021. You only deposited $5,000.00 in March 2021. Therefore, the account did not qualify for the bonus. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

    I think they should not let people apply after the 20th of the month since most banks have monthly transfer limit and definitely will take about 10 days to transfer $35K (March was the start of USA COVID lockdown and we only do online transfer). What happens if someone apply on the 29th, they would not be qualified for sure. Jim, I don’t remember seeing anything about deposit same month on the original offer verbiage back in March. Do you have a copy of that offer? Any suggestions on how to handle this matter?

    • Jim Wang says

      Oh no… I didn’t even think about the timing of it and I think that’s a pretty abysmal rule. I’ll amend the post to warn folks about how they calculate this.

      I don’t have the original post anymore (I tried finding an archived version online but struck out) but the language seems to match up to their explanation, I just never considered transfer limits and all that (I never did the Premier deal).

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