Bank of the West New Account Promotions – $250 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.

They often run some good promotions and the latest is for $250, here are the details:

Bank of the West Checking Bonus — $250

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 by 8/31/2021. That’s the only 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 4/2/2021)

Bonus Offer Restrictions

There are a few restrictions:

1. You can’t have had an open consumer checking account as of 2/21/2021
2. You can only get one consumer bonus between 9/1/2019 and 9/29/2021
3. One individual per residential address
4. Must keep the account in open status and with a positive balance as of 8/31/2021

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.

For example, Chase Total Checking has a $200 offer if you set up a monthly direct deposit within 60 days. The account also has a $12 fee that is waived if you have a monthly direct deposit of at least $500. So by comparison, the Bank of the West Checking offer is slightly better by fifty bucks.

Citibank has slightly higher bank offers without a direct deposit but they do call for higher cash deposits. They offer a $300 bonus on the Citibank Account Package but it requires $15,000 in New-to-Citibank funds – a very high bar for most consumers.

Finally, U.S. Bank has a consumer checking account offer of $400 when you complete two or more recurring direct deposits within 60 days and enroll in e-statements. This is one of the higher offers available if you are in the geographic footprint of U.S. Bank.

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