Best Bank Bonus Promotions without Direct Deposit Requirement (March 2024)

Bank bonuses are great but one of the big (and annoying) requirements on many promotions is that you set up a direct deposit from your employer or government benefits.

Switching those direct deposit details can be a pain so what about offers that don’t require it?

They’re rarer, because they make you less likely to keep the account in the first place, but they’re still available.

Here are the best ones:

Table of Contents
  1. Citi Checking with Enhanced Direct Deposit — $300
  2. Barclays – $200
  3. HSBC Premier Checking – up to $4,000
  4. Capital One 360 Savings – up to $1,500 [EXPIRED]
  5. CIBC Bank USA – up to $500
  6. South State Bank — $200
  7. Alliant Credit Union — up to $100
  8. Associated Bank Checking — up to $600
  9. Regions Bank
    1. Regions Bank LifeGreen Checking — $300
    2. Regions Bank LifeGreen Savings — $100 (DD optional)
  10. S&T Bank – $300
  11. Expired Offers
    1. CIT Bank – Amazon Prime Membership ($139) [EXPIRED]
    2. Marcus by Goldman Sachs – $100 [EXPIRED]
    3. Live Oak Bank – $200
    4. Aspiration Spend & Save — $150 or $200

The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired.

Citi Checking with Enhanced Direct Deposit — $300

Looking for a Citi bank bonus?

Citi Checking with Enhanced Direct Deposit is a limited time offer where you can get a $300 bonus when you open an eligible checking account by 7/8/24 with qualifying Enhanced Direct Deposits and completing required activities.

What are the required activities? I’m glad you asked!

You qualify for the bonus when you have two (2) Enhanced Direct Deposits directly into your new checking account within 90 calendar days from account opening. Your total combined Enhanced Direct Deposits must equal $1,500 or more.

🙋‍♂️ Why is this being listed on this if there is a direct deposit requirement? Because you can make transfers through Venmo and Zelle. It doesn’t have to be a “classic” direct deposit where it’s government benefits (Social Security) or payroll from your employer. It can be but it doesn’t have to be!

Your bonus will be deposited into your account within 30 days of completing the required activities.

Click below to read the terms of the offer, you can get this without a traditional direct deposit.

👉 Learn more about this offer


Barclays – $200

Barclays is offering a $200 bonus for new customers.

Open a new Savings account, deposit $25,000 or more within 30 days and maintain at least $25,000 for the next 120 days.

After you’ve maintained the balance for 120 days, the bonus will be deposited in approximately 60 days. There is no direct deposit requirement.

We like this offer because you get the bonus in addition to a competitive high yield interest rate of 4.35% APY. A lot of high deposit bonus offers don’t pay any interest.

Terms Apply.

👉 Learn more about this offer

(Offer expires 5/3/2024)


HSBC Premier Checking – up to $4,000

New customers may earn up to $4,000 when they open an eligible HSBC Premier checking account from January 8, 2024 through March 27, 2024 (“”Offer Period””) and complete qualifying activities

  • Receive a cash bonus of $1,500 when you deposit or invest $100,000 – $199,999.99
  • Receive a cash bonus of $2,000 when you deposit or invest $200,000 – $299,999.99
  • Receive a cash bonus of $2,500 when you deposit or invest $300,000 – 499,999.99
  • Receive a cash bonus of $3,500 when you deposit or invest $500,000+
  • Earn an extra $500 when you set up recurring monthly Direct Deposits totaling at least $5,000 for 3 months

Each requirement must be met in order to qualify for Cash Bonus:

  • Open a new HSBC Premier checking account (“New Account”) during the Offer Period AND
  • Meet a Qualifying Balance of $100,000 or more of New Money in deposit and/or eligible investment accounts within 20 calendar days of opening the New Account AND
  • Maintain the required Qualifying Balance for 3 full consecutive calendar months following the New Account opening month

If all offer requirements are met, the Cash Bonus will be deposited into the New Account within 8 weeks from the date the New Account is fully qualified. Any payments may be subject to tax and will be reported to the Internal Revenue Service as required by applicable law.

To qualify for an Extra Cash Bonus of $500, new customers must:

  • Meet all the requirements for the Cash Bonus AND
  • During the Offer Period, begin receiving Qualifying Direct Deposits totaling at least $5,000 per calendar month into the New Account on which the New Customer is “primary”; AND
  • Maintain the recurring Qualifying Direct Deposits for 3 full consecutive calendar months. The date of the first Qualifying Direct Deposit posted to the New Account starts the count of 3 full consecutive calendar months

If all offer requirements are met, the Extra Cash Bonus will be deposited into the New Account within 8 weeks from the date the New Account is fully qualified for the Extra Cash Bonus. Any payments may be subject to tax and will be reported to the Internal Revenue Service as required by applicable law.

For full details, visit us.hsbc.com/premier offer

Annual Percentage Yield (APY): 0.01% as of 1/8/2024

Deposit products are offered in the U.S. by HSBC Bank USA, N.A. Member FDIC.

Learn more about this promotion

(Offer expires 3/27/2024)

Capital One 360 Savings – up to $1,500 [EXPIRED]

Capital One has a great no direct deposit offer on their Capital One 360 Performance Savings bonus. Just open an account and deposit at least $20,000 in new funds into the account during the 15-day initial funding period and keep it there for an additional 90 days. No direct deposit required at all.

There’s a promo code of FALL23 on the offer page, make sure you enter that in if it’s not automatically entered for you.

  • Earn a $300 bonus when you deposit $20,000 – $49,999,
  • Earn a $750 bonus when you deposit $50,000 – $99,999,
  • Earn a $1,500 bonus when you deposit $100,000 or more.

If you have or had an open 360 Performance Savings, 360 Savings, 360 Money Market, Savings Now or Confidence Savings account as a primary or secondary account holder with Capital One on or after January 1, 2021, you will be ineligible for the bonus. If your account is in default, closed or suspended, or otherwise not in good standing, you will not receive the bonus..

👉 Learn more about this offer

(Offer expires 1/9/2024)


CIBC Bank USA – up to $500

CIBC Bank USA has a bank bonus promotion where you can get a up to $500 cash bonus when you open a CIBC Agility Online Savings Account and deposit funds of $25,000 or more in New Money from an external bank by 12/19/2023 and keep those funds in the account until 3/18/2024. There is a minimum $1,000 deposit and no monthly fees.

Best of all, the account offers a yield of 5.01% APY so you earn interest while you wait for the waiting period to end.

The bonus will depend on the amount deposited by 12/9/2023:

  • Get $250 if you deposit between $25,000 and $49,999,
  • Get $500 when you deposit over $50,000.

You must have less than $500,000 in the account though. (it’s a strange quirk in the terms and conditions)

The bonus will be deposited no later than 5/17/2024.

👉 Learn more about this offer


South State Bank — $200

South State Bank has an offer of $200 and you have to satisfy these two conditions with 60 days:

  1. make a minimum of 15 debit card purchases or payments, and,
  2. Have a monthly total of $250 qualifying direct deposit OR preauthorized automatic draft(s) of $25.

As you can see, a direct deposit is one of the options but is not required. You can satisfy it by making enough purchases.

You must also be a resident of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Virginia.

Get $200 from South State Bank


Alliant Credit Union — up to $100

Alliant Credit Union has a partnership with Suze Orman called “The Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account” where you can get up to $100 when you open a new Alliant Credit Union account by December 31st and make deposits of at least $100 a month for twelve months.

These deposits do not have to be direct deposits, they just have to be transfers into the account. Make sure it’s at least $100 a month for a full year and you’re set. The first transfer has to be done within 30 days and they deposit the $100 bonus after 12 months.

Opt for eStatements and you can avoid the monthly maintenance fees.

Learn more about about this offer


Associated Bank Checking — up to $600

Associated Bank’s has three promotions (three tiers) for their checking and savings account – the Associated Access Checking, Associated Balanced Checking, and Associated Choice Checking.

Open an account with the required minimum balance (listed below) and your bonus is calculated based on your account balance from the 60th to 90th day (a little weird but the list below should make sense):

For the Associated Access Checking, the minimum deposit is $25. it is $100 for the Associated Balanced Checking and Associated Choice Checking accounts.

This is how much you get based on your average daily balance over days 61-90:

  • For amounts $1,000 to $4,999.99 – you earn $300;
  • For amounts $5,000 to $9,999.99 – you earn $400;
  • For amounts over $10,000 – you earn $600;

Check the fees on each of those accounts because they will vary.

Learn more
(Offer expires 3/31/2024)


Regions Bank

Regions Bank LifeGreen Checking — $300

Regions Bank LifeGreen Checking has a $300 offer that has pretty easy requirements to meet – but one of them is to set up a direct deposit.

Open an account with the promotion code RGSPRNG24RM and make $1,000 or more in qualifying ACH direct deposits (deposits must be new to Regions) that must post to your account within 90 days of account opening and enroll in Online Banking. You have 60 days so it’s certainly plenty of time but you don’t want to waste too much of it.

Available to residents of AL, AR, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, MS, MO, NC, SC, TN, and TX and be sure to read the terms to make sure you qualify.

Learn more
(Offer expires 6/30/2024)

Regions Bank LifeGreen Savings — $100 (DD optional)

Regions Bank runs a promotion with their LifeGreen Savings account where you get up to $100, structured as an annual savings bonus.

The $100 is structured as an annual savings bonus. Open a new Regions LifeGreen checking account or LifeGreen Savings account and earn a 1% annual savings bonus of up to $100 when you have an automatic transfer of at least $10 from your Regions checking account to your LifeGreen Savings account is required in at least 10 of any of the 12 calendar months that precede the month of your account opening anniversary. The bonus is calculated on the average monthly balance for the 12 calendar months that precede your anniversary month.

Available to residents of AL, AR, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, MS, MO, NC, SC, TN, and TX and carefully read the terms to ensure you qualify.

Learn more
(Offer expired not displayed)


S&T Bank – $300

S&T Bank has an offer available to residents of Pennsylvania and Ohio if you live close to an S&T Bank (I know it’s only two states, sorry if you don’t live near one!).

The bonus is super easy:

  • Visit a local branch and open a qualifying checking account,
  • Make at least two direct deposits of $500,
  • Get $300!

The Select Banking account has no maintenance fee but the other two account levels do.

You will need to go to a different link depending on where you live:

(Offer expires 12/31/2023)

Expired Offers

Below, we’ve listed a few offers that have expired since we published them. We keep them listed in this group below in case the banks bring these offers back. They also act as a useful point of reference.

CIT Bank – Amazon Prime Membership ($139) [EXPIRED]

It’s not every day that you see a bank bonus that isn’t cash but you will today – CIT Bank will give you an Amazon Prime Membership ($139) (good for a new or existing Prime customer) when you:

  • Open a new CIT Money Market account using the promo code AMZN22;
  • Fund your account with at least $15,000 within 15 days and keep a minimum balance of at least $15,000 for 60 days following the 15-day funding period.
  • Within 30 days following the end of the funding period, if you’ve fulfilled the requirements, we’ll send you an email with your Prime membership code.

This is available for new and existing CIT Bank customers too – you just need to open a new Money Market account with the promo code.

Open a CIT Bank MMA Account


Marcus by Goldman Sachs – $100 [EXPIRED]

This offer is expired now but they always bring it back in the spring.

Marcus by Goldman Sachs will give $100 to new or existing customers when you deposit $10,000 or more into a new or existing Online Savings account within 10 days of enrolling in their offer. Then, keep that amount for 90 consecutive days and you will get $100.

This is available to existing customers too, you just need to add an additional $10,000 to your balance to qualify after you enroll in the offer.

Learn more about this offer

(Offer expires 2/15/2023)


Live Oak Bank – $200

Live Oak Bank is an internet bank that offers both consumer and business checking accounts. This Live Oak Bank bonus promotion is available for either type and no direct deposit needed.

The offer terms are simple:

  • Open a new Live Oak Bank savings account by the deadline (3/31/2022),
  • Deposit $25,000 into the account by the deadline (money must be new to Live Oak Bank, cannot be a transfer from another account),
  • Maintain a balance of at least $25,000 for 90 days from the date you funded,
  • Collect $200!

This is available for new and existing customers.

Get $200 from Live Oak Bank

(Offer expires 3/31/2022)


Aspiration Spend & Save — $150 or $200

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is aspiration-logo.png

Aspiration has a bank bonus of $150 or $200 when you open a new Aspiration Spend & Save account and then spend $1,000 within the first 60 days of account opening.

This welcome bonus does not require a direct deposit, which makes it very appealing for those of you who don’t like swapping those around just to get a bonus!

You get $150 when you open an Aspiration account or you can get $200 when you get an Aspiration Plus, though the spending requirement is the same. There are several differences with the two accounts, including how much cash back you can earn, but the fee structure is a key difference. With Aspiration, you “pay what is fair” even if it’s $0 and with Aspiration Plus it’s $7.99 per month, or $5.99 if you pay annually.

Get $150 or $200 from Aspiration


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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.

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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.

  1. Andy Thomas says

    The South State Bank offer information is inaccurate. It should not be on this list. A direct deposit is required to receive the bonus.

  2. warren R clennan says

    Your comments re: South State bank are incorrect. They require both qualifications to receive the EARN 200 bonus. I have, however, used your info to acquire 2 bonus bank promotions of $300 and $500 ea. Thank you very much. W. Clennan

    • Jim Wang says

      Great catch, they recently changed the terms slightly so I missed it in the update, thanks Warren!

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