Are you thinking about opening an account at Citizens Bank and wondering if there are any good promotions going on?
You are in luck – Citizens Bank is currently running a promotion that can put hundreds of dollars into your pocket if you open a checking account, get a direct deposit ($500+), and use their debit card frequently.
As far as promotions go, it’s a pretty easy one with a low direct deposit requirement and using a debit card is pretty easy.
We’ll discuss the deal, then mention locations and other bank information, and follow it up with how this offer compares with other major banks.
Here is another offer to consider:
Bank of America $100 New Checking Account Bonus
Bank of America will give you a $100 cash bonus if you open a new account by June 30th, 2021 and receive at least 2 qualifying direct deposits of $250 or more within the first 90 days. The monthly fee is easy to get waived.
This is a limited time offer!
Here’s how to get a new account bonus from Citizens Bank:
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Get up to $400 from Citizens Bank
This currently active promotion with Citizens Bank is good – get up to $400 when you open a Citizens Bank checking account online and satisfy some simple requirements.
How to Earn the Bonus
The terms of the deal are straightforward – get $300 when you open a new checking account and receive a direct deposit of $500 or more within 60 days, get an additional $100 when use your debit card for purchases ($2 for every debit card purchase you make, up to $100, within the next 60 days)..
That’s up to $400.
Four checking accounts qualify for this offer – Student Checking, One Deposit Checking from Citizens Bank®, Citizens Bank Platinum Checking®, and Citizens Bank Platinum Plus Checking®. All but the Student Checking have maintenance fees that you can avoid (more on that below).
In terms of requirements, this offer is fairly pedestrian. Review our guide on bank account bonuses to see what other gotchas may be lurking.
Learn more
(This offer expires 5/13/2021)
How to Qualify for the Bonus
This offer is available to those who live in the bank’s geographic footprint, which includes Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
You can choose between four different types of accounts – the Student Checking, One Deposit Checking, Citizens Bank Platinum Checking, and Citizens Bank Platinum PlusChecking. The big difference between the four is their fees.
The Student Checking is only available to people under 25 but has no maintenance fee if you are under 25.
The One Deposit Checking Account has no minimum to open an account. There is also no minimum balance requirement ever. So you could open an account with $1 and never add another penny, you won’t be penalized. There is, however, a monthly maintenance fee of $9.99 each statement period. You can avoid this by making one deposit of any amount each statement period. This deposit or transfer can be done through a branch, ATM, online or mobile banking, telephone banking, or through a direct deposit or wire transfer.
The Citizens Bank Platinum Checking account also lets you open an account with any amount – there is no minimum initial deposit amount. There is a $25 monthly maintenance fee that is waived if you maintain a combined monthly balance of $25,000 or more. This includes deposit and investment accounts.
This account also pays a small percentage of interest, which is better than zero but not much better. If you’re getting a Citizens Bank account because of the promotional offer, I would go with the One Deposit Checking account rather than the Platinum Checking.
Finally, the Citizens Bank Platinum Plus Checking account has a $25 fee that is waived if you have a combined monthly balance of $25,000 and either a deposit of at least $5,000 in your primary checking account each period or you maintain an average daily checking balance of $10,000 or more.
Previous Citizens Bank Promotions
Citizens Bank will run bank promotions regularly and previously they’d offered up to $600 for a new checking account and new savings account. The previous promotion, which is no longer available, would give you $300 when you opened a new checking account and received a direct deposit of $500 or more within 60 days.
Then, you could get an additional $200 when you opened a new savings account and funded it with a minimum of $15,000 of new funds to the account. You had to maintain that balance for 3 months.
When you satisfied both conditions, you’d get an additional $100. That’s a total of $600.
This offer, though lower, is much easier to achieve because you don’t need to find $15,000 to deposit into the account and leave it there for three months.
Who is Citizens Bank?
There is more than one bank named “Citizens Bank.”
There are quite a few banks with the Citizens in their name. Quite a few are actually named Citizens Bank — such as a Citizens Bank with four locations in Missouri with the FDIC #14488.
The one we’re referencing today is Citizens Bank, National Association (FDIC #57957). It’s a National Bank insured since May 2005 with 1,085 locations across 13 states.
Find a Citizens Bank Near You
Citizens Bank has locations in thirteen states including Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
You can use their branch and ATM locator to find the closest location to you. This offer is available online so you don’t really need to visit a branch to open it.
In fact, it’s only available online.
Citizens Bank ABA Routing Numbers
Citizens Bank has several ABA routing numbers as a result of mergers and acquisitions, so finding your ABA number depends on where you opened your account. You can look it up on the list below:
| State | Routing Number |
|---|---|
| Connecticut | 211170114 |
| Delaware | 031101143 |
| Illinois | 241070417 |
| Indiana | 241070417 |
| Massachusetts | 211070175 |
| Michigan | 241070417 |
| New Hampshire | 011401533 |
| New Jersey | 036076150 |
| New York | 021313103 |
| Ohio | 241070417 |
| Pennsylvania | 036076150 |
| Rhode Island | 011500120 |
| Vermont | 021313103 |
How Does This Compare?
Citizens Bank is a sizable regional bank given all its locations and the bonus is a nice one. Being able to get $300 for a checking account with an easy $500 direct deposit requirement puts it as one of the better ones. Layer on the $200 (it’s really $300 with the $100 bonus for both accounts) for a savings account with a $15,000 new-to-Citizens funds and you have yourself a decent bonus structure.
Wells Fargo offers $200 for a new checking account as long as you can receive a total of $2,000 or more in qualifying direct deposits into the new checking account within 90 days from account opening in the first 90 days. The direct deposit requirement isn’t a monthly amount, you just need that amount over the qualifying period.
Learn more about the Wells Fargo offer
Chase offers $200 for opening a Chase Total Checking. With the checking account, you just need to set up a direct deposit of any amount. It’s a smaller bonus amount but the requirements are slightly easier.
Finally, we have Huntington Bank, which is more of a regional bank, with a $150 to $200 bonus depending on if you open a Huntington Asterisk-Free Checking Account or a Huntington 5 Checking Account.
As you can see, the Citizens Bank offer is pretty good. If you only want a checking account, Wells Fargo will give you more cash but when it comes to the combination of the two, Citizens will be a higher dollar amount.
Ed says
Hi Jim,
Do you know if you need to deposit the 15K into citizens at the time of opening the account or you can deposit over the month?
Jim Wang says
I don’t know for certain but my reading of the terms seems to indicate you have to open the account with $15,000 and keep it there for several months.
Nunya says
This is a scam, i didn’t get my money and i did exactly what was noted on the postcard i received in the mail.
Jim Wang says
What did Citizens Bank say when you asked about it?
James says
Jim,
This is not as easy as it looks.
They asked me to deposit the 15K when I opened it (same date).
And, they asked me to open the checking and the savings at the same time (same date).
It seems that they are eager to find the way not to give me the bonus.
It is not like other banks’ promotion.
They asked the very strict requirements (fine prints).
It is not a plain language.
It did not make any sense to me.
Finally, they did not give me a bonus.
It is so frustrating.
Mary E. Almeda-Quintero says
Opened both checking and savings accounts. Had so much trouble with the transfer of funds ($10K and $15K) which Citizens had initiated but never reflected in my accounts. After 3 weeks of trying to find out what happened (including 2 hour visits to the branches) to my money, I decide to make a claim to return amount of bank transfers to my original bank. Citizens finally said they cannot help me after almost a month of going back and forth! Terrible bank!
Shirley says
Personally I think Citizens Bank is a scam. To receive their $600 bonus offer, I opened both accounts on the same day, deposited the full $15,000 into the savings, made a checking deposit and set up direct deposit. A couple days later, I noticed the savings account wasn’t showing online when I logged in. I called them and was told there was some sort of glitch on their end. They would look into it and assured me that the accounts would both show the same opening date.
Six months later I was told I didn’t qualify for the $200 savings bonus or the $100 for opening both accounts at the same time. I was given at least 3 different bogus reasons why I didn’t qualify. This bank isn’t reputable.