US Bank has another promotion for new Bank Smartly checking accounts that offers up to a $500 bonus with fairly simple requirements. This deal is available in states within US Bank's footprint and requires signing up for online banking and making at ...
US Bank has another promotion for new Bank Smartly checking accounts that offers up to a $500 bonus with fairly simple requirements. This deal is available in states within US Bank’s footprint and requires signing up for online banking and making at least two direct deposits within the first 90 days. The total amount of the direct deposits will determine the bonus. In order to get the full $500, your direct deposits must total $10,000 or more.
There’s also an optional savings account component to this deal, but you only get $200 for holding $15K in a 0.01% savings account for three and a half months. I’d pass, but it may be interesting to some folks.
In addition to the regular US Bank checking promotion, Swagbucks is currently offering 8,500 points (worth $85 via a PayPal gift card) for clicking through to US Bank and then opening a checking account. This will stack with the $500 bonus, bringing the total haul up to $585. (h/t: DOC)
US Bank used to allow $3,000 of credit card funding on new personal checking accounts, but that’s been reduced and is now only $250 (still, use it if you got it).
The Deal
US Bank is offering a bonus of up to $500 when you open a new Bank Smartly checking account using the promo code 2024APRand complete the following requirements within 90 days:
Enroll in online banking or the U.S. Bank Mobile App.
Complete two or more direct deposits within the first 90 days
Your bonus is determined by the total amount of your direct deposits
Earn $100 when your direct deposits total between $3,000 and $4,999.99.
Earn $300 when your direct deposits total between $5,000 and $9,999.99.
Earn $500 when your direct deposits total $10,000 or more.
Expires 6/27/24
$6.95 monthly fee (waived if you have a US Bank Credit Card or maintain a $1,500 monthly balance or have monthly direct deposits totaling $1000+)
Additionally, Swagbucks is offering 8,500 points (worth $85) for clicking through to US Bank and then opening the same checking account.
To be eligible, you or any owner(s) on your new Bank Smartly Checking account cannot have an existing U.S. Bank consumer checking account, had a U.S. Bank consumer checking account in the last two years or received other U.S. Bank consumer checking bonus offers within the past two years.
You must also use the promo code at account opening.
To receive the bonus, you must open a new U.S. Bank Smartly® Checking account with a minimum deposit of $25 either online, in a branch or over the phone from April 1, 2024 through and including June 27, 2024.
Additionally, you must enroll in the U.S. Bank Mobile App or online banking within 90 days of opening your account.
You must also complete two or more direct deposits within 90 days of opening your account that total: $3,000 to $4,999.99 to earn the $100 bonus, $5,000 to $9,999.99 to earn the $300 bonus, or $10,000 or more to earn the $500 bonus.
A direct deposit is an electronic deposit of your paycheck made through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network or an electronic deposit of your government benefits, such as Social Security, from your employer or the government. Other electronic deposits or person-to-person payments are not considered a direct deposit.
Your checking bonus (“adjusted interest”) will be credited to your new checking account within 60 days following the end of the calendar month during which you completed all of the offer requirements. Account must be open and have a positive balance to receive the bonus. Bonus will be reported as interest earned on IRS form 1099-INT, and recipient is responsible for any applicable taxes. This offer may not be combined with any other checking account bonus offers.
Quick Thoughts
This is a good bank bonus opportunity that comes around regularly; we’ve covered $400, $500 and $600 versions before.
The requirements for the bonus are fairly simple: make at least two “direct deposits” within ninety days of account opening and sign-up for mobile or online banking. US Bank is known as one of the easier banks in terms of what’s considered a direct deposit and ACH transfers work from many common banks (you can see the full DOC list here). While the direct deposit totals are relatively high, there’s no requirement that the money stay in the account, so you should be able to transfer the money back out after it goes in.
If you don’t have a US Bank credit card, the Bank Smartly account is easy to keep free, requiring a $1500 annual monthly balance or monthly direct deposits totaling $1000+. If you have a US Bank credit card, the monthly fee is waived. Members of the US Military also get the fee waived.
The bonus is limited to those states that have a US Bank branch (which is a wide net…see locations here). That said, if you happen to live in one of the states that doesn’t have a branch, most folks are able to get around this requirement if they have or open a US Bank credit card as well.
US Bank is fairly strict on its churning rules so I wouldn’t mess with it if you’ve had an account or received a US Bank bonus within the past two years. If you haven’t, this could be easy money.
It’s not often that you can get incredible value from your Delta miles these days so if you’re interested in this deal, make sure to jump on it right away! Through August, awards are wide-open to fly round-tripDelta One Suites from Seattle to Taipei on Delta’s modern Airbus A330-900neo. If flying from Seattle, round-trip prices start at 146,200 miles for those with the 15% discount you get for having a Delta Gold or higher credit card. Without the credit card, prices start at 172K round-trip.
Delta One Suites on an A350. This picture isn’t with the same aircraft but the experience should be similar (or better) on the A330-900neo
Thanks go to Aaron Hurd of Cards and Points for letting us know about this opportunity!
If you’re originating in other cities besides Seattle, you may find good deals connecting through Seattle. For example, from Minneapolis, there are plenty of dates available for 166,600 points round-trip (after the 15% credit card discount).
Yes, you can expect Taipei to be very hot in the summertime, but sometimes you have to sweat the details to get value from your SkyMiles.
Kroger has returned with more digital coupons offering 4x fuel points on third party gift cards and fixed-value Visa and Mastercard gift cards. This is valid for online gift card purchases as well, with no coupon needed. This offer will be valid today, April 26, only.
Note that the terms on this promo now state that Amazon gift cards are excluded from earning 4x. You’ll still earn 2x fuel points (which is the normal rate).
The Deal
Kroger and its empire of affiliated stores are offering 4x fuel points on the following gift cards on 4/26 only:
Excludes variable load Visa & Mastercard gift cards
Excludes Amazon gift cards
Quick Thoughts
When buying third party gift cards, earning 4x fuel points means you can save up to 14% on gas. To give an example of how that 14% figure is calculated, let’s say you spend $250 on gift cards during the promotion. That would earn you 1,000 fuel points which can be redeemed for $1 off per gallon on up to 35 gallons. If you’re able to refuel to that 35 gallon limit (perhaps with either a large gas tank or refueling 2+ household vehicles at the same time), you’d save $35. Saving $35 based on that original $250 of gift card spend works out to be a 14% discount.
If your gas tank is smaller though, your savings won’t be as high as that. For example, our car takes – at most – 12 gallons, so we can barely save 5% on gas through these kinds of promotions based on what we spend on gift cards. You can often get better discounts on gift cards through places like Raise, so weigh up all your options before buying them at full price from Kroger or one of its affiliate stores like Dillons, King Soopers, Ralphs, Fry’s or Smith’s.
You can earn 4x fuel points on gift cards purchased online or in-store, although there are a couple of differences between the two that are important to note. If you’ll be buying in-store, you have to load the digital coupons to your account first, whereas you’ll automatically earn 4x fuel points when buying gift cards from Kroger online.
The other thing to bear in mind is that buying the gift cards in-store means you can take advantage of the plethora of cards offering bonused spend at grocery stores right now. Kroger’s online gift card site has its payments processed by Blackhawk Network (owner of GiftCardMall and GiftCards.com), so those online orders don’t code as grocery purchases.
IHG has again returned with a sale that’s giving an 80% bonus when buying their points. That means you can buy IHG Rewards points for 0.56 cents per point (cpp). Note that, although the 80% bonus begins at 5,000 IHG points, pricing doesn’t actually reach 0.56cpp until you buy at least 26,000. This is because IHG charges more that 1 cent per point below that threshold, so the bonus takes it down to slightly above 0.56 cents each.
This offer appears to be targeted as my account isn’t currently showing it, but my wife’s is. It’s also officially labeled as a “mystery” bonus. In the past, that’s usually meant that most, it not all, folks have the 80% bonus, but there could be some who have a lesser discount.
The Deal
Buy IHG Rewards points for as little as 0.56 cents per point when buying points with this 80% bonus.
This Offer is available for qualifying purchases of IHG One Rewards points made between 12:00 AM ET on April 25th, 2024 and 11:59 PM ET on June 8th, 2024 (“Offer Period”).
Members will receive a bonus of 80% of the points purchased when they meet a minimum points purchase threshold on a per transaction basis.
The percentage bonus amount will show for eligible members when they log into their IHG One Rewards account. (Please click through to access the landing page for the Offer.)
The number of points a member may purchase, gift, or receive as a gift during the Offer Period is subject to annual limits under the IHG One Rewards Membership Terms and Conditions, which are available on www.ihg.com.
Members may purchase a maximum of 250,000 points during the promotional period only. Members may gift a maximum of 250,000 points or receive as a gift from another member a combined maximum of 250,000 points during the promotional period only. Points that have been already purchased, gifted or received as a gift in 2024 are included in the 250,000 points limit. Purchased points, as well as any bonus points awarded under this Offer, do not count towards IHG One Rewards Elite status
4th night free. Use points to book 4 nights for the price of 3. This benefit is valid on longer stays, so if staying 8 nights you’ll get both the 4th and 8th nights free. This benefit is available only to cardholders of the IHG Premier, Traveler and Business credit cards. Rather than reducing the total cost of the stay by 25%, the points required for every 4th night are deducted. Seeing as IHG uses dynamic pricing, that can be great if the 4th night is the most expensive, but not as good if that night is the cheapest. See this post for more about the possibilities.
10% points rebate. If you have the IHG Select credit card (no longer available for new applications), you’ll get a 10% points rebate when booking award stays. The points are credited back a few weeks after your stay, so you need to have the full number of points required for an award stay in your account. The 10% points rebate stacks with the 4th night free benefit if you have both an IHG Premier, Traveler or Business credit card and an IHG Select card, with the 4th night free being calculated first.
Sweet spots with dynamic pricing. Although IHG uses dynamic pricing for award stays, award pricing isn’t always as high as the corresponding cash cost. For example, Stephen booked a stay at the Staybridge Suites Temecula-Wine Country in California. The average nightly cost was $258.81 with taxes and fees, but the points cost ranged from 19,000-23,000 points per night. Buying points at 0.5cpp would therefore enable you to stay for only $95-$115 per night at that award pricing – less than half the cost of a regular paid stay. Stacking the 4th night free and 10% points rebate reduced the cost of a 9 night stay there to only 14,500 points per night, or $72.50 per night when buying points at 0.5cpp. That was less than a third of the cost of a paid stay.
Things to know about IHG points
When you book nights with points, you will not earn points for the stay unless IHG is running a promotion that awards bonus points per night/stay which includes award nights.
Most hotel taxes are not charged on award stays, so this can make the value of buying points even better. Arguably, this factor and the one above roughly cancel each other out.
IHG Rewards points purchases are made via Points.com. You can click through from a shopping portal to earn a little cashback on the purchase, thereby reducing your net cost for the points – you can find the current rates here.
Points.com purchases don’t code as travel, so it’s best to pay with a card that earns at a higher rate for everyday spend or on a card where you’re working on a minimum spend requirement.
Past IHG points sales
80% bonus (Buy points for 0.56 cents each). Valid February 13th – March 7, 2024.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.05 cents each). Valid January 26-February 2, 2024
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.05 cents each). Valid November 16-December 30, 2023
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.05 cents each). Valid October 2-9, 2023
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.05 cents each). Valid July 21-28, 2023
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid June 19-26, 2023.
80% bonus (Buy points for 0.56 cents each). Valid April 24 – June 7, 2023.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through March 21, 2023.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through December 29, 2022.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through October 21, 2022.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through August 7, 2022.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through July 15, 2022.
80% bonus (Buy points for 0.6 cents each). Valid through June 10, 2022.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through April 14, 2022.
80%-100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5-0.6 cents each). Valid through March 18, 2022.
80% bonus (Buy points for 0.6 cents each). Valid through January 4, 2022.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through November 8, 2021.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through October 8, 2021.
100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through September 9, 2021.
On the heels of this week’s fee-free Mastercard gift cards, Staples will be offering fee-free fixed-value $200 Visa Gift Cards from April 28, 2024 to May 4, 2024. The limit is again eight per customer per day (although some stores may allow more).
This offer doesn’t apply to the variable-load $200 cards that some Staples now sell.
The Deal
Staples will waive the $7.95 activation fee when you buy a $200 Visa Gift Card between 4/28/24 – 5/4/24.
Limit 8 per customer per day (YMMV on whether your cashier / store allows or enforces the limit)
In-store only
Quick Notes
These deals can be great way of getting rewards through spending at office supply stores. If you can buy 8 at a time, that’s a potential of $1,600 that’s possible each day. Note that some stores may allow you to purchase more than 8, and we also hear occasional reports that some managers will only sell a smaller amount despite what the ad says.
