Citi is practically giving away $200 for opening a checking account and using services like Zelle

Citi is offering some customers a $200 cash bonus for opening a checking account and receiving at least two “Enhanced Direct Deposits” totaling $1,000 or more within 90 days. The highlight of the offer is the easy bonus requirements which actually seem to promote the use of Zelle and other P2P services. “What counts as an Enhanced Direct Deposit? The Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) Network of payroll, pension, social security, government benefits and other payments to your checking, savings or MMA account” You might be skeptical and think that the “gotcha” is in the account maintenance …

PayPal notifies customers of data breach

On January 18, 2023, PayPal began notifying affected users of a credential stuffing attack. Credential stuffing occurs when stolen credentials are used to gain access to accounts. On December 20, 2022, PayPal confirmed that the data breach exposed the name, address, Social Security number, individual tax identification number, phone number, and/or date of birth of 34,942 PayPal users. PayPal became aware of the attack on December 8, 2022 and on the same day, terminated the unauthorized users’ access to PayPal systems. The company believes that the data breach occurred between December 6th and December 8th of …

More SkyOne Federal Credit Union bonus hiccups

In the last few days of 2022, SkyOne increased the payout of their checking, savings, and credit card bonuses. They changed a number of terms, including requiring members to maintain a balance of $1,000 for eight months instead of six months. However, SkyOne neglected to update the full terms to reflect the bonus payout timeframe. New members will be expecting to receive their bonuses within 180 days of opening their accounts. This is two month before they will have completed the bonus requirements. “Bonus earned is dependent upon the combination of opened accounts and will be …

USALLIANCE Financial offering a $250 MyLife Checking Account bonus

USALLIANCE Financial (USAlliance Federal Credit Union) is offering new members $250 for opening a MyLife Checking Account. To qualify for the bonus, members must complete the following for three months (beginning within 60 days of account opening): Have a direct deposit of at least $2,000 direct deposit is required for 3 months. Maintain a minimum balance of $500 or make 25 debit card purchase transactions. The bonus is paid within 30 days of the bonus requirements being verified. Though the terms don’t explicitly say so, we’ve confirmed with USALLIANCE that the $2,000 direct deposit requirement …

What happened to creditscorecard.com?

Creditscorecard.com currently redirects visitors to a Discover.com page. Discover offered afree credit monitoring service through Creditscorecard.com. The service was available to the public and was discontinued in June of 2022. While Creditscorecard.com was in operation, Discover also offered a very similar credit monitoring service to its credit card customers. That service is still available to Discover credit cardholders. Both Creditscorecard.com and the service restricted to Discover customers allowed users to track their real credit score (FICO) each month. The only difference between the two services is that the Experian FICO 8 was available through Creditscorecard.com and …

What to do when a better credit card or bank promotional offer comes along

In the banking and credit card world, though it’s rare, some companies do offer matches for promotional offers. Some credit cardholders have reported that Citi has matched their promotional offer after signing up for a promotion and seeing a better advertised offer later. In some cases, Citi will require you to provide proof that you were targeted for the offer. First Tech Federal Credit Union also advertises in at least one promotion that customers may enroll in their new account promotion within 30 days of establishing membership. Chase also has a record of applying or …

What is structuring?

Structuring is an illegal act defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as “the practice of conducting financial transactions in a specific pattern calculated to avoid the creation of certain records and reports required by the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and/or IRC 6050I.” As it relates to everyday banking and credit card gaming, the IRS could perceive certain customer strategies as structuring, even if the customer utilized the strategy merely as a convenience and/or to safeguard privacy. If a customer purchases $3,000 worth of money orders, the cashier must create a CTR, or Currency Transaction Report. …

Chase checking and savings account bonus increased to $900

Chase routinely offers various bonuses to new customers who open checking or savings accounts. There’s usually a promotion that offers customers an extra bonus for opening a savings and checking account at the same time.Chase is currently running two versions of this promotion, one worth up to $600 and the other worth up to $900. For both promotions, the customer receives $300 for opening a checking account and receiving a direct deposit, and $200 for opening a savings account and maintaining a $15,000 balance for 90 days. When completing the bonus requirements for both the checking and …

PNC credit limit increase process

PNC allows customers to apply for a credit limit increase every six months. The request is done with a soft credit check, which means that the inquiry will only be seen by you and it will not affect your credit score. To apply for the increase online, click the “Customer Service”. Under “Manage Accounts”, click “Request Credit Limit Change”. You’ll then have the chance to request a credit limit increase or decrease. On the same page, you can also opt in or out of automatic credit limit increases. You can opt in and out of automatic …