Slackers Get Easy Cash From Banks

Posted by Jacques - May 23, 2009

breaking-piggybank While I’m extremely vocal about living cheaper and automated savings as a means of preserving slacker financial security, these are often long-term investments that tend to give minor returns in short-term. The highest savings rate I’ve ever seen was 5.00% at Capital One, and the standard mutual fund will return about 10% over time per year.

I’ve discovered that with a little research, you can take a portion of your money and earn about 100% or 200% returns over a year simply by evaluating banks you don’t already have an account at. This has been done for some time now, but if you work at it, you can make some serious returns. I recently put $100 into one national bank and got $100 bonus after 3 months. Some regional banks will match your money instantly, and at one regional bank, I opened a free checking account with no deposit, and got $50 no strings attached!

I do not condone purely entering into these promotions for personal gain, you should at least evaluate the bank for its products and services during this trial period.

Here are some notes I’ve compiled about this method:

1. Read the fine print.
It is very easy to disqualify yourself for a promotion. Read the details, when will they give you the bonus cash, how long until you are vested (keep the account open long enough to take out your money without a penalty), and other requirements such as a minimum balance.

2. Educate yourself about regional banks.
Regional banks are the backbone of our financial system. They may not hold the tens of billions that our national banks do, but there are probably 10 x’s more regional banks than national banks giving you more opportunities for these promotions. They also tend to have better rates and better promotions.

3. Free Checking only.
Do not open an account that has minimum balance requirements and inactivity fees. This will eat up your bonus cash and give it right back to the bank.

4. Make a spreadsheet.
I like to track where all my money, especially when I can no longer count the promotions I’m involved in on my fingers. Place a password on the spreadsheet in case it gets into the wrong hands. I use the following columns: bank, account number, amounted deposited, bonus amount, date bonus available, online banking username, online banking password.

5. Keep proof.
Sometimes the banks do forget to provide the bonus or you were not correctly entered into the promotion when you opened your account. Keeping copies of the promotional offers will generally be sufficient in getting your money should you run into problems getting your bonuses.

Anything you like? Please share!

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May 23, 2009 | In All Slacker Methods, Slackers and Money |

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[...] this year I talked about making money by participating in bank promotions. Now, I don’t condone opening bank accounts simply for the reason of making money, but making [...]

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