That $300 Checking Bonus: The Four Clauses, the Report and the Tax Form

Guide. The four lines of fine print that decide whether a $300 bonus arrives, the report that blocks the account before you start, and the tax form that follows. Checked September 6, 2026.

A bank offers $300 for opening a checking account and receiving two direct deposits. The offer is real. So are the four conditions under it, and the report the bank pulls before it lets you open anything. Read this once and you can judge any bonus offer in two minutes.

1. The bank decides what a direct deposit is

Every offer says "qualifying direct deposit" and no two banks define the phrase the same way. A payroll ACH from an employer counts almost everywhere. A push you send yourself from another bank counts at some banks and fails at others, because the receiving bank reads the transaction codes on the incoming file and its rules say which codes qualify.

Before you commit, call and ask two questions: does a payroll ACH from my employer qualify, and does an ACH transfer I initiate from another bank qualify. Ask them to point at the sentence in the offer. A person who says "any deposit works" without reading it is guessing with your $300.

2. The clauses that take the bonus back

• The holding period. Most offers require the account to stay open 90 to 180 days. Close it earlier and the bank reclaims the bonus or charges an early closure fee.
• The deadline. The deposits must land within 60 or 90 days of opening in most offers. A first payroll run that starts a week late can miss it.
• The one-per-customer window. Many offers exclude anyone who held an account at that bank in the past 12 or 24 months, and some exclude anyone who took a bonus from the same bank ever.
• The balance floor. A monthly fee waived only above a minimum balance can cost more than the bonus if the money leaves after the requirement is met.

3. ChexSystems decides whether you can open it at all

Banks screen new applicants through consumer reporting companies, and for deposit accounts that most often means ChexSystems. Unpaid overdrafts, accounts closed for cause and suspected fraud land there, and a single old item can turn every application into a decline for years.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act you can get your own file free at least once every 12 months. Request it through the ChexSystems consumer portal, by phone on 800.428.9623, or by mail to PO Box 583399, Minneapolis, MN 55458 (ChexSystems). Read it before you chase a bonus, not after a decline. If an item is wrong, dispute it the same way you dispute a credit report error, and our dispute letter guide applies line for line.

4. The bonus is taxable, and the form arrives in January

A checking or savings bonus is interest income. Banks report it on a Form 1099-INT, and they are required to send one when interest reaches $10 for the year. The obligation to report does not depend on the form: the IRS states that you must report all taxable and tax-exempt interest on your federal return even if you never receive a 1099-INT (IRS Topic 403).

Do the math in after-tax dollars. A $300 bonus at a 22 percent marginal rate is $234 in your pocket. That is still a good return for two ACH transfers, and it is not $300.

Is the bonus better than a good rate?

Compare the two on the same money and the same clock. Park $2,000 for 90 days in a high-yield savings account paying 3.75 percent and you earn about $18. Park the same $2,000 for 90 days to satisfy a $300 bonus and you earn $300 before tax. The bonus wins when its requirements match what you already do. It loses when it makes you move your payroll, keep a balance you cannot spare, or open an account you will forget to close.

The honest sequence: keep the emergency fund where the rate is, chase the bonus with the money you can immobilize for a quarter.

The two-minute checklist

• Does a deposit I already receive satisfy the requirement, in writing?
• How many days must the account stay open, and what is the early closure fee?
• Am I inside an exclusion window from a previous account at this bank?
• What is the monthly fee and what waives it?
• What does my ChexSystems file say before I apply?
• What is the bonus worth after my marginal tax rate?

Sources

• IRS Topic 403: Interest received
• ChexSystems: request your consumer disclosure report
• CFPB: Chex Systems in the list of consumer reporting companies
• Banrox: today's bank rates

Educational content, not financial or tax advice. Bonus terms differ by bank and change without notice; the offer's own disclosure governs.