FREE $175 Offer from Chase Bank

Here is a good potential bonus offer for new customers. Chase Bank is offering a $175 bonus for opening Chase FREE Checking account at branch, and using Direct Deposit, Online Bill pay and opening FREE Savings Account.

Offer valid 12/01/07 through 02/29/08. Chase Free CheckingSM requires a $100 minimum opening deposit of new money (money not currently held by this bank or its affiliates) to qualify for the $125 reward. Chase Free Checking has no monthly service fee when you have a monthly direct deposit. Limit one personal checking account-related reward/premium per customer, per calendar year. Coupon code is 3138738000070922.

Chase accepts ACH transfers for their direct deposit. Make sure you continue to transfer money every month otherwise you will get hit with a $6 inactivity fee.

Most banks treat ACH transfers as direct deposits. Essentially they don’t care where the money is coming from as long as you keep it flowing.

Chase will give you an additional $10 if you use online bill pay 3 times in the first 60 days.

Chase is also offering an additional $40 when you open a free savings account (0.2% APY) with $500 new money and set up automatic transfers of at least $100 a month (which can be deactivated when you get home). I got a mailer for this yesterday, but I’ll try to find a link.

Both offers say they will report the bonus as interest to the IRS.

Note that Chase does pull a hard credit check on you when applying online. Not sure if they would do so if you applied in branch.