A few months back, I blogged about a free $1.5k opportunity (link).
Well, it worked.
I get paid at the end of the month. I dumped $5k to HSBC via my employer’s direct deposit. The following day I pulled the $5k from HSBC to my Fidelity CMA/Brokerage on an automated schedule. Consequently, there was only 3 days of forgone interest ($5k * 0.015 * (3/365) = $0.62). The benefit was $750 gross, $517.50 net (=$750*(1 – 24% federal – 7% state)).
Since my wife and I both did it, we netted $1,035 (=$517.50*2).
Pulling it off required about 2 hours of work/frustration. On a pre-tax basis, this amounted to $750/hr. Unlike credit card bonus chasing, this involved zero hard credit pulls. Unlike credit card stuff, this is taxable (bummer).
The fine print says the account must be opened by January 6, 2020 if you desire to follow suit (link).
Below is a screenshot of my transaction history to give you an idea on how the timing works.
Nice work Professor!
Thanks; I’m a sucker for free money (aside from a couple hours of hassle).
Got mine too last week. Learned of this opportunity from your blog. Thanks so much for sharing!!
Glad it worked for you as well!
FP – does it have to be from employer can we push 5K from another bank.
Also the two 5K requirement very confusing. Not sure what to make out of it. One say “recurring” and other “monthly’ – so as long as the recurring is minimum at a per month basis we should be ok I guess. Appreciate if you can confirm if i you knew or had experience with bank push as opposed to employer paycheck. Thanks
FP – do you know if the deposit has to be from employer or can it be from a bank transfer. Appreciate if you have any experience or knowledge from your research. The info is all over. Also the two requirements of 5K is confusing, not sure if they just want to stress the “recurring” (2nd point) and “monthly” (3rd point) – meaning as long as its recurring at monthly rate summing 5K – we are qualified. If you think this is correct interpretation, pls confirm – will be helpful.
I did it with a monthly $5k direct deposit from my employer as shown in the post. If you want to deviate from that, for example by using a transfer from another bank in lieu of a direct deposit, check out the comment section of this post: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/hsbc-350-750-checking-bonus-direct-deposit-is-required/. There you’ll find hundreds of comments regarding the intricacies of this promotion. They understand it much better than I do.
So you didn’t have hassles with ID verification, sending in utility bills, and the like? Did you have to call in? On Doctorofcredit a lot of people reported these kinds of issues with HSBC but it seems at least some more recent data points are positive.
I had no such issues that I recall. Maybe I was lucky?
After you got the bonus did you close your account? I did Discover’s bonus and am wondering if I should close the account or not after getting it.
No; it’s still open with $0 in it.
Couldn’t they eventually add fees? I imagine at that point you would close the account when you received notice that they added a minimum balance, etc.
Closed the accounts a couple of days ago with $0 balance.
How did you manage to do direct deposit for your wife? I thought she was a SAHM mom? Unless I remember it wrongly..
My paycheck was split across a couple checking accounts for purposes of this promotion.
Oh that’s allowed? Hmm I am a SAHM and getting my husband to do things like this is like trying to pull teeth. Your wife is so lucky to have you taking care of all these finance matters!
Thank you!
I’m not sure what would be disallowed, but it certainly worked for us.
I didn’t realize you can just transfer the deposit back immediately. I’ve always left the money there, waited for the bonus to hit, and transferred everything back. Thanks for this!
Happy to help!