Citizens Bank $600 Checking and Savings Bonus

Citizens Bank is offering a $600 bonus for opening up a checking and savings account. This is also one of the best bank bonuses that can be done over and over again. We recommend you do this whenever you become eligible.

For more current bank offers, see our bank bonuses page. The most popular offers are from Chase BankSoFi, KeyBank, BMO and Axos Bank.

Ninja Update: Offer has expired. For current Citizens Bank offers, see our Citizens Bank promotions page.

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission at no cost to you if you decide to make a purchase through my links. Visit this page for more information. The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired.

Citizens Bank Bonus Offer

You can get a $600 welcome bonus when you open a new Citizens Bank checking and savings account!

Here’s how to earn the $600 bonus:

  • Checking Account: Receive a bonus of $300 when you open a Citizens Bank One Deposit checking account or Citizens Bank Platinum checking account and make a direct deposit of $500 or more within 60 days of account opening
  • Savings Account: Receive a bonus of $200 when you open a Citizens Bank One Deposit savings account or Citizens Bank Platinum Savings and deposit $15,000 or more and maintain a minimum balance of $15,000 for 3 months
  • Extra Bonus: Receive an extra $100 bonus for completing both account bonuses

The bonus will be posted within 30 days of meeting the requirements.

For example, someone opening a savings account and transferring $15,000 in April will meet that bonus requirement in July (3 months).

You can see in this instance, the bonus posted in August, which is 30 days after qualifying for it. On your bank statement, it shows up as a credit memo coded as ‘Balbldr Bonus‘:

Citizens Bank $600 bonus on statement
(Image from Citizens Bank)

Where do I enroll?

You can either apply directly online, call, or come into the nearest branch:

You can apply online directly through the link above. Citizens Bank also sends postal mail cards with an personalized offer code, but you don’t need it since it’s publicly available online.

It would be useful if they do decide to close down the public link. Here’s what the mailer looks like:

Citizens Bank mailer back
(Citizens Bank post card – front view)
Citizens Bank mailer front
(Citizens Bank post card – back view)

Who qualifies for the bonus?

You must live in one of the following states:

  • Connecticut (CT)
  • Delaware (DE)
  • Massachusetts (MA)
  • Michigan (MI)
  • New Hampshire (NH)
  • New Jersey (NJ)
  • New York (NY)
  • Ohio (OH)
  • Pennsylvania (PA)
  • Rhode Island (RI)
  • Vermont (VT)

Along with residing in one of those states, you can’t be a current customer or had a Citizens Bank personal checking or savings account in the last 6 months.

Related:

What are the details?

Availability: CT, DE, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VT
Expiration: 01/31/2022
Household Limit: None (everyone in your family can get the bonus!)
Direct Deposit Required: Yes, $500 or more for checking account (see what counts as a direct deposit)
Early Account Termination Fee: None

Avoiding Fees

The checking accounts have a monthly fee between $9.99 and $25 and the savings accounts have a monthly fee of $0 to $4.99, both can be waived if you do ONE of the following:

Checking Accounts

Citizens Bank One Deposit Checking Account:

  • One deposit of ANY amount each monthly statement period

Citizens Bank Platinum Checking Account:

  • Combined monthly balance across all Citizens Bank accounts (including investment accounts is $25,000 or more

Savings Accounts

Citizens Bank One Deposit Savings Account:

  • One deposit of ANY amount each monthly statement period (account will automatically receive a fee waiver on the first 4 monthly maintenance fees)

Citizens Bank Platinum Savings Account:

  • No fees, but this account is only available if you open the Platinum checking account

The Bottom Line

This is Citizen Bank’s highest offers. The mailer also requires 6 months from the last time you had an account with them, which is better than the usual 12 months.

If you’re opening it for the bank bonus only, the easiest checking and savings account to open would be the Citizen Bank’s One Deposit checking and One Deposit savings combination. Both of those two accounts are super easy to avoid fees.

I’ve done this for 3 years now, and between 4 family members, this is an easy $4,800 in free money every year!

About John Pham

John Pham is a personal finance expert, serial entrepreneur, and founder of The Money Ninja. He has also been fortunate enough to have appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and U.S. News & World Report. John has a B.S. in Entrepreneurship and a Masters in Business Administration, both from the University of New Hampshire.

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Gerardo
Gerardo
2 years ago

The offer I got was after changing my address in USPS. I got $300 for checking account with direct deposits (one at least $500) and keep doing it for 3 months and $300 to open a savings account same day and deposit each following month $200 for 3 months and keep it there until the end. However, I don’t know if that means I can move money from checking to savings account to fulfill the requirement as my direct deposit goes there. If anyone got the same bonus please let me know if that’s valid. If not, I messed up and lost $300 .

Justin
Justin
1 year ago
Reply to  Gerardo

Yes, I got the same one when I moved. You have to transfer $200 monthly from a NON-Citizens account to the Citizens Savings Account to qualify for the $300. I imagine you never got that bonus because you were transferring between Citizens accounts. The card is very specific in the instructions. I always save the terms to my computer so I can go back and double check if there’s an early termination fee, when I signed up, etc.

Adela Pisarevsky
Adela Pisarevsky
3 years ago

These comments are nice and informative on Citizens Bank’s $600 bonus. But I wonder…did anyone do this $600 Bonus transaction with Chase Bank? So which of \these 2 banks’ bonus transaction would you consider easier? Thanks so much!

Isaac
Isaac
4 years ago

Did both, but only saw credit for $300 – do they split it up?

Shirley
Shirley
3 years ago
Reply to  Isaac

I also only received $300 because a computer glitch on their end prevented the savings account from being opened on the same day as the checking. But they didn’t notify me of this until 6 months after the accounts were opened.

Thomas
Thomas
3 years ago
Reply to  Shirley

Seems they like to be a little sketchy. I opened a checking and a savings the same day receive the savings bonus but they did not honor a Chase push direct deposit ach which should have worked as it is listed as a qualifying dd bank.

Nick Reyes
Nick Reyes
4 years ago

DP: $600 bonus posted today.

4/15: Opened. Funded Checking with $100 and Savings with $15K (successfully funded via ACH from C1360 at opening)
5/18: $500 DD in checking via ACH from HSBC
8/1: Withdrew all but ~$50 from both accts ($15K funds had to remain until 7/31 in savings, withdrew next day)
8/19: $600 bonus deposited entirely in checking under “Credit Memo Balbldr Bonus”.

Worth noting: As per other DPs below, both the DD bonus and savings bonus appear to post on the same schedule:

1) Open account
2) Keep money where it needs to be until the end of the 3rd calendar month counting from the month after account opening)
3) Bonuses post toward the end of the next calendar month (i.e. about 4 months after account opening).

Marty
Marty
4 years ago

This bonus is still churnable. I did the Citizens Platinum checking bonus in 2019 (opened account in February, received $450 bonus in April, closed account in August). I also did a Citizens bonus in 2018.

DP: 4/16/20, opened checking and savings, funded at opening with transfers from Discover savings
4/30/20, $510 DD to checking by ACH transfer from Chase checking (posted as “Direct Deposit JPmorgan Chase Ext Trnsfr”)
8/19/20, $600 bonus posted in checking as “Balbldr Bonus”

TheNJDevil
TheNJDevil
4 years ago

4/14 – Account opened with $50 into checking and 15K into savings
4/21 – $500 DD from Chase
8/19 – $600 bonus received

Homer
Homer
4 years ago

Did anyone else have to upload a driver license picture and proof residence? This is crazy, have never had to do that before…

gordda40
gordda40
4 years ago
Reply to  Homer

Yes, had to do it for me and my partner this time. Not first go-around, but only did checking and not savings then. Took 2 additional days for them to approve, which means my account opening probably got bumped from August to September.

fr33b13
fr33b13
4 years ago

DP: Opened in April with $15k from Chase checking. Deposited $500 from Schwab brokerage next day.

Got paid $600 in August.

Dan
Dan
4 years ago

I did both account promotions to get the extra $100. I have received all $600 as of this week!

Rolando
Rolando
4 years ago
Reply to  Dan

How did you do the direct deposit requirement for the checking account? Does a Capital One 360 push count?

Maurine
Maurine
4 years ago

i got the bonus! on to the next one.

VO
VO
5 years ago

just opened this account too. christmas comes early by way of bank bonuses haha