First Niagara Bank has a promotion going on right now for up to $250 bonus when you open a new Choice, Pinnacle or PinnaclePlus Checking account. This promotional offer expires October 12, 2014.
First Niagara Bank Checking Review: $250 Bonus
For residents of CT, MA, PA and NY, First Niagara Bank is offering $250 cash bonus! A new Choice, Pinnacle or PinnaclePlus checking account must be opened online through FirstNiagara.com and you can earn up to $250 when you meet the requirements below. Take advantage of First Niagara Bank’s $250 Bonus offer today! Easy to earn since anyone can join with no hard pull on your credit!
How to obtain your $250 Bonus: You will need to complete ALL the requirements below within 60 days of opening your account in order to receive the full $250 bonus.
- Make a direct deposit totaling $250 or more
- Make ten debit card purchases
- Make five bill payments using Online/Mobile Banking
How much you earn depends on how many steps you complete from the above: The payment is $50 cash bonus for 1st completed criteria, additional $50 cash bonus for 2nd completed criteria, additional $150 cash bonus for 3rd completed criteria. Total cash bonus is up to $250.
- Complete Any One: Earn $50 total
- Complete Any Two: Earn $100 total
- Complete All Three: Earn $250 total
First Niagara Bank $250 Bonus Information:
- Sign up Offer
- Account Type: Choice, Pinnacle or PinnaclePlus Checking
- Availability: CT, MA, PA or NY
- Expiration Date: 10/12/2014
- Hard Inquiry: No, just a Soft Pull.
- Opening Deposit Credit Card Funding: Yes, up to $1K in funding. Recommend using the Barclays Arrival World($400 sign up bonus) for maximum cash back.
- Direct Deposit Requirement: Yes($250 or more)
- Monthly Fee: Yes, best choice to pick is the Choice checking. Just $300 daily minimum balance to waive $9.95 fee.
- Additional Requirements: Ten debit purchases, five bill payments.
- Closing Account Fee: Your account must remain open for 180 days to avoid a $25 Early Account Closing fee.
What Count as Direct Deposit for First Niagara Bank? The following banks have been confirmed by other users using ACH transfers: Alliant, Ally, AmEx FSB, Bank of America, Capital One, Capital One 360, Chase, HSBC, Paypal, & State Farm.
Monthly Fees: The Choice Checking is a non-interest bearing account with a monthly service charge of $9.95. The $9.95 monthly service fee can be waived if you either maintain a daily minimum balance of at least $300, maintain direct deposit, complete 10 debit card purchases or maintain at least $5,000 combined balances in deposits or loans.
Pinnacle Checking and PinnaclePlus Checking are interest-bearing accounts with a monthly maintenance fee of $15 and $50 respectively.
Offer Details, Terms & Conditions:
- Primary owner on the account cannot be primary owner on another First Niagara checking account.
- The minimum opening deposit is $50 for a new Choice or Pinnacle checking and $500 for PinnaclePlus checking.
- Your cash bonus will be deposited into your new checking account within 30 days from end of the month in which you satisfy the criteria. Applicable bonus payments may be paid as 1 lump sum or as individual payments.
- Your checking account must be open and maintain a positive balance in order to obtain the cash bonus.
- This offer is not available to Trust or Estate accounts.
- Bank employees and members of their household are not eligible for this promotion.
- Cannot be combined with any other promotional rate or reward/bonus programs. Bonus is considered interest income and may be reported on IRS 1099-INT.
Sign up for a First Niagara Bank Checking account before this promotion ends on October 12, 2014 and get up to $250 bonus. You may want to call immediately to request your debit card after signing up. Many people have confirmed that Choice Checking Accounts will receive the sign up bonus. This is the best choice due to easy monthly fee waive requirements. Review our complete list of bank bonus promotions for more deals & offers!
Yes, I got the same problem when I filled out their online application on 08/07/2014. During that time, the Hustlemoneyblog mentioned the following the ad. Pay attention to “However, this bank bonus is available nationwide!” in the second sentence. But After I signed up and transfer some money to the new account, they told me that I was not qualified the promotion. If I want to close the account before 180 days, I was charged the early termination fee ($25).
It was very bad experience with the customer service in the bank. I felt I was cheated by the bank. I called them a few times and did not resolve the problem until now.
First Niagara Bank Checking Review: $250 Bonus
First Niagara Bank is only located in New York and Pennsylvania. However, this bank bonus is available nationwide! A new Choice, Pinnacle or PinnaclePlus checking account must be opened online through FirstNiagara.com and you can earn up to $250 when you meet the requirements below. Take advantage of First Niagara Bank’s $250 Bonus offer today! Easy to earn since anyone can join with no hard pull on your credit!
is a p2p from bank of america considered a transfer too for first niagara?
somebody confirm me please
They gave me a student account which is free and doesn’t require any money to remain in it so I will just hold on to that until I can close. Really good promotion that we missed out on. Still good in those 4 states though. Sorry about your hassle. Hope you can get it resolved or get a student account like I did.
I believe they changed the terms. It was nationwide back in April I believe.
I had the same problem as John. I signed up for the bank and then called about the $250. They told me about the 4 states I had to live. Now I have to go through a huge hassle of mailing a letter to get them
To close my account and get my money back.
First Niagara’s website says that only people who live in CT, MA, PA or NY can participate in this offer. Is this not true? Has anyone received the bonus from another state?
I signed up for this when FN ran this bonus in June. I followed all the requirements (made an ACH transfer from Bank of America) and received the $250 instantly. I have not been charged any account fees, though I did use a credit card to fund the account with the maximum $1,000.
Yes. These have been confirmed.
Alliant, Ally, AmEx FSB, Bank of America, Capital One, Capital One 360, Chase, HSBC, Paypal, & State Farm.
So I’m new to this. Can I make a transfer from my other bank and that counts as direct deposit?
From First Niagara’s CSR:
04/03/2014 12:50 PM EDT: Bill pay service is free of cost regardless of your account relationship. Our bill pay vendor does offer expedited payment options for a processing fee. The fee is listed when you choose pay today or next day payments. This is optional for the participating billers. You may allow the system to choose the next available date for free or choose pay today or next day payment for the processing fee listed. This fee is not charged by First Niagara and is non-refundable. I hope that you have found this information helpful and apologize for any inconvenience. Should you need further assistance, please call the Customer Contact Center at 1-800-421-0004.
I just want to let others know that the bill pay terms of service for this bank state:
9. Fee. Beginning 60 days after the date you enroll in our bill payment service, you must pay a monthly fee of $5.95 for the use of our bill payment service unless we waive the fee because of the nature of your banking relationship with us. The monthly fee is in addition to the fees applicable to your
funding account or any other deposit account you have with us now or in the future. We may charge the monthly fee against your funding account or any other deposit account you have with us now or in the future.”