Are bank signup bonuses taxable?

Yes. In the US a bank bonus is generally treated as interest income and reported on a 1099-INT. Price the bonus after tax, not at its headline figure.

Will opening accounts for bonuses hurt my credit?

Deposit accounts are not usually reported to the credit bureaus and typically involve no hard pull. The real limits are the bank’s own rules — most exclude customers who held an account recently.

The direct deposit requirement. Almost every worthwhile bonus needs a qualifying direct deposit of a stated size within a stated window, and a bonus you cannot trigger is worth nothing.

Bank account signup bonuses

Free money, with a condition attached that decides whether you can actually collect it. Only offers we have verified appear here, with the requirement stated first rather than in the small print.

SoFi SoFi Checking and Savings — up to $400

What you have to do: $50 for $1,000+ of direct deposits within 25 days of the first one, or $400 for $5,000+. Offer runs to 31 December 2026.

Who it is bad for: Anyone who cannot route a paycheck to it. The headline rate is a direct-deposit rate — without one you get 1.20%, which is a third of what Marcus pays with no conditions at all. Read that number, not the big one.

Verified 2026-08-09. Provider page.

Is it worth it? The direct deposit decides

A bonus is a one-off; a rate is every year. Usually that comparison is the whole story. Here it is not, because this bonus and this rate hang on the same condition — and the arithmetic goes opposite ways either side of it.

Take $10,000 held for a year.

If you can route a paycheck to it: SoFi pays 3.8% against 3.9% at Marcus by Goldman Sachs, which costs you about $10 a year. The bonus is up to $400. That is roughly 40 years of the rate difference, paid up front. Take the bonus — this one is not close, and pretending otherwise to sound prudent would be its own kind of dishonesty.

If you cannot: the whole thing inverts. No qualifying direct deposit means no bonus and the rate drops to 1.20%, against 3.9% with no conditions anywhere. That is about $270 a year of real money, for nothing. Go to the savings page and take the unconditional rate instead.

That is the general shape, and it is why this page is short on cheerleading. The headline number on a bonus is rarely the thing that decides it; the condition attached to it is. Read the condition first and the offer second.

Two more that shift the maths: the bonus is taxable as interest income, so it is worth less than the sticker; and parking a large balance in a worse account after collecting is how bonus-chasing actually loses people money. If you take it, either keep the deposit running or move the balance on.

Why this page is short

Because we list offers we have checked, not every offer that exists. Sites carrying forty bonuses are aggregating feeds, and a stale bonus is worse than no bonus — you do the work, the terms have changed, nothing arrives. Each entry here carries the date it was verified.

Questions

Are bank signup bonuses taxable?: Yes. In the US a bank bonus is generally treated as interest income and reported on a 1099-INT. Price the bonus after tax, not at its headline figure.
Will opening accounts for bonuses hurt my credit?: Deposit accounts are not usually reported to the credit bureaus and typically involve no hard pull. The real limits are the bank’s own rules — most exclude customers who held an account recently.
What is the catch?: The direct deposit requirement. Almost every worthwhile bonus needs a qualifying direct deposit of a stated size within a stated window, and a bonus you cannot trigger is worth nothing.