Updated new member bonuses. Wings Financial Credit Union continues to expand aggressively with a $300 checking bonus plus a doubled $100 refer-a-friend bonus for new members (along with some other promotions). Please note that each bonus has its own separate set of requirements.

Here are their official membership requirements, but anyone can join Wings Financial via partner organization (Wings Financial Foundation). When I joined, they even paid the $5 membership fee for that partner organization on my behalf. I did experience a hard credit check, which is (unfortunately) common amongst credit unions.

$300 Checking Bonus

• Join Wings and open a new checking account by 12/31/25.
• One offer per person; valid for U.S. residents only. Must be 18 years or older.
• Must use promo code WINGS25 at account opening.
• Within 60 days of account opening, have recurring Qualified Direct Deposit(s) totaling at least $3,000 to earn the $300 bonus.
• Complete at least 5 net PIN or signature-based debit card or credit card transactions over $25 each on your Wings Visa Debit Card.
• Enroll in Wings digital banking.
• Enroll in eDocuments. You must do this manually after logging into your account online, and they will send you an e-mail confirmation afterward. Enrollment in eDocuments must also be active on the Bonus Payout Date.

$100 Refer-a-Friend Checking bonus

• Register your information at member’s referral link (that’s mine). I have already registered on my end, and successfully referred members in the past. This form is independent of the $300 bonus above and does not require a promo code, and was stackable for me. I recommend you register your information at this link first, and then open the accounts with the proper promo code from above added.
• Become a Wings Financial member and open a Share Savings Account (minimum balance of $5.00 required)
• Open a new Wings Checking account (First Class or High-Yield).
• Enroll in eDocuments. You must do this manually, and they will send you an e-mail confirmation afterward.
• Complete one (1) direct deposit of $1,000 or more into new checking account OR complete five (5) debit card purchase transactions of $25+ each. (ATM transactions excluded.)
• Both referring and referred parties will receive a $100 Visa Reward card mailed to them upon completion. Wings has fulfilled this referral bonus as promised for me in the past, stacking with the new checking bonus.

New offers November 1-30. Navy Federal Credit Union is the nation’s largest credit union, with a long history of serving active military members. More recently, they have expanded their field of membership to include veterans and family members of veterans. NavyFed often offers special rates and promotions, and here are some for November 2025.

• $200 Certificate bonus for New members: To qualify for the $200 bonus, you must be eligible for membership, join Navy Federal, and open a new 12-month Special EasyStart Share certificate between 11/1/2025 and 11/30/2025. 4.15% APY. Special EasyStart Certificate has a $50 minimum balance and a $3,000 maximum contribution limit. Requires a NavyFed checking account and direct deposit. They are meant to encourage members to start saving at a special rate with a low minimum purchase requirement.
• 10-month Special Certificate at 4.15% APY. Open with as little as $50. Maximum $250,000. Make additional deposits any time. Valid for taxable, IRAs, ESAs.
• Credit card $250 bonus: Open a cashRewards or cashRewards Plus credit card and get $250 when you spend $2,500 within 90 days of account opening. Unlimited 2% cash back on all purchases with cashRewards Plus. No annual fee. 1.99% intro APR for 12 months from account opening on balance transfers made in your first 60 days. No balance transfer fees.
• Auto loans: Get a $200 bonus if your auto refinance loan is at least $5,000. Their rates are usually competitive as well, starting at under 4%.

NavyFed likes to offer these short-term add-on CDs regularly, and I usually always open one with the minimum $50 because I like the optionality. If rates drop drastically somehow, I’ll have the ability to add unlimited additional funds at 4.15% APY. If nothing big happens (most likely scenario), I’ll only have committed $50, which I can later roll over into the next 10-month CD. Once you have joined NavyFed, it just takes a few clicks.

E*Trade (Morgan Stanley Private Bank) is running promotions for new customers on both their savings and checking accounts:

• Premium Savings up to $1,000 deposit bonus + 3.75% APY
• Max-Rate Checking $300 bonus + up to 2.00% APY

Savings promo details.

• Offer is valid for new E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley clients who open a Premium Savings Account by 2/28/2026 with a deposit of $25,000+ of qualifying new money within the first 30 days after account opening. See tiers below. Use promo code SAVE100.
• Maintain an average daily balance in your enrolled Premium Savings Account that meets the Minimum Maintenance Balance of your Deposit Tier. The average daily balance calculation will begin from Day thirty (30) of account opening and will end forty-five (45) days following (“Maintenance Period”).
• After the requirements are satisfied, E*TRADE will deposit the bonus within thirty (30) days following the end of the Maintenance Period.

If your deposit meets the minimum of a tier exactly ($25k, $50k, $75k, $100k) then it works out to a 1% bonus ($250 on $25k, etc). If let’s say you hold for 60 days for some wiggle room, that works out to a 6% bonus on an annualized basis. Add on the current 3.75% APY on the Premium Savings account for a total of 9.75% APY. Not bad.

Checking promo details.

• Open one new Checking or Max-Rate Checking Account from Morgan Stanley Private Bank by the end of the offer period (currently 12/31/25). You must apply promo code CHECKING25 at the time of account opening. No minimum initial deposit is required to open an account. However, account must be funded within 30 days to remain open. You are not eligible if you have or had owned or co-owned (joint) a Checking or Max-Rate Checking Account within the last 12 months from when you enroll in this offer.
• Set up and receive at least two Direct Deposits each of $1,500 or more to your Checking or Max-Rate Checking Account within 90 days from account opening.
• Your bonus should arrive around 120 days from account opening.

As of 11/10/2025, Max-Rate Checking Account pays 2.00% APY. You must maintain a $5,000 average monthly balance, otherwise there is a $15 monthly fee. The basic Checking Account only pays 0.05% APY (basically nothing), but has no minimum balance.

Bonus increased to $175 for limited-time. Current is a fintech, with banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, member FDIC. After the whole Synapse/Juno/Yotta fiasco, I no longer recommending keeping significant balances in a fintech, even if the interest rate is very competitive. The entire point of cash is to be as close to 100% safe and liquid as possible.

I am updating this review of my Current account opened years ago, as right now they are offering a boosted $150 referral bonus if you complete an eligible Payroll Deposit of at least $200 within your first 45 days of opening an account. You must either apply directly through the link above or enter promo code JONATHAP228 when signing up. Thanks if you use my link!

Other features:

• No minimum balance. No minimum opening deposit.
• No credit check. No Chexsystems check.
• No overdraft fees.
• Fee-free ATM withdrawals within the 40,000+ Allpoint ATM network.
• Access to paycheck up to 2 days early.
• Gas station authorization holds immediately released.
• On top of no overdraft fees, also get up to $100 in fee-free overdraft coverage.

This is a pretty big bonus with no minimum deposit requirement that should be easy for those that have payroll websites/apps where you can split and/or switch your direct deposits easily.

Current also offers 4% APY on their “Savings Pods” if you maintain a $200+ direct deposit monthly. But even though the $175 new customer bonus is nice and they have some thoughtful features like the free overdraft coverage, they are still a fintech so I’m not keeping significant balances there long-term.

Bask Bank has a new promotion for their Interest Checking account:

• Open a new Bask Interest Checking Account between November 1, 2025, and January 31, 2026. Offer is available to new Bask Interest Checking customers who do not have an existing Interest Checking Account as of October 31, 2025.
• Maintain an average monthly balance of at least $1,500 in your Bask Interest Checking Account and complete five or more monthly purchases, totaling a minimum of $50, using your Bask debit card.
• 3.00% APY Rate Boost: Earn a 3.00% APY Boost from November 1, 2025, through January 31, 2026,
  when qualifying activities are met. This is on top of the “base” Checking rate, which can vary but is currently 1% APY.
• $300 Cash Bonus ($100 x 3): Earn up to a $300 Cash Bonus from November 1, 2025, through April 30, 2026, when qualifying activities are met. Qualifying participants will receive a $100 Cash Bonus paid to their Bask Interest Checking Account at the close of each monthly statement period when all qualifying activities are met. Participants can receive a maximum of three Cash Bonus payments during the Cash Bonus Period.

Interest Checking has no monthly fees and no minimum balance. You could also pair with the Bask Bank Interest Savings account, currently paying a competitive 4.05% APY. This is not a fintech; Texas Capital Bank is the underlying bank, previously also behind the old BankDirect brand.

I already have this account as well from a previous $200 bonus. I should probably close it as I don’t use it.

This is a solid bonus that doesn’t require a direct deposit, just a few debit card purchases. I already have an open Mileage Savings Account with $20 or so in it so that I can earn a few American Airlines miles each month as “interest” and keep my AA miles active. (The payout isn’t as great as it once was, so I don’t keep anything sizable in there anymore, but maybe they’ll hike it back up someday.)

Bonus is back. Ally Bank is one of my favorite banks in terms of user interface, practical features, customer service, and reliability. They were my primary checking account for years (the checking can auto-draft from the savings). Unfortunately, their savings account rates have been lagging the top rates by about 1% recently. Despite that, I still keep maintain active accounts there because I use them as my central hub connecting all my many different bank accounts with fast transfers and a clear schedule of exactly when the money will be withdrawn and deposited.

Ally is running a $100 new account bonus by referral only (that’s mine, thanks if you use it). You must first enroll with your name and address by 12/31/25, and then using the same e-mail address open one of two possible account types (Ally Spending, Ally Savings) within 30 days of enrollment and make qualifying transfers to get the $100 bonus. You are not eligible if you are a current customer (with any Ally product), or has had any Ally account open since January 1, 2024.

Thus, my recommendation is to first open a Savings account with this offer (which works for both Savings and Checking but only works if you have no Ally accounts at all), satisfy all the requirements, and then after do this different bonus on your first Checking (allows you to have other Ally accounts).

Here are the details for the Savings Account. Taken from full terms and conditions [pdf].

Ally Bank Savings Account

1. Once your Savings Account is open, setup (within your new account) a monthly automated recurring transfer of any amount and have it start within 30 days of account opening.
2. Complete an automated recurring transfer at least once a month for at least three months in a row.
3. Your $100 Welcome Bonus will be deposited within 30 days of receiving your third consecutive monthly recurring transfer. To be paid, make sure you keep your Savings Account open and in Good Standing through the Payout Date.

What do they mean by “automated recurring transfer”? I tried it out in my Ally account it just means setting up as little as a $1 transfer every month into your savings account. You can connect an external bank account to fund the transfer.

Overall, the requirements are pretty easy for a $100 bonus and it has useful characteristics noted above. I personally use this account nearly every week to manage my interbank transfers. I even hit their maximum limit of 20 linked external accounts.

Bonus is back, now $300. Ally Bank has a new checking account promotion for their “Spending Account”. You must open your first Spending Account by 11/18/2025 and use the promo code GET300, fund it within 30 days of opening, and set up qualifying direct deposits of at least $1,000 a month for two consecutive months. Your first monthly qualifying direct deposit(s) totaling at least $1,000 must post to your Spending Account within 60 days of when you open the account. You’ll then get a $300 bonus within 30 days of the qualifying direct deposits.

If you don’t have an Ally Spending account already but are using their Savings account, this is a good bonus to grab. If you don’t have an Ally Savings account yet, I would open a Savings first grabbing this $100 bonus (which works for both Savings and Checking and only works if you have no Ally accounts at all), satisfy all the requirements, and then after do this bonus on your first Checking (allows you to have other Ally accounts).

Spending Account mini-review. Their Spending Account is solid but nothing extraordinary – a checking account with no monthly fees, no minimums, online bill payments, ATM rebates up to $10 per statement cycle, but it only pays a sad 0.10% APY interest on balances up to $15k and 0.25% APY on balances above $15k. However, it does pair well if you already use the Ally Savings Account. You can set an Ally Savings account to be the automatic (and free) backup funding source if you overdraft the Spending account. You can also have multiple Savings Accounts (useful when they enforced the six withdrawals per month limit). So when Ally was my primary account, I would keep a very minimal amount in my Spending Account, a bigger amount in Savings Account #1 as overdraft backup, and another bigger amount in Savings #2 or Savings #3 or No Penalty CD or whatever.

All deposits would go straight into Savings #1, earning higher interest right away. You can even do mobile check deposit directly into Savings. Bill Pay must come out of Spending/Checking, but all of my 5-10 payments would be scheduled on say the 2nd of the month. (You can request to shift each of your credit card due dates to match up.) I would then schedule a big transfer from Savings #1 to Spending/Checking on the 1st of the month. If a random withdrawal hits my Spending/Checking, it would just trigger an auto-withdrawal from Savings #1. The result: maximum interest earned from Savings and minimal idle cash in Spending/Checking.

While I have used my Ally Bank accounts regularly for years due to their well-designed bank-to-bank transfer service and overall solid customer service, the Ally Savings APY has been lagging during this period of interest rate hikes, usually 1% APY behind the rate leaders. Most of my idle cash has moved into money market mutual funds (like VUSXX or FDLXX) and Treasury bonds, both earning me at least 1% APY more on an after-tax basis due to my local state income tax deduction.