M&T bank operates in New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, DC. You can get the M&T Bank $300 bonus for opening the M&T Tailored Business Checking account and meeting relatively simple requirements.
I rarely cover bank bonuses (that’s DoC’s domain), but I thought I’d mention this one because it’s a good and easy way to pocket $250-$300 and because M&T now waives the maintenance fee for the first 3 months. I think this is new, although I’m not 100% sure.
M&T Bank $300 Bonus offer highlights
- The offer is valid until September 30.
- No direct deposit is required.
- Only the first $300 bonus is easy and reasonable.
- In order to get another $200 you have to open and maintain a Merchant Account — not recommended unless you want it anyway.
- You need to deposit $5,000, but you can fund your account on the third month after the account opening.
- The monthly fee is waived for the first 3 months, $20 afterwards, avoidable with a choice of following:
- an Average Ledger Balance of $10,000 or more or
- 1 or more deposits of M&T Merchant Services proceeds into the account or
- purchases made on a linked M&T Business Credit Card or M&T Business Rewards Card totaling $2,000 or more in the credit card statement cycle or
- the sum of the Average Ledger Balances of the account and any linked Commercial Savings account is $25,000 or more.
- Unfortunately, a visit to the branch is still required for the account opening.
- The $300 bonus will be deposited “within 45 days after the end of the third full calendar month after the Account was opened.”
- From the 4th month onward you should be able to downgrade to M&T Simple Checking for Business, which allows you to avoid the $10 maintenance fee if you:
- Complete 5 transaction items per monthly statement period
- Maintain an Average Ledger Balance of $2,500 or more
- You can just cancel the account after getting the bonus, but you’ll get hit with the $50 Account Closure Fee.
I have no idea how long you would need to keep the account open to avoid the $50 Closure Fee
Note that M&T bank is extremely and, it seems, intentionally vague about the closure terms:
A $50 Account Closure Fee applies if the account is closed within the time period referenced in the Commercial Deposit Account Fee Schedule.
A quick search has revealed this Commercial Deposit Accounts Terms and Conditions page. It doesn’t mention a single word about the “Account Closure Fee.” I’ll ask the banker and update.
To recap
This is a relatively easy $250-$300 offer. I truly hate offers with direct deposits because it’s gotten really hard to avoid actually having to make a direct deposit. 🙂 The major inconvenience of this bonus offer is having to go to the bank. In my experience, opening a business account always take at least an hour, so depending how far away your nearest M&T bank branch is, this might or might not be worth your time.