Chase Bank Junk Mail Offer

I just got some mail from Chase Bank offering me $100 bonus to open a checking account.
Now, at first I thought this was complete junkmail. But after reading, it looks kind of legit. It's a free checking account--- as long as you direct deposit or make 5 purchases each statement period-- that has no minimum balance required.
The fine print on the back reads like this:
No Monthly Service Fee- Chase Checking has no monthly service fee when you have a direct deposit or five or more debit card purchases post to your account each statement period.
Bonus/Account Information- To qualify for the reward you must open a new Chase Checking account with a $100 minimum opening deposit of new money (money not currently held by Chase or its affiliates). Bonus will be automatically deposited into your new account within 10 business days of account opening, but not considered part of minimum openin deposit. Limit one per customer per calendar year. etc etc.

Now, a couple questions.
First, is this legit? Open up an account with at least $100, make 5 purchases out of it a month, and they'll give me $100 bonus?
Secondly, is Chase bank very good? I've been looking for a bank in Chicago since I got here, but not very seriously. I use my credit and debit cards for probably 95% of my purchases, and on the rare occasion that I have to use cash, it'd be nice to not have to pay a $3 fee just to get my own cash.

Does this sound like a good idea? I don't want to get scammed. This seems legit to me, but I'm wary just b/c I've never done this kinda thing.

Thanks in advance.

banks always have offers like that. i opened one with chase with the same offer but the F***ers never gave me my bonus. chase is also probably in the best shape as far as banks go.

i got that too. open a wamu account and get the 100 dollars. but now that i read above, im thinking maybe i just shouldnt take the effort.

There are always offers like this. They are always legit (in my experience and my colleagues').

If you think the time/hassle of switching bank accounts or creating a secondary account for a limited time is worth it, it's $100 in the bank.

I did this two years ago. Chase was offering a $75 bonus then.

Basically I was pissed at US Bank because they closed all the ATMs around here, which meant I was paying like a $4 fee everytime I withdrew money, and most of the time it was from a Chase ATM. So I switched to Chase, since I needed to switch anyway, and got the cash.

You have to watch out though - I believe it requires at least 2 Direct Deposits of something like $100 to go through and at least 15 withdrawals on your debit card over a 90 day period.

It's not too hard to hit, but it's certainly not free money that they're just going to give you.

Checking offers are rarely wort it unless you need a new account.

I miss the days of lucrative credit card offers. Chase was giving away $250 for making a single purchase when they first rolled out Freedom.

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Just Do It

I recently did a similar deal with Chase and had no issues. They will report it as interest income. Of the national banks Chase seems to be weathering the current economic environment well.

I too got the offer, and opened an account. Mostly, because my primary bank is a local small-time bank with only a dozen branches in one state, and I needed a national bank with a wider network. Chase is here to stay, it seems

citi is offering $225 in various gift cards when you open a checking account.

Originally Posted by nyf

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Checking offers are rarely wort it unless you need a new account.

I miss the days of lucrative credit card offers. Chase was giving away $250 for making a single purchase when they first rolled out Freedom.

I scored 2 of them - one for me and one for my wife

I moved over to Chase last fall when my local bank said they were upping my monthly fee to around $4.50 or something. I had actually looked around for offers for Chase and didn't find anything at the time. I got the $100 offer the day after I opened the account.

I've been happy with them. Things post online MUCH faster than my previous bank, the text messaging features and alerts are nice -- I set it up to email me when I get a large direct deposit (paycheck), and have text message alerts setup for "oh ****!" situations like the balance getting low or a large withdraw hitting. Branches are EVERYWHERE! And the ATMs are cooler than the old bank - some of them scan in the check you deposit and put a small image of it on the receipt. Pretty nifty.

Originally Posted by uhurit

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I too got the offer, and opened an account. Mostly, because my primary bank is a local small-time bank with only a dozen branches in one state, and I needed a national bank with a wider network. Chase is here to stay, it seems
I opened an account at Chase yesterday for the same reasons. I had been using the same small bank for 15 years out of laziness, inertia, whatever. One ATM and branch in my city! Finally got with a big bank. There's a $125 bonus for opening a checking account with $100 minimum and first direct deposit within 60 days. Terms similar to the OP but more money and in case you didn't get the mailer I found the offer here and it worked fine.

Originally Posted by thekunk07

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citi is offering $225 in various gift cards when you open a checking account.

Yeah plus it's like your deposits are held in Treasuries.