First Tech Federal Credit Union has launched a referral promotion which should be an easy win. That’s because they’re offering a bonus of $100 to both parties when opening a checking account via a referral link.
The Deal
- Open a First Tech Federal Credit Union checking account using a referral link and both parties get $100.
- Greg’s referral link.
- Direct link to offer page.
Key Terms
- Offer valid for new members and accounts opened at firsttechfed.com.
- Must be at least 18 years old to participate in the offer.
- Available on personal accounts only.
- First Tech employees are ineligible.
- All accounts must remain open, and in good standing, as defined in the Limitation and Termination of Services section in the Membership and Account Agreement, on day of payout.
- First Tech will deposit the rewards into the Membership Savings Accounts of both parties within 30 days of the referred member meeting requirements.
- Referring members: (1) Will receive one $100 reward per qualified, new member up to an annual referral bonus total of $1,000. (2) Must be members for at least 30 days before being eligible to refer new members and receive rewards.
- Referred members: (1) To qualify for the $100 reward, must establish membership and open a checking account. Account opening subject to approval. (2) Within 30 days of checking account opening, must deposit at least $250 in new funds into their First Tech checking account and maintain an average daily balance of at least $250 for 30 days from initial deposit. New funds must be deposited from a source outside First Tech. Transfers between First Tech accounts will not qualify. (3)Limited to one $100 reward and not available in combination with other new member offers.
- Charity Donation: First Tech will donate $100 per referred membership to a local charity based on the referring member’s address on file. Selected charities are Mary’s Place (Washington), Free Geek (Oregon), Valley Verde (California), and Feeding America (All other states).
- Maximum combined donation up to $100,000 for referred memberships opened through 12.31.2020.
- Donations will be paid at the end of each quarter and all tax receipting will go to First Tech Federal Credit Union. See refer.firsttechfed.com/donationtracker for donation updates.
- For referring members, reward amounts may be reported on IRS form 1099-MISC. For referred members, the reward is considered interest and may be reported on IRS form 1099-INT.
- Rates effective as of 8.1.20.
- Qualifying Checking Accounts: Carefree Checking 0.00% APY (Annual Percentage Yield); First Checking Plus 0.05% APY; Dividend Rewards Checking (DRC) 1.25% Qualified APY on the first $10,000 and 0.10% APY on remaining balance; DRC Non-Qualified 0.05% APY on all balances.
- Opening a Membership Savings Account with a deposit of $5.00 is required prior to opening any other type of accounts. Membership Savings has a 0.05% APY. Rates subject to change at any time. Terms and conditions may apply.
Quick Thoughts
As mentioned earlier, this is an easy win. You can get a $100 bonus with some of the easiest requirements out there. None of the checking accounts have a monthly fee, you only have to deposit $250 and leave it in the account for 30 days and there are no other requirements (e.g. no direct deposit, no x number of debit card transactions, etc.)
The application is simple and straightforward. I applied just before writing this post using Greg’s link and it didn’t take more than five minutes. If you’re not a First Tech Federal Credit Union member, you can select the final option for membership and FTFCU will pay your enrollment fee for whichever of the two associations you choose to be eligible.
They also make it easy to deposit the $250 required to earn the bonus. You can log in to your checking account held elsewhere using Plaid (a service owned by Visa), so you don’t have to remember to arrange a transfer at a later date.
Although the application was simple to do, my account went to pending review rather than approved. I’m not sure if that’s the case for everyone or if it’s because I used my passport as ID verification rather than a Driver’s License. I suspect a Driver’s License is the easiest option for most people, but the first line of my address listed on my Driver’s License is our car’s license plate which can cause issues with ID verification, so I figured my passport would be the safest bet. I have a British passport too, so it’s possible that’s what’s holding things up, or it might just be that First Tech is sending all applications to pending review due to an influx of applications due to this referral offer.
One important thing to note is that you can only refer someone after you’ve been a member for 30 days. If you’re in two player mode, it might therefore be best to have P1 apply for an account using a referral link to get the $100 bonus. At least 30 days after the account was opened, P1 could refer P2 so that both get the $100 bonus for a total of $300. There’s nothing noting how long this referral offer will last for, although the terms do mention that an additional element to this promotion – $100 being donated to a charity – will be valid on up to $100,000 of donations through December 31, 2020. That makes me think that this referral promotion is due to keep going through the end of the year; if so, that gives plenty of time for P1 to refer P2. If this offer proves popular though, there’s certainly a chance that it gets pulled early.
One of the final terms listed is “Opening a Membership Savings Account with a deposit of $5.00 is required prior to opening any other type of accounts.” It didn’t prompt me to open a savings account when applying for the checking account, so I’m not sure if this is actually enforced or not. I guess it might also be why my account went pending, but I’ll wait to see what comes of my account application being reviewed.