Is there a catch to offers of $100 when opening up a new checking account?
There's no catch. Banks need to acquire customers just like any other business. One common way to acquire new customers is by advertising on the radio, TV, print, etc. Another common way to acquire new customers is by offering incentives like the one you linked to. Basically, PNC is confident that they will make more than $100 in profit over the entire lifetime of a customer. This is a very reasonable assumption, considering that: "To add in a brief expansion to Portman's complete answer.  The payment can also be thought of as compensation for your ""switching cost"".  Obviously it is inconvenient to transfer your account from one bank to another (changing static payments, stationery, that sort of thing).  The cash is offered as payment towards that inconvenience.   Given the profits that banks make you can think of the $100 in much the same way as a store offering you a 5% discount on your next shopping trip."
Technically, it's only when you need to pass money through. However consider that the length the account has been open builds history with the financial institution, so I'd open ASAP. Longer history with the bank can help with getting approved for things like business credit lines, business cards, and other perks, though if you're not making money with that business, seek out a bank that does not charge money to have a business account open with them. For $100 you better just hold it in Mexico.  The cost of opening an account could eat 10% or more of your capital easily, and that won't be able to buy enough shares of an ETF or similar investment to make it worthwhile. "In the United States, many banks aim to receive $ 100 per year per account in fees and interest markup.  There are several ways that they can do this on a checking account.  These examples assume that there is a 3 % difference between low-interest-rate deposit accounts and low-interest rate loans. Or some combination of these markups that adds up to $ 100 / year.  For example:  A two dollar monthly fee = $ 24 / year, plus a $ 2,000 average balance at 0.05% = $ 29 / year, plus $ 250 / month in rewards debit card usage = $ 24 / year, plus $ 2 / month in ATM fees = $ 24 / year. Before it was taken over by Chase Manhattan in 2008, Washington Mutual had a business strategy of offering ""free"" checking with no monthly fees, no annual fees, and no charges (by Washington Mutual) for using ATMs.  The catch was that the overdraft fees were not free.  If the customers averaged 3 overdraft fees per year at $ 34 each, Washington Mutual reached its markup target for the accounts." If it's always the same person, you could open a joint account.  Then fees are avoided altogether.  How fast the funds are available depends on what you deposit.  Cash is immediate. Almost any financial institution has the technical ability to do this (simply called sweeps, auto sweeps, or deposit sweeps); the issue you face is finding an institution that is willing to do it for you.  I think you will have the most luck at your primary financial institution where you currently keep the majority of your banking relationship.  You will have better luck at small-town banks and credit unions.  The mega banks will likely not waver from their established policies. Deposit sweeps are common for business accounts.  They are usually tied to a savings account, which is usually held within the same institution, however this is not a requirement.  The sweep can send money to any US bank if you can provide the routing number and account number.  The sweep will establish a peg balance, or floor balance, on the checking account.  At the end of the day, any amount above the peg is swept into the savings account automatically. I doubt you will find what you’re asking for within an online banking system.  You will likely have to go into a branch and speak with a personal banker.  Explain to them you want to establish a sweep on your checking account and want to send the funds to another financial institution.  You will have better luck asking for a peg of $100, or some other small amount.  They may not take your request seriously if you want to completely empty the checking account to zero. Yes. it is possible, I have seen many times banks permitting overdrawing and later charging a high courtesy fees. Of course in many countries this is not permitted. In one of my account, I am running negative balance as the bank has charged its commission which is not due. Sure, you'd make an $8.33 during that first month with little extra risk. Sounds like free money, right? (Assuming no hidden fees in the fine print.) I don't know that the extra money is worth the time you will spend monitoring the account, especially after inflation claims its share of your pie.  If you're going to use leverage to invest, you should probably pick an investment that will return at a much higher rate. If you can get an unsecured line of credit at 1%, there aren't a lot of downsides. Hopefully interest rates don't rise high enough to eat your earnings, but if they do, you can always liquidate your investments and pay the remainder of the loan. "A checking account almost never earns any significant interest. A checking accounts often does not have any limits in terms of how many times you can draw funds from it. A checking account often comes with a debit card allowing you to pay online, draw cash from an ATM machine etc. A savings accounts has much higher yields, so you should be getting a decent interest. Unfortunately in the current climate this is not always true (especially not with the big banks) so you may want to look into a high-yield savings account. A savings account is often limited in terms of number of transactions, meaning you can't constantly draw funds from it, it must be stable. A savings account often does not come with a debit card. No, a savings account should not be used for regular transactions. It's an account to park your money for a medium/long time. Understand that banks loan out the money in your savings account to third-parties, so if it would constantly fluctuate, they can't have this money available to others. In return of you parking your money with your bank, you should get a nice return (interest). Yes, but it's not common. Assuming you are from USA, passing banking data (account number and routing number) to third-parties is not safe. In Europe it's totally safe to share your account number to accept money. Depends, some banks do charge fees, some don't. Often there are fees when you're not using the account (no transactions), or when you don't have a certain minimum in an account. Assuming you are American (please specify this information clearly in future) I would look into an ""internet bank"", like Ally. They don't have many fees and they have an excellent high-yield savings account. They also give you a debit card. Disadvantage is that they don't have physical branches." Wells Fargo.  They have an account called PMA, an umbrella account for checking, savings, mortgage, and brokerage accounts.  It would cost $30/month, but I never had to pay because I have a rollover retirement account that is enough to waive the fees.  They count all accounts, including mortgage, which I used to have.  Oh, and no restrictions.  An added advantage is there are no fees for any of the accounts, nor for some other things, like bank checks, outside ATM fees, etc.    I'm in California, so I don't know if the same deal exists in other states.  But if you qualify for the free account, it's pretty good.  Actually, most of my investments are Vanguard funds.  And I have another rollover account with Vanguard, and never pay fees, but I only buy or sell from one Vanguard fund to another, and rarely since I have targeted retirement funds that are designed to be no maintenance.  For some reason, I trust Vanguard more than most other funds; maybe because I like their philosophy on low-cost funds, which they started but are now getting more popular. A) Q1) No, you beat the system, you benefit from flip side of 'use it or lose it'    Q2) You need to ask, they may have a $50/week limit, or they may divide the amount you wish by remaining time in year. They may also not let you start till next enrollment period. B) Q1) No, in fact, you just lost $400 that you deposited but didn't spend. Q2) You missed the opportunity to spend an extra $1000 as well, but the loss was opportunity not pocket. Q3) Same as Q2 above, ask them. C) These accounts are not coupled. I'd change the law to do so, however, I am not a congressman. "If your son endorses the check or better still, endorses it with ""for deposit only"" and places the account number in the endorsement, it's likely the bank will accept it for deposit. In this manner, you are not putting it in your account, you are putting it in his. I have a family member perform this action occasionally with zero complications and she does not have an account at the same bank." Check with a small local bank or credit union, they might offer better terms. That said, my local credit union still charges $6/month for a checking account if you don't have a direct deposit into it. "the easiest thing would be to go to walmart and stock up on 1000$ money orders paying a 70 cents fee for each. your landlord would almost certainly accept money orders, but double check first just in case. i say stock up because you can't get a money order for more than 1000$ and they usually won't let you buy more than 3 per day. alternatively, you can probably open a bank account using your ssn and your passport.  look for any bank offering ""free"" checking, and they should be able to give you a few ""starter"" checks on the spot when you open the account. in any case, they can certainly get you a cashier's check for free or a small fee.  side note: if you want to shop around for a checking account, look for a bank or credit union offering a ""kasasa"" account." You may still get an exception hold on the transfer if all of the named account holders on the checking and savings do not match. In my time in banking such an internal hold was exceedingly rare but did occur if other red flags were present.  Usually a hold is not an issue when transferring to savings.  Further, regardless of the factors above, your institution may require you to complete the transfer with a teller rather than digitally, but that's the institution's choice. Side note about large transfers: When you're doing an internal transfer of $100,000.00 or more, even if named account holders match, some banks' back-end systems will only process this amount in one day as a wire. If so, they will likely waive the wire fee. "In theory, the term of the bond does not affect the priority.  It does not matter whether a ""Junior Subordinated Debenture"" is due in one year or sixty, it is still lower priority than a ""Secured Note"".  On the other hand, if the ""Secured Note"" is secured by something that is not worth as much as the note, the excess is an unsecured debt. In practice, the term of the bond has two effects: Short term debt holders are more likely to get out just before the company goes broke.  Sometimes their efforts to get out are exactly what causes the company to go broke!  (""Commercial paper"" is even more fickle than banks.) All other things being equal, and depending on the terms of the loan, some bonds get priority over bonds of the same type that are issued later.  For example, your first mortgage usually takes precedence over your second mortgage."