Sterling National Bank Bonus, Get Up to $450 with New Checking Account (NY)

Sterling National Bank has an offer for new customers. You can earn a bonus of up to $450 when you open a checking account at one of their branches in NY. Sterling National Bank took over Astoria Bank back in 2017.

This offer has expired. See the full list of available bank bonuses here.

Offer

To earn the $225 bonus:

Open a new Premium Checking account or increase the balance in your existing Premium Checking account with at least $15,000 from a source outside of Sterling National Bank (“new money minimum”);
Maintain the new money minimum each day during the statement cycle;
Have Qualifying Direct Deposits totaling $1,000 or more made to this account during the statement cycle;
Offer is available on one (1) Premium Checking account per client and cannot be combined with other offers.

Each statement cycle that you satisfy the conditions above, you will receive $75 as a cash bonus, up to a total maximum of $225; the bonus will be paid on the last day of the evaluated statement cycle. Your account must be open at the time the bonus is posted. This bonus cannot be combined with any other cash bonus offer. Prior to account opening, this offer can be revoked at any time. Once the account has been opened, this offer is valid for up to the first five statement cycles from your account opening. Cash bonus will be reported as income on IRS Form 1099-INT.

To earn the $450 bonus:

Deposit at least $50,000 from a source outside of Sterling National Bank (“new money minimum”) into a new or existing Private Banking Checking account.
Maintain the new money minimum each day during the statement cycle; client’s total combined checking account balances are used to determine if this requirement is met.
Have Qualifying Direct Deposits totaling $1,000 or more made to this account during the statement cycle.

Offer is available on one (1) Private Banking Checking account per client and cannot be combined with other offers. Offer is only available to clients who have not participated in one of Sterling’s previous Cash Back Bonus Campaigns.

Each statement cycle that you satisfy the conditions above, you will receive $150 as a cash bonus, up to a total maximum of $450; the bonus will be paid on the last day of the evaluated statement cycle. Your account must be open at the time the bonus is credited. Prior to account opening or increase in balance to your existing account, this offer can be revoked at any time. Once the account has been opened, or new money minimum has been added to an existing Private Banking Checking account, as confirmed by Sterling National Bank, this offer is valid for up to the first five statement cycles thereafter. Cash bonus will be reported as income on IRS Form 1099-INT.

Eligibility

They only have branches in NY, more exactly in and around NYC.

Fees

Choice Checking has a monthly fee that can be waived with $1,500 balance.

I’m not sure what the fees are for the Private Banking Checking account.

Guru’s Wrap-up

There’s very limited information on their website about this bonus regarding eligibility and fees. To get the bonus you need to deposit $15K and keep that money in the account for three months. You also need to complete $1,000 in direct deposits in each of those months. Earning $225 for three months on a $15K deposit is still a 6% APY. The Private Banking Checking account has a $450 bonus but it requires a $50,000 deposit. For this account there was a $750 bonus in the past.

It’s not clear if opening an account is a soft or hard pull. We also don’t know what the fees are for the Private Banking Checking account. Please let me know if you’ve opened any accounts at this bank in the past. I will skip myself.

If this bonus is not for you, then you can check our full list of available bank bonuses. And, if you’re new to bank account bonuses, you can learn more about churning bank accounts here.