One Finance is a fintech bank that is currently offering a $50 signup bonus if you open an account using a One Finance referral link and have a direct deposit of $250 or more.
This is a 100% free bank account with no minimum balance requirement, so this is an easy account you can earn the bonus with and not have to worry about managing.
How To Earn Your One Finance $50 Referral Bonus
The steps to earn your $50 referral bonus is straightforward. You have to do two things – once you meet both requirements, you’ll get your $50 referral bonus:
- Open a One Finance account using a referral link (here’s my One Finance referral link).
- Have a direct deposit of $250 or more.
Opening the account is a soft pull and has no impact on your credit score or credit report. The signup process is really easy and should take you 5 minutes at most to complete (I opened my account in just a few minutes).
Meeting the $250 direct deposit requirement is a little bit trickier. At the moment, it appears that you need an actual employer direct deposit, so you should only open this account if you have an easy way to meet the direct deposit requirement. I’m able to meet this requirement easily because my wife’s payroll system allows her to divide her paycheck between as many different bank accounts as she wants (she uses a payroll system called Gusto). We set it up so that $251 of her next paycheck goes into my One Finance account and $251 goes into her One Finance account. If you have a similar payroll system that allows you to easily change your direct deposit, then I would definitely take advantage of this bonus.
Remember, you only need one direct deposit, so you can change your direct deposit to this account one time, then change it back to your regular account after you meet the requirements.
The terms state that your bonus will post within 10 business days of your direct deposit. Mine appeared to post instantly after I made my direct deposit, but I can’t guarantee that will happen for everyone. If you don’t see your bonus right away, give it 10 business days.
Refer Your Friends And Family Members To Maximize Your Bonus
The important thing about One Finance is that once you open an account, you get a referral link that you can use to refer other people. You can find your referral link under the “Details” section in your account.
Each person you refer will earn you $50 once they have a direct deposit of $250 or more (they’ll, of course, get $50 once they use your link and meet the requirements). You can earn up to $500 in referral bonuses, which means you can refer up to 10 people.
Because of the referral bonus, a household could potentially earn $150 with just a few minutes of work. First, open your One Finance account using a referral link. Then refer your spouse or partner using your own referral link. By doing this, you’ll get $50 once you meet the bonus requirements, your spouse or partner will get $50 once they meet the bonus requirements, and you’ll get an additional $50 for referring them.
One Finance 3% Interest Account
One interesting feature of One Finance is the 3% interest savings account that they offer. It’s a little confusing how it works, but essentially, you can save up to 10% of each direct deposit that goes into your One Finance account into a 3% interest savings account, up to a maximum of $1,000 per month. That means you could in theory get up to $12,000 per year into this 3% interest account. Doing so wouldn’t be easy though because you’d need $120,000 of paychecks going into your One Finance account.
I think there are easier ways to earn 3% or more interest on your savings. For example, check out my post: Where To Get 5% Interest Savings or my other post, Getting More From My Emergency Fund With 3% and 5% Interest Savings Accounts.
That said, it’s something that some people might want to take advantage of, so it’s worth sharing.
Final Thoughts
If you have an easy way to meet the direct deposit requirement, then this is a bank account I’d highly recommend simply because of how easy the terms are to meet and how fast it is to open this account.
I opened an account for me and my wife and set up our direct deposits in less than 10 minutes. All told, we’ll make $150 for the little amount of work we put into this deal. It was well worth our time.
For more easy bank account bonuses, check out the additional posts below:
- Chime Bank Referral Bonus – Step By Step Guide
- SoFi Money Referral Bonus – Step By Step Guide
- First Tech Federal Credit Union Referral Bonus – Step By Step Guide
Hope this helps!
H/T to Doctor of Credit.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the sharing economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the sharing economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $15 welcome bonus if you open an account.
- Lili Account. Lili is a free online business checking account geared towards freelancers and sole proprietors. Lili is currently offering new users a $100 bonus if you open a free Lili account using a referral link.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $30 for opening an account.
- Albert. A great free app I use to track my finances and save more money. You can also earn a $75 signup bonus if you open a free Albert cash account.
- Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
Hi Kevin,
You said, >>>Meeting the $250 direct deposit requirement is a little bit trickier. At the moment, it appears that you need an actual employer direct deposit, so you should only open this account if you have an easy way to meet the direct deposit requirement. <<<
We set up the Chime account with an ACH transfer. Can you explain a little more why we can not do an ACH transfer to accomplish a payroll deposit.
Thank you.
Joe
This is just from the datapoints people have reported online. For whatever reason, anything works with Chime basically. Other’s just don’t because their systems can detect what’s a real direct deposit better.
SoFi has a $100 promotion going on until 01-31-2021
>>>In order to qualify for the $75 bonus, an enrolled member must have $500 or more in total qualifying Direct Deposit transactions within the promotion period.
Qualifying Direct Deposits must be made from the enrolled member’s employer, payroll, or benefits provider via ACH deposit.
Non-Qualifying Deposits are deposits that are not from an employer (such as check deposits; P2P transfers such as from PayPal or Venmo, etc.; merchant transactions such as from PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc.; and bank ACH transfers not from employers). <<<
Will an ACH bank to bank work for this one??
https://support.sofi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050414632–100-Money-Welcome-Bonus
Thanks!
Joe
So my experience with SoFi (and I believe this is still true now) is that SoFi requires a real direct deposit. Years ago when SoFi money first launched, they had a bonus that required a direct deposit and nothing I used triggered it. If that was the case back when they first launched, I doubt its changed now.
In short, SoFi Money likely requires a real Direct deposit in order to trigger the direct deposit requirement. There is currently a referral option for SoFi Money that offers $50 without requiring a direct deposit (all you have to do is fund the account with $500). If you can do a real direct deposit, go with the public offer. If you can’t, your choices are either go for the $50 referral offer or consider waiting to see if a $100 offer that’s easier to hit comes up. No idea if an easier $100 offer comes though.
Thanks for this. New to bank account bonuses. Is there any limitation if a direct deposit of mine under my name goes into a bank account under my spouse’s name? (Of which does not include my name whatsoever). Thanks!
I haven’t had any issues doing that. I use my wife’s payroll system and deposit into accounts with my own names.
Hi Kevin, when I click the referral link above it doesn’t show that I have been referred nor mention a referral bonus, is this normal with One Finance? I’m asking before I go forward.
Hey. Yeah it doesn’t say it in the referral link, but watch the URL and you’ll see that it is a referral link (the link changes fast, so you’ll have to look carefully).
Thank You and Thank You for all you’ve posted on your Financial Panther site. Also Thank you in Advance for your future post!
Hi Kevin, 6 months or so you highlighted Chime’s Referral deal to score $75. Chime, or Stride Bank did not mail any 1099 INT or 1099MISC. I called Chime yesterday and they said go to TSC1099. com No other instructions how to access the website. On this site, https://www.tsc1099.com/ it asks for Site ID # User ID and Password…..Again, no instructions on how to proceed the first time. Chime, I assume was responsible to provide instructions on how to access this site.
I hope you have already have experience in this matter. I use TurboTax, so I entered my Chime bonus as a 1099 INT without any knowledge of how it was reported to the IRS. But what if Chime posts it as a 1099 MISC????
Since I had a few referrals, I feel responsible to let people know how to report their bonus.
Thank you!!
Hey — One Finance is asking for a follow up email from the account holder’s link I used in order to confirm I can get the bonus. They seem real stingy about it and was wondering if you could email One confirming your link? I can send you my email.
I’m having the same issue. Was this ever resolved for you?
This is new. No problems when I did it a few months ago.