Savings offer improved. E*Trade (Morgan Stanley Private Bank) is running promotions for new customers on both their savings and checking accounts:
- Premium Savings up to $2,000 deposit bonus + 3.50% APY
- Max-Rate Checking $300 bonus + up to 2.00% APY
Hat tip to reader Greg on this one.
Up to $2,000 Savings promo details (deposit bonus).
- Open a new Premium Savings Account on etrade.com by February 28, 2026 using promo code SAVE26.
- Deposit qualifying new money (see tiers below) within the first 30 days after account opening.
- Maintain your balance for 45 additional days after the 30-day funding period ends to earn your bonus.
If your deposit meets the minimum of a tier exactly then it works out to up a 1.5% bonus. Note that on some tiers it might be as low as 1%. If let’s say you hold for 60 days for some wiggle room, 1.5% for 60 days works out to a 9% bonus on an annualized basis. Add on the current 3.50% APY on the Premium Savings account for a total of 12.50% APY.
Even on the 1% bonus for 60 days, that works out to a 6% bonus on an annualized basis. Add on the current 3.50% APY on the Premium Savings account for a total of 9.50% APY. Not bad.
$300 Checking promo details (direct deposit required).
- Make at least 2 direct deposits, each of $1,500 or more, within 90 days of opening your new account.
- Your bonus should arrive around 120 days from account opening.
As of 1/5/26, Max-Rate Checking Account pays 2.00% APY. You must maintain a $5,000 average monthly balance, otherwise there is a $15 monthly fee. The basic Checking Account only pays 0.05% APY (basically nothing), but has no minimum balance. This is notable since you’ll need to maintain an open account for at least a few extra months to get the bonus, so the basic Checking might be better.
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This sounds like one of the best bonus deals on a savings account I have seen in a long while. I think I will park some safe money there and pick up the bonus.
This one might be better, Rock: https://www.liveoak.bank/personal-savings/
I agree with you.
isn’t the savings code SAVE1000 not SAVE100?
I see SAVE100.
Bonus is just $250 for 25-50K savings; need quite more for $1000
Yes, up to $1,000.
Opened an account there a year back. Poor support and overall not close to the experience web/mobile needed to become my primary checking/savings I thought it would be going into it. Still at ally and using Schwab a bit more these days.
Will other ACH bank institutions trigger bonus or do we need real data points ss, pay etc?
Any ideas?
Good question, Joanne. I was wondering this, too. So I looked at doctorofcredit.com and found only a few DPs about this. Banks that a regular ACH triggered the bonus include Chase Business, Fidelity CMA, INGDirect/CapitalOne 360, Relay (no idea what this is), and Treasury Direct. I plan on doing the e*Trade basic checking bonus soon and will attempt it with “fake” DDs from my Fidelity CMA. Which, BTW, is a great, free account that – among other things – enables you to use any ATM in the world to access your money and get the fee refunded. (No, I don’t work for Fidelity. I don’t even work. I’m retired.)
Opened an account but got stuck in telephone number verification. “We’re unable to use your phone number to verify your identity”. Uploaded my CA DL and selfie via cell phone, Called CSR, he was not able to help, he said wait for 2 weeks. He gave me the routing number so I can fund the account. Why should I fund the account if I am not allowed to login?
1- What counts as a “Direct Deposit”? Can I transfer money to myself, or does it have to be from a paycheck?
“Set up and receive at least two Direct Deposits each of $1,500 or more to your Checking or Max-Rate Checking Account within 90 days from account opening.”
2- Will there be a credit check? I currently have my credit bureaus locked.
For what it’s worth, if you have a 7 year fraud alert as I do on my credit files, you’ll have to submit some documents. I couldn’t get cell phone verification to work, no Google Voice, my mobile number didn’t work; I called and I had to submit to a DocuSign website photos of myself, my drivers license, and a written statement with my name, account name, account number, and an ID from a 2FA application, VIP Access. I have to confirm if this was enough on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Most work I’ve ever had to do to try to get a bonus. This might or might not be why I couldn’t add either of my bank accounts for funding with Yodlee.
Good luck!
So we only need to keep our money in for 60d even though the bonus doesn’t get deposited until after 120d?
“If let’s say you hold for 60 days for some wiggle room, that works out to a 6% bonus on an annualized basis.”
“Your bonus should arrive around 120 days from account opening.”
FYI – The etrade savings offer is improved now using code SAVE26.
Thanks for the tip.
One thing to now is that the bonus for SAVE26 is 1.5% @ several of the lower bounds for the tiers including $100k (though not $75k), but drips to 1% at the $200k tier. More is less, I guess?
Can you clarify what you mean by this ” If let’s say you hold for 60 days for some wiggle room, 1.5% for 60 days works out to a 9% bonus on an annualized basis. Add on the current 3.50% APY on the Premium Savings account for a total of 12.50% APY”? If i understand the bonus is one-time and not recurring and will be issued after 45 days. How do you annualize it? 9% APY would require it to be compounded over a full year, which the bonus does not as its one-time only. The 12.5% APY is not a true APY, because the bonus is a one?time event. You can’t repeat it every 60 days unless the bank explicitly allows it.
Working out the effective APY is just a good way to compare returns with different variables like deposit amount, holding period, fixed bonus amount, and base APY. APY is how banks tell you the rate of return on their accounts, no matter your actual holding period.
Can anyone confirm that you are eligible to get both the Savings & Checking bonuses concurrently?
I don’t see anything in the terms that says you can’t do both a checking and savings bonus at the same time. You cannot do 2 checking bonus at the same time or 2 savings bonus at the same time, and there is a LIFETIME LIMIT of 2 savings bonus offers (but I didn’t see that same limit for checking bonus offers).
Why am I getting this error when I try to open the account – “Please enter a valid Social Security number or ITIN.” The SSN I am typing is correct. Is anyone else facing this issue? I have my credit history frozen but I have unfroze it since friday but still not working. Any ideas?