Provident Bank Checking Account $123 Bonus

Provident Bank is giving $123 for every new Provident Checking account customer.

From now till March 1, 2009, you can receive $123 bonus if you open a new Totally Free, Regular, Interest or Platinum Checking account from Provident Bank and set up direct deposit. This offer, however, is available to residents of DC, MD, PA, VA or WV only. If you are not living in these states, don’t bother. To open an account and qualify for the bonus, you will need at least $25 as initial deposit and keep the Provident MasterMoney debit card active, in addition to the direct deposit requirement.

Among the eligible checking account, both Interest Checking account and Platinum Checking account are interest bearing accounts, even though the rates are close to nothing. For Interest account, the rate is 0.10% APY, while Platinum account earns you 0.25% APY. These interests don’t come free, though. To earn interests with Interest Checking account and avoid monthly fee ($10), you will have to maintain a minimum daily balance of $1,500. For Platinum account, the minimum balance to avoid $20 monthly fee is $5,000.

Worth it?  Not really. I’d rather use a low minimum balance checking account and keep the rest money in a high interest rate savings account such as Dollar Savings Direct or FNBO Direct.

Other benefits of the checking accounts include:

• Free Provident ATM transactions
• Opportunity to sign up for Power Points rewards program
• Free online banking with bill payment
• Free Mobile Banking
• Free MasterMoney Debit Card
• Free Check Safekeeping

Interest and Platinum Checking accounts also offer unlimited check writing, unlimited teller transactions, and free Check Safekeeping or check images.

If you are interested and meet the resident requirement, you can use this link to open an account and get the bonus.