What did I do for a $800 bank account bonus?

I’ve been thinking of getting a new bank account to have an account for solely personal wants and when I saw the bonus from KeyBank it seemed like the perfect opportunity. My thought was to keep my Chase checking account for monthly expenses like rent, a car payment and groceries and a new KeyBank account for wants like clothes, eating out and sporting events.

What are the general terms of the KeyBank $800 bank account bonus?

Here are the key things to know with the KeyBank offer:

• Open a new Key Smart Checking® or KeyBank Hassle-Free Account® with a $0 monthly service fee, or Key Select Checking,® our interest-bearing checking account, using offer code FDMG0725 with a Green Valley Ranch KeyBank branch banker by 12/26/25
• Make qualifying deposits to earn $500. Make $1,000 or more in eligible direct deposits within 90 days of account opening to get $500
• You’ll receive an additional $300 as an additional bonus if an eligible direct deposit is made to your new checking account within 30 days prior to your one-year account-opening anniversary date.

$500 into your account after only depositing $1,000 is fantastic. It’s like you are doubling your money. And the $300 at the end of the year is a nice little extra bonus. Honestly, I am going for this offer primarily for the $500 bonus—I’m worried I am going to forget about the $300 bonus in a year haha. I’ll probably set a reminder on my Google Calendar to ensure I get the max bonus of $800 total.

How did I find out about the bank account bonus?

I like to check Doctor of Credit regularly to see if there’s any cool deals on things like AirPods or for credit card news. But I saw this info about an $800 bonus for a bank account and have never seen an offer like it.

How did I end up signing up for the bank account?

After reading the post from Doctor of Credit, I figured that I would have to go in person to a KeyBank location to sign up as the post stated the offer was in branch only. I did see there were links to sign up for an account in the post but none were for Massachusetts (my home state). So I decided to get on the road.

I saw that the closest KeyBank to me was 1 hour away in Connecticut so that’s where I decided to go (The ones in Massachusetts were actually further from me). Upon arriving at the Putnam, CT KeyBank location, the teller informed me that there was no one available to open an account for me. He saw my disgruntled reaction and asked me about why I came in. I told him about the promotional offer and he said that offer was only available for a special kind of KeyBank bank—a Green Valley Ranch KeyBank (I should have read the terms more carefully).

The teller said that the closest KeyBank location with this promo was 2 hours away in New York and that I would have to drive there to get the bonus. The odd thing was that this wasn’t a Green Valley Ranch KeyBank—super confusing. It seemed like there was a select group of KeyBank locations running this promo but not necessarily a Green Valley Ranch KeyBank. Anyways it was sad that he was saying I’d have to drive 2 hours.

But I remembered something he said earlier in our conversation—you can open a KeyBank account in any state that KeyBank has a footprint. That got me thinking. Maybe I could use one of the links from the Doctor of Credit post from another state and still put my Massachusetts address.

I thanked the teller for his help and headed home. When I got home, I clicked on the link for the KeyBank in Portchester, New York and filled out all my info. Success—my account was created with the promo offer!

Final Remarks

The thing about offers like this one, credit card perks and credit card rewards is that it can be YMMV (Your mileage may vary). The idea is that there’s a bunch of cool offers and benefits out there but sometimes you won’t know what will work until you try it. Will you be opening up a KeyBank offer before December 26th?