The Deposit Almanac
A 12-month operating calendar for bank bonuses

Banks pay $250–$600 for new deposits. Most people collect zero.

This is the sequence that collects every one you're eligible for — almost never touching your employer paycheck. Which account to open, which transfer counts as a "direct deposit," when the clawback window closes, and the exact date to exit. Maintained as offers change. Matched to your idle cash.

The part everyone gets wrong

"I'm not rerouting my paycheck for $400."

Correct. And you don't have to — which is the single thing most people don't know about these bonuses.

Every offer says "direct deposit required," and that phrase is where most people close the tab — because it sounds like a chore that touches HR: log into the payroll portal, split your paycheck, remember to switch it back three months later, then do it all over again for the next bank. Nobody runs twelve of those a year, so the money stays on the table.

Here's what the banks don't advertise: payroll almost never has to be involved. A one-time transfer from an account you already have — a brokerage, or often just another bank account — registers as a qualifying direct deposit at most banks, when it's sent the specific way that bank expects: pushed from the sending side, from an institution reported to code correctly, so it lands as a deposit instead of a person-to-person transfer. The flagship sequence below clears a $10,000 requirement with ordinary transfers between accounts you already own — sent the specific way that codes correctly. No HR ticket, no payroll edit, nothing to remember to undo. (And at the rare bank that's stricter, the calendar says so plainly and hands you that bank's clean path instead of letting you burn a 90-day window on a transfer that won't code.)

The catch — and the reason this product exists — is that the "specific way" is different at every bank. A method that sails through one bank silently fails at another, the banks publish none of it, and a transfer that doesn't code correctly means a bonus that never posts. Knowing which method works at which bank, this month, is the deposit-method matrix — the spine of every calendar we publish.

The arithmetic
$25,000 idle in a HYSA
≈ $1,000/yr

Roughly 4% interest. Fully passive. This is where most idle cash sits.

The same $25,000, sequenced
≈ $2,900–$4,100/yr

A bit less interest — cash cycles through 0% checking — plus $2,000–$3,200 in bonuses banks are currently paying.

What it costs you
~90 min/mo

Open on schedule, send the right transfer, close on the exit date. The calendar does the thinking.

The current flagship

One month of the calendar, shown as subscribers receive it

This sequence is running in our own accounts right now. Every row below is exactly what buyers get — except one. The claims you can check are linked to the bank's own page; the row you can't is the product.

Bank of America Advantage — $500
LAST VERIFIED 2026-08-17
The offer
$500 bonus for new Bank of America checking customers: open an Advantage Plus or Advantage Relationship account, then land $10,000+ in qualifying direct deposits within 90 days of opening. Offer ends Sept 30, 2026. Verify at bankofamerica.com →
The method
Ships with the calendar. Which everyday transfer codes as a qualifying direct deposit at Bank of America, which sending account to use, and the specific way to send it — because sent the wrong way, the same dollars count $0 toward the requirement. It does not involve your employer, your payroll, or an HR ticket. This row is what you're buying.
The timeline
  • Day 0Open online. The $12 monthly fee waives via qualifying deposits or a $1,500 minimum balance — the sequence's own deposits handle it.
  • Day 3–45Clear the $10,000 requirement on the calendar's schedule. No employer involved.
  • Day 90Deposit window closes.
  • ≤ Day 150Bonus posts — the terms allow up to 60 days after the deposit window ends.
  • AfterHold until the bonus posts, then exit clean. No early-close clawback in the terms — but don't convert the account type mid-sequence; that voids the offer.
The fine print
The lockout: owned or co-owned any Bank of America personal checking in the last 12 months → ineligible. One bonus per customer; offers can't be combined. Bonus is interest income (1099-INT). Opening is a soft bank-screening inquiry, not a credit pull.
Net
$500 on $10,000 cycled for about six weeks, ~45 minutes of total effort — if every transfer codes. The coding is the product.

// Eleven more months like this one. The method row unlocks at checkout.

The product

The calendar

Seven-plus offers like the one above are live right now — Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, BMO, Huntington, KeyBank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, SoFi. The hard part was never finding them. It's running them concurrently without mistakes: which transfer codes correctly at which bank, whose clawback window closes when, which fee needs waiving this month.

How it arrives: one short email each week — what to open, what to send, roughly twenty minutes of tasks — plus a live calendar feed that drops every date straight into your phone's calendar with reminders: deposit days, fee checks, clawback windows, exit dates. No login. No dashboard you have to remember to check. The feed installs once; from there the reminders do the remembering.
Read this before buying

Who this is not for

If you already read the churning forums every morning, you don't need this — everything in the calendar can be assembled free from public sources plus a few hundred hours of your attention. This is for people who want the yield without the hobby.

  • Bonuses are taxable interest. Expect 1099-INTs and a 22–37% federal haircut at your marginal rate, plus state.
  • You need idle cash — $10,000 runs the smallest track of the calendar; $25,000 runs the full multi-lane sequence.
  • Banks change terms without notice. The calendar is maintained weekly; your end is checking your alerts.
  • Some banks bar repeat bonus-earners — U.S. Bank runs a 12-month anti-churn clause, Chase roughly two years. The sequence accounts for this; your own account history might rule some lanes out — the two questions at checkout catch exactly that.
  • Banks also watch new-account velocity: open too many too fast and a minority of banks will decline the application. The sequence paces openings to stay under those thresholds — it's a managed constraint, not a hidden one.
  • Cash parked in checking accounts earns ~0% while it's there. The sequence minimizes park time, but you will sacrifice some HYSA interest to collect multiples more in bonuses.
  • This is an operating calendar for published bank promotions — not financial, tax, or investment advice.
Pricing
Your money never touches us. We never ask for bank logins, account numbers, or access of any kind. You move your own money at your own bank.
Checkout by Stripe. We never see or store your card. One payment — no auto-renewal, nothing to remember to cancel.
Verify everything. Every offer in the calendar links to the bank's own published page, stamped with the date we last checked it.
Covered either way. If the offers your calendar schedules don't pay you back what you paid within 90 days, we refund all of it.
The First Quarter
$99
your first 90 days
  • Three sequences beyond the two free ones on this page — full precision, exact deposit method for each
  • Weekly email + calendar feed
  • Change alerts on your active offers
  • Upgrade any time in your 90 days for the $200 difference — your sequences carry over
Checkout opens this week
The system
The Full Sequence
$299
covers your first 12 months
  • The complete 12-month calendar on your cash track ($10K / $25K / $50K+)
  • Weekly email + calendar feed
  • The deposit-method matrix
  • Change alerts + replacement offers
  • The clawback tracker
Checkout opens this week
The Household
$499
two people, 12 months
  • Everything in the Full Sequence, × 2
  • Two coordinated calendars, staggered so cash requirements never collide
  • One shared clawback tracker
  • Roughly doubles the collectible bonuses on the same household cash
Checkout opens this week
The guarantee, every tier: follow your calendar for 90 days. If bonuses from the offers it scheduled haven't totaled the price you paid, email support@depositalmanac.com and we refund the full amount. No forms, no argument — the refund is the product standing behind the sequencing.
Questions
Do I have to change my employer direct deposit?

Almost never. What banks actually require is a deposit that codes as a direct deposit, and at most banks a one-time push from an account you already have does exactly that — a brokerage at some banks, a plain bank account at others — when it's sent the specific way that bank expects. No HR ticket, no paycheck split, nothing to switch back later. The rare strict bank — Chase, currently — is flagged in your calendar with its clean path (a one-cycle paycheck split) or routed around entirely; your calendar never leaves you guessing which kind of bank you're facing. That knowledge is most of what you're paying for.

Is this legal?

Yes. These are published promotions — banks budget bonuses as customer-acquisition marketing, the same way they budget ad spend. What banks dislike is customers who close accounts early, which is exactly why every sequence carries a hold rule and an exit date.

Isn't sending a transfer instead of payroll gaming the rules?

You never misstate anything to anyone. You send an ordinary transfer between your own accounts; the bank's own systems decide whether it codes as a direct deposit — that classification is theirs, not yours. The realistic downside isn't a penalty, it's a transfer that doesn't qualify and a bonus that doesn't post. And since banks publish none of this, method claims on this page are built from reported datapoints, not promises — which is why they're worded as "reported to work," why the matrix is re-verified weekly, and why the guarantee exists.

I already bank with Bank of America — is this useless to me?

No — that's the point of sequencing. Seven-plus offers are live at any given moment across different banks, and your calendar simply routes around any bank where you're ineligible. An existing account eliminates one lane, not the system — the two questions at checkout are how the calendar knows which lanes are yours.

What actually arrives after I buy?

Checkout asks two questions: your idle-cash band, and which banks you've held checking accounts with in the last 24 months. Your calendar is assembled from those answers — lanes you're locked out of never appear. Then, within the hour: a welcome email with your cash-track calendar, the calendar-feed link for your phone, and your first week's tasks. From then on, one short email a week plus reminders that fire from your own calendar. There is no portal to log into, and if your history rules out a lane later, reply to any weekly email and the slot gets re-routed.

What happens when my 12 months end?

The weekly emails and the live feed stop. Everything already delivered stays in your calendar and remains yours; alerts on any account still inside a hold window continue until it closes. Year two is a new purchase at the then-current price — never automatic. There is nothing to cancel because nothing renews.

Will it hurt my credit?

Almost never. Checking and savings accounts are screened against deposit databases like ChexSystems — a soft inquiry, no score impact — at every bank in the calendar. The rare banks that do run hard pulls for deposit accounts are flagged in your sequence and easy to route around. (Credit card churning is a different sport — this isn't it.)

Why wouldn't I just do this myself?

You can — every offer is public, and the churning forums document methods if you enjoy a few hundred hours of research. What you're buying is the sequencing, the maintenance, and the not-missing: no transfer that fails to code, no fee you didn't waive, no account closed four days inside its hold window.

What if an offer changes mid-sequence?

You get the amendment immediately; on the Full Sequence and Household tiers, a replacement offer fills the slot (First Quarter members get the amendment and alert). Banks change terms constantly; keeping up with them is a large part of what you're paying for.

How much time does this actually take?

About 90 minutes a month once running: an account opening or two, a scheduled transfer, an exit. The calendar tells you which day; the tasks themselves are small.