If you’re considering switching banks or opening a savings account, March 2026 is a critical month to act. Several major banks are offering substantial sign-up bonuses that expire by the end of March, with payouts ranging from $100 to $600. SoFi’s checking account offers up to $300, Fifth Third Momentum Checking provides $350, and Huntington Bank’s Platinum Perks Checking reaches $600—but only if you meet their requirements and complete the account opening before the deadline. Missing these expiration dates means losing hundreds of dollars in free money, which is why timing your bank switch now could significantly boost your financial position.
This article walks through the best bonuses expiring this month, explains what each offer actually requires, and shows you which bonus is worth pursuing based on your banking habits. The banking industry uses promotional bonuses to attract new customers, but these offers are temporary by design. Once they expire, they’re gone, sometimes for years. That’s why bank bonuses should be part of any smart financial strategy—not as a way to chase every offer, but as a deliberate way to capture genuine value when you’re already planning a banking change.
Table of Contents
- What Bank Bonuses Are Expiring in March 2026?
- Breaking Down the Requirements: Which Offers Actually Fit Your Situation?
- March Bonuses Versus April and May—Is Waiting Worth It?
- How to Strategically Maximize Multiple Bank Bonuses
- The Fine Print: Direct Deposit Requirements and What Disqualifies You
- Account Features and Interest Rates—The Bonus Is Just the Start
- The Broader Context—Bonuses in a Rising and Falling Rate Environment
- Conclusion
What Bank Bonuses Are Expiring in March 2026?
March 2026 has the tightest cluster of bank bonus expirations you’ll see all year. E*TRADE Premium Savings and Marcus Online Savings both expire on March 11, giving you less than three weeks from today. Huntington Bank’s bonuses ($400 for Perks Checking, $600 for Platinum Perks Checking) expire on March 15. Then comes a rush: SoFi expires March 30, while Fifth Third Momentum Checking, Axos Bank Checking, and Barclays Tiered Savings all expire March 31. The spread matters because each account has different requirements—some take weeks to complete, while others are faster. The SoFi bonus is tiered, which means your payout depends on your deposit level. If you deposit $1,000 or more in qualifying direct deposits within 31 days, you get $50.
But if you can hit $5,000 in qualifying direct deposits in that same window, you jump to $300. For someone who already receives regular paychecks via direct deposit, this is essentially free money—the high tier requires just slightly more than one biweekly paycheck. Axos Bank works similarly but with a higher bar: you need two direct deposits of $1,500 or more each within 90 days to earn the $300 bonus. If your paycheck isn’t that large, you might need to wait two pay periods. Fifth Third Momentum Checking ($350 bonus) and Huntington Bank’s offerings are simpler in structure but still have guardrails. Fifth Third requires direct deposits totaling $500 or more within 90 days—a relatively low threshold that even part-time workers can hit in a few months. Huntington’s Platinum Perks Checking, which offers the largest single bonus at $600, also requires direct deposits, so you can’t game it with transfer tricks. The common thread: banks are paying for proof that you’ll use the account as your primary banking relationship.
Breaking Down the Requirements: Which Offers Actually Fit Your Situation?
The bonuses that expire March 11—E*TRADE Premium Savings and Marcus Online Savings—are different animals from the checking account offers. Both are purely savings accounts with no direct deposit requirement. Instead, they’re tiered by deposit amount: you get $100 if you deposit $5,000 to $9,999, $500 for $10,000 to $24,999, and $1,500 if you deposit $25,000 or more. These bonuses require you to keep your money in the account for the full promotional period, which varies by offer. Here’s the catch: you’re moving money you might have elsewhere into a savings account earning rates that are already decent—the bonus is genuinely valuable, but it’s not free money if you had that cash in another high-yield savings account already. Compare the interest rates before switching. If Marcus’s current rate is 4.5% and your current bank pays 4.0%, the extra 0.5% plus the bonus might make sense over six months, but if you’re already earning 4.75% elsewhere, the bonus alone needs to justify the move.
Barclays Tiered Savings is the most restrictive offer of the bunch. The $200 bonus requires opening a savings account, depositing $30,000 within 30 days, and maintaining that balance for 120 consecutive days. Do the math: you’re locking up $30,000 for four months to earn $200, which works out to about 0.27% annualized. That’s usually worse than just keeping your money in a regular high-yield savings account. Unless you already have $30,000 you were planning to stash in savings anyway—perhaps for a down payment or emergency fund—this bonus doesn’t make financial sense. The exception is if Barclays’ savings rate is materially higher than your alternatives, so the combination of rate plus bonus actually wins. Check their current rate before committing.
March Bonuses Versus April and May—Is Waiting Worth It?
You might wonder if waiting a few weeks for April or May offers makes sense, and the honest answer is: it depends on your banking needs, but the March offers are generally stronger per dollar of effort. Wells Fargo’s Everyday Checking (expires April 14) pays $325 for $1,000+ in direct deposits within 90 days. Chase Total Checking (expires April 15) pays $400 with the same $1,000 threshold. Those are solid bonuses, but they’re not dramatically better than what’s available now, and you’d be paying the opportunity cost of delayed action. If you weren’t already planning to switch banks, waiting a month won’t unlock much additional value. The May offers are where the opportunity gets more interesting if you have higher deposit power.
Bank of America’s Advantage Banking provides up to $500 in tiered bonuses: $100 for $2,000 in deposits, $300 for $5,000, or $500 for $10,000—all deposited within 90 days. This is a straightforward high-value offer, but it expires May 31, giving you much more runway to complete the requirements. BMO Smart Advantage Checking offers $400 for $4,000 in qualifying direct deposits within 90 days, expiring May 4. Both May offers give you breathing room; you’re not under the gun in the way you are with the March 11 E*TRADE and Marcus deadlines. The strategic decision: if you have upcoming paychecks coming in March or early April anyway, grab one of the March offers—especially SoFi if you can hit the $5,000 direct deposit tier for $300, or Huntington if you want the easiest path to $600. If your cash flow is unpredictable or you don’t have direct deposit income, the April and May offers give you more time to meet requirements without stress.
How to Strategically Maximize Multiple Bank Bonuses
Bank bonus stacking—opening multiple accounts to capture multiple bonuses—is legitimate, legal, and practiced by people with disciplined finances. The trick is doing it right. Banks check your account opening history, so opening five accounts in five days flags you as a bonus hunter and can trigger fraud review. Space out your applications by at least a week or two. Your credit score might take a small hit when banks do a hard pull, but if you’re opening multiple accounts within a short window, it’s usually grouped as a single “shopping” event by credit bureaus. More importantly, only stack bonuses for accounts you’ll actually use or accounts that serve a real purpose. Opening a Huntington Bank checking account for the $600 bonus makes sense if you’re unhappy with your current bank.
Opening a Fifth Third account simultaneously makes sense if you want a secondary checking account or higher interest on savings. But opening ten accounts across the country just to capture $300 bonuses each creates logistical nightmares: you’ll have to monitor minimum balance requirements, track direct deposit options, remember login credentials, and file tax forms for interest earned. The sweet spot is usually two to three strategic accounts that each address a need—primary checking, secondary checking for specific bills or savings goals, and a high-yield savings account. Another angle: if you’re already planning to move direct deposits to a new primary bank anyway, the secondary accounts require less effort because they don’t need your paycheck rerouted. A savings account bonus from Marcus or E*TRADE is easy to capture if you just transfer a lump sum. Checking account bonuses from SoFi or Fifth Third might require actually switching your paycheck, which is fine if you’re making a change, but a bigger hassle if you’re not. Sequence your applications accordingly: hit the savings account bonuses first (they’re fastest), then open your new primary checking, then tackle secondary checking accounts.
The Fine Print: Direct Deposit Requirements and What Disqualifies You
“Qualifying direct deposits” is the phrase that kills bonus claims. Banks don’t count just any ACH transfer as a direct deposit. Most require deposits from your employer’s payroll system, which excludes transfers from other banks, peer-to-peer payments, and in some cases, government benefits like Social Security. Axos Bank is stricter than SoFi; check each bank’s specific terms before counting on a bonus. If you’re self-employed and don’t have traditional payroll, you might be disqualified from the checking account bonuses entirely, though you could still capture the savings account bonuses from Marcus or E*TRADE. Another gotcha: minimum balance requirements can wipe out your bonus if you’re not careful. Some banks require you to maintain a minimum balance throughout the bonus vesting period—the time between when you open the account and when the bonus posts.
If you drop below the minimum, the bonus simply doesn’t post, and the bank never sends you a notice. You check your account weeks later expecting a $300 bonus and find nothing. Always confirm the exact day the bonus posts and the vesting period. With E*TRADE and Marcus, this is usually 30-90 days, but Fifth Third’s 90-day period is longer than SoFi’s 31-day window—a real difference if you’re cutting it close with direct deposits. Some banks also reserve the right to claw back bonuses if you close the account within a certain period. SoFi and Fifth Third typically require you to keep the account open for at least 60-90 days post-bonus. Closing early doesn’t just mean losing the bonus; some banks can actually charge you for it. Read the full terms, not just the headline bonus amount.
Account Features and Interest Rates—The Bonus Is Just the Start
The bank bonus is attention-grabbing, but you’ll live with the account features for years. SoFi Checking and Savings is a hybrid product: it’s a checking account with no monthly fees, no minimum balance, and fee reversals for out-of-network ATM charges. It also earns interest on the checking balance, which is unusual—most checking accounts pay near-zero interest. Huntington Bank’s Platinum Perks Checking, by contrast, is a premium checking account; it comes with benefits like higher interest rates and waived fees for overdrafts if you meet certain balance thresholds. It’s a better deal if you maintain high balances, but it costs more attention to manage.
Marcus Online Savings and E*TRADE Premium Savings both pay interest, but they have no physical branches and limited support channels. That works fine if you’re just parking savings and want to leave it alone for months. But if you’re the type who likes talking to a human when something goes wrong, a brick-and-mortar bank like Fifth Third or Huntington might be worth more than a few dollars in bonus. Also compare the actual interest rates. A $300 bonus from SoFi is great, but if the checking account earns 0.01% and your current bank earns 0.5%, you’re losing money every month. Check the current rates on each bank’s website before deciding; bonus value is only half the story.
The Broader Context—Bonuses in a Rising and Falling Rate Environment
Bank bonuses tend to expand when interest rates are rising and contract when rates fall. We’re in a period where rates have stabilized, and banks are fighting for deposits using bonuses. The current environment is favorable for bonus hunters, but this won’t last forever. If the Fed cuts rates over the next year, banks will reduce both their savings rates and their sign-up bonuses. That’s why capturing these offers now has a time value: the landscape might look very different in late 2026 or early 2027.
That said, bank bonuses will never disappear entirely. Banks use them as permanent acquisition tools, just not always as aggressively. If you miss the March and April offers, there will be other bonuses—you’re not missing out on opportunities forever. The key is moving when the offer aligns with a genuine banking need, not forcing a change just for a bonus. Open an account because you want a new bank or an additional savings cushion, then let the bonus be a welcome addition to your decision.
Conclusion
March 2026 is a window for capturing several high-value bank bonuses, with E*TRADE and Marcus expiring March 11 and most checking account offers expiring by March 31. SoFi’s up-to-$300 bonus, Huntington’s up-to-$600 offer, and Fifth Third’s $350 payout represent genuine money in your pocket if you can meet the direct deposit requirements. The key to claiming these bonuses is reading the fine print, understanding which requirements you can actually meet, and spacing multiple applications if you’re opening several accounts.
Don’t chase bonuses for accounts you don’t need, but do seriously evaluate switching if you’ve been unhappy with your current bank anyway. The combination of bonus plus better rates or features often makes the move worthwhile. If you do decide to move, act soon—the March deadlines are not flexible, and once they pass, these specific offers are gone. Set up your direct deposit change immediately after opening, confirm the bonus vesting period, and plan to keep the account open long enough to clear the bonus requirement.
