How I Made $5,000 + 30,000 Amex Points by Opening Bank Accounts (And How You Can Too)

Stephen L M Heiner
18 min readMay 3, 2024
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

It all started quite innocently. I was paying a credit card bill to Capital One and saw that they were offering a $350 bonus just for opening a new checking account with them and making a deposit. 48 hours after my first deposit hit my new Capital One account, they put in the $350 bonus. It was so easy. I was hooked.

Soon enough I had also opened up checking accounts with Chase and Wells Fargo, two other companies I already had credit cards with who were also offering bonuses.

I then began scouring websites for offers, wondering just how easy it could be to open an account, deposit some funds, and then collect some sweet cash from a bank or credit union. Being a writer, I decided to take notes along the way, write an article that others could benefit from, and consider myself “paid” for the efforts by all the bonuses I received.

So let’s start with the 28-point scale I created. I awarded points for:

  • the amount of the bonus
  • how difficult it was to get the bonus
  • how quickly it was deposited
  • what the ongoing requirements were
  • the competencies of the app
  • Whether

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Stephen L M Heiner

Singaporean-born American in Paris. I connect, educate, and build, AMDG. Follow my adventures at www.theamericaninparis.com.