Pending or posted: which deposit counts for a bank bonus?
Use the date the deposit posts, not the date an app shows it early. Wells Fargo says an Early Pay Day ACH credit does not count toward the bonus until it posts and is no longer pending. The CFPB warns a deposit is not always available immediately. Chase requires the direct deposits within 90 days of enrollment. If the window ends while a credit is pending, do not assume you qualified.
Banks show money before they finish posting it. Bonus terms, when they mention the difference, care about the posted credit.
The sentence Wells Fargo printed
An ACH direct deposit made available early with Early Pay Day does not count toward the bonus requirements until it posts to your account and is no longer pending. 1 The page's example is the scheduled payment date. 1 If you are watching the 90 calendar days from account opening, a credit that is still pending on day 90 has not met that sentence. 1 Wells Fargo checking bonus requirements includes this line because it is easy to miss under the dollar test.
What Chase prints instead
Chase requires direct deposits totaling $1,000 or more made into the new checking account within 90 days of offer enrollment. 2 The page we read does not add Wells Fargo's Early Pay Day paragraph. Do not paste the Wells Fargo pending rule onto Chase as if Chase had written it, and do not ignore posting either. Screenshot the activity status. If the line is pending on the last eligible day, ask Chase whether it counts, in writing, that day. What if you miss a bank bonus deadline is the cost of guessing.
Available funds are a second clock
The CFPB says deposits may not be immediately available, and you may overdraw even after a deposit. 3 A bonus can ignore a pending credit while the spending balance also ignores it, or the bank can let you spend it before the bonus counts it. Those are both possible. Your agreement is the one that says which. Overdraft risk while a bonus is pending is why you do not spend the early memo down to zero.
What to store
Store three fields in the bank bonus tracker: amount, description, posted date. Leave the pending entry out of the qualifying total. What counts as a direct deposit still applies after posting. A posted transfer is still a transfer. Posting does not repair an excluded type.
If the bonus does not come
Compare the posted dates with the window before you complain about a delay. Why the bonus has not posted puts the payout wait after the qualification check. A deposit that was pending at the deadline fails the qualification check. A deposit that posted inside the window, with the right description, moves you on to the payout wait. Keep the screenshot either way. The offer lines around that date are the ones in how to read a bank bonus offer.
Common questions
My pay is visible two days early. Does the bonus clock see it?
Not at Wells Fargo, until it posts. The offer gives Early Pay Day as the example: the credit counts when it posts, for example on the scheduled payment date, not while it is pending. Other banks may differ. Read their sentence.
Which date do I enter in a tracker?
The posted date from the bank's activity, plus the amount and the description. A pending memo is a reminder, not a completed deposit.
Can I spend the early deposit?
Only if the bank shows it as available, and only if spending it will not break a maintain-balance rule on a different offer. Availability for spending and credit toward a bonus can still be different facts.
Sources
CardLab tracks the cards you hold and the bonuses you are chasing, with every rate read from the issuer's own page.
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