Chase Business Checking $500 Bonus 2026: Requirements

Yes — Chase will pay you $500 for opening a Business Complete Checking account, but only if you deposit $10,000 in new money within 30 days, keep it there for 60 days, and complete five qualifying transactions within 90 days. Deposit $2,000 instead and the bonus drops to $400. The offer runs through January 21, 2027, and there’s no direct deposit requirement, which makes it one of the easier business checking bonuses out there. The catch isn’t the deposit, though. It’s the $15 monthly fee and the 60-day rule — get either one wrong and the bonus shrinks or disappears entirely.

This guide walks through exactly what you have to do, what counts and what doesn’t, what the bonus is actually worth after a year of fees and taxes, and who should skip it.

The Bonus in Plain English

Chase Business Complete Checking is the entry-level business checking account from JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Member FDIC. The current promotion pays new business checking customers up to $500 when they open the account and complete qualifying activities. Here’s the deal in one table:

A few things to notice right away. First, the money must be “new money” — funds not already in a Chase account or at an affiliate. Moving cash from your personal Chase checking account won’t count; the deposit has to come from outside Chase.

Second, there’s no direct deposit requirement — a hassle many bank bonuses impose on freelancers and new LLCs with irregular income. Move the money in, leave it alone, make five transactions, and you’re done.

Third, the offer runs through January 21, 2027 — that’s the deadline to open the account and enroll, not to finish everything. Your 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day clocks start from enrollment, so an account opened on January 20 still has until roughly mid-February to fund and late April to finish the transactions. Don’t cut it that close: Chase can withdraw the offer at any time, and a paperwork delay near the deadline can eat your window.

One warning: some older pages still list the lower tier at $300. That figure is stale — the current offer pays $400 for $2,000 and $500 for $10,000, confirmed by NerdWallet and the trackers that republish Chase’s terms.

The Four Deadlines That Actually Matter

Most people who lose a bank bonus lose it because they missed a date, not because they misunderstood the amount. This offer has four deadlines, all running from your enrollment date — usually the day you open the account.

Within 30 days: fund the account. Deposit at least $2,000 (or $10,000 for the full $500) in new money. Chase measures the total at day 30, so you can fund it in pieces — $1,200 one week, $800 the next — as long as the full amount lands before day 30.

For 60 days: keep the money there. From enrollment, you must maintain at least your qualifying balance for 60 days — not an average, and not “mostly above $2,000.” If your balance dips below the minimum at any point, even for a day, Chase may reduce the bonus or pull your eligibility. Deposit $2,000, pay a $400 supplier invoice on day 20, and you’re at risk. Treat the deposit as locked for two months and run day-to-day spending from your existing account until the 60 days are up.

Within 90 days: complete five qualifying transactions. You have three months from enrollment to make five transactions Chase counts — the easiest requirement of the bunch, covered in the next section.

Within 15 days after that: the bonus lands. Once you’ve completed everything — deposit, 60-day hold, five transactions — Chase deposits the bonus within 15 days. Don’t panic if it doesn’t show up the morning after your fifth transaction: the 60-day hold is usually the last requirement to finish, so expect the payout roughly two and a half to three months after opening. Your account must still be open and unrestricted when the bonus is paid, so don’t close it early.

Put day 30, day 60, and day 90 on a calendar the day you enroll — bank bonuses reward the organized and punish the forgetful.

What Counts as a Qualifying Transaction (and What Doesn’t)

You need five of them within 90 days, in any combination. Here’s what Chase counts:

• Debit card purchases
• Chase QuickDeposit (mobile check deposits)
• ACH credits (money coming in electronically, like a client payment or a transfer from another bank)
• Wire credits and wire debits
• Chase Online Bill Pay
• Chase QuickAccept (accepting card payments from customers) — note that QuickAccept card payments are combined into one qualifying transaction per day, so ten card payments in a single day still count as one

And here’s what Chase specifically excludes:

• ACH debits (automatic withdrawals pulled out of your account)
• Person-to-person payments such as Zelle
• Online transfers to Chase credit cards

The exclusions matter more than they look: sending money on Zelle or paying your Chase Ink card from the account won’t tick the box. The simplest path is five small debit card purchases in your first week — office supplies, a software subscription, a client lunch — and you’re done. If clients pay you by ACH, those incoming payments count too.

There’s no minimum amount on a qualifying transaction: a $3 coffee counts the same as a $300 supply order. Don’t game it with five back-to-back $1 purchases — just use the account normally and you’ll get there.

The $15 Monthly Fee — and the Five Ways Around It

Here’s where the math gets real. Business Complete Checking charges a $15 Monthly Service Fee. Chase waives it if you meet any one of these conditions in a monthly statement period:

1. Keep a $2,000 minimum daily ending balance in the account on each business day of the period (the last business day is excluded).
2. Receive at least $2,000 in eligible Chase Payment Solutions deposits — mainly QuickAccept card payments — at least one day before the end of the statement period.
3. Spend at least $2,000 on eligible purchases on a Chase Ink business card and/or Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business card in the most recent card billing cycle.
4. Link a personal Chase Private Client Checking, JPMorgan Classic Checking, or Private Client Checking Plus account (you must be a signer and a direct owner of the business on the account).
5. Meet Chase Military Banking requirements as a current servicemember or veteran with qualifying proof of service.

Two cushions help new customers: Chase waives the first two monthly fees, so your first two months are free either way, and the fee-waiver routes overlap with the bonus requirements — deposit $2,000 for the $400 bonus and leave it there, and you’re already meeting the $2,000 daily-balance waiver during the 60-day hold. The fee only bites after you pull the money out.

Which waiver route is easiest depends on your business. Here’s how they compare:

For most small businesses, the balance route is simplest: keep $2,000 parked and the fee is a non-issue. If cash flow is tight, the Ink card route is your best friend — $2,000 a month in business spending is normal for plenty of small operations, and it waives the fee even when your checking balance is low.

Hoping the fee goes away on its own doesn’t work. At $15 a month — $180 a year — it eats nearly half of the $400 bonus if you never qualify for a waiver.

What the $500 Is Really Worth in Year One

A $500 bonus sounds great until you subtract the costs of keeping the account. Let’s run the honest numbers for year one, assuming you claim the bonus and then decide whether to keep the account open. These scenarios assume you pay tax on the bonus (more on that below) at a 22% marginal rate, which is a common bracket for a small business owner — your rate may differ.

*The first two monthly fees are waived for new accounts, so a full year of unwaived fees is really 10 months of charges in year one.

Two things jump out. First, the gap between the $400 and $500 tiers is only $100 before tax, about $78 after — don’t stretch to deposit $10,000 if that money is needed elsewhere. Second, the fee waiver matters more than the tier: a waived fee is worth $150–$180 a year, more than the whole gap between tiers. Hit a waiver condition and either tier is a solid win; miss it and you’re still $132 to $240 ahead on the lower tier, but the shine comes off fast.

There’s also an opportunity cost: parking $10,000 in a no-interest checking account for 60 days forgoes roughly $66 in interest at a 4% high-yield savings rate (about $13 on $2,000). It doesn’t kill the deal — $500 minus $66 is still $434 before tax — but it’s one more reason the $2,000 tier is the sweet spot for most small businesses.

Who Can’t Get It

Chase is clear about who’s shut out, and it’s worth checking before you spend time on an application:

• Existing Chase business checking customers are not eligible.
• One bonus per signer every two years, measured from your last offer enrollment date — not the date you received the bonus.
• One bonus per account. You can’t stack multiple offers on the same account.
• Government entities, political action committees, and campaign accounts are excluded, as are not-for-profit organizations on some versions of the terms.
• Recently closed accounts count against you: an account closed within 90 days of opening, or closed with a negative balance in the last three years, disqualifies you.
• Chase employees and affiliates are not eligible.
• Your account must be open and unrestricted when the bonus is paid.

The two-year rule surprises people: Chase counts from your enrollment date, not your payout date. Enroll in November 2025 and you aren’t eligible again until November 2027, even if the bonus landed in early 2026. Check your enrollment date before applying.

You’ll need a real business — sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or corporation — with formation documents and an EIN or Social Security number. Sole proprietors using their own name can often open with just an SSN and a DBA. You can open online or in a branch, though some business types, including nonprofits, must open in person.

What You Actually Get With the Account

The bonus is the headline, but you’ll be living with this account after the bonus is paid, so the everyday features matter too:

• A massive branch and ATM network — more than 5,000 branches and around 14,000 ATMs — the single biggest reason many small businesses pick Chase over an online-only bank. Cash deposits and in-person help are genuinely useful.
• Unlimited electronic deposits and debit card transactions, with up to 20 free teller and paper transactions a month. The first $5,000 in cash deposits each month is free.
• Built-in card acceptance and invoicing: QuickAccept takes card payments straight into your checking account, and Chase’s invoicing tools let you bill clients without a separate app.
• Tap to Pay on iPhone and Chase Customer Insights at no extra cost, plus the usual online and mobile banking, including mobile check deposit through QuickDeposit.
• No minimum deposit to open and no interest on the checking balance — it’s a plain checking account, not a place to grow savings.

The pieces fit together: run client payments through QuickAccept and, if those deposits hit $2,000 in a month, they waive your fee. Keeping business money separate from personal money from day one also saves a painful cleanup at tax time. For more on receiving payments as a US freelancer or small business, see our guide to Payoneer for US freelancers receiving global payments. Before you commit, confirm the current terms on Chase’s official business checking page and compare it against our best business bank accounts for November 2026.

The downsides are real: wire fees are high (an outgoing domestic wire runs $25–$35, an international wire in US dollars $40), the account pays no interest, and Chase has a reputation — noted by NerdWallet after interviewing business owners — for closing accounts with little warning when its risk systems flag something. Keep your documentation clean and your transactions explainable.

The 1099-INT Tax Note

Here’s the part most bonus articles bury: the bonus is taxable. Chase’s terms state that the offer is considered interest and may be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT (or Form 1042-S, if applicable). That means the $400 or $500 shows up as interest income, and you’ll owe tax on it at your ordinary income rate. At a 22% marginal rate, that’s $88 on the $400 bonus and $110 on the $500 bonus — which is why the true-value table above already subtracts it.

Practically: if the bonus is $10 or more, expect a 1099-INT from Chase early the following year, and report it even if the form gets lost — the IRS gets a copy too. It’s plain interest income, taxed like savings-account interest, not a deduction or a capital gain. Keep a simple record of your enrollment date, the posting date, and the amount.

This section is general information, not professional tax advice. If your business is a partnership, an S-corp, or anything more complex than a sole proprietorship, or if you’re unsure how the 1099-INT flows through to your return, check with your CPA or tax preparer before filing. The cost of a quick question is a lot less than the cost of a misreported form.

How to Claim It Without Tripping Up

Here’s the step-by-step, in order, with the mistakes to avoid at each stage:

1. Check your eligibility first. Confirm you don’t already have a Chase business checking account and that you haven’t enrolled in a Chase business checking bonus in the last two years. If either one applies, stop here — applying anyway wastes a hard pull on nothing.
2. Get the offer code. Get your offer code from Chase’s business checking offer page or a branch. It must be applied when you open the account — you generally can’t add it after the fact.
3. Open the account before January 21, 2027. Online or in a branch. Have your business documents ready: formation paperwork, EIN letter, and ID for each signer. Sole proprietors should have their DBA paperwork if they use a trade name.
4. Fund it within 30 days with new money. Transfer from a non-Chase bank or deposit a check from another bank — never from another Chase account. Going for $500? Deposit the full $10,000: $9,999 earns $400, not $500.
5. Don’t touch the deposit for 60 days. Run your spending from another account until the hold is over. Set a calendar reminder for day 61 before you spend a dollar of it.
6. Make five qualifying transactions within 90 days. Five debit card purchases in the first week is the simplest path. Avoid Zelle, ACH debits, and transfers to Chase credit cards — they don’t count.
7. Watch for the bonus within 15 days of completing everything. If it hasn’t posted after 15 days with the 60-day hold complete, call Chase business customer service with your offer code and enrollment date handy.

Is It Worth It?

For most small business owners who are new to Chase, yes — with one condition. If you can meet a fee waiver (usually the $2,000 daily balance) and you can park $2,000 for 60 days without straining your cash flow, the $400 tier is close to free money: roughly $312 in true value after tax, for an account you’d probably want anyway for the branch access and payment tools.

Go for the $500 tier only if $10,000 is genuinely idle money for two months. The extra $100 before tax isn’t worth pulling cash out of inventory, payroll, or a marketing push.

Skip it, or at least think twice, if you already bank with Chase for business, if you claimed a Chase business checking bonus less than two years ago, or if your business runs so lean that keeping $2,000 parked for 60 days would cause real stress. A bonus that forces you to overdraw another account or miss a supplier payment is a bad trade, no matter how big the headline number is.

If you do open the account, decide now what happens after the bonus. Keep it if the branches, QuickAccept, and fee waiver work for you. If the fee starts hitting every month, close it or downgrade cleanly once the bonus is in — don’t leave a $15-a-month leak running because you forgot about it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I earn the $500 Chase Business Complete Checking bonus?

Open a new Chase Business Complete Checking account by January 21, 2027, deposit at least $10,000 in new money within 30 days of enrollment, maintain that balance for 60 days, and complete five qualifying transactions within 90 days. Depositing $2,000 instead earns a $400 bonus under the same rules.

How long does it take to get the bonus?

Chase deposits the bonus into your new account within 15 days of completing all the requirements — the deposit, the 60-day balance hold, and the five transactions. Since the 60-day hold is usually the last requirement to finish, expect the bonus roughly two and a half to three months after opening the account.

What counts as a qualifying transaction?

Debit card purchases, Chase QuickDeposit, ACH credits, wire credits and debits, Chase Online Bill Pay, and Chase QuickAccept all count. ACH debits, Zelle and other person-to-person payments, and online transfers to Chase credit cards do not count. QuickAccept card payments are combined into one qualifying transaction per day.

How do I avoid the $15 monthly fee?

Meet any one of these in a statement period: keep a $2,000 minimum daily ending balance, receive $2,000 in eligible Chase Payment Solutions deposits, spend $2,000 on eligible Chase Ink or Sapphire Reserve for Business purchases, link a qualifying Chase Private Client personal account, or qualify for Chase Military Banking. New accounts also get the first two monthly fees waived.

Is the Chase business checking bonus taxable?

Yes. Chase treats the bonus as interest, and it may be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT. You’ll owe tax on the $400 or $500 at your ordinary income rate. This article is general information, not professional tax advice — check with your CPA or tax preparer if you’re unsure how it applies to your business.

Can I get the bonus if I already have a Chase business account?

No. The offer is only for new Chase business checking customers. You’re also excluded if you enrolled in a Chase business checking bonus within the last two years, or if a business account was closed within 90 days of opening or with a negative balance in the last three years.

This article is for general information only and is not professional tax or financial advice. Bonus terms can change, so confirm the current offer details on Chase’s official offer page before applying.