I've earned over $13,000 in bank and credit card bonuses in 3 years. Here's the honest breakdown.
No travel hacking. No points obsession. Just a spreadsheet, some patience, and a nose for deals that are actually worth the trouble.
People ask me why I started Bonus Joe. Here's the real answer: I've been doing this for years, and I wanted a place to share only the deals I'd actually do myself — the ones that pass my own filter. So I went back through my records. Every bank bonus, every credit card sign-up offer, every checking account I've opened and closed. The numbers surprised even me.
Total earned $13,150+
Deals completed 20+
Deals that failed 3
The full picture, by year
Here's how the earnings broke down over time. Some years were light — a deal or two worth doing. Others were stacked.
Cash bonuses (blue) Points / travel value (green)
What I actually did to earn it
The biggest earners were Chase Ink Business cards — I've done that one four times across different people, each time netting $900 cash back after hitting a $6,000 spend threshold over 3 months. That's one of the rare deals I keep recommending because the math is just clean.
The checking account bonuses were the easiest money. Truist ($400), Bank of America ($500), TD Bank ($300), Chase Business Checking ($750), Wells Fargo Business ($400) — most just required setting up a direct deposit and waiting. Low effort, clear payout.
The U.S. Bank business checking packages have been some of the most lucrative single deals — up to $1,200 when you pair a business card with a new checking account. More moving parts, but worth it if you can park the required balance for 60 days.
The deals I send in Bonus Joe are the ones that pass this same filter: clear requirements, reasonable spend thresholds, no confusing fine print, and a payout that lands within 90 days. Most deals I look at don't make the cut.
The ones that didn't work out
3 deals went sideways:
—A Citi Premier card bonus I missed because I'd earned points from them too recently (always check recency rules).
—A Truist checking bonus that evaporated when a glitch opened two accounts and I closed one — the one I kept wasn't considered "eligible" anymore.
—A Citi Strata I nearly cancelled but kept open after a retention call got me 10,000 bonus points. Not a loss, but not what I planned.That's a ~13% failure rate. Annoying, but the wins more than cover it. The lesson: read the fine print on recency rules and don't close anything until you've confirmed the bonus has posted.
Why I built this newsletter
After years of doing this, I've gotten good at spotting the deals worth doing versus the ones that look good on paper but fall apart in practice. Bonus Joe is just me sharing that filter with you — one deal, once a week, only when it's actually worth your time. Want to start earning? I'll tell you when the next good one comes around.
