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If you often go after bank checking account opening bonuses, you probably know that banks usually require your paycheck to be deposited into the new account via Direct Deposit before they will pay the bonus. But if you do not have wage income, or it is inconvenient to change where your paycheck goes, how can you meet this requirement? Some people have tried ACH transfers from other banks, brokerage withdrawals, Wise transfers, and so on, and found that these can also trigger the requirement. We usually call these non-payroll methods Fake Direct Deposit. Today, we will introduce a very simple Fake Direct Deposit method using the remittance tool LemFi.

If you register for a new LemFi account using the link below, you will get $30 in LemFi Cash directly, valid for 180 days.

Important notes:

  1. If you are not in the U.S., please use a good U.S. VPN/proxy or U.S. number roaming data to register and verify your identity (a Chinese passport is fine).
  2. Add a debit card to Apple Pay for payment. This can bypass location verification. You can use someone else’s Apple Pay and card.
  3. Important: do not enter a virtual phone number (such as Google Voice), otherwise it may affect identity verification and prevent you from making transfers. Just use a normal U.S. mobile number.
  4. If using a virtual number causes verification to fail and you register a new account, you will need to use a different ID for identity verification. For example, a passport, driver’s license, or green card can all be used for verification.

Step-by-Step Instructions

After registering for LemFi and receiving the first-transfer bonus, we can start setting this up. The basic idea is:

  • Use the US to US transfer feature to move funds from LemFi into the bank account where you want to do the Fake Direct Deposit, thereby triggering the bank account opening bonus.

Here are the detailed steps:

Step 1: Verify your SSN/ITIN. If you have not verified it after your earlier remittance, you need to verify your SSN or ITIN before you can see the US to US transfer page. If you cannot find it, tapping the account upgrade option works as well. After upgrading, your remittance limit will also increase.

Step 2: Add funds to LemFi. To use US to US transfers, you cannot pay directly with a debit card or Apple Pay; you must have funds in your account. But do not worry: even if the later transfer fails, the funds in the account can still be sent out via remittance and will not get stuck there. Of course, I recommend depositing $10 first to test the full process. Once everything works, you can deposit a larger amount.

Step 3: Add funds using Apple Pay or debit. I added $1 here for testing. Note that only added funds can be used for US to US transfers. If you need to complete a $1,000 DD, you need to deposit $1,000.

Step 4: Choose a US to US transfer. Open the remittance page, set both the sending side and the recipient side to USD, and then enter the amount. Note that this amount cannot exceed the funds in your account, meaning the funds you deposited in the previous step. Account rewards are also counted as funds, such as the $50 signup bonus (but to withdraw it, you must deposit an extra $1 so they can be transferred out together). As you can see, US to US transfers have no fee.

Step 5: Enter the recipient information. Choose to create a new recipient.

Step 6: Enter the receiving account information. Pay attention to the notes shown in the image. Make sure you enter the ACH routing number, not the wire information.

Step 7: Confirm and add Payroll as the memo. On the confirmation page, you can see the information for this transfer. Check it carefully.

Scroll down and enter Payroll as the memo. Based on readers’ data points, adding Payroll as the memo greatly increases the chance of triggering Direct Deposit, so it is recommended.

Step 8: Wait 1–2 days, and the bank should receive the payment from LemFi. It will usually show as Direct Deposit or Deposit, and either one can trigger your bank account opening bonus!

Direct Deposit Requirements That Can Be Triggered

Based on data points from readers and members of our reader groups, LemFi can trigger the Direct Deposit requirements for some of the banks below. There should be more; these are just the tricky cases where many other methods did not work, so people used LemFi. I would guess Citi, US Bank, BofA, and similar banks should also work. If you have a successful data point, feel free to mention it in the reader group and I will update it here.

I recommend adding Payroll as the memo to increase the odds of success!

Other Tips

Here are a few additional tips:

  • LemFi supports deposits to accounts under a different name. You can use LemFi to transfer money to a family member’s bank account and trigger their bonus. LemFi does not verify whether the recipient name matches the name on your own LemFi account.
  • If you need to do a larger Direct Deposit, it is best to split it into several transfers. A transfer that is too large may trigger risk controls.
  • If adding funds with a debit card does not go through, it is very likely that the debit card transaction was flagged as fraud. Try contacting the bank to see if it can be resolved. I recommend funding with Apple Pay or Apple Cash inside Apple Pay; it is much more stable than using debit directly.

Summary

Using LemFi to complete a Fake Direct Deposit is quite convenient, and you can also use it for family members’ accounts. Regular bank ACH transfers generally can only be sent to accounts under the same name. However, note that US to US is not LemFi’s main feature; its main use is still sending money to other countries or regions. LemFi often has pretty good promotions, and the signup bonus is also quite high, so remember to get the bonus first.

  • LemFi signup link (register with this link, or download the app yourself and enter JINGOKDA as the referral code)