That is thanks to a combination of your potential value as a lifelong customer and intense competition. On average, the chances of you sticking around and signing up for credit cards, loans, mortgages, etc. offset the upfront expense of your sign-up bonus. Just a cost of doing business.

The short answer is no. Because you are giving money to the bank and not the other way around, there is almost never a need for them to check your credit worthiness. Instead, banks report account openings and closings to a company called ChexSystems as a way to avoid approving customers with a long history of unpaid overdraft fees and negative balances. In the off-chance that a bank does run a "hard pull" on your credit report (which will temporarily affect your score), we include that information in a bonus' "Details" section.

Many banks will offer a free service that allows you to set up automatic payments by check to certain people or businesses that you pay on a regular basis. You set up the payment online, they mail the check.

Direct deposit is where your employer arranges to have your paycheck, pension, or other source of income deposit directly into your bank account without the need for a physical check.

Depends on your employer, but most of time this just means logging into your employee profile online where you work and updating your bank information. If that's not the case, a quick email to your manager or payroll department should do the trick.

The banks want you to get used to using your new account as your “primary” account. They want you to stick around for the long-term; that way they can sell you credit cards and other products in the future.

Just call customer service, it’s pretty easy. They’ll send you a check for any remaining balance left in your account.

The majority of banks want you to keep your account open for at least 6 months. It's different for every bonus, but you can easily find this info by clicking a bonus' "Details" button.

It's no surprise that banks like to tack on fees. We include info about each account's monthly fees and how to avoid them in the bonus "Details" section. If you can't avoid the fees, most of the time the bonuses are big enough for them not to matter for awhile.