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> One of his later schemes involved opening a checking account with a bank that was offering a promotional $500 to each new customer; he would withdraw the cash

> One of his later schemes involved opening a checking account with a bank that was offering a promotional $500 to each new customer; he would withdraw the cash at the earliest opportunity, close the account, then repeat the process over and over under assumed names. He could do this today, without using assumed names, at different banks. Sign up for a bank account that's offering a bonus, comply with the fine print to the letter, get bonus, close account. Repeat at a different bank. This can be parallelized for increased performance. It's minorly lucrative. There was probably only one local option for this when Larson did it, forcing him to use assumed names. Today there are countless online banking options available. No assumed names required. $500 is a solid bonus today. That was even more money when Larson was doing this.

mikepurvis 2y ago
For Canadians at least, the redflagdeals forums are ground zero for this type of thing— typically you need to set up your direct deposit and pay a few bills to qualify for the bonus, but if you're disciplined about that, it seems you can collect a few payouts a year, not including any additional gains from teaser rates on savings accounts and the like.
toast0 2y ago
There's not that many banks. FDIC says 4,587 [1], and I think NCUA numbers are similar. And the vast majority of them don't have new account promotions. But yeah, if you have a clean chexsystem report and this is what you spend your time on, you too can become a bank promotion thousandaire. Credit card promotions seem more common, and have the benefit that they're usually distributed as a discount so they tend not to be taxable, unlike bank promotions that are usually distributed as interest. OTOH, getting lots of credit card promotions tends to require lots of spending, real or manufactured, and manufactured spending tends to be difficult to manage at high levels. If you have a job / business that involves a lot of credit card spending, it can be easy to make the credit card promotions work, but if you have that kind of job, you might make more money spending more time on work than spending more time seeking credit card promotions. [1] https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/quarterly-banking-profile/statistics-at-a-glance/2023dec/industry.pdf https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/quarterly-banking-profile/stat...
- trevithick 2y ago
  There's definitely more money in gaming credit card rewards, especially if you master the manufactured spending. Like this guy[1]. [1] https://www.twrblog.com/2021/05/making-a-point-tax-courts-anikeev-decision-challenges-longstanding-irs-policy-on-credit-card-rewards/ https://www.twrblog.com/2021/05/making-a-point-tax-courts-an...
paxys 2y ago
Not really, since there are always conditions like keeping your account in a good state, with a minimum balance, having paycheck deposits etc. And even then it takes a few months for the bonus to be paid out. And only a handful of large banks offer such deals. You could maybe make a couple thousand dollars total in the span of a year or longer (assuming you have no existing bank accounts), which is hardly worth it.

mikepurvis 2y ago

For Canadians at least, the redflagdeals forums are ground zero for this type of thing— typically you need to set up your direct deposit and pay a few bills to qualify for the bonus, but if you're disciplined about that, it seems you can collect a few payouts a year, not including any additional gains from teaser rates on savings accounts and the like.

toast0 2y ago

There's not that many banks. FDIC says 4,587 [1], and I think NCUA numbers are similar. And the vast majority of them don't have new account promotions. But yeah, if you have a clean chexsystem report and this is what you spend your time on, you too can become a bank promotion thousandaire. Credit card promotions seem more common, and have the benefit that they're usually distributed as a discount so they tend not to be taxable, unlike bank promotions that are usually distributed as interest. OTOH, getting lots of credit card promotions tends to require lots of spending, real or manufactured, and manufactured spending tends to be difficult to manage at high levels. If you have a job / business that involves a lot of credit card spending, it can be easy to make the credit card promotions work, but if you have that kind of job, you might make more money spending more time on work than spending more time seeking credit card promotions. [1] https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/quarterly-banking-profile/statistics-at-a-glance/2023dec/industry.pdf https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/quarterly-banking-profile/stat...

trevithick 2y ago
There's definitely more money in gaming credit card rewards, especially if you master the manufactured spending. Like this guy[1]. [1] https://www.twrblog.com/2021/05/making-a-point-tax-courts-anikeev-decision-challenges-longstanding-irs-policy-on-credit-card-rewards/ https://www.twrblog.com/2021/05/making-a-point-tax-courts-an...

paxys 2y ago

Not really, since there are always conditions like keeping your account in a good state, with a minimum balance, having paycheck deposits etc. And even then it takes a few months for the bonus to be paid out. And only a handful of large banks offer such deals. You could maybe make a couple thousand dollars total in the span of a year or longer (assuming you have no existing bank accounts), which is hardly worth it.