Openbank: 40€ for referring a friend, with 300€ held for six months

Openbank pays 40€ to open an account and holds 300€ for six months

There was one summer when half of Spain tried to get relatives to open a bank account. Openbank's Plan Amigo offered 40 euros to the referrer and another 40 to the referee, and the most motivated referrers set about handing out codes by private messaging, email and groups of acquaintances. The result was rather lukewarm: “I haven't got A SINGLE acquaintance to open the account,” summed up one of the most active referrers, who described how people with money ignored the promotion as trivial and those who could take advantage of it didn't trust him.

The mechanics are easy to describe and much more awkward to fulfil. The reward is paid, yes. But the referee has to leave 300 euros sitting untouched for six months for it to work.

What Openbank requires of the Plan Amigo referee

The terms, repeated ad nauseam in every recruitment attempt, are explicit. The referee must be an individual aged over 18, activate the Cuenta Corriente Open as primary account holder, send all the necessary documentation and deposit at least 300 euros. The original deadline required that deposit before 31 January 2019, though it was later extended to 28 February. And the money cannot be moved: it must be kept there for at least six months.

There is a second condition in the terms: not having closed your account as a customer of the bank during the promotional period, between 21 June and 31 December 2018.

The nice part is that the referee, once in, becomes a referrer. The plan allows you to accumulate up to 400 euros with ten referrals, which turns the promotion into a small domestic competition to see who has more cousins available.

How much of the 40€ is left after tax?

Here comes the first reckoning. The reward, according to the information circulated, is not paid on signing: it is deposited into the account one month after the referee meets all the conditions, and both referrer and referee receive it on the same date.

A 19% withholding applies to that amount. The calculation circulating among those interested is that of the 40 euros you end up seeing 32, with the withheld portion recoverable when you file your income tax return. It is not a real loss, but it is money advanced that the bank keeps while the reward cools.

Anyone who pushes a little further can add more. Plan Amigo is compatible with the direct-deposit-your-salary promotion, worth an additional 100 euros. Add the two together and the figure reaches 140 euros, plus the 400 possible from referrals.

What happens if the referee withdraws the 300€ before six months are up?

Here is the mismatch no one quite manages to square. Payment is made after one month; the required holding period lasts six. Between the two deadlines there are five months of leeway in which, on paper, the referee could empty the account without yet having breached any payment timetable.

According to one participant who asked the bank, if the recipient does not keep the 300 euros for the full period, possibly the corresponding portion will have to be returned. A conditional that leaves the referrer hanging by a thread: the reward is already in their account, but its continuation depends on another person's behaviour for six months. With relatives, you accept it. With an acquaintance from a messaging group, not so much.

Payment times have not been uniform either. The first referrals were paid at around two weeks, according to one referrer's account. A later case has stretched beyond a month without the payment arriving.

Why a bank gives away money to attract customers

The question hanging over the whole operation is not whether it is worthwhile, but what lies behind it. Two readings are suggested. The first: an aggressive customer acquisition campaign, the kind carried out by throwing money around because it is the only quick way to persuade someone to switch banks. The second, less kind: that there is a serious liquidity problem and the bank needs to bring in deposits at any price.

The second is no more than a suspicion, and it should be said clearly: there is no published data to support it. The context cited is banking common sense. Other institutions give away similar amounts for opening an account, some pay around 100 euros for setting up salary direct deposit, and Openbank itself had already handed out El Corte Inglés gift cards worth 50 euros in previous promotions. With 3,000 euros brought in and 80 given away, one participant's calculation is that the numbers work.

The domestic tally: 160 euros for two parents

The most effective strategy was not the group of acquaintances but immediate family. One determined referrer, by his own account, foisted the account on his parents and did the maths: his 40 euros plus theirs, 160 euros for two people. It is the route that works, because the risk of non-compliance dissolves when the referee eats at your table.

The rest of the financial neighbourhood was divided between enthusiasm and mockery. “They're all giving away money to open accounts,” summed up one participant who had already benefited from similar promotions at other banks.

And there remains the detail that throws you off. With deadlines extended to February and payment one month after the conditions are met, the full cycle stretches into the trinc summer. Forty euros, six months of holding the money and a withholding along the way. The invitation to a friend has become a retention contract with a deferred reward.