Bank bonuses without a direct deposit requirement
The most-searched qualifier in every market is the same: people want the offers that do not demand their salary. Here is why they are rare, and which kinds exist.
Search Google for bank bonuses in any country and the autocomplete tells you the same story. In the United States people add without direct deposit. In Germany they add ohne Gehaltseingang. In Italy they look for offers senza accredito stipendio. The qualifier is the most consistent search behaviour in this entire category.
Why banks ask for your salary
A signup bonus is a customer-acquisition cost, and banks pay it for a specific outcome: becoming the account your money flows through. A dormant account with €1,000 sitting in it is worth very little to them. An account receiving your salary is worth a great deal, because it is where your direct debits, your card spending and eventually your mortgage conversation will live.
This is why the largest bonuses almost always carry a salary condition, and why the ones that do not tend to be smaller.
What exists instead
Three kinds of offer pay without touching your paycheck.
Card-activity offers. Instead of a salary, they ask for a number of card payments or a minimum spend over a window. These are common among fintechs and are usually the easiest thing in the category. The spending is money you were going to spend anyway.
Deposit-and-hold offers. You move a sum in and leave it alone for a defined period. No salary, but your money is genuinely committed, and withdrawing a day early typically forfeits the whole bonus.
Trade or action offers. Brokers and exchanges pay for a first trade or a first purchase rather than for an income stream. The amount is usually modest and sometimes randomised within a range.
The trade you are actually making
An offer with no salary requirement is not free. It has simply moved the cost somewhere else, usually into capital you have to commit or activity you have to perform. The useful question is not "does this want my salary" but "what is this worth per euro I have to move and per hour I have to spend".
That is the comparison our deal score exists to make, and it is why the biggest headline numbers are rarely at the top of our list.