Find your way to your bank with a free GPS

WalletPop recently had a story about signing bonuses that banks (and some other companies) are offering to anyone who becomes a customer.

Well, here's a new one: Key Bank is giving new customers a Garmin nuvi 1200 GPS to anyone who signs up by Sept. 11 for free checking. You can get a more advanced (1350) GPS if you get the Key Privilege Checking account.

Now, as with anything, there's a catch or two, but nothing outlandish or tricky. You have to use your KeyBank Rewards Debit Mastercard at least once, and do a combination of two direct deposits and/or automated payments, each of $100 or more by Nov. 13, 2009. If you're really intending to be a customer and just want the GPS as a bonus, that won't be hard to do.

The only thing I see in the fine print (at the bottom of the screen) is that you're supposed to report your GPS as income on your taxes, on Form 1099. Oh, and it could take up to 90 days before you get your Garmin, even if you use your debit card immediately and do that combination of direct deposits and automated payments.

Still, this offer is a little more interesting and clever than the toaster banks used to give out, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s.