Family Bridge Program

Family Bridge Program Qualification Requirements – To qualify for participation in the Family Bridge Program, Students must have a qualifying individually owned East West Bank Global Student account. Additionally, foreign students (i.e., Students that applied to open their account as a non-U.S. person with a foreign tax status) must also have provided the Bank with a digital copy of their valid and current F-1 or M-1 student visa or specified J-1 visa.

Note: Foreign students that did not submit a digital copy of their qualifying visa with their account application have a maximum of 6 full monthly statement cycles after their Global Student account opening date to provide the Bank with a digital copy of their qualifying visa document using the Student Visa image upload feature in our Mobile App. Failure to provide a digital copy of their qualifying visa document within the required timeframe will result in a forfeiture of the student’s ability to participate in the Family Bridge Program.

The Family Member must have an individually or jointly owned East West Bank Global Checking or Premier e-Checking account. For the purposes of the Family Bridge Program, a Family Member is defined as any qualifying individual that the Student has agreed to connect with for the purpose of extending Family Bridge Benefits. Both the Student and the Family Member must be East West Bank Mobile App users.

The Family Member’s Family Bridge Benefits will begin once a Family Bridge Connection has been established (i.e., a qualifying invitation has been sent and accepted).

Family Bridge Connection Invitation – To participate in the Family Bridge Program, a qualifying Student or Family Member must initiate a Family Bridge connection invitation using the Family Bridge invite feature in our Mobile App. The Student or Family Member can be the sender or the receiver of the Family Bridge connection invitation, but each Family Bridge connection must have one qualifying Student and one qualifying Family Member.

Once the Family Bridge connection invitation is initiated, the receiver will have 60 days to accept the invitation to connect.  If the invitation is not accepted within 60 days, it will be automatically canceled. 

Each Global Student account and Family Member account is limited to one Family Bridge connection at any time, and a new Family Bridge connection cannot be initiated if an account is currently connected to another account. Each qualifying individual will have a maximum of two Family Bridge connection invitations available to them to initiate Family Bridge connection.

Family Bridge Benefits – Once a Family Bridge connection has been successfully established, the qualifying Family Member will receive exclusive Family Bridge Benefits. 

Family Bridge Benefits for qualifying Family Members include:

a) Waiver of the Bank’s fee on one incoming wire transfer per monthly statement cycle;
b) Waiver of their Global Checking or Premier e-Checking monthly account maintenance fee;
c) Waiver of the withdrawal fee when they use their Debit Card at another Bank’s ATM;

Note: There is no charge for using an East West Bank ATM. Non East West Bank ATM usage fees may be charged to your account at the request of the 3rd party operating the ATM. If the Family Member uses their Debit Card to initiate an ATM transaction from their qualifying connected Global Checking or Premier e-Checking account, we’ll refund the ATM usage fees to the account each statement cycle. This waiver does not apply to any ATM Non-Sufficient Funds fees that are the result of the account being overdrawn by an ATM transaction.

d) A $20 Fee Credit that can be redeemed on a Qualified Service Fee; and
e) Assignment of a relationship banker.

Family Bridge Program benefits are not exchangeable for other services and have no cash value. Duplication of a benefit under another Bank program does not change the terms of the Family Bridge Program benefit.

Termination of Family Bridge Connection/Benefits – Upon termination of a Family Bridge connection, the Family Member’s Family Bridge Benefits, if any, will end effective the 3rd day of the month following the disconnection month, and standard Global Checking or Premier e-Checking fees and charges will resume as of the 3rd day of the month following disconnection month.

A Family Bridge connection will automatically terminate when any of the following occur:

a)  Any one of the connected parties (Student or Family Member) initiates a disconnection request from the Mobile App;
b)  One or both of the connected accounts are closed by the customer or the Bank; or
c)  The connected Global Student account reaches “graduation” status 7 years after account opening.

Although the Bank will attempt to notify each of the connected parties when any of the above termination events occur, we are under no obligation to do so, and have no liability to either party if such notification is not received.

Determination of Eligibility – Family Bridge Program eligibility and qualification requirements are determined solely by the records of East West Bank.

Family Bridge Program Availability – Availability of the Family Bridge Program and the ability to apply for an eligible account may be limited based on your geographic location. The Family Bridge Program is subject to discontinuance at any time without prior notice.

Mobile Carrier Fees – East West Bank does not charge for Mobile Banking. However, your mobile service provider may charge for sending and receiving text messages on your phone. Check with your service provider for details on specific fees and data charges that may apply.