What other checking accounts do you have? There is no need for a friend to do it. Most checking accounts have free ACH transfers. That said, not all ACH transfers work anymore.
E.g Alliant, Capital one 360 and a host of others no longer work.
The following count as a direct deposit:
Ally ACH: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (may no longer work: 1)
American Express Serve: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
American Express Bluebird: 1
Ameritrade: 1
ACH: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Discover Checking: 1
E*Trade: 1
Fidelity Online Transfer: 1
Huntington Bank ACH: 1
NFCU ACH: 1
PenFed ACH: 1
Barclays Online Savings: 1
The following no longer count as direct deposits:
Alliant: 1, 2, 3 (used to work 1)
Amazon Payments (1)
Capital One 360/ING Direct, this used to work (1 , 2 , 3, 4 and 1, 2, 3, 4) but it’s now no longer working unfortunately (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Charles Schwab Brokerage: used to work 1, 2, 3 but now no longer works: 1
Citi Bank ACH: 1
HSBC (1, 2, 3)
Mango (1)
Paypal used to work (1, 2, 3) and now no longer works (1 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
PNC ACH: 1, 2
You can ignore the numbers, those are just data points to a different forum.