Impressed with Chase

[braumeister]

Chase bank seems to be trying pretty hard to get new customers.
I just collected $500 from them, $200 for opening a checking account, and $300 for opening a Visa card. No fees of any kind in either case.

I'm impressed by that, since I don't have to actually use them, just keep $1,500 in the checking account for a while. The cash back bonus (5% on certain categories, 1% on the rest) on the credit card is not bad, either.

I've never used Chase before, but between their online interactions and one visit to a local branch, they seem to have customer service pretty well covered.

Are there any negatives to Chase that I should be aware of?

[JPatrick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister Chase bank seems to be trying pretty hard to get new customers. I just collected $500 from them, $200 for opening a checking account, and $300 for opening a Visa card. No fees of any kind in either case. I'm impressed by that, since I don't have to actually use them, just keep $1,500 in the checking account for a while. The cash back bonus (5% on certain categories, 1% on the rest) on the credit card is not bad, either. I've never used Chase before, but between their online interactions and one visit to a local branch, they seem to have customer service pretty well covered. Are there any negatives to Chase that I should be aware of?

I've had their Priority Club Visa (Holiday Inn points) for over 10 years and my only problem has been that they send me a bill every 30 days or so..

[kaneohe]

Do you have a link for that cc offer? Wonder if offer is location dependent.....
only got $125 for checking acct.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaneohe Do you have a link for that cc offer? Wonder if offer is location dependent..... only got $125 for checking acct.

I don't know how they worked it. I responded to snail mail offers for both. They are also constantly sending me offers for their Sapphire card, but that has a hefty annual fee after the first year so I have no interest in it.

[noelm]

Watch your fees after 3rd month or 6th month, depending on where you are. I receive offers from them on literally daily basis. Open a Chase checking account and get $150 or get a VISA card and get some amount. Once I thought, heck let me take that money and stop this daily junk post. I read the fine print, really fine that I had hard time reading it. It said that account will be charged some $15 or so monthly as account maintenance fees. This is in NY, if that matters.

Honestly, there is no free lunch in this world. If they are offering you $500 for something, they want something out of you. Plain and simple. I have decided that I will never use this large banks and will stick to my credit union for most of my transactions and ING to park my savings

[kaneohe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noelm Watch your fees after 3rd month or 6th month, depending on where you are. I receive offers from them on literally daily basis. Open a Chase checking account and get $150 or get a VISA card and get some amount. Once I thought, heck let me take that money and stop this daily junk post. I read the fine print, really fine that I had hard time reading it. It said that account will be charged some $15 or so monthly as account maintenance fees. This is in NY, if that matters. Honestly, there is no free lunch in this world. If they are offering you $500 for something, they want something out of you. Plain and simple. I have decided that I will never use this large banks and will stick to my credit union for most of my transactions and ING to park my savings

Certainly true about no free lunches......but almost free is still pretty good.
If OP got $200 for parking $1500 for 6 mos., opportunity cost at 1%APY was $7.50. Not a bad trade. So far I haven't found big banks disclosure to be so terrible that a few minutes reading wasn't sufficient. Pretty good payback even if you spent an hour studying.

I wouldn't be too casual w/ credit unions either. The worst I got burned was by a credit union money market account. They claimed (and actually did it) the right to declare interest rate for the whole month on the last day of the month and have it retroactive for the whole month. .......so you count think you were getting 5% when you put your money in and end up with 1% at the end. Every other institution that I know of makes changes in rates going forward , not backwards. It wasn't fine print either, just in language that seemed the usual stuff but you had to read it 10x before you realized that they left themselves that loophole.

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noelm Watch your fees after 3rd month or 6th month, depending on where you are. I receive offers from them on literally daily basis. Open a Chase checking account and get $150 or get a VISA card and get some amount. Once I thought, heck let me take that money and stop this daily junk post. I read the fine print, really fine that I had hard time reading it. It said that account will be charged some $15 or so monthly as account maintenance fees. This is in NY, if that matters. Honestly, there is no free lunch in this world. If they are offering you $500 for something, they want something out of you. Plain and simple. I have decided that I will never use this large banks and will stick to my credit union for most of my transactions and ING to park my savings

As long as you keep enough money in the account you should not be charged any fees....


The banks sends these out a lot when opening up new branches... they are trying to get customers to use the new branch and actually getting a customer for $500 is cheap... IOW, if you bought a bank to increase your deposit base it would cost you more than $500 per customer... much more...

And yes, they will make it up since people are very 'sticky' when they open an account with a bank...

[Gotadimple]

About the credit card offer: the offer of 1% and 5% on some items is standard for the Chase Freedom card.

-- Rita

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gotadimple About the credit card offer: the offer of 1% and 5% on some items is standard for the Chase Freedom card.

Yes, I knew that. It was the $300 "signing bonus" for opening the account that swung the deal.

Since I've already collected the $500, and there don't seem to be any gotchas (I checked all the fine print carefully), I guess I just made a good deal. I can't see how Chase could ever recoup their cost of gaining me as a customer.

[Eyerishgold]

They hope to have you as a customer for more than just a checking account and a credit card. They'll want you to refinance your mortgage and move your investments over to them and they're hoping that you start using that credit card. If you refi with them, open a savings account, actively use the checking account and credit card they'll more than make up the $500 they've given you.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eyerishgold They hope to have you as a customer for more than just a checking account and a credit card. They'll want you to refinance your mortgage and move your investments over to them and they're hoping that you start using that credit card. If you refi with them, open a savings account, actively use the checking account and credit card they'll more than make up the $500 they've given you.

Understood.

I have no mortgage; I paid off the house in 2000. Sold that one in 2004 and used most of the proceeds to buy the current house for cash.

I have most of my investments with Fidelity and am very happy with them. The rest are with Vanguard, ditto.

I'll use the credit card enough to maximize the leverage of the cash back feature, but no more. I have various cards I used strategically in this way.

Bottom line: there is no way they will ever recoup their $500, but I certainly appreciate their effort.

[MooreBonds]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister Chase bank seems to be trying pretty hard to get new customers. I just collected $500 from them, $200 for opening a checking account, and $300 for opening a Visa card. No fees of any kind in either case. I'm impressed by that, since I don't have to actually use them, just keep $1,500 in the checking account for a while. The cash back bonus (5% on certain categories, 1% on the rest) on the credit card is not bad, either.

Don't you have anything better to do than get such lucrative freebies from one of the megabanks trying to be more profitable and get bigger a hard working American company? Why don't you spend your time bleeding dry a company that's not in my investment portfolio like Costco and put away a few trays of their free samples?

Signed,
A concerned American citizen who is a recently new Chase shareholder working hard for quite a while longer given the pounding my portfolio took over the past 3 years.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MooreBonds Don't you have anything better to do than get such lucrative freebies

Thank you, concerned citizen, for pointing out the error of my ways. I am deeply, deeply ashamed of my flagrant abuse of the system.

[smirk]

[Finance Dave]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister Yes, I knew that. It was the $300 "signing bonus" for opening the account that swung the deal. Since I've already collected the $500, and there don't seem to be any gotchas (I checked all the fine print carefully), I guess I just made a good deal. I can't see how Chase could ever recoup their cost of gaining me as a customer.

They are hoping you charge loads of things, pay off slowly with interest, and miss a few payments resulting in high late-pay fees...they make these promotions so that over the long run with tens of thousands of customers they profit. If you pay off every month and are an "angel" customer, you'll benefit....just watch your p's and q's.