In 2011/2012 as the government was implementing a number of policies that affected banks, (like limiting what banks could charge merchants for debit card charge processing), most banks complained that the hit to profits would force them to no longer offer free checking, and they changed their policies so that many if not most customers were no longer eligible for free checking accounts. Chase of course was one of the first and worst to do this.
Fast forward to today. Chase’s last fiscal year included record profits of $20 billion, about half of which CAME FROM RETAIL BANKING. So it would seem that Chase is doing just fine and could be offering free checking just like they used to.
Remember, you are giving a bank your money to play with while you aren’t using it. This is how they get much of their capital to fund loans and to do their own proprietary trading activities (i.e. London Whale). If a bank wants you to pay for the privilege of allowing them to use your money, it is time to find another bank.
From a reader.
I’ve been working for JPMC for numerous years and, after every business trip I am asked take, my expense report is scrutinized by upper management with the end result being many of my LEGITIMATE expenses (according to current company policy) getting DENIED. This, in turn, results in me having to pay for the denied single-persom meals and other modest expenses out of my pay.
I checked the board of labor and similar websites, including JPMorganChase site, and they all agree that the expenses I incurred are legitimate and eligible for reimbursement. But, because a particular JPMC executive whose initials are EZ feels like it, the expenses in question are denied. While not an exec, I do hold an important position and title with the firm. Yet, after countless discussions with management above me, the spineless cowards refuse to question why EZ is denying something that ALL AGREE is counter to written expense policy. I can’t refuse to go on these trips, without putting my job at risk. And EZ knows this as well.
Clearly JPMC bullies their employees, even over trivial and modest expense reports. This place truly is getting worse with each passing year.
It seems that JP Morgan Chase has gone from government darling to heavy regulatory scrutiny since the London Whale incident, as this article from the Wall Street Journal shows (J.P Morgan Under Regulatory Fire, WSJ 5/3/13).
Burned customers have known for years that Chase isn’t the prim and proper corporate citizen it claims to be (just read this blog for many many infractions against customers). Among the concerns:
Regulators also presented Mr. Dimon and the board with an annual report card that was critical of compliance, audit and risk …
That covers pretty much everything an investment bank does. Some of the specifics they are accused of are:
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has served J.P. Morgan with a Wells notice accusing the bank of misrepresenting prices of electricity contracts with California and Michigan that resulted in over payments. It also alleges commodities chief Blythe Masters and three other traders had false representations under oath about trading schemes and the strategies behind the schemes.
Regulators are also examining whether customers were charged for services but didn’t receive the actual benefit and whether the bank provided adequate warnings about the fraud of Bernard Madoff, said people familiar with the bank’s discussions with regulators. J.P. Morgan and the OCC declined to comment.
Some good news for Chase customers as regulators appear poised to increase scrutiny of Chase’s consumer banking:
Regulators are making it harder for J.P. Morgan to enter new markets or introduce new products, and they are preparing to hit the bank with more enforcement actions highlighting past missteps in the bank’s consumer operations.
It seems that Chase has irked regulators by blowing them off in the past.
Regulators emphasized their lack of trust in management and their view that past guidance had not been heeded.
Oops!
The Law Offices of Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik, LLP, Hanly Conroy Bierstein Sheridan Fish & Hayes LLP, and Katz & Kern LLP have filed a class action complaint against JPMorgan Chase & Co. The complaint alleges various causes of actions arising from defendants’ failure to honor its “Same Day Payment Guarantee” whereby defendants promised that payments made on-line from a Chase deposit account to a Chase credit card account would be credited on the same day. However, the plaintiffs allege that the payments were not credited on the same day.
More info here.
From a reader:
I called them 4 times and once was passed on to a supervisor who told me just to ignore them. She said there is nothing i can use from receiving someone else online bank statements so just to put it in my junk folder. I never have and never will have an account with chase but they dont seam to mind sharing their clients account info with me.
Bad bad Chase, Fees & charges | admin May 24, 2013 | 
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