Chase customer retention strategy: don’t let people close their accounts
From a reader:
Is anybody else encountering the AGGRESSIVE Chase account managers who will not let them close their bank account? Holy crap, today I will be going to a branch for the THIRD time in an attempt to close. I have never bounced a check or managed the account badly. Now I want to close before the fees hit. (I already opened a new FREE biz acct with US Bank)
Chase literally will not let me go. They want to get all personal, asking all kinds of questions which now, I’m just stubborn, I’m not answering. Yesterday I cleaned out all the money. I had to stand in the freaking line forever because you can’t get 116.57 from an ATM. Then I have to see an account manager who puts me through the wringer, “Are you suuurrrre you don’t have anything pending?” and then tells me they have a policy that I can’t close an account on a day when there’s been activity. Because I cleaned my money out, I couldn’t close the freaking thing.
Before, I was fine about Chase. Maybe one day I might’ve come back. But now? I resent them. I’ll never do business there again. Wish me luck today, hopefully three times a charm in offloading Chase.
Bad bad Chase | admin January 7, 2011
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By coakl, January 13, 2011 @ 6:27 pm
Chase’s goal is to persuasive former WaMu free checking customers to accept the changes.
Namely, for those who cannot meet the fee waiver requirements (direct deposit of $500 or more, $1,500 balance in the account, or $5,000 in all accounts), that Chase still provides enough value to pay the new monthly fee. In other words, Chase provides “valuable” services and advantages that are worth paying $10 or $12 a month.
Most customers see through this lousy argument and are closing their accounts. The argument doesn’t work because there’s plenty of competitors who offer free checking with the same level of services. Namely, credit unions, U.S. Bank, and Bank of the West.
If you still wanted to stick with a big national bank and you can do without deposits and withdrawals at the teller window, you could go to Bank of America and open an eBanking checking account.
Chase does not offer a free low-end account, like eBanking at B of A. Combined with a nasty direct deposit requirement to waive the monthly fee (a single direct deposit of $500 or more), you can see that Chase is determined to drive out the low-income WaMu customers.
It can’t be a combo of two bi-weekly paychecks adding up to $500+. It must be a single paycheck. And remember that $500 is net after-tax pay and that many people are paid weekly. They don’t have a prayer of meeting Chase’s ridiculous requirement.