Is Chase getting desperate for depositors?
We’ve previously reported on our theory that Chase is loosing depositors by the droves. A recent mailer they have been sending out might indicate that the outflow has reached a crisis and Chase is getting desperate to attract more low cost capital (the thing that fuels their other businesses).
Chase, and WaMu before it has long offered a $100 (or sometimes $125) bonus for opening up a new account. Their latest mailer offers a total of $300 for opening a checking and a savings account, quite a bump.
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By Michae, February 10, 2011 @ 9:04 am
Yeah well, don’t expect that money to *stay* in the account. I recently had a situation with Chase Bank in which they sucked my account dry with service fees. Seems that if you just keep your money in their bank and don’t *use* it–you know, what banks supposedly WANT you to do so they can lend out your money, they charge you a $6 service fee. I’m guessing the “service” was charging me a fee. No, this wasn’t from having a low account balance (I checked), just “inactivity.” Of course, they hadn’t *told* me about this feature, nor did they let me know that they were charging me the fee WHEN they charged me the fee, nor, for that matter, did they tell me when they had closed the now-empty account. They just let me carry my debit card and let me find out about the problem when I finally decided to USE the damned thing.
By coakl, February 10, 2011 @ 2:55 pm
Yeah, it does look like desperation. But it’s not. Chase simply wants customers willing to put up with its current product lineup…i.e. willing to maintain high minimum balances. Persuading people to put up with $1,500 and 5,000 minimum balances is something worth handing out a $200/$300 incentive. There’s lots of fine print of course.
At the same time, via the Feb. 8 checking account changes, Chase is encouraging the now-unprofitable WaMu Free checking customers to leave. Many, many are leaving. The production metrics show a steady drop in the # of checking accounts since Chase took over in Sept. 2008. The drop accelerated after Chase’s draconian computer system was rolled out in spring/summer/fall 2009. Closures jumped again after the latest account changes were announced in November 2010.
In with the new, out with the old.
Saturdays are the biggest day for closing accounts. Most people have the day off. Chase branches are open until 4 pm on Sat., making it very convenient to come in and say good-bye.
By coakl, February 10, 2011 @ 3:02 pm
To Michae:
Looks like you have the “regular” Chase Checking account. It comes with a $6 monthly fee unless you have either a direct deposit of at least $500 or you have at least 5 debit card purchases during that statement cycle. ATM transactions don’t count as purchases.
The direct deposit must be at least $500. Two or more direct deposits adding up to $500, will not count. Yes, I know, Chase hates poor people. No other bank has such an evil and hateful direct deposit requirement.