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Written by Ben
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Friday, 18 February 2011 19:07 |
I've only once signed up with a Chase account (a story in itself), yet somehow I ended up with five accounts at the ignoble institution. Yesterday I reduced that number to three.
In the Beginning
Back when I eighteen I opened my first credit card with First USA. Also around that time, I opened a free WaMu personal checking account. As a happy WaMu customer, I also opened a business checking account and credit card account with them when I incorporated Lost Mouse. I have always been a responsible and low-maintenance customer: I paid off any balance each month and on-time, never over-drafted my accounts, and I even went paperless with my accounts when the option became available. As it turns out, this is not the kind of customer that Chase wanted.
Over the last few years, Chase took over all four of these accounts. First they acquired my personal credit card account. I largely did not notice this change, except for a browser re-direct when I managed my account online. Then the financial crisis hit. WaMu was gobbled up by Chase. Indeed, WaMu was under-capitalized and failure was eminent, but Chase has since given little respect to WaMu customers who had grown accustom to the friendly, no-nonsense WaMu culture.
Three Strikes for Chase
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Shortly after the WaMu acquisition, I noticed that I did not receive my usual email alert when my business credit card payment was to be due in 10 days. Luckily I noticed in time to make a on-time payment - so I thought. When I went online to pay off the card, I found my due-date had been moved up a week! I made my payment immediately and called customer service. I told them I received no notification of the change in due date and that I did not receive my usual email alert. I further asked them to remove any late-payment and interest fees and count my payment as on-time. The representative did not budge despite my valid claims and there was no "supervisor" that I could appeal to.
Not willing to give up, I searched the Internet for those who may have had a similar problem. Indeed, there were thousands of posts from people complaining that Chase had moved up their credit card due date. However, some noted they had intermittent success by calling a special direct line for high-end business customer care. I called this number and was fortunate to get a sympathetic representative. The fees were cleared and the representative even offered to move the due date back to the original. It may have taken half a day, but at least the mistake was rectified in the end, although others were not so lucky.
- After the financial regulation reform bill passed Congress last year, I began to receive snail-mail from Chase imploring me to sign-up for over-draft protection. I was slightly confused. Both WaMu and Chase automatically provided "over-draft protection", that is to say, they covered over-drafts for a hefty fee ($25- $35). I never over-drafted, so I didn't care. But Chase continued to send snail-mail: "Sign up now for over-draft protection!" I received this at least half a dozen times by snail-mail and each time I logged into online account management.
After looking into it, the financial regulation reform bill prohibited banks from automatically enrolling people in this very expensive "protection". As it turns out, banks were making money fist-over-fist with these fees, especially at the expense of their less financially educated customers. I am a marketing major and have been working in user-interface for ten years: the snail-mail literature was deliberately designed to confuse customers and obfuscate the true costs of the "protection". While I did not fall victim to this deception, it was clear Chase was not a bank I wanted to support. I highly suggest that those interested in banking tactics like this watch the PBS Frontline: The Card Game (available free to stream online).
- Finally, at the beginning of this year, I received notice that both of my checking accounts would be charged monthly fees unless I jumped through hoops such as minimum balances, certain monthly activity, racking up a certain amount of fees, or linking additional Chase accounts (in my case, opening more accounts with them). $10 for my personal account, $15 for my business account. I was not about to spend $300 a year for the privilege of banking with Chase. The only hoop I might have considered jumping though was the minimum balance, but banking with them was simply not worth keeping excess cash in a non-interest bearing account (essentially another way of paying them for the accounts). In my personal perspective, Chase had negative brand equity. They do not value me as a customer. Time to switch.
The Switch
Switching checking accounts sounds like a pain, but I looked at it as if someone was paying me $300+ to do it (the direct money I would be saving not paying fees). So I started the process of opening new checking accounts, moving direct deposits, and re-linking debit accounts.
- Personal Checking: I chose to go with ING Direct's Electric Orange checking. I have had a savings account with them for many years and have been completely happy with it. Since I did so much online banking already and only wrote maybe 10 checks a year, I figured it would be a good fit. Deposits are trickier (I have to mail them), and I have no physical checks, but otherwise it is a free account. In fact, it's actually interest bearing - though I just keep excess cash in a linked higher yielding ING Direct savings account that I can instantly transfer money to and from. They have issued me a debit card that I can use for purchases (which I never do) or to withdraw cash from any of Allpoint's 32000 ATMs. I send money through their free electronic person-to-person system (sending physical checks also an option) or through their free bill pay.
The only fee I pay is a stamp on an envelope to send checks (though I ask those who want to send me money to do so electronically whenever possible). I am quite happy with not only the banking, but with the bank, who has not been deceptive at all with me as a customer. The other option for many people would be a local credit union. If you are interested in ING DIRECT checking or savings, email me and I'll send you a referral link good for a $25 sign-up bonus.
- Business Checking: I have decided to go with Wells Fargo for now. There is no online option for business checking accounts (email me if I'm wrong). My business also receives lots of paper checks from a wide variety of businesses which I prefer to deposit in person and I wanted national branch access in case there were issues. The hoops I have to jump through are minimal for the account to be free: online statements and $250 minimum average balance; or a linked savings account with a automatic monthly transfer of $100 (which can of course be automatically transferred back). I have already had my share of issues with Wells Fargo in the few short weeks the new account as been open. Hopefully everything is taken care of now and I won't have to write it up as another story. Fingers crossed. Outstanding issue of note: business checks are far from free.
Closing Chase Checking
I transferred all of my automatic deposits and debits away from the Chase checking accounts and left the account inactive for over one month to make sure. After which I transferred away (electronically) all remaining funds to my new accounts. I downloaded all of my electronic statements.* Then yesterday I made the call. Usually loyalty is highly valued. Considering I had held the same account for over ten years, one might consider offering an incentive for me to stay. But I knew that Chase did not want me as a customer. I was simply too responsible with my finances. So without resistance they closed my account. It was the easiest telephone interaction I had ever had with Chase.
Does your bank value you as a customer? Do you feel their incentives are aligned with yours? Banking can be a win-win for both banks and customers. If you find you are fighting with yours when you have been a responsible customer, maybe it's time to switch. It can be a slow process as you work to untangle your finances, but it can certainly be worthwhile in the long-run.
* Chase WILL wipe all of these statements from their system. It is imperative to have these in your own computer and backed-up should the tax man ever come knocking.
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Last Updated on Friday, 03 June 2011 21:01 |
Comments
I am glad you found the post informative.
Quoting Lorraine:
There are options if you tend to write checks. ING does have a free option to send physical checks from your online account. However, if you need to have the ability to write checks on-the-spot, then take a look at Ally Bank (www.ally.com). With them, you'll be able to have a checkbook to carry with you.
Thanks for the informative post. I, too, started with WaMu, which I absolutely loved- when i lost my debit card in australia (my primary means of monetary access), the customer service was outstanding. However, when they made the switch to Chase, I had problems right away- I had opened my account in California, which meant I had to wait over 6 months before being able to use the ATM machines (??). I also wondered about the overdraft fee mail. Not having a degree in marketing, it did confuse me, so i chose to ignore it, which sounds like it was a good decision. I do write checks fairly regularly so on online-only bank (which is what yours sounds like) wouldn't be great for me. If you have any other suggestions as to where I should open another account, I'm open!!
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