JP Morgan Chase Bank Account Review: Online Mobile Banking

Chase Bank is part of JPMorgan Chase financial company. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is the largest banks or financial services company in the USA in term of market capitalization. As of January 12, 2011, JP Morgan Chase has a market cap of 174 billion. There are two main business segments in JP Morgan Chase such as Chase and JPMorgan. Chase brand is used to serve the US consumer and commercial banking businesses customer. JPMorgan brand will serve corporations, governments, wealthy individuals and institutional investors. I’ll focus on Chase brand in this article. I have been banking with Chase Bank since 2006. Chase provides various banking services such as checking account, saving account, personal loan, business loans, educational loans, credit card, mortgage loans, Investment accounts and more. It also offer and online banking and mobile banking option for 24 hours and 7 days a week through its website www.chase.com.

JPMorgan Chase or known as Chase in short, was founded in 1799. The current headquarter is located in New York City, NY, USA. The current CEO is Jamie Dimon. As part of US bank network, Chase banking account is insured by FDIC up to $250,000 per account.

JP Morgan Chase has over 100 million customers and over 1.2 trillion in investments. Chase also offers convenience, with over 5,100 branches nationwide and over 15,000 Chase ATMs. As part of big four US banks which include Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, there are definitely advantages of doing banking transaction with such a large financial institution.

Chase offers 4 main products / services for consumer account:

1. Personal Banking

Personal banking account includes checking account, credit cards, saving accounts, CDs or Certificate of Deposits, Debit cards, Gift cards, student center and online & mobile banking.

2. Personal Lending

This chase services include Auto loans or car loan, home equity loan, mortgage loan, refinance and student loans.

3. Business account

There are three categories of business account such as business banking for small business, commercial banking and business credit cards

4. Retirement & Investing

Chase also offers retirement account services such as annuities & insurance, investing brokerage account, and retirement planning.

The Pros of Chase:

• Convenience with more than 15,000 ATM and 5,100 branches
• Large array of service and products such as Blueprint, bonus cash back, quickpay
• Offer online bank services and mobile banking
• Offer Bill Pay to pay bill online
• One of the established bank institutions
• Free student checking for college student

The Cons of Chase:

• Less personal customer service especially phone CS
• Higher fees than other banks
• Web site can be frustrating
• Low interest on savings account
• Stingy on credit card limit
• No free checking account. The lowest maintenance fee is $6/month if doesn’t meet the requirement

With the latest economic crisis, financial companies have involved in various merger. Chase has involved in various merger with other banks or financial entities. The following is the recent mergers:

• Bank One Corporation in 2004
• The Bear Stearns Companies Inc in 2008
• Washington Mutual’s (Wamu) in 2008

Checking account features:

• Free access to over 15,000 ATMs and 5,100 branches nationwide
• Free Chase Online Bill Pay
• Free voice and email alerts
• Free Chase Debit card with built-in security
• Regular sign up bonus for qualified customer such as get $125 just for opening a qualifying chase checking account.

There are 4 types of checking accounts such as

1. Chase checking: free debit card, free online banking, free bill pay, free chase mobile banking, free account alert

• There is a minimum deposit of $25 to open
• There is a $6.00 monthly service fee if you don’t meet the requirement such as have five (5) debit card purchases or direct deposit of $500 or more per month

2. Chase Premier Checking: All chase checking benefits, earn interest, free chase design checks, free safe deposit box and more

• There is a minimum deposit of $25 to open
• There is a $20.00 monthly service fee if the average daily balance is less than $15,000 in deposits/loans/investments

3. Chase Premier Platinum Checking: all chase premier checking benefits, No Overdraft Protection Transfer Fee, no wire transfer fee.

• There is a minimum deposit of $100 to open
• There is a $25.00 monthly service fee if the average daily balance is less than $75,000 in deposits/loans/investments

4. Student Checking (College Checking & high school checking): similar benefit as chase checking

• There is a minimum deposit of $25 to open

There are 4 Chase Online Saving accounts:

1. Chase Savings account

2. Chase Money Market Savings account

3. Chase Plus Savings account

4. Chase Retirement Money Market account 

Similar to any Online Banking service, Chase doesn’t charge a fee to use online banking (i.e. it is free). To access your Chase online banking, you will need:

• Laptop or desktop or tablet computer with online capability
• The supported Operating System (OS) are: Windows XP, Vista or Win 7 (under testing) system and Macintosh using OS 10.x
• The supported web browsers are: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher, Firefox 2 and higher, and Safari 3.0 and higher.
• Support 128 bit ssl security encryption protection
• You have Online User ID and password to do any e-financial transaction

I have been using Chase primarily for their credit card. I also used to have a checking account and a saving account with Chase. I have this account when it is still part of Washington Mutual. Not until recently, I just closed the account due to its new requirement to maintain the checking account. For basic checking or Chase Checking, There is a service fee of $6.00 per month if your checking account doesn’t have: 5 debit card transaction per month or monthly direct deposit of $500 or more. There is still a free saving account, Chase Savings, with $300 minimum balance otherwise $5.00 per month. I also like its bill pay service to pay bill online.

Other service I like is the credit card. Chase Bank offer various type of credit card. One of the most popular credit cards is Chase Freedom credit card. There is a sign up bonus of $100 to apply for this card. The features of this card are there is no annual fee, there is 5% cash back quarterly bonus categories such as gas, groceries, dining, department stores, airlines, hotels, even home improvement.

Online Banking Transaction

By using Chase online banking or internet banking, customers can access various banking and financial activities such as:

• Handle and follow financial transactions online including checking, home loan, credit card and more
• Access to print account statements (up to 12 months)
• Transfer funds between chase accounts (saving & checking) or other bank accounts as well as wire transfer
• Manage debit cards and credit cards account
• Update personal contact information such as address, phone and email info
• Get fast and secure access your accounts within seconds
• Sign up for free Chase mobile banking
• Check accounts for any unauthorized financial activity
• Pay bills online or through mobile banking services such as iphone, blackberry, android, etc
• Contact bank customer service or representative (online or phone)
• Provide demo or video on online banking
• View certificate of deposits account transaction
• Received various account alerts such as insufficient funds, ATM withdrawal, credit card activity and more
• Check various currency rates
• Track your net worth such as 401(K), frequent flyer miles and more from other institutions

As one of the biggest bank in the world, Chase bank definitely offers diverse financial services. They have a very broad customer base along with the huge asset amount of $2 trillion dollars. They also offer a huge list of choices when it comes to credit card, certificate of deposit (CD) accounts, checking accounts and saving accounts. JPMorgan Chase could be your “one stop shop” bank, in that they offer almost any service you would generally look for in a bank including checking, saving, CD, credit card and more. The investment division is lacking a self directed brokerage account similar to Merrill Edge offered by Bank of America or Wells Trade offered by Wells Fargo Bank.

Chase Bank’s account rates, whether they are saving account or checking account, are not very competitive compare to various high yield saving accounts. I guess that’s why none of their rates are showed on the Chase website. I also find the fees and requirements are quite excessive. With the recent change of checking account, there is no free checking account offered by Chase bank except student checking. The credit card department has been improved as well, it currently offered Chase Freedom card which has similar 5% cash back bonus as Discover more credit card for selected categories.

I would recommend using Chase Bank for their online account such as Saving account and credit card account. I wouldn’t recommend using their checking account if you can’t meet their minimum requirement to avoid the monthly service fees.

Typical requirements to get the chase checking account are:

• Limit 1 new checking account and it is not part of account conversions or combination offers
• Deposit $100 minimum into this account within 10 business days
• Checking account must remain open for a minimum of six months
• Bonus is considered interest and will be reported to IRS on Form 1099-INT

Please check with Chase Bank for qualification