Chase customers who earn little to begin with about to be paying monthly checking account fees

[NNN0LHI]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12403356

More Chase Customers Could Pay Fee for Checking

Chase sets $500 minimum on direct deposits to qualify for free checking

The Associated Press

Post a Comment NEW YORK December 15, 2010 (AP)

Chase customers who don't earn a lot or rely on paltry government benefits may soon have to pay a monthly fee on their checking accounts.

The bank started notifying customers this month that direct deposits will have to be at least $500 to qualify for a waiver on the $6 monthly fee.

The change, which goes into effect starting Feb. 8, applies to basic checking accounts.

Chase said the $500 monthly requirement is for a single direct deposit; multiple direct deposits that add up to $500 will not qualify for the waiver. The monthly fee can also be avoided if customers make five or more debit card purchases in a statement period.

[Psephos]

1. There is a powerful solution to this problem.

Switch banks...preferably to a credit union. :)

[Travis_0004]

2. The fee can be waived if a customer makes 5 debit card purchases a month

Or if you don't like the fee, close the account. That is probably the best way to fight against it, and try to get them to change their policy.

[virgogal]

3. Just curious.. Why would debit card purchases benefit the bank

as opposed to writing a check?

Is it the electronic benefit?

I'm really out of the loop here.

[Statistical]

4. Interchange fees.

About 250 bp for signed (credit), and about 80-100 bp for pin (debit) transactions.

bp is basis point (1/100th of 1%)

Paid from merchant to issuing bank.

[virgogal]

6. Thanks-I've been using the same Credit Union for so many

years that I stopped paying attention.

[northoftheborder]

8. Thanks for that info about Chase's policies...

Now I know why they are so insistent upon customers using debit cards rather than the ATM or their credit card. You have to personally decline a debit card; they give it to you automatically unless you decline. I think having a debit card is unsafe.

[Not Me]

5. I have two checking accounts at Chase that are going to be closed

as soon as I set up replacement ones at another bank.
One is used for monthly household expenses, and has $300 a week direct deposited. The other is used for our rental property to keep that money separate, and has no direct deposit.

Both are going to be closed, as well as a savings account that is going to either HSBCDirect or Ally Bank, both of whom pay about 10 times the interest that Chase does.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. You DO know Ally bank,a subsidiary of GMAC, has many fraud charges and lawsuits, right?

Not sure why anyone would want to feed a bank that is so deeply involved in the mortgage fraud.

3 minutes on Google produces these just 3 of many charges against Ally:

1,
GMAC Mortgage LLC fraudulently obtained insurance on billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities by misrepresenting the quality of tens of thousands of home loans, a New York judge ruled.

State Supreme Court Justice Bernard J. Fried denied GMAC’s motion to dismiss the fraud count in a Dec. 14 decision. GMAC, a unit of Detroit-based Ally Financial Inc., argued that MBIA had been obligated to perform due diligence.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-16/mbia-claim-against-gmac-can-proceed-judge-rules.html

2.Cordray in October announced that he would sue national mortgage servicer GMAC Mortgage and its bailed-out parent company, Ally Financial, for fraud and violations of Ohio's consumer laws.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1515099920101215

3. In September of this year -- in the midst of the crucial midterm elections -- several large banks, including Ally Bank (formerly GMAC), Bank of America (BAC), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), acknowledged problems with their foreclosure procedures. Bank employees, in addition to third-party mortgage servicers and legal vendors, were found to have signed as many as several thousand documents a day, at times without personal knowledge of the facts they were attesting to in courts.

The practice became popularly known as “robo-signing” and sparked fresh political wrangling over the process by which Americans are forcibly removed from their homes.
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/housing-market-foreclosuregate-robo-signing-foreclosure/12/14/2010/id/31676

[Not Me]

16. No I didn't. Hmmm.

That narrows the choices.

[ananda]

18. I will be out of Chase completely in July.

I can't wait!

[Mimosa]

7. Congress could do something, right? n/t

[Travis_0004]

10. Why does congress need to do anything?

Close your account, and join a credit union. Seems like an easy enough solution to me.

[CreekDog]

14. because poor people's taxes helped bail out the banking industry

especially the largest banks like Chase.

[Angry Dragon]

11. CREDIT UNION

[mstinamotorcity]

12. Why does Chase

still have any customers???

[Drale]

13. It seems like the super mega banks who should never have to charge

extra fees are the ones who do charge all the fees, and the smaller banks (like mine) don't charge any extra stuff.

[cemaphonic]

15. Boy am I glad they took over WaMu...

Say what you want about Wamu's messed-up mortgage business, they had a great retail banking arm.

[lonestarnot]

17. K & R!

[City Lights]

19. We're pulling our money from Chase.

We already have a credit union account, but kept the Chase account because of a couple of auto-withdrawal bills. We're going to change the accounts they're drawn from and fire Chase. We're also closing our kids savings accounts and transferring those to their credit union accounts. Fuck Chase.