Posts Tagged ‘Chase’

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$200 Chase Business Checking Bonus (exp May 15 2010)

April 9th, 2010

The $200 Chase Business Checking Bonus is back again. As I’ve posted about and taken advantage of before, you can get a $200 bonus for opening a Chase Business Checking account. To take advantage of the offer you will need an opening deposit of $5,000 (previous offers were $500) and a printable coupon. The coupon expires May 15 2010, but Chase often takes the links down before the coupon expiration so you should print out your coupon now. It’s worth noting there is no requirement you keep $5,000 in the account, only that your opening deposit be at least that amount, so you could withdraw the money shortly after opening the account to avoid tieing up your money.

You can open a free account where the service fee is waived if you do five debit card transactions per month or have an active business credit card (meaning there was a balance at some point in the statement period) linked to the account. To open the account you either need a business license or you have to be a licensed professional (attorney, accountant, etc.).

Be warned that you have to go in the branch for this and depending on the representative you work with this could take up to an hour as they probe you for information on your business and opportunities to sell other products. However, $200 is well worth an hour of my time.

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Another $125 Chase Checking Bonus (exp. 1/15/2010)

December 22nd, 2009

Everyone is looking for a little extra cash around the holidays, and here is a great opportunity for some easy money. Chase is offering a $125 bonus for opening a free checking account with direct deposit. To get in on the offer you will need to logon to your existing Chase online account and click on this link. There you will get a coupon for a $125 bonus when you open a Chase checking account between now and January 15, 2010. It is best to print the coupon early since Chase often takes down these coupons before the expiration date.

Here are the main points to remember on this offer:
1. Minimum deposit of $100 in new funds not currently held by Chase.
2. The $125 bonus will be deposited into your account within 10 days of your initial direct deposit.
3. Within 60 calendar days of account opening, you must initiate a monthly direct deposit which includes payroll, pension, Social Security, or other government benefits.
4. There is a limit of 1 personal checking account-related reward per customer, per calendar year.
5. Your checking account must remain open for a minimum of 6 months, or the reward will be debited from the account at closing.
6. Chase Checking has no monthly service fee when you have a direct deposit or 5 or more debit card purchases post to your account each statement period.

I have done these bonuses multiple times without issue. You can read about previous Chase bonus offers here.

No direct deposit? No worries! Read about how to fake the direct deposit and get the bonus money on this post.

Want to make another easy $50? Open an ING Direct account! Details here.

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Warning: Your credit limit can be cut BELOW the amount you currently owe!

March 19th, 2009

Imagine owing $360 on a credit card with an $8,600 limit, only to have the limit cut to $300 and then be assessed a $35 over-the-limit fee. That’s what happened to Paul Pensabene of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., according to this article from SmartMoney.com. Thankfully for Paul he was able to get the fee waived and pay off the balance, but it is a scary reminder of how far credit card issuers are willing to go to purge themselves of excess risk.

Credit limit cuts and even account closures are becoming more common as issuers try to limit potential exposure to defaults. I’ve had one of my unused Chase accounts cancelled for inactivity, and a Citi account reduced from a credit limit of $5,000 to $500. But in addition to just being an aggrevation and the potential for fees as indicated in the noted example, these moves can have a big impact on your credit score. As noted in the article:

While the fees, frozen accounts and default interest rates resulting from credit-line cuts can sting your finances, they can do some serious long-term damage to your credit score. Your credit utilization ratio — the total amount of debt you owe in relation to the amount of credit available to you — accounts for roughly 30% of your score. A credit line cut has the potential to decrease your score by 50 points or more if you don’t have much other available credit, says Craig Watts, spokesman for FICO, the company that calculates and issues the credit score that most lenders use.

What can you do about it? The easiest answer is to try and call the issuer taking the action against your account and request the credit limit or account terms be reinstated and any assessed fees waived. Another option is to open a new account with a different issuer to increase your available credit and decrease your credit score’s dependence on a single issuer, although this is a lot tougher now than it was a year ago. The other thing to do is to be sure to use all of your open accounts for purchases so they don’t get shut down for inactivity.

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Posted in Credit Cards

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Chase: Just because your rate is fixed doesn’t mean we can’t add new fees!

February 9th, 2009

Here’s a gem for you, courtesy of USAToday.com: apparently Chase is assessing new fees and raising minimum payments on credit card customers who are floating balances under promotional fixed rates.

In the latest fee rolled out by a bank, JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest card issuer, has begun charging hundreds of thousands of borrowers a $10-a-month, or $120-a-year, fee. Industry watchers say the fee is unusual because of its size but also because Chase is adding it to borrowers’ monthly balances, where it accrues interest. The bank is also raising the same consumers’ minimum payments to 5% from 2%.

The change affects consumers with low promotional rates who have carried a large balance for more than two years and made little progress paying it off, says Chase spokeswoman Stephanie Jacobson.

So let me get this straight: customers who took advantage of a promotion offered by Chase and are in every way abiding by the terms and conditions set forth by Chase and making the required payments on time are going to now be charged an additional fee simply for carrying a balance? This is absolutely outrageous! Consumers shouldn’t suffer just because they took advantage of a promotion that didn’t go as Chase thought it would.

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Posted in Banking, Credit Cards, Scams

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Another $200 Chase Business Checking Bonus – Expires 3/28/2009

February 3rd, 2009

Our buddy over at Hustler $$$ Blog found this offer for a $200 bonus with a new Chase business checking account. Simply print the coupon found here (go ahead and print it now, as Chase has been pulling online coupons early recently) and go into a branch to open. If you fund the account with a minimum of $500 within 30 days of opening you will receive a $200 bonus.

I’ve done these bonuses before without issue. It seems to vary slightly as to what credentials are required to open a business checking, but I have opened them before simply using my drivers license and state-issued CPA license and told them I was operating as a sole proprietor. You can read about my previous experience with opening a business checking account here.

Hustler $$$ Blog reports that you need to have a Chase Business credit card, link it to your checking, and carry a balance on it to qualify, but I honestly don’t see that requirement anywhere on the offer.

Also remember that you will need to keep the account open for at least six months, or they will debit the account for the bonus received when you close it. Have fun!

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Free insurance coverage from financial providers

January 25th, 2009

It is likely you have seen the solicitations in the mail from your bank or credit card company offering you free insurance coverage, or perhaps you threw them out thinking they were worthless junk mail? If so, you are missing out on a worthwhile freebie!

Here’s how it works: your bank sells its customer list to an insurance company, who then sends an offer to the customers offering a small amount of free insurance coverage (usually $1,000-2,000 of accidential death and dismemberment or term life coverage) that is supposedly paid for by your bank. In the same letter, it provides you the opportunity to purchase additional coverage with the premiums deducted directly from your account. If you read closely, if you don’t elect any additional coverage you owe nothing. There isn’t any catch, except that in most cases you must stay a customer of the bank to keep your coverage. And yes, the policies are real and you receive a policy statement confirming your coverage.

I have recently received $1,000 in life insurance coverage through Discover Card, $2,000 in AD&D coverage from People’s Trust Federal Credit Union, and today received an offer from Chase for $1,000 in AD&D coverage. All of these were completely free! My wife also got one year of $25,000 in term life coverage from a mailing to members of the Texas Society of CPAs, also for free.

While these amounts don’t come close to meeting our full insurance needs, I’m sure my family would have no objections to an extra few thousand dollars if something should happen to me. That could be a few mortgage payments or something to put towards funeral expenses (I certainly know I would have loved for my dad to have had some of these to cover the $3500 of his funeral bill left over after liquidating his assets). If it costs us nothing, why would I deny them that benefit?

So the next time you get something from your bank or credit card company that looks like junk mail, take a closer look. You may be throwing free insurance coverage into the trash!

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$125 bonus for a Chase Checking account TIMES TWO

December 30th, 2008

I posted this as a comment on another blog, and then got to thinking I need to post this on my own blog. I written before about Chase banking bonuses (March 2008, November 2007, September 2007), and I have always been able to get these without issue. If you have never done these before, right now before year end is a great time to start.

If you head down to your local post office, you’ll find the New Movers Pack with the Change of Address form. The pack also includes several coupons, including one for a Chase Checking account bonus of $125. If you read the terms and conditions, you get the bonus for opening a new account and having direct deposit, and you are limited to one bonus per calendar year. As we are about to end one calendar year and start another, you can open one today or tomorrow (while we are in 2008) and one after New Year’s Day (in 2009). Fund both and start the direct deposits (many employers will allow split direct deposits, or you can fake the direct deposit using ING or another online account), and you should get a $125 bonus on each. If you plan to open multiple accounts, get multiple packets because the codes are one-time use.

To reduce the hassle factor even more, you can probably sign up for the account online and enter the coupon code in the application to avoid going into the branch. You just have to print off the signature card, sign and return via mail or fax.

A few notes about the deal:

  • The deal requires a $100 minimum opening deposit. If you open online, you can use a Visa or Mastercard to fund the account up to $2,000. Use a good reward credit card to earn some easy points!
  • If you don’t do an initial direct deposit on the account, you won’t get your bonus. If you don’t maintain the direct deposit, you’ll be charged a service fee unless you use your Chase Check Card five times during the statement period.
  • You have to keep the account open six months or they will deduct the bonus at closing. After six months, you can close it without penalty by going into a branch.
  • Be sure to keep a copy of the confirmation of the coupon being redeemed. If you open in a branch this should be a printed page they give you. If you open online, it should be a new window you can print. I’ve never had an issue with the bonus not being credited, but it is always best to cover your bases.
  • These bonuses are reported on a Form 1099-INT at tax time to the IRS, so you better report the income if you don’t want an audit. If you open one before year end and one after, you’ll get one form in January 2009 reporting the interest income from the first account and another in January 2010 reporting the interest income from the second account.

Have fun!!!

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Chase reallocated my credit lines unsolicited!

May 24th, 2008

I have a very odd letter from Chase yesterday about my credit card accounts with them. For whatever reason they decided to review my credit card accounts and reallocate credit limits between two of them. They decided to take $2,000 from a Flexible Rewards Visa that I hardly ever use and add it to my Chase Disney Visa, which is dormant other than the 0% balance transfer I am currently floating on the card.

The other account is still open and has about $13,000 in credit left on it, and considering my utilization on the Disney card was above 50% the move helps my credit score. However it still kind of bothers me that Chase took it upon themselves to reallocate my credit lines without prior notice or authorization. What would have happened if I was planning to make a large purchase on the card they took limit away from and went over the new lower limit?

Oh well, I guess no harm no foul. Just a word of warning for those of you with multiple Chase accounts that they may decide to monkey with your credit lines as well.

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Posted in Credit Cards

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$400 in bonuses for opening Chase checking accounts until 3/15/2008! (YMMV)

February 28th, 2008

I posted several months ago about a $200 bonus offer for opening a Chase business checking account. Well, the offer is back again, with the only change being a minimum deposit of $500 instead of $100. The offer is valid until March 15, 2008, and you can download your coupon at:

http://www.chase.com/ccp/index.jsp?pg_name=ccpmapp/smallbusiness/shared/page/business_checking_offer3

To make the deal juicer, while you are there you can open a free personal checking account with $100 minimum and direct deposit for a $125.00 bonus. The coupon for the $125.00 bonus can be found in the new mover/change of address packet at the post office.

But wait – there’s more! The word is that there are $50 business referral coupons out there that can be combined with the business checking offer. Some are also reporting that they have been offered a $50 bonus for opening a business savings account, but it seems this was a targeted promotion, so YMMV on that one.

Additionally, there are $25 referral coupons for the personal checking account. Add together all the referral coupons and account opening bonuses and you can get $400 (maybe $450) for opening a few bank accounts.

If you need referral coupons, I would suggest posting in the relevant threads on SlickDeals and FatWallet. I believe the referrer gets a bonus if the coupon is used, so there is incentive for people to share the coupons.

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