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$100 Bonus For Opening a Chase Checking Account With Coupon Code

by Flexo on May 28, 2009

in Banking

See our update with a new code.

Chase is offering a $100 bonus if you open a checking account by July 7, 2009. There is no maintenance fee with this checking account as long as you activate a direct deposit or use your debit card for purchases five times each statement period. There is no minimum balance requirement, but an initial deposit of $100 within sixty days is required to qualify for the bonus.

If you live near a Chase branch, you can take this code with you when you open your account. Otherwise, you can open your account online at Chase’s website.

The coupon codes are good for one use only, so if you want to earn this bonus you must be quick to act.



3471822349438807 (Expires July 7, 2009)

If you have received coupons on the mail which you do not intend to use, please post the codes in the comments so others can take advantage of the bonus. I’ll add any posted bonus codes to this article.

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Chase Adding Annual Fee Out of the Blue

by Smithee on February 10, 2009

in Credit

Updated March 31, 2009: Chase has been ordered by NY Attorney General to refund the money gathered from the process described below.

I’ve always thought that credit cards with annual fees were a ridiculous notion. Other than having a credit history which requires you to get a secured card (been there), it’s usually no problem to find a card with no annual fee. But even if you do pick a card with a fee, it’s supposed to be something you decide to do to yourself.

JPMorgan Chase has started adding an annual fee to credit accounts for its customers who fit the following criteria:

  • the credit card has a low promotional rate
  • the card owner has carried a “large” balance for more than two years
  • the card owner has made “little” progress paying off the balance

I couldn’t tell from the news reports how Chase is defining “large” and “little.”

In addition to the $120 annual fee (which is added to the account in $10 monthly chunks and which accrues interest itself), the bank is also raising minimum payments from 2% to 5%.

When we wrote recently about Citigroup raising its rates in spite of a pledge not to do so, we got some very helpful and encouraging comments on the article from people who’d managed to talk to the right customer service reps and get their original terms reinstated.

Let us know if you’re affected, and what you plan to do. There’s already a class-action lawsuit you can join.

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45% Less Credit in Americans’ Wallets

by Smithee on December 2, 2008

in Credit

Meredith Whitney, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. is predicting that credit card issuers may cut as much as $2 trillion worth of available credit in the near future, representing about 45% of today’s levels.

The Motley Fool has decided to call this The Death of Credit Cards, but we’ll be co-existing with them for as long as people want to borrow from their future selves. (That, or you’re clever like my man Flexo, who only uses them for the rewards. I’m not that clever, but I’m working on it.)

Here’s the crux of the story:

Closing millions of accounts, cutting credit lines and raising interest rates are just some of the moves credit card issuers are using to try to inoculate themselves from a tsunami of expected consumer defaults.

We’ve already seen Citigroup raising rates for nearly all customers across the board (even though the national average credit card interest rate continues to decline).

Citigroup said it would be raising rates 2 to 3 percent, but from the comments we received on the story a couple of weeks ago, the average seemed to be about 7 to 10 percent. And this seemed to be happening even to people with good FICO scores and payment histories.

Now Citigroup, as well as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, are considering closing accounts, as well as lowering credit limits. Given Citigroup’s recent history, what are the chances that these actions will only be taken on customers with poor histories? If you’ve delicately balanced your available credit in order to keep a high FICO score, this could have serious repercussions.

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