Chased Around by Chase Bank

Today we’re continuing my story about Chase bank canceling a long-term checking account (plus a few others) that I had with them.

The first post in this series was Chase Closed My 25-Year Account. You will want to read that post (if you missed it) before you read this one, or you’ll be lost.

When we left the last post, one of the members of the Millionaire Money Mentors (MMM) had asked if anyone in the forums knew Jamie Dimon, the CEO of Chase. No one did, unfortunately, but the suggestion gave me an idea.

Contacting Mr. Dimon

On Saturday, June 21, I googled and found a public email address for Jamie Dimon.

Then I went to my trusty friend ChatGPT and gave it the following prompt:

I’m writing a short message to the president of my bank. They are closing several of my credit card accounts (which doesn’t matter) and my checking account (which is very important because many deposits and payments are made from it.) I have been a customer for 25 years.

I received a letter yesterday telling me they were closing these and I tried to call but the wait time was over 30 minutes so I’m emailing him. I was given no explanation for the closure. I’m asking he have someone look into this matter and if there’s some issue, I’d appreciate them contacting me and asking about them versus an uninformed cancellation.

I have been an advocate for Chase on my financial site and my millionaire membership site at Millionaire Money Mentors. Given this as well as my quarter century of business with them, I’d appreciate him looking into this.

I have had a business account with them in the past as well as wired money with them and have interacted with bankers wherever we’ve lived. The checking account regularly has $15-$20k in it which they pay me no interest on. Can you write the letter for me?

I got this back in 10 seconds:

Certainly, John. Below is a professionally worded, respectful yet firm email you can send to the President of Chase or the appropriate executive. It communicates your long-standing relationship, your surprise and concern, and your willingness to work collaboratively for a resolution.

⸻

Subject: Request for Urgent Review of Account Closure – 25-Year Relationship

Dear [President’s Name],

I’m writing to you as a long-time customer of Chase—over 25 years—regarding a troubling and unexplained closure notice I received yesterday. The letter informed me that several of my credit card accounts, as well as my primary checking account, are being closed. While the credit cards are not a major concern, the checking account is central to my financial life, with multiple deposits and automated payments tied to it.

Despite trying to contact Chase Customer Service, the estimated wait time exceeded 30 minutes, so I am reaching out directly in hopes you or a member of your team might be able to look into this matter.

No explanation for the closures was provided, and I have not been contacted regarding any potential issues. If there is something that needs clarification, I would sincerely appreciate the opportunity to discuss it and resolve it rather than being subjected to an abrupt and uninformed cancellation.

In addition to my personal and business banking history with Chase—including business accounts and regular wire activity—I have also been an advocate for Chase through my financial site, https://ESIMoney.com, which receives strong traffic, and through my members-only site, https://MillionaireMoneyMentors.com. These are both dedicated to sound money management and often highlight positive banking relationships.

My checking account routinely maintains a balance of $15,000–$20,000, though it earns no interest. Still, I’ve continued using Chase out of loyalty and habit. I hope that long-standing commitment can be met with similar consideration.

I would deeply appreciate your attention to this matter and hope it can be resolved swiftly and reasonably. I’m more than willing to speak with someone directly if additional information is needed.

Sincerely,

John Lastname

Address

City, State, and Zip

Email

Phone number

It had my actual address, city, etc. listed.

I emailed this message out late that evening.

Moving to Fidelity

On Sunday, June 22 I applied for a Fidelity Cash Management account (I already had a 2% cash back credit card with them which has been our main card for years).

I had seen this account recommended on a few YouTube videos and the forums members loved it as well. I had a to-do on my list to check into it but hadn’t gotten around to it. Now I was getting to it. lol.

Here’s the link to the Fidelity Cash Management overview. And here’s a link to a video by Rob Berger, a blogger and YouTuber I trust, that talks about the account.

The highlights: it pays close to 4% interest (at the time I’m writing this) but is only somewhat protected by FDIC insurance. See the site for their disclaimers.

I ordered my checks and began the process of connecting Chase with the account so I could transfer most of the Chase money there.

My wife moved the two automatic payments we had on the Chase card to our Fidelity card. Chase had a better cash back offer (5% on those categories) but if those cards closed we needed a way to pay those bills without interruption.

I also initiated moving $20k from a savings account to Chase. Once that arrived at Chase my plan was to move it to Fidelity.

Chase Calls Me

On Monday, June 23, I got a call in the morning. This was the message (this is the phone transcript so it’s sort of choppy):

Good morning, this message is for John Lastname and this is Len (not his real name) calling from JP Morgan Chase executive office and I’m calling in response to your concerns and your email to Jamie Dimon and I’m calling to acknowledge receipt of your concerns.

I introduce myself and also provide you with my contact information as your point of contact on this matter, but I do need some time to look into this matter further to see what we can do to help once I have an updated resolution. I’ll follow up back by phone or in writing, but if you have any questions you can reach me directly at 1-877-XXX-XXXX and my direct extension is XXXXX. I am in the office Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 6 PM Eastern time.

I’ll also follow up with an email with my contact information as well. Please let me know if you have any questions in the meantime otherwise I’ll follow back with you as soon as possible. I look forward to hearing from you soon and hope you have a great day.

I called and talked to Len, just to confirm that I wanted to know the issue and talk it through before any decision was made. At this point I was feeling like a criminal despite the fact that I had done nothing wrong.

The Keystone Cops of Customer Service

The next day it was confirmed that my Chase and Fidelity accounts were connected.

I didn’t hear from Len on the 24th, but did get a message that afternoon as follows:

Please accept this message is notification that we are currently looking into this matter. Your point of contact with our office is Len at 877-XXX-XXXX. His extension is XXXXXX. He’s in the office Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM central standard time when calling in you can reference file number XXXXXX. Thank you and have a great day.

I also sent Fidelity $1,000 from Chase (starting low just to make sure it worked).

On Wednesday, June 25 it was confirmed that my $20k savings transfer had arrived at Chase.

Since I hadn’t heard any news by the 26th (three days), I called that morning at 9:20 am to ask Len what was going on. I left a message.

Len called me back at 2:45 pm and told me they needed more information. To get this information, they needed to set up a meeting between me, my wife, and my designated banker at our local Chase branch (which is close to my house).

I asked what type of information they needed and he said the banker would be sent that. He wouldn’t tell me what they wanted to know. I’m not sure if he didn’t know or just didn’t want to tell me, but either way it seemed strange.

I asked if there was anything I needed to bring — any documentation or anything else. He said there was not and that the banker would have all the details.

I asked why the account was flagged and he said they don’t give reasons for this. He then cited their user agreement which says either party can close the account for any reason. Nice. After 25 years this is what I get. Great customer service, Chase.

The kicker on top of all this was that they need the information by Monday. And even if they got it, it wouldn’t guarantee that the account would continue. Just so everyone is aware of the timing, I got this information on Thursday at 3 pm. What if I hadn’t called that day? Were they going to call me Friday afternoon and tell me o needed a meeting by Monday? Sheesh.

Len said he was going to send the details to my local banker. He’d ask them to call me that afternoon to try and set something up asap.

I didn’t get a call by 4 pm, so I called the local branch. After navigating the voicemail system, I was told they were busy serving other customers. I wasn’t given the chance to leave a message.

I tried again at 4:20 pm and this time someone answered. I asked to speak to my banker and was informed he was out for the day. Of course he was. I asked for his voicemail and left him a message.

I called Len back at the “home office” (he’s actually in Texas) and told him that my banker was out for the day. He said he’d call the branch manager and brief him. He asked what times I could meet the next day. I asked how long it would take. He said he didn’t know.

Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up!

I gave him some times I was free. He told me he’d call me back once he had any news.

At 5 pm I got a call from the branch manager (it went to voicemail because all numbers not in my phone do that automatically). He seemed nice (or smooth — it’s hard to tell) and said he sat up a meeting with our banker at 10:30 am the next day (which was not one of the times I said I was available, but we could make it work) and to call if that didn’t work.

Len called me at 5:50 pm and left a message that he had talked to the branch manager and he’d be in touch with me. Hahaha. Why do I feel like I’m in a Three Stooges movie — and I’m the third stooge? lol.

Again, I got no direction on what to bring, how to prepare, etc. even though I had asked. He just said the banker would have all the information/details.

As you’ll see, this was incorrect.

On the Fidelity front, I sent them another $5k as the first $1,000 had arrived. Once it got there, I’d have enough in the account to begin setting up auto payments.

Visiting the Local Chase Branch

On Friday, June 27 my wife and I showed up at the Chase bank offices at 10:30 am. We met our banker (I’ll call him Don) and went to his office.

Don had received an email from the home office and printed it out to go over with us.

The first step was a process he called KYC (for “Know Your Customer”).

Too bad it wasn’t KFC, I would have enjoyed that more! Hahaha!

Don looked at our driver’s licenses and one credit card each. The last licenses they had in their system were from Colorado.

Once we completed that (Don updated their system with the information), he had questions about our income sources. His guess (they didn’t tell him why we were flagged) was that we had business dollars flowing into a personal account. I don’t think that was it as we’ve done this for years (maybe a decade) and we operate as a sole proprietorship anyway, so we are the business.

Then they wanted details on other income sources like from syndications.

The email stated they wanted  documented proof about these — that they were what I said they were.

This was a ridiculous request for a few reasons:

• They wanted proof on this visit (now).
• They didn’t specify what qualified as proof.
• Don didn’t know what qualified as proof. He also said he thought the request was crazy.
• If we had known they wanted proof and had known what constituted proof (liked we’d asked about), we could have brought documents with us.

So we did the best we could. We explained to Don what the sources were. We also noted that the money to fund each of them was wired from Chase itself, hoping this would be enough “proof.”

I told Don that I had asked Len if I needed to bring anything and he told me I didn’t (that the banker would have all details, questions, etc.) He included this in his email response.

IMO, to ask for proof/documentation when they didn’t tell me to bring anything in advance (despite me proactively asking) made it feel like they were either incompetent or creating a situation where I’d fail for certain.

Don was sympathetic and said he tried to word the responses to reflect his agreement with our thoughts.

Next they asked about future uses of the account. We told them the automatic payments and deposits we had set up would probably be as they have been. I also told Don that honestly I would likely be moving some of those away from Chase as this incident has made me question doing business with them. Plus I had to make contingencies in case the account was closed.

The meeting took almost an hour as Don had to update our accounts and then answer the email questions (he typed as we answered).

He said he’s had this happen now and then during his 10 years at Chase and most of the time people get no chance to respond — their accounts are simply closed with no reason given (the home office doesn’t give the branches a reason either).

He’s even had this happen to a personal friend of his, someone he knew well, had spent time at his house, etc. He said he called on behalf of his friend but there was nothing he could do to change the company’s decision.

He said he’d call me Monday and give me any update he had.

The Circus Continues

On Monday, June 30, Don called me at 12:10 pm and said they needed documentation for several income sources coming into my accounts. I asked him what documents they needed exactly and he wasn’t sure. Hahahaha.

Or should I say: “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. Boo, boo, boo, boo”? lol.

So, I gave him some options (original agreements, K-1’s, etc.) I said I’d also need an email with a list of the exact account names they wanted details on (so I could be sure to cover everything).

I also asked if they had some sort of secure way to send the proof once I had it as I didn’t want to simply email sensitive documents. He said he’d have to check and call me back.

Getting Money to Fidelity

After we got off the phone, I checked on the $5k transfer from Chase to Fidelity as it hadn’t gone through. I looked in my Chase app and it said the transfer was denied (or rejected…I forget the exact wording).

I called Don back and asked him why it hadn’t gone through. I had asked him if my Chase account was functioning as normal and he said it was. Plus, I had transferred $1k from Chase to Fidelity without a problem so why didn’t this amount go through?

He said he’d check into it.

He called me back and left a message (I was at the pool). He said the issue was that I initiated the transfer from Chase and “pushed” the money to Fidelity when I needed to initiate it from Fidelity and “pull” it from Chase. If I did it that way, things would be fine.

So I initiated a $15k pull from Fidelity on June 30.

In addition, since I wasn’t getting a good feeling from this entire situation, I began moving all my auto payments and deposits to Fidelity.

When I totaled them up, there were 18 entities either sending money to this account or paying bills from it. I also had seven infrequently used accounts that were linked to the Chase account (like our annual HOA dues) that didn’t need to be moved immediately.

I didn’t hear back from Don so on Wednesday, July 2 I called to see if there was any update. I received no response on that day or the next (Friday was July 4).

I also initiated another $16k transfer “pull” from Chase to Fidelity.

I called again on Monday, July 7 and left another message.

My two transfers from Chase to Fidelity were still “under review” despite the money being taken out of my Chase account and despite me “pulling” them from Fidelity as instructed.

On Monday, July 7 at 6 pm, Len called me to check in. He told me that they had extended my account close date to August 10, so we had some more time.

I told him about my conversations with Don and I listed the things I had asked him to check into. I wasn’t sure he got them all and it sounded like he wasn’t writing them down, so I said if he missed anything I had asked for he could get them from the tapes as we were on a recorded line (he always said we were on a recorded line when he called, but I thought reminding him was worth it so they couldn’t claim they didn’t know exactly what I had requested. Haha). He said they were working on everything.

I then asked about the two transfers I was trying to make. He said the two accounts between Chase and Fidelity were not connected which is why the $5k was denied and now these two were as well.

I said that was not the case because 1) I had gone through Chase’s own process for linking the accounts (and received confirmation) and 2) I had successfully transferred $1,000 from Chase to Fidelity after connecting the two. I also told him about the push/pull thing Don had told me about and I had made the transfers the way Don suggested.

I also noted that the money was out of my Chase account and not in my Fidelity account so one of the two of them had it. Fidelity said it was waiting on Chase approval (in my account status section).

He hemmed and hawed a bit and then said he thought the problem was Fidelity was holding onto it. This could be true, but at this point let’s just say I was skeptical of anything Chase told me. I asked him to make double sure that was true and if it was, I’d hound Fidelity.

He said he’d check into that and get back to me. I asked when he would have an answer (I had learned not to give them a blank check on time). He seemed surprised at this question, stumbled a bit, and then said he should have something by Wednesday.

I’m going to end here for today.

To see how the story continues, check out The Chase Comes to an End