With the many Chase shutdowns going on recently, it’s time to remind people of an old message that I already posted about many times.
Don’t have your credit cards and bank accounts with the same bank.
Why?
It may be convenient to bank and have your cards in one place. But the problem is that often, people get their credit cards shutdown due to issues with their banking activity.
Even if you’ve never missed a payment on your credit cards, but on your bank account you have had multiple overdrafts within the last few months then Chase may choose to end their relationship with you. And when they decide to do that, not only will your bank accounts go flying, but so will your credit cards (not in all cases, but in many).
What factors can trigger your Chase bank accounts to be shut down?
Chase has many factors that can trigger bank account shutdowns (the triggers for credit card shutdowns we discussed last week). These triggers can include:
- Many foreign wires
- Suspicious deposits
- Big cash deposits or withdrawals
- Many third party checks
- Many bounced checks
- Many overdrafts
- And more
If Chase finds you to be a customer that they prefer not doing business with, they have no problem kicking you, and kicking you strongly (I was personally involved in a shutdown a few years ago on an account that had several million in it. The consumer was not able to get his accounts reinstated).
If your bank accounts goes so do your credit cards
As stated above, in most cases, if your bank account is shut down then your credit cards will be shut down as well.
Therefore, if you value your Chase credit cards then it’s way better for you not to bank with Chase as you’re risking your credit cards to be shut down. This is especially true if you know better than I do that your bank accounts are far from perfect.
There is no reason to expose your credit cards to this extra risk. When your credit card gets shut down your credit score can be affected, your business may lose buying power and so on. And you may end up needing to liquidate all your Chase points.
Do you know of good bank accounts outside of Chase? Enter them in the comments so other readers can check them out.
Wells Fargo is pretty easy to bank with.
Great article, I’ve thought about this from time to time and I’m glad to see you covering it.
In my experience chase is a very relationship oriented bank and having a bank account with them is beneficial to having fun with their credit cards.
On my first chase application when I was 18 I applied for the United explorer card and got auto denied, this was expected as I had a sub 680 fico, only one other low limit credit card on my report, so I definitely wasn’t exactly qualified for the explorer card.
But I happened to have a chase checking account with 1k in it so I decided to see what I can do. I called recon, no luck. Deposited additional 2k into the account, called recon again, still no luck. Deposited an additional 4k (so all together 7k), called recon again gave a whole speech about my firm banking relationship with chase, this time the recon went pending, and sure enough 1 week later I was approved with a 5k CL. If not for what I did with the bank account I would have never gotten that chase card with a credit profile like mine.
So these days I still have that checking account opened, I don’t really use it, I just keep a few grand in there at all times to keep my relationship with chase standing. For heavy banking activity and depositing buying group checks etc… I use capital one because I find they’re 360 account to be really good, and I don’t have any credit cards with them. If I were to ever get Cap1 cards, I would start doing my heavy banking elsewhere.
I’ve been banking at bank of America for 15 years, when I opened a free student checking account with their keep the change program. That program sucks BTW. But in these 15 years I’ve never seen anyone of the other banking websites / apps come even close to the capabilities and convenience that boa has. I got approved for my first credit card from them but never opened another boa card.
Pnc has a very warm private client team and will give you the same attention as chase without having 100,000 in your account. They also have an American costumer service team, a rarity nowadays.