Originally Posted by
Happy
One important tidbit that I have not seen anyone posted. Our banker warned me NOT to close the business checking until 9 months up. She said for personal account, 6 months is required to keep the miles. However for business it is 9 months. She said she has seen people open business accounts for the $100 sign up bonus and lost it when they closed their business account before 9 months up.
Those who have done the business accounts earlier this year can verify whether it is 6 or 9 months to keep the accounts open in order not to lose the miles.
That is the first I've ever heard of a 9 month requirement on the Biz checking. Perhaps that was a requirement for the $100 coupon deal and the rep thought it would apply to the 25K mile deal too? I had two Biz accounts opened Dec '09 (mine & Mrs. Aces') and closed them in June '10 with no problems. Both accounts had a few hundred dollars in them so we couldn't close them using the secure message center - had to call into a CSR for each account and a 9 month requirement was never mentioned. And it wasn't on the paperwork from opening the account (although the 6 month requirement was on the paperwork for the personal accounts). This month (Oct '10) we also closed our two Biz accounts opened in Mar '10. No mention of this for those accounts either (and no 9 month requirement on the paperwork for those accounts). I haven't heard a peep from Chase or Continental about clawing back miles.
My guess is that the CSR was wrong. Happy, as you've experienced as well, usually the FlyerTalker that goes in to open the account knows more about the offer than the banker. And I've been following this thread pretty closely and don't recall any reports of a mileage clawback due to closing before
9 months. I'd hate to be proven wrong - lots of swipes at the gas pump down the drain.