Just to confirm on the debit card purchases in lieu of direct deposit - that is a one-time deal, not every month, correct?

Cheers.

It is the other option to avoid monthly fee if you do not have direct deposit. So it has to be performed EVERY MONTH as long as your account is opened. If not, and you do not have direct deposit, then pay $6 monthly fee for the personal checking. Dont know the fee for the business checking.

Of course if you have direct deposit EVERY MONTH, you dont need the 5 debit card used as credit card transactions to avoid the $6 fee.

It is advisable to keep the accounts open for 6 months to avoid the possibility of Chase crawling back the bonuses.

If you have both business and personal checking, your banker should have upgraded your personal to Premium from Classic, and you only need to do 5 debit card trannies for BUSINESS account to avoid monthly fee as Premium personal checking is exempt from the fee.

I have an update and a question,

First, I've signed up for the personal in a branch, got the tracking numbers for the miles and seem to be good to go.

Mrs. Nieder2 has had a prior chase account that she closed 2+years ago. Went into a branch and was denied due to "not eligible for promotion". So, we signed up online, made the $100 deposit, got the tracking numbers for the miles, thought she was good to go. Yesterday she gets a letter with a check for $100 from chase explaining they exercised their right to close accounts for any reason and referenced her already being denied at the branch. Any ideas on why this may have happened or how to fight it?

It kind of sounds like Mrs. Nieder2 is on Chase's bad side. I would demand a much better explanation from Chase. Did she leave the previous account on good terms? I can see no reason why she would be denied and even if she were denied the promotion there still should be no reason why she could not even open an account. I think there is much more going on than just the CO promotion. I would follow up and get a detailed reason why they refused to open the account. Given the scenario put forth you could not rule out something in her Chex Systems report or on her credit report that is causing Chase to not want the account so you might want to double check her reports for mistakes, fraud or whatnot.

Agree.

The possibilities are:

1) Mrs. Nieder2 is on Chase's bad side for something happened in the past.

2) Mrs. Nieder2's Chex / Credit Reports have some erroneous information that caused Chase to deny her application.

3) Mrs. Nieder2 indeed has something in her Chex / Credit Reports that causes Chase does not want to have her as a customer.

If nothing to do with 1), then you need to get to the bottom of it, especially to go over all her reports to make sure nothing erroneous is there. If it is 3) then only time can repair damage done in the past.

This is exactly what the banker did for me.

Thanks for the suggestions, you made me think of something that might be to blame. She had her purse stolen about a year ago and the thief opened a fraudulent checking account (USbank) with her ID and wrote some checks to another bogus checking account, in someone elses name. I'm having her get the chex report (credit reports have been actively monitored and are ok).

So let me make sure this is correct. If I set up direct deposit, I don't need to make 5 debit/credit transactions per month to eliminate the fee? The reason I ask is because I typically put everything on my Starwood Amex, and the only transactions I make per month 1 check to pay rent, a direct deposit to pay a student loan, and 1 payment to pay my Starwood Amex. Sounds like I good deal since I travel Continental quite frequently, but I just want to make sure I'm not going to get a fee if I direct deposit my paycheck. Thanks!

What is the suggested time frame to close these accounts to take advantage of anypossible Chase checking bonuses in 2011? I know the rule is typically at least 6 mos after opening, but how long should they be closed before applying for a new checking bonus promotion? Is there a general rule of thumb that has been used in the past?

I am past 6 mos on my Chase accounts and am wondering if I should close them before the years end.

I am sure you have a police report on this and you can contact CHEX to have that cleared up. Need to get this cleared else she would encounter same incident again and again whenever she tries to open a new bank account.

Sounds like a good promotion

I would close them now since 6 months have already passed.

Positive.

Or you can do the debit card transactions in one or two days each month, like buy a coffee at Starbuck, pay a buck to your phonebill online, etc etc It is very easy to take care of the 5 transactions in a jiffy imo, especially Chase hasn't imposed a minimum amount on the transactions.

OTOH, someone has reported effective Feb 2011, Chase would require $500 minimum direct deposit to qualify the fee waiver. (forgot it is here upthread or the thread in CO Forum where it is posted.)

Sweet thanks. That's not really a huge deal for me because my office is moving 2nd quarter next year and our credit union isn't moving with us to our new location since we will have just about every major bank available in our building. Therefore, I was waiting for this deal to get extended, because I really have no use for the credit union if it's not on site.

^

I signed up for the personal checking account to receive 25,000 miles

Instead of a continental debit card, I received a United Airlines debit card

Did this happen to anyone else?