My New Bank (Again)
by - Written: Jan 07 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Plenty of ATM’s; On-Line Banking & Bill Pay; free checking (for now)
Cons: Rates are not all that competitive.
The Bottom Line: They seem to be playing fair so for now Chase will remain my bank…
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| vemartin's Full Review: JP Morgan Chase Bank |
Once upon a time there was a bank called First Chicago Bank, it was a Chicago institution. But about three years ago it was bought by Bank One, an East coast financial concern. Then came news that Bank One would merge with a much larger financial company, JP Morgan Chase & Co., itself a result of the merge of two of the largest banks in New York City and indeed the world; JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan. And through it all there was me and my little checking account.
Completed in July 2004, the merger of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank One, created a financial services juggernaut in the areas of investment banking, financial services for consumers and businesses, financial transaction processing, asset and wealth management, and private equity. JPMorgan Chase & Co is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol: JPM, with assets of $1.2 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries.
The corporate headquarters for the bank are in New York City, while the U.S. retail financial services and commercial banking headquarters are in Chicago in the Chase Tower. JP Morgan Chase’s major legacy institutions include: J.P. Morgan, Chase Manhattan, Chemical, Manufacturers Hanover, Bank One, First Chicago, and National Bank of Detroit.
My New Bank
So what has changed since the mega-merger? Nothing really, at least as one would measure financial services from my level of banking. The bank locations are the same, but with a new name. The personnel are the same, but with new Chase tattooed blue denim shirts. And the Bank One website has stayed the same as well, though I assume at some point it will be converted; all-n-all Chase has made the transition seamless. The only other visible sign that our bank has changed is the new ATM cards we received shortly after the beginning of November.
We do much of our banking on-line and very rarely go inside a bank branch. And since we are mostly on-line bankers we also pay most of our bills on-line as well mostly through Quicken. Since the transition I have not had any problems to report with either service, and you don’t know how happy that makes me, since I had heard that bank mergers can be a nightmare of lost funds and lost payments. Quicken has continued to download my transactions from my new Chase Basic Checking Account flawlessly.
Because we do most of our banking on-line ATM access is very important. I very rarely write a check and most of my money handling is done via the ATM machine; e.g. deposits, withdrawals, and quick statements if need be. In the western suburbs of Chicago actual full service, stand-a-lone Chase branches are sparse, instead the bank has carried over Bank Ones’ practice of opening mini-branches in Dominic’s supermarkets and ATM’s in Walgreen’s Drug Stores, the latter of which seem to be on every other corner, so there is always one around if I need funds. The only problem with the Walgreen’s ATM locations is the fact that they do not accept deposits. Chase inherited Bank One’s excellent on-line banking operation which offers access to my assorted accounts on-line via the Internet, which is very convenient when we are on vacation or otherwise away from home, but have access to the Internet, but not an ATM.
Via my on-line access I can also view and download (in PDF format) statements and I can see what checks have posted and when and what my current up-to-date balance is. I can do the same thing over the phone if I so desire.
Our home equity line-of-credit through Chase is a blemished however, because the interest rates continue to climb, seemingly on a monthly basis. Lesson here: beware of variable interest rates! One new feature of the equity line of credit under Chase however, is that now it is tied to our checking account and acts as our main source of over-draft protection. Not too shabby.
Another improvement I have noted in the past few weeks is the telephone banking features. I can now listen to the balance of all of my accounts (personal and business) with just one phone call. Before the merger if I want to get the balance on both accounts, I needed to call twice, now just one phone call does it all.
The Future
With our Basic Checking and Basic Business accounts there is not monthly fee to contend with; time will tell whether of not this remains the same. Chase is a huge bank with considerable amount of overhead, so hopefully they will continue to be a bank where everyone can feel comfortable banking. I have enjoyed my experience at Bank One and hope to continue to do so at Chase. I have to admit, it feels good to belong to one of the largest banks in the world and I feel secure in knowing I can go almost anywhere in the world and still have access to my money.
For now Chase will remain my bank…
Recommended:
Yes
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