Charles,
Yeah, I received that in the mail as well last week. Agree. Quite rapacious of them. It's also enlightening to read the conditions of cashing that check on the reverse. I immediately shredded it.

No one else at the Stranger, or any other Seattle paper, would use "nettled with". Bravo, sir.

Charles, you might enjoy seeing some of the "text-to-software" YouTube videos by disgruntled Chase employees (Chasesux, Chaseblows123 are indicative userids). The senior personnel are out of touch with reality and believe that anyone and everyone who haven't yet signed up to be leeched by fees and charges just haven't been exposed to their coupon campaigns. They don't accept that people have no money, or that people are aware they have better places to put their money than giant corporo-tapeworms.

I haven't used my Skank of America credit card since 2004. I've called them to explain how the terms could be changed back to the original agreement, to give me an incentive to give them transaction fees through merchants: they tell me they don't negotiate. I've been a cardholder since 2000 and have seen numerous changes to terms and conditions agreements, all anti-consumer changes, no changes making me think it's worth my while to use their card, and they keep sending me cash advance checks. They're waiting for senility or brain damage, I guess.

I know you like to use the vampire metaphor for banks: they're more like tapeworms when you think about it. When you think of your classic vampire, do you imagine a bloated, dysfunctional, nonstop feeding creature? Even a vampire sleeps: the banks do not. Tapeworms grow. Tapeworms offer no value, no glamour, no immortality.

Chiming in to admire "nettled with" also.

We just bailed from Chase to BECU this week, the fees/minimum balances were just too much (we're a former WaMu customer). The BECU person we worked with said she's personally seeing 30 or more Chase converts per week since mid-December when the new fees were announced.

I got a $100 coupon from Chase to open a plain checking account. I opened it, set up the minimum required direct deposit, waited the minimum six months, collected the free $100, then transferred all the money back to my credit union and closed the Chase account. I don't recall ever even using it.

They never charged me any fees. I got my hundred bucks from them and then said goodbye.

Big banks suck ass, I agree completely, but I thought I'd share anyway.

@6: 2% annual return in the current market is not really money well spent. I'm sure Chase made way more than that on your $10,000.

Is anyone else nostalgic for the days in which you could make $100 for simply changing long distance carriers?

@7,
I didn't have to deposit 10 grand. The coupon I got just required that I open an ordinary checking account with a minimum balance of something like fifteen dollars. I had to have direct deposit of at least $600/month go in, but as soon as it deposited each month, I'd transfer it to my credit union account (for which there were also no fees since I only made one transfer per month).

I'd never have done it if I had to put in any substantial deposit. The one I had essentially did give me $100 with little or no benefit to them.

I haven't seen the same sort of coupon that I had lately, perhaps they realized it was a dumb move on their part?

Now I know where to find Mudede's hidden fortunes! Suit up the team.

Got one in the mail also, and ignored it. I keep a Chase account, fed with a small-ish direct deposit from part of my paycheck, just to have free access to their ATM network, and to pay an occasional bill. So far they haven't hit me with any fees, but as soon as they do, I'm gone.

My day-to-day bank is the WA State Employees Credit Union. No fees, great service, and single-digit credit cards; can't be beat. Only downside is the CU ATM network is small, but if you get your walking-around cash by asking for extra at the grocery store, even that is manageable.

I fired Chase and moved on over to BECU last week. Chase nettled me and then some. I'm a freelancer, so I can't set up a direct deposit with my employer. If it's too much hassle for Chase to handle my meager savings, I won't burden them with my presence as a customer.

I like the shadowy hand in the picture, very creepy.

There's always money in the Banana Stand...

I wouldn't pine for WaMu much. You might recall the reason WaMu was able to offer so many benefits to its account holders is because it was raking it in on subprime mortgages. Guess that didn't work out very well for them (or their employees, shareholders or creditors), hmm?

I got the same offer from Chase this week - although I "only" had to open an account with $5K in order to get the $100.

I had a similar offer as Urguthe Forks last year - I opened a plain checking account with $100, and was given $150 in interest. I had to make at least 1 direct deposit per month with no minimum- I deposited $5 per paycheck - and keep the account open for 6 months. I just closed the account in December. Not a bad return at all. Seems they have rethought the strings attached to their offers, as I bet a lot of people did the same thing.

Great. Now some kook is going to tear apart your bathroom when you are not home...

WaMu wasn't "eaten". It was a poorly and corruptly run business that went bankrupt and was pulled back from the brink by Chase, which saved the jobs of a large chunk of WaMu's employees. I don't understand the loyalty people have for it. Its overdraft fees and the posting order of transactions was outright criminal. WaMu preyed upon poorer customers. People blubber about it being friendly and "local", but WaMu was actually the fifth-largest bank in the nation and partly responsible for the financial crisis. Please stop whining about it getting "eaten".

Yeah, I don't care how much you hate banks. I'm just sick of misplaced brand loyalty for WaMu. They deserved to go under.

Congrats @5!

To reiterate: WaMu was the fifth-largest bank and one of the institutions repackaging bad debt. How is "partly responsible" not correct? Also, I really don't care that you hate the big banks, just stop making like WaMu wasn't one of them.

@23 Don't bother with sgt_doom. "Greedy Jews" is really the only explanation he has to offer.

In the last 2 years I've made a little over $12 in interest on my savings account (they keep lowering the rate they give me, now down to .20%)

In that same time period, I've made $30 in promotions on my visa check card/checking account. (They send me these things, where if I make 5 transactions in a month they give me $10 - two of them have been in Decembers!)

My savings balance is 10x my checking balance. I mean seriously bank - wth?

In the last 2 years I've made a little over $12 in interest on my savings account (they keep lowering the rate they give me, now down to .20%)

In that same time period, I've made $30 in promotions on my visa check card/checking account. (They send me these things, where if I make 5 transactions in a month they give me $10 - two of them have been in Decembers!)

My savings balance is 10x my checking balance. I mean seriously bank - wth?

@18, the WAMU we pine for is the OLD WAMU, when they were known as The Friend of the Family. Competently managed, somewhat conservative in outlook, a comfortable fit for many middle-class Washingtonians. And long before Kerry Killinger ran amok.

Killinger's WAMU failed under, and due to, his incompetent leadership, his ultra-high level of risk-taking, done at the expense of shareholders. Unfortunately, his type of corporate crime doesn't result in prison sentences, no matter how richly deserved.

14 ftw!!!!

Also, @28: I think you probably said a lot of correct things, but I stopped reading after "I don't have enough time to cure your extensive ignorance on this subject, assuming such was possible. But try to actually think, for a change" because you sound like such a jerk. If you want people to ingest your information or even care that you've made information available, then you might try not pushing would-be readers away with such abrasive delivery.
When you speak aggressively, no one hears what you say, because aggression is distracting.

To see if Chase, Bank of America, et al are really vampires. Buy silver. See if that will kill them.

I got something similar from Chase a few weeks ago -- if I can promise to keep $1500 in my account at all times, -- OR -- promise to make a monthly one-time deposit of more than $2000, then they won't charge me any fees. That's a target I could attain with my primary account, but I use Chase as a 'spending' account and deposit a limit amount of funds with each paycheck. And on principle, it's effecitvely a tax on poorer folks who may not get a payday of $2000... which is bullshit and I hope someone calls them out on it.

I'm cancelling my account with Chase (I was a WAMU customer) at the end of this month, as soon as my direct deposit transitions to my local credit union.

Sorry, I tried to listen, all I heard was you being a jerk! You should really work on this social interaction thing. Try again?