Chase Bank and the Half-Percent Return

In which we (hopefully) conclude our Chase Bank saga.


This saga began near the end of my tale, with the disappearance of funds from our Chase Account, and the small drama that followed.    But immediately following The Credit Judgement and the Missing Data, there was one last final straw that got us off our backsides and prompted us to flee Chase.   

As you'll recall, we visited our branch to review our investment accounts, and discovered our accounts had been frozen because Chase didn't know where I worked.    After that was straightened out, we sat down to review our investment results for the year.    This was in roughly June of 2017.

Anne and myself both had separate IRA accounts, and that is primarily what we were reviewing.

Bear in mind that at this time, the stock market had been on what amounts to an 8 year rally, and was climbing even higher after the election and in the first months of 2017.     Of course, our investment portfolio was not just made up of stocks - we are not super aggressive and have a balanced "moderate risk" portfolio.   However, we do have the SAME risk portfolio between the two accounts.

First we reviewed the performance of my IRA investments.    They came in at around 5%.     Certainly far from spectacular given the 20% stock market rise over the preceding year, but as I said it was our choice to have a balanced portfolio.

Then we reviewed Anne's portfolio.    She had received a return of 1/2 percent in the same time period.

The bankers tried to make the excuse that a difference in when the funds were invested was the reason for this discrepancy and the absolutely pitiful performance of Anne's account.   They tried to tell us that we have to look at  the fund performance "over a 10 year period".    Finally, they admitted that particular fund manager had "made some mistakes". 

However you slice it, 1/2 percent return during the biggest bull market in history was pitiful and inexcusable.   I bluntly told our "team" how I felt about their services and performance and how we'd been treated, and made sure they understood that when we removed every penny of our money from their bank, that their superiors would know why.

And sow here we are at what is (hopefully) the end of my tale.    As anyone who has changed banks knows, it is a tremendous hassle to do so when you've sent up electronic banking, automated deposits and transfers, electronic bill pay, investments, and all the other things that can be set up.  Most of this  has fallen on Anne, and it has been a lot of effort. 

It took us some time to decide where our life savings would be secure.    We felt that Chase Bank was simply acting as large banks do these days.   With the recent Wells Fargo scandal and going back to the 2008 bailouts, it is obvious that the large national banks feel they are untouchable and can do what they want; there is no accountability.

This series has been full to TMI (too much information), but I'll relate that we decided to split our savings between an investment broker, a small (operational) amount in a commercial bank, and some of the balance in a large credit union.   

My motivation in relating our experiences was to provide a cautionary tale, as I think we really have to keep an eye on the bankers.    Like big insurance, banking is "legislated into existence", protected, and really has control of your access to your own money.    They are not playing by any rules that I understand any more. 

And yes, I'm ticked off about it.   Over the last two years, "our" bank at which we were a "private client" refused us credit, froze our accounts, accused us of wrongdoing because we sold our house and deposited the proceeds, provided horrible returns on our investments during the biggest bull market in history, and allowed hackers (internal or external) to drain funds from our account with no explanation.   

Current Status Update on missing funds:     We received a letter from Chase indicating they may yet charge our accounts for the inexplicable transactions if they "find them to be valid".      We learned that they believe someone called in to Chase and received help from an operator to perform the transactions that paid off credit cards not owned by us.    They have not explained how the transaction could have been physically done, who did it, or whose credit cards were paid off.   Seems to em that Chase has a really big multi-faceted problem that has nothing to do with us.

We hope this is the end of the story, but we'll see! 

Happy Banking!