So back in August I posted this about my experiences in a Chase branch in NYC. I’ve been a busy guy since then, so haven’t had a chance to get back to Chase and talk about this whole “your account goes inactive” thing. The post ended up on the Consumerist website as well, and it got a fair amount of comments. In typical interweb fashion, some thought me an idiot. Some screamed conspiracy. And some more thought me an idiot for choosing to save my money in a savings account.

So I went back to a different Chase branch today, and asked to speak to the branch manager. The manager knew about accounts going inactive, but couldn’t tell me if it happened after 3 months or 9 months. He knew about an account going dormant, but didn’t know when that would happen after going inactive. He knew about the state taking the money after a certain amount of time, but didn’t know when. He did say that setting up an automated transfer between my checking and savings account to avoid inactive status wouldn’t work, because “what if you up and died, you wouldn’t want the automated payment to keep going, would you?” Well, actually, I think a $1 transfer payment on a monthly basis wouldn’t be my biggest problem, in that case.

So all of this makes me realize that Chase doesn’t want for people to have money they don’t actively spend in savings or checking accounts. The comments I saw, especially on the Consumerist post, make me realize that it wasn’t just that I picked the wrong people to talk to, its that Chase bankers do not clearly understand the bank policy. After telling me that setting up an automated transfer between checking and savings wouldn’t work, because I could die and have these rogue $1 payments continue, he tells me that to keep my savings account active, I can just go online and schedule a payment. I say, well I could schedule a recurring payment, right? “Sure”, he says. Awesome. That makes a whole lot of sense. And this is the branch’s general manager.

Well, peoples of the interweb, thank you for all of your pointers. You have shown me the way. Now I need to look into other places to keep my savings, maybe a place that has a decent interest rate.

Namaste.