Will Chase Bank start charging customers for services related to their accounts?
Financial services giant JP Morgan has warned 86 million customers that they may have to begin paying extra charges to maintain their Chase bank accounts.
On top of dealing with the high cost of living and inflation, Chase customers may soon have to bear additional costs for maintaining an account in the bank.
Financial giant JP Morgan has warned it might begin impose new charges on their clients for services they currently make use of for free, as a result of proposed regulatory guidelines. The new fees would affect 86 million bank customers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The new rules would impose an $8 cap on late credit card payments and $3 on overdraft charges.
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Chase: New rules will make credit more expensive
CEO of consumer and community banking at JPMorgan Marianne Lake warns that Chase will be passing on the burden of these additional costs to its clients, per WSJ.
The leading banking institution will thus stop offering certain services for free, including checking accounts and wealth management assistance. Lake states that she expects others in the banking sector to do the same.
The CEO says the new guidelines have not been thought through well enough and could adversely affect the sector “who can least afford it.” She adds that credit will become more costly, while only the richest customers may be able to avail of free checking accounts.
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aims to trash ‘junk fees’
Earlier this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had recommended new regulations that sought to eliminate so-called junk fees that have been eating holes in the pockets of Americans every year.
The CFPB says approximately 23 million households in the country have to pay overdraft fees each year. The new regulations could result in annual savings of up to $150 for these bank clients.
According to a senate committee hearing on consumer protection held in May, “credit card late fees are the most costly and frequently applied junk fee.”
Committee chair Senator Sherrod Brown said that according to one report, one in five adult Americans, or approximately 52 million people, paid a credit card late fee in 2023.