Chase continues to evolve into one of the country’s leading banks, with branches practically everywhere. Its presence online completely complements the delivery of its services to its targeted customers. When you have a Chase Bank account, chances are, you also have access to online banking. They ask for your email address, and without you thinking much about it, you’ll realize you can access your account online, too.
The experience goes like this:
1) You are shepherded to their online site, complete with your user ID and the password – in case someone was ahead of you with your preferred ID, you’ll be told so. You then think of another ID. The officer in the bank will give you instructions on what will work best so as to access your account online. The system has been designed to swiftly get you sold to the virtues of online banking: convenience and time savings. And actually, you can try getting your “User ID” online – click on the “go” of the “get a User ID” statement somewhere on the top right portion of the webpage, then follow the procedures and provide the information asked of you online, and you’ll then acquire your ID.
2) Armed with details of your main account with the bank, try accessing or doing a google on “Chase,” and you’ll be led to several links (or even to the bank’s site itself), and feel secure exploring the site. On occasions, you’ll notice being led to a page that tries to sell you some particular service that Chase wants you to consider. But you can always choose to “get into your accounts” by hitting the button that’s usually placed somewhere on the page (probably at the bottom, as Chase continues to redesign its webpages). Then the page leads to another one with selections on “Personal Banking,” “Business,” “Personal Lending,” or “Retirement & Lending.”
3) In each of these current 4 main page selections, you can click on what specific transaction you’d like to do for now, and what’s relevant in your mind now. For example, under “Personal Banking,” you have options for Checking, Credit Cards, Savings, CDs, Debit Cards, Gift Cards, Student Center, and Online Banking & Bill Pay. Even if you’re not logged in, i.e. you haven’t inputted your password, you’ll still be led to pages that read like and have the feel of an ongoing promotion. All you need to do is to read closely, and you’ll be guided to what catches your fancy now, or what exactly you want just now.
4) If you’ve been away from the page for sometime, a small page shows up asking you to log in again. This is a security procedure, as someone may, most probably, breach the system and will thus expose your account to risks associated with having an online presence. But you just have to click on the right button somewhere on the page, and you’ll go back to the previous page. You will have to input your password (and your user ID, if you didn’t choose to let the page remember your ID).
5) The main page offers other choices; it also promotes other services that Chase has figured out will catch your attention. Whatever is new with Chase is almost always shown on this main page – they’ve been changing all the time given interesting developments in banking these days.
There’s also the choice to see a demo first on what the service is all about right on your computer monitor. These demos nearly include all the services offered online by Chase.
And Chase also sends text messages and emails to your inbox, and even phone calls, about the status of your accounts. Entries made into the system including withdrawals, deposits, transfers can all be seen online.
They also make “announcements” posted somewhere on the online page when the system goes on a scheduled downtime, i.e when the website can’t be accessed. Yes, just like us humans, even machines have to take a break once in a while.
As with everyone making the most optimal use of online banking, again, you will have to read carefully, and try the services that are relevant to you at least 10 times. As they say, “it takes getting used to it.” If you’re unsatisfied with your online banking experience so far, head off to your bank, and ask for a guided tour by a real person who will probably be an officer of Chase. That’s what happened to me.
My experience with my Checking Account and Savings Account (so far) with Chase has been satisfying – they have patiently guided me in my banking needs, in more ways than one.