You might be familiar with Chase Bank if you watch TV. They’ve been ploughing a lot of money into advertising recently.
Let’s look at what Chase Bank offers customers in the U.K.
Chase is an American digital bank owned by J.P. Morgan – a big player in US banking. It came to the United Kingdom in 2021 with some great introductory offers including a popular £20 referral scheme for recommending friends to open an account. The £20 offer has now ended, however a Chase UK bank account comes with some great features.
Sick of scrolling? Here are the quick key takeaways:
Decent, but not market-leading, interest rate on savings.
1% cashback on general spending is the best you can get for a UK debit card.
App-only bank - no high street branches.
UK call centre with good service (from personal experience).
Best UK debit card for foreign spending - but no Section 75 protection.
A decent secondary account for many UK customers, alongside a traditional high street bank account.
Top Chase Bank UK Account Features
1% Cashback on spending for the first 12 months.
Ongoing 1% cashback after 12 months when you pay in £500 a month.
5% interest on ‘round ups’ – rounding up spare change to the nearest £1.
3.3% AER (3.25% Gross) interest on a linked savings account.
A budget-helpful option to open multiple savings accounts for different savings goals.
Instant notifications on incoming payments.
24/7 messaging and phone support.
Debit card details including pin number stored in the Chase App.
Options to disable/block/restrict payments easily.
Here’s a bit more detail on some of these features.
Chase UK is a digital bank – no high street branches.
If you prefer the option of a physical bank branch, then Chase might not be for you. Chase is a digital-only UK bank. The only way to access your account is through the Chase app.
Cashback is a major benefit of Chase.
1% cashback is a really easy way of earning a bit of extra cash on your everyday spending.
New customers automatically get cashback for 12 months. To get cashback beyond the first 12 months, you need to pay in £500 a month to your Chase current account from an external source. This then activates your next monthly cashback up to £15 a month.
Once you’ve made a purchase, cashback is usually available to pay back into your account within a few days.
Note that it doesn’t include things like bank transfers, paying for rent, medical services or legal fees.
Here’s a full list of exclusions:
Account and prepaid card funding
Antique shops, including repairs and restoration
Art dealers and galleries
Bail and bond payments
Bank fees such as product fees, promotional merchandise, financial consultations and loan fees
Boat dealers
Car and van dealers - new and used sales, services, repairs, parts and leasing
Cash withdrawals
Cheques
College and university fees
Cryptocurrencies
Debt repayments
Deposits
Gambling transactions
Government services not classified elsewhere
Hospital fees
Insurance sales, underwriting and premiums
Intra-government purchases
Money orders
Money transfers
MoneySend transactions
Motor home, camper and trailer dealers
Motorcycle shops and dealers
Nursing and personal care facilities
Pawnbrokers
Precious metals
Professional and financial services
Real estate agent and management fees
Savings bonds
Securities — stocks, bonds, commodities and mutual funds
Stamp and coin stores
Tax payments
Timeshares
Travellers Cheques and foreign currency
I've used my Chase debit card to pay for new tyres and air-conditioning service for my car and still got cashback. So it's not clear how car servicing and repairs are categorised in terms of cashback exclusion.
Cashback on purchases you return
If you buy something with your Chase UK debit card and then return it, your cashback will be taken back too. If you've already cashed it in by transferring it to your main Chase UK account, then your live total in the rewards section of the app will show as a negative figure.
For example, if you bought something for £100, got £1 cashback and then returned the item, your cashback live total would should as £-1.00.
You'd then continue to earn cashback on other purchases to get it back to a positive value in order to cash in more of your cashback.
The interest rate on a Chase Savings account is not market leading.
As of May 22nd 2023, Chase UK pays 3.3% interest on money held in savings account. To get a savings account, you need to first have a Chase current account. In fact, you can open up to 20 savings accounts linked to your current account and they’ll all pay interest.
Make sure to open a savings account in the app once your current is open. Otherwise, you won’t get the interest rate.
There are other bank accounts and cash ISAs paying higher interest rates than Chase. At the moment, the 3.3% interest from Chase is about 0.45% lower than the leading market rate for a similar instant-access bank account.
Additional savings accounts can make budgeting easier.
Given you can open multiple savings accounts, it can be a useful way of managing budgets and putting savings towards certain goals. For instance, you might want savings just for holidays, or a new car or a wedding. You can easily split money into different accounts to keep track of your progress.
24/7 support - including a U.K. call centre
Customer service includes a call centre and app messaging service. This is better than some other digital-only UK banks that fail to provide a call centre.
I recently had to contact Chase and the call centre level of service was surprisingly good, having heard from friends using Monzo - a similar app-only bank - how poor their customer service was. Feedback on Chase UK customer service in 2022 was also pretty poor - it looks like they've massively improved things in 2023 as they've become more established.
My call was answered in less than 5 minutes and the adviser I spoke to even called me back to double check the problem had been sorted out. When you can't rely on speaking to somebody face-to-face in a high street branch, then knowing that somebody on the end of the phone will genuinely be able to help is a big comfort.
The app chat function is slightly frustrating in that it's hard to know if it's a real person or just a very advanced bot. I get the impression you're taken to a chat bot initially and then the app refers you to a human if it can't figure out how to help you.
That said, for most of my queries, the chat function eventually gave me the answer. If your query is urgent, phoning is much easier.
I recommend saving their number - 0800 376 3333 - separately too. Calling them from the app is easy, but if you've lost your phone you'll need to dial the number from elsewhere as opposed to just clicking a button.
Digital Debit Card
You’ll get a physical debit card to use in shops, but it won’t contain any details on it like the long card number or expiry date.
Instead, the Chase app contains all your card details and pin number. If you like having a card with the numbers on it – for things like paying over the phone or online – a numberless card can be a bit of a faff.
The app does provide a handy copy and paste function so that you can pay for things on your phone a bit quicker. Not so useful on other devices though. It depends if you're happy using the remember function for card details on your browser.
Instant notifications of payments
A reassuring feature is that you can get instant notifications of money landing in your account plus a secure system that requests you approving outgoing payments in the app before they are made.
This is really useful for impulse purchases. Asking you to confirm if you're happy to make the payment has actually stopped me buying things in the past that I didn't need.
Additional FAQs about Chase Bank UK.
Can I use my Chase card abroad?
Yes, you can use your Chase card abroad.
No fees to use your card abroad, including cash withdrawals (watch out for ATM charges though).
Benefit from 1% cashback as per the terms for UK spending.
With cashback, this makes the Chase debit card the best UK debit card for spending abroad in terms of value for money.
If you’re making large purchases abroad, you may want to use a credit card instead to get additional Section 75 protection.
Can I pay cash into my Chase Bank UK account?
As Chase Bank has no high street branches in the UK, you currently can't pay cash into your account. You also can't pay into your Chase UK account at the Post Office.
Chase UK is in the process of setting up a cash pay in method using a PayPoint location. This is expected to be available in 2024.
Are there any fees to open a Chase Bank UK account?
There are no fees to open a Chase bank account.
Is Chase UK FSCS Protected?
Yes, Chase Bank has FSCS protection in the U.K. up to £85,000 per customer. That’s in total across all current and savings accounts you have with Chase.
Does Chase UK offer a joint account?
Unfortunately Chase UK does not currently offer joint accounts.
Can you get a Chase UK credit card?
No, Chase UK does not offer a credit card option.
Does Chase UK accept CHAPS payments?
Chase UK doesn't currently accept CHAPS or Swift payments. But it is part of the faster payments system with BACS. If a CHAPS payment is attempted to a Chase UK account, it may take several days for the payment to be found and returned to the payer.
Does Chase UK offer a switching service?
Chase UK is part of the Current Account Switch Service. So if you'd like to move another bank account or building society account to Chase UK, then it takes around 7 days when using the switching service.
The Current Account Switching Service is a great option if you'd like to have Chase UK as your main bank account.
Limitations with Chase Bank UK
No business account options.
No overdraft facility.
No website banking – app only.
No cheque book facility.
App logs you out very quickly if inactive.
Is Chase Bank UK safe?
Chase UK comes with the reputation of an American banking giant and is regulated by the FCA – the organisation responsible for overseeing UK banks.
Security encryption ensures your online account is protected.
Bear in mind that your Chase bank account is effectively managed through your smart phone. If you lost your phone, accessing your account could be difficult.
Keep their phone number saved separately on another device - 0800 376 3333. So if you lose your phone, you can reach customer support.
Summary
This review of Chase Bank UK has gone through the key features of a Chase bank account, as well as some of the technical limitations.
If you’re happy to do all your banking on an app, Chase UK offers some attractive benefits. It’s regulated and protected just like the well-known high street banks.
You may even want to consider have this account alongside another bank account. Opening one won’t cost you anything.
