[Update] PSA: Don’t Use ACH for Chase Bank Account Fundings, Avoid Account Lockup

Update 11/22/20: Just a small update on this: Apparently, even ACH transfers long after the account is open trigger lockups with Chase on a regular basis – it’s not limited to the initial account funding. I just experienced this personally, and I see other readers in the comments reporting the same. In short, you probably don’t want to bank with Chase for your main hub bank account.

Original Post 1/18/19:

There are many recent reports of people who opened a new Chase checking or savings account and had their account locked up when attempting to fund it via ACH from an external bank.

Usually the fix is to have a 3-way call with Chase and the external bank and clear up your Chase account. Yet other times they require you to come in with 2 forms of ID or worse. Here are some of the reports of people who’ve bumped into this issue: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

From the comments of this post, it appears the issue affects:

even transactions as little as $1,500 (and possibly less)
both personal and business accounts
even Chase accounts which are many years old (not specific to new Chase accounts). It has been suggested, though, that the first 30 days is more of an issue.
whether you fund the Chase account with ACH-pull from an external bank or if you do an ACH-push from an external bank into your Chase account. Initially we wrote only to avoid ACH-pull from Chase’s end, but readers note that even pushing funders from an external bank to a Chase account might trigger the security alert.

It’s a big mistake in the system on Chase’s part because it’s normal for new accounts to transfer in large sums of money and it gives a bad taste to new customers.

A few recommended options:

I’d recommend transferring large sums to fund your Chase account by depositing a check in-branch or via the mobile app.
Alternatively, you can try doing smaller transactions which is obviously a pain.
Zelle/Quickpay might be another option.
While there have been reports of lock-up for ACH-pushes from another account, most reports are of ACH-pulls from Chase’s end, so it might be safer to try the external push method from the two options.
A reader suggests that You Invest accounts might not have the same sensitivity as checking and savings accounts. (In the case of You Invest, it may not be possible/easy to deposit a check, so you may have to either ACH-pull or ACH-push. ACH-push is probably a bit safer.)

A lot of us open Chase checking and savings account for the bonuses they offer, especially the current $600 offer and Sapphire Banking offer which many of us are doing. During account opening, you can fund the initial $25-$50 deposit with a debit card, and small amounts should be okay via ACH, regardless. It’s just when your doing the full account funding to trigger the bonus (usually it requires $15,000 or $25,000) that you trip into their security system.

Here are a few current Chase deposit bonuses:

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