Update 6/15/26: Official landing page shows they aren’t accepting new applicants. Not sure how I missed that originally. Hat tip to reader JP
According to a reader that went in branch to try and get their existing Chase checking account upgraded to Sapphire checking it seems that this account will be discontinued as Chase are phasing out that account. The reader wanted it to access ATMs worldwide with no fees and were informed they would need Chase Private Client checking going forward ($150,000 in assets to keep fee free).
Other benefits from Chase Sapphire checking are as follows:
- No ATM fees worldwide (including ATM fee refunds for non Chase ATMs)
- No foreign exchange fees
- No fees for wire transfers (includes both domestic and international wires)
ATM refunds are fairly common (e.g Fidelity offers it) so not a huge loss.
Hat tip to reader G S
To clarify, it’s not just the fee reimbursements that this was valuable for, it’s also the no foreign transaction fees. Yes, Schwab has that, as does Capital One, but Schwab will close you down if they find you’re a non-resident, and Capital One is switching their debit cards to the Discover network, which isn’t widely accepted at overseas ATMs.
I wanted to upgrade to cpp but there seems to be no additional benefits and worst part yet, … you need to talk to a human to upgrade. If they get rid of sapphire banking they’d better make it easier for people to upgrade.
It’s troubling that they have removed Sapphire Checking from the Additional Banking Services and Fees pdf. While the Chase website still shows some of the information in that document, who knows how long until they change that?
There’s a separate pdf for discontinued accounts
https://www.chase.com/content/dam/chase-ux/documents/personal/checking/notforsale-consumer-absf.pdf
Sapphire Checking was the weakest out of the big four mass affluent banking offers. The $1000 ATM limit for out of network was atrociously low and only valid if you had a special Sapphire ATM card, which I never was able to obtain. Otherwise it was the standard $500. The main benefit was free wires both ways, for those who needed to take advantage of it.
Bank of America at $100k in assets is the strongest with the 75% (or 50% in the future) points boost and unlimited ATM withdrawals, although they charge for outgoing wires. Wells Fargo had a $5,020 ATM limit but required $250k for unlimited ATM reimbursements and free wires. Citigold is also pretty good at $200k and I may move over there next after BoA.
Hopefully, Chase won’t eventually force grandfathered Sapphire account holders to either switch to Private Client or downgrade to a Chase checking account with fewer perks. Optimistically speaking, many would think not because this might inspire a big exodus of Sapphire money to a different bank. I guess it depends on the total amount of money in all Sapphire accounts combined.
Sapphire Checking has been removed from the checking landing page.
This was discontinued to new applicants a couple of months ago.
Still shows here:
https://www.chase.com/personal/fees/sapphire-checking
.
If you read the info at your link you’ll see it states its discontinued for new applicants.
“ATM refunds are fairly common “
I feel like they’re quite rare, I can think of Fidelity, Schwab, Etrade, and Lending Club. I’m sure there’s more, but wouldn’t say common. Those are all free accounts at least though.
Kind of crazy they’re discontinuing it considering all these free accounts do offer it
I’d say that’s fairly common considering Chase is requiring a $75k/$150k balance for the feature…
Oh yeah, I guess just a difference in what we mean by “common”. 99.9% of accounts don’t offer those features, but yeah its not a big loss regardless since there are plenty of free alternatives, sucks for people who like to keep it all together though.
You mentioned ones with “Unlimited” refunds that are “free” accounts. Tons of credit unions offer it as well with varying amounts of $10-30 per month.
The $75k/$25mo is matched by several other major banks with varying asset levels though.
I think the vast majority of those credit unions require you to do debit spends and sometimes ach/dd for those refunds, but yeah accounts offering it at all aren’t free. I don’t think this is a major loss for anyone except people who really liked to do all their banking in one place
Out of the big banks the one benefit was Chase Sapphire at $75k was the lowest out of the four. BoA requires $100k to get unlimited reimbursements, Citigold $200k, and Wells Fargo $250k. If you just need one reimbursement a month, because the big bank ATM networks are pretty good, then you could go to $20k for Wells and $50k for BoA. I think the nicer thing about Sapphire was no FTF for international withdrawals, which required the $1M tier on BoA.
My credit union LMCU does two rebates a month.
No fees, 4% interest on the first 15K and the customer service of a credit union.
https://www.chase.com/personal/fees/sapphire-checking
Straight from the horse’s mouth that it’s a discontinued product.
Thanks, JP. Embarrassing that I missed that
TIL there was a Sapphire Checking
It had a bonus in 2019: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/chase-sapphire-banking-60000-chase-ultimate-rewards-upgrade-offer-publicly-available