Chase Private Client: Requirements, Benefits and the Path for Non-Residents

The requirement: 150,000 dollars, but not in checking

Chase Private Client Checking costs 35 dollars a month. The fee is waived when the statement period shows an average beginning-day balance of at least 150,000 dollars. What counts is not the checking account alone but the sum of linked Chase deposits and J.P. Morgan Wealth Management investment accounts. Chase savings accounts, CDs and money market accounts count as well.

That is the most important point in this whole article: the money does not have to sit idle. If you transfer a brokerage account with 150,000 dollars to J.P. Morgan, you meet the threshold without holding a dollar of cash in checking. For someone who is invested in US stocks or ETFs anyway, the status is effectively free.

As a second route Chase names linking a qualifying checking account. Which accounts qualify is phrased differently across Chase's pages, one of them mentions a Platinum Business Checking account. I would only plan around that route after talking to the banker.

On top there is regularly a new-customer bonus for fresh money, most recently tiered at 1,000 dollars from 150,000, 2,000 from 250,000 and 3,000 dollars from 500,000, each with a 90-day holding period. These promotions have deadlines and rotate, so the bonus is an extra, not a reason for the decision.

What the status delivers

The benefits are unspectacular, but for people who move money across the Atlantic they are exactly the right ones.

• No Chase fees on wire transfers, incoming or outgoing. If you regularly transfer between a European and a US account this is where you save the most, and the release goes through your own banker instead of a hotline.
• No ATM fees worldwide, with third-party ATM fees refunded. The foreign exchange adjustment fee on the debit card is dropped as well.
• Higher card limits: 3,000 dollars a day at ATMs, 7,500 dollars a day in purchases with the Private Client debit card.
• A dedicated banker and a J.P. Morgan Wealth Management advisor. The banker is the real value. They know your case, release transfers and are the person who puts in a word on the next credit card or a limit request.
• Smaller extras: a 0.25 percentage point discount on auto financing through chase.com, Privileges cards for family members with their own limits, a limited number of overdrafts without fees.

What you do not get is just as important. No entitlement to a credit card, that decision still runs through underwriting. No portfolio management included, the J.P. Morgan advisor sells investment products and advice separately. And no private bank: Lombard loans, multiple booking centres or structuring are not on offer here. If you want to compare, the tiers are laid out in From Fintech to Private Bank.

The tier below and the competition

If you do not reach 150,000, Chase Sapphire Banking gives you most of the fee benefits from a 75,000 dollar average balance, otherwise 25 dollars a month. ATM fee refunds worldwide, free wires and no foreign exchange adjustment fee on the debit card are included there too. The difference to Private Client is essentially the named banker and the advisor.

Citi sets the bar higher: Citigold from a 200,000 dollar average monthly balance, Citigold Private Client from one million, with 800,000 enough to keep it. HSBC Premier waives the monthly fee from 100,000 dollars in deposits or investments, or alternatively with 5,000 dollars in monthly direct deposits or an HSBC mortgage in the US. HSBC is interesting for Europeans because the bank works internationally and supports existing customers from other countries when they start in the US. For sheer branch density and the card programme behind it, however, Chase is hard to beat.

The path for non-residents, in this order

Chase has no programme for non-residents, but no ban either. The path runs through the branch, and it has an order you should not reverse.

First: an ordinary Chase account, opened in person. This only works on site in the US, with a passport as ID and a solid address. According to reports from other account holders the passport is often enough in the branch, some staff ask for a US tax number. If you have an ITIN you avoid the discussion, how to apply for one is in the ITIN guide. What counts for the address and why a fintech account does not help here is in the article on US bank accounts for non-residents.

Second: consolidate the balance. After the account is open you can open a J.P. Morgan Wealth Management brokerage account and link it. Transferring 150,000 dollars in ETFs meets the threshold. If you wire cash, announce the wire to the branch beforehand, large incoming amounts from abroad on a young account otherwise trigger questions.

Third: request the status in the branch. The upgrade to Private Client goes through a Private Client Banker on site. They check the combined balance and convert the account. There is no online route for this.

Fourth: use the banker for the actual goal. For most readers the goal is a US credit card with a reasonable limit. Private Client status does not replace underwriting, but a banking relationship with six figures and a banker who accompanies the application change the starting position. How the score is built is in the article US credit score from 0 to 700+.