Maybe this has been mentioned before, but I thought I'd share this.

My husband and I finally had it with the bank we have been at for over 10 years, but had kept that account open because we both have Chexsytem entries (from that bank, go figure) and we figured we couldn't go anywhere else for a while until those dropped off.

We had heard about the Chase Access account where anyone can get it no matter what, and can transfer to a regular account after 6 months if all is well...anyways, we go to Chase, tell them we want to open that account, they run our SSN's...we were declined for a regular account, big suprise there. But the guy asked why we would be declined, we told him we were in Chexsystems, he talked to the manager, and overrode the denial, so we got a regular Chase account with checks and debit cards, the whole shebang.

I just wanted to share that. I'm sure not every branch will do this, but it worked for us and we didn't even ask for them to override it or anything.

please be careful with Chase, they are known to use Primay Payment Systems, as well as close accounts later after they have been opened, please dont put all your eggs in one basket with them.

Why are u in chex?

We are in chex because my husband's former employer had bounced a bunch of paychecks with us. They had initially cleared, we wrote our bills, and 2 weeks later they had come back bounced. He banked through the same bank as we did, so they knew what was going on, but we still got reported to chex because we were not able to pay back all the fees and bounced checks (and he never paid us back) within whatever time frame we were given. Actually, we had paid it all 2 days after they reported us to chex. : (

They allowed us to reopen our account with the condition that they put a 10 day hold on all deposits other than cash and we could not have a debit card ever.

What is Primary Payment Systems? I looked it up and it said something about early fraud detection, but what does that mean as far as the consumer goes?

Why would they close our account at a later date if they opened it for us? And if they closed it, they would have to give us our money back seeing as we wouldn't owe them money...is that really something to worry about? I have heard of that happening before, but it seems like unless you were having issues with them, they wouldn't do that??

"In the near future ..probably within the next year or so, it is going to get harder and harder to find an account if you are reported to chexsystems. the vast majority of people reported to chexsystems are also showing up as being reported to EWS. Right now many banks that never used chexsystems are switching to EWS. Many of which do not tell customers that they use this service, but they do. Generally it is a report that is checked AFTER an account is already opened.

Early Warning Services ( previously Primary Payment Systems ) is now being used by banks and credit unions the same as chexsystems. Along with other participating organizations, they now share information about potential customers that may be a risk through Identity Check . Identity check distinguishes high-risk individuals from profitable customers the same as chexsystems."

And yes, if they decided to close your account at a later date, they would give you your money back, but it would be placed on hold first while they close the account, and this usually lasts anywhere from 11 to 14 business days.

And yes, Chase, as well as any other bank who uses EWS will close your account without any notification and whether or not the account is in good standing.

You can order a copy of your EWS report to see if you were reported to them, they can be reached at 800-325-7775.

We went to Chase today to try and open an account and could only get the Access account. Banker said they could override the denial but they have a new account "backroom" that audits all new account and will close them quickly if anything isn't up to snuff. There are other ways to get an override apparently..having a car loan with Chase is one...

Chase is a good second chance account and they shoudl allow the account to convert to a regular checking as long as it stays in good standing after 6 months. I still recommend using acccounts that do not use chexsystems at all if possible more than teh second chance ones.

To add to what mca just said, when we went in to Chase and told them we thought we could only get the Access account, he had told us that after 6 months of being in good standing, they would convert it to a regular checking account. It does sound like they are pretty good about that sort of thing. When we went in and applied, my husband came through okay for a regular checking and mine came through saying "declined" for either account--I think it may have had to do with one of my past credit accounts with them being included in BK. I am really paranoid that our account is going to get shut down after reading one of the above posts, but I have my fingers crossed that they won't shut us down. We had already closed our other bank account and there are NO non-chex banks around here, so we'd be so screwed if we lost this account!

westie, where do you live?