Chase to give as much as $1,200 in rewards for Sapphire checking

The
latest Chase Sapphire offering is a bank
account.
Jason Kempin / Staff / Getty
Images

• 
  Chase announced this week it will offer 60,000 Ultimate
  Rewards points to customers who open up a new Sapphire
  Banking account — worth as much as $1,200. 
• But, to be eligible, customers must hold $75,000 in deposits
  or investments with Chase.
• Current Chase checking customers can upgrade for $25. 
• This is the latest gambit by Chase to lure in wealthy
  millennials with its Sapphire brand, which started with credit
  cards and has also experimented with mortgages.

First it
was credit cards, then it was mortgages, and now it’s a
checking account: JPMorgan Chase is sweetening its Sapphire
offering targeted at rich millennials even more, giving as much
as $1,200 in rewards to customers who open a premium checking
account with the bank.

Chase announced this week it was offering 60,000 Ultimate
Rewards points to customers who open up a new Sapphire Banking
account. The Points
Guy values Ultimate Rewards at $0.02 a piece, making the
points haul worth as much as $1,200. 

Like the Sapphire Reserve credit card — whose cardholders have

an average income of $180,000 — this product is geared toward
the young affluent demographic. To be eligible for a Sapphire
bank account, which was announced last month, you’ll have to have
$75,000 in deposits or investments to keep with Chase. 

Most Americans have far less. The median US consumer
has just $2,900 in their checking account and
$5,200 in savings. 

For Chase customers who don’t have that kind of cash but still
want to upgrade, it’ll cost a monthly fee of $25.

That may make sense for some, given the perks. Beyond the initial
sign-up bonus,
Sapphire Banking also offers:

• No ATM fees, worldwide
• No wire transfer fees
• No fees on the first four overdrafts within 12 months
• Free online stock and ETF trading with JPMorgan, which
  
  just announced a new stock-trading app
• Early access to sports events and concerts

JPMorgan has had massive success luring new customers with its
Sapphire brand, though it has
simultaneously seen rewards cost skyrocket and eat away at
profitability.

The Sapphire Reserve, which launched two years ago with an
eye-popping 100,000-point sign-up bonus, was simply
the gateway drug to bring young, wealthy customers into the
fold. 

Not long after, the bank started experimenting with 100,000-point
offers to Sapphire customers who closed a mortgage with the bank
— a move that was so
popular with millennials that the bank revived it a year
later, albeit at a lower point total.  

Now, $1,200 in rewards points for a bank account is the latest
Sapphire expansion. Will it prove similarly irresistible to the
young, affluent clients JPMorgan is chasing?