JP Morgan goes after rich millennials, offering Sapphire users 60,000 points to sign up for checking
- Credit card customers who open a new Sapphire bank account are eligible for a 60,000-point bonus worth up to $900 when redeemed for travel.
- The catch: Users have to bring at least $75,000 in deposits or investments and keep it at the bank for at least three months.
- The move is J.P. Morgan's latest attempt to snag affluent millennials early in their financial lives and is happening amid increased competition for deposits as interest rates rise.
J.P. Morgan Chase is upping the ante for fans of its popular rewards program.
Credit card customers who open a new Sapphire bank account are eligible for a 60,000-point sign-on bonus, according to the New York-based bank. That's worth up to $900 when redeemed for travel through the bank's Ultimate Rewards portal.
The catch: Users have to bring at least $75,000 in deposits or investments and keep it at the bank for at least three months.
J.P. Morgan, the biggest U.S. bank, is hoping that the halo from its successful Sapphire credit cards will extend to its new bank account. The lender caused a stir in 2016 when it introduced its Sapphire Reserve card with a 100,000-point sign-on bonus and other lavish perks. While that card has cost the firm hundreds of millions of dollars in rewards expenses, executives have hinted that they would try to deepen ties with their new card customers, who tended to be relatively affluent and younger.
Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has often cited Amazon Prime as an inspiration for the bank's growing bundle of services. Just as with the Amazon membership, the bank plans on giving valued customers an ever-widening list of perks to keep them at J.P. Morgan.
More than half of Sapphire's card customers are millennials, and the bank hopes to snag them just as they begin to accumulate greater wealth. That push is even more urgent now as competition for deposits heats up from online banks that typically offer higher interest rates.
The Sapphire bank account, announced last month, comes with perks including access to events and members-only lounges as well as unlimited free trades on the bank's recently announced brokerage app. Upcoming events where members can access an exclusive Chase lounge include concerts by Maroon 5 and Drake.
The offer begins in October, but people who signed up for a Sapphire bank account when it was announced last month are still eligible if they are new or upgraded account holders. Points are awarded 45 days after a client maintains balances for 90 days. Those who were automatically switched into a Sapphire account because they already kept $75,000 or more at the bank won't get the bonus.
Point hoarders, take note: The promotion can be stacked with the current 50,000-point sign-on bonus for new Sapphire Reserve credit card users, as well as a 75,000-point bonus for card users who apply for a mortgage through the bank.