Pros and Cons of Chase Bank requiring an enrolled smartphone and govt ID for wire transfers

[donfairplay]

edited title to the more commonly used Chase Bank instead of JPM Chase
Starting May 8, 2025 to send a wire digitally (not at a Chase branch of JP Morgan Financial Center) Chase will require a trusted device, which is specifically a smartphone enrolled with Chase "based on specific criteria" (unspecified yet) and fulfill certain identification requirements, such as scanning and uploading a copy of your driver's license or state ID.

Pros: the chances of some scammer exfiltrating your checking account balance in the wind of the night goes down, although I'm not sure if it would only slow down a hacker transferring funds in a Chase to Chase digital wire.

Cons: Chase will now have a digital copy of your driver's license in some database or Snowflake cloud instance
The chances of an erroneous fat finger digital wire transfer will go up if you're manually punching in the wire info instead of copying it and pasting it on your smartphone (learn to long press, I beg of you)

full text below:

We're introducing new security measures for certain wire transfers when using our digital banking services

To help protect your account, you may be required to use a trusted device to send certain wire transfers when using chase.com or the Chase Mobile app. Here are the key changes that will be effective May 8, 2025:
You'll need to use a trusted device to send certain wire transfers using our digital banking services. A trusted device is a smartphone that has been enrolled with us based on specific criteria.
You may already be using a trusted device. If not, you'll receive step-by-step instructions to make your device trusted the next time you initiate a wire transfer that requires it. You'll need to use a smartphone with the Chase Mobile app installed and fulfill certain identification requirements, such as scanning and uploading a copy of your driver's license or state ID.
If you don't have a trusted device, you may not be able to add recipients or initiate certain wire transfers using our digital banking services. This won't affect your ability to initiate wires at a Chase branch or J.P. Morgan Financial Center.
These policy updates are effective May 8, 2025, and will be detailed in Section 3 of the Online Wire Transfer and Chase Global Transfer Services Addendum, which may appear as a separate agreement or as an Addendum to the Digital Services Agreement.
You can review the new requirements in those agreements beginning February 20, 2025. Here's how to access them:
Log in to your account, click on the Main Menu, and select "Agreements & Disclosures."
Go to "Legal Information" in Profile & Settings or at the bottom of the home page, then select "Legal Agreements and Disclosures."
If you have any questions, please call the number listed on this statement.

[quantAndHold]

My guess is that their current security requirements for wire transfers are either less secure or more of a pain to use than this new scheme. I mean, a few years back, when I wanted to do a wire transfer from one bank (not Chase), their security was so stringent that there wasn’t a way for me to do the transfer without flying to another state and appearing at the bank in person. I ended up doing an ACH transfer to a different account, and doing the wire transfer from that account a few days later. (It was a situation where it was wire transfer or bust.)

Financial institutions appear to all be slowly moving towards turning their apps into authenticators, and having you authenticate using the app and biometrics on your phone. Which has the advantage of being both pretty secure and easy to use. The last piece of the puzzle would be verifying that the phone is actually yours, which is where the government issued ID comes in. A lot of multi factor authentication systems have a hole somewhere, where you only need one authentication factor, usually in the account setup or reset process. Requiring ID to verify a phone is yours, then requiring you to use biometrics on that exact phone would solve that problem. Then if you get a new phone, you’d need to reauthenticate the new phone, with ID and everything.

They don’t necessarily store your ID on their servers. It’s possible that they just check your id, then there’s a code connected with your phone verifying that your ID was checked. One of the tenets of information security is to not store data you don’t need. And once they’ve checked your ID, they don’t need to keep a copy of it anymore.

It all seems pretty reasonable.

[MCST]

Chase is very difficult to use for wires. Sapphire and Private Client accounts are supposed to allow you to wire up to $100k a day for free online. In practice, every wire goes under review, many get rejected, and it takes quite while for their security team to review them. I'm not sure if this new system will make it better or worse. If you want to send a larger wire with Chase, you have to make an appointment and go into a branch.

I'm not necessarily opposed to these extra security features, and it's not just Chase implementing them. At the end of the day, it's better to create a little friction so that someone can't drain your account if they get ahold of your phone or hack into your account.

[techbud]

Chase is very difficult to use for wires. Sapphire and Private Client accounts are supposed to allow you to wire up to $100k a day for free online. In practice, every wire goes under review, many get rejected, and it takes quite while for their security team to review them. I'm not sure if this new system will make it better or worse. If you want to send a larger wire with Chase, you have to make an appointment and go into a branch.

I'm not necessarily opposed to these extra security features, and it's not just Chase implementing them. At the end of the day, it's better to create a little friction so that someone can't drain your account if they get ahold of your phone or hack into your account.

I’m a chase private client customer; I have sent numerous wire transfers small and large (6 figures), and they have all been executed flawlessly with zero hassle. So I would take exception to the assertion that “chase is difficult to use for wire transfers”.

[techbud]

The full text of the new requirements is below. They are not necessarily saying you MUST provide a govt ID, just that they MAY require it, AND it’s one of the options (others being tapping your debit card, debit card cvv, etc.

To help protect your account, we may require that you use a trusted device when you send
certain wire transfers (including Chase Global Transfers) using our Online Services or Mobile
Services. If we prompt you to use a trusted device for your wire transfer and you do not do
so, we will prevent you from adding your wire recipient and/or initiating your wire transfer
until you enroll and use a trusted device. Not all wire transfers will be impacted. You may
continue to send wire transfers from a Chase branch or J.P. Morgan Financial Center
without enrolling or using a trusted device.
A trusted device is an eligible device that has been successfully enrolled with us based on
specific criteria regarding qualifying eligible devices, authentication methods, and types of
identification required. We will establish, and may modify from time to time, in our sole
discretion, the applicable criteria to become a trusted device, including when requiring
previously trusted devices to reestablish trust. Not all devices will be eligible to become a
trusted device. A mobile smartphone device with a current operating system that we support
(such as iOS or Android) is an eligible device; currently, tablets, laptops and personal or
desktop computers are not. We may require you to establish your identity by taking certain
actions, which may include, but is not limited to, one or more of the following: take a photo,
upload, provide or scan a copy of your acceptable form of identification (e.g., driver’s license,
state ID), enter information from your Chase debit card (e.g. CVV), tap your debit or credit
card, or authenticate using a token or biometrics (e.g., self-photo) during the process of
making your eligible device a trusted device. Your identification will be stored or retained only
to the extent permitted by applicable law and will be used as permitted under our privacy

[MCST]

Chase is very difficult to use for wires. Sapphire and Private Client accounts are supposed to allow you to wire up to $100k a day for free online. In practice, every wire goes under review, many get rejected, and it takes quite while for their security team to review them. I'm not sure if this new system will make it better or worse. If you want to send a larger wire with Chase, you have to make an appointment and go into a branch.

I'm not necessarily opposed to these extra security features, and it's not just Chase implementing them. At the end of the day, it's better to create a little friction so that someone can't drain your account if they get ahold of your phone or hack into your account.

I’m a chase private client customer; I have sent numerous wire transfers small and large (6 figures), and they have all been executed flawlessly with zero hassle. So I would take exception to the assertion that “chase is difficult to use for wire transfers”.

Did you have to go in-branch? I thought the max wire online was $100k?

My issue with wiring from Chase was their fraud detection. I appreciate that they are trying to keep my money safe, but sometimes it is a hassle. You could be wiring money to the same account you have wired to before, but something about it triggers the fraud detection. Then the wire goes "under review," you have to wait for Chase to review it, there's a good chance it'll get rejected, you have to call in to authenticate yourself and then start over.

I also don't want to have to make an appointment to go in branch if I want to send a wire. It would be great if they could do it over the phone.

[techbud]

Did you have to go in-branch? I thought the max wire online was $100k?

My issue with wiring from Chase was their fraud detection. I appreciate that they are trying to keep my money safe, but sometimes it is a hassle. You could be wiring money to the same account you have wired to before, but something about it triggers the fraud detection. Then the wire goes "under review," you have to wait for Chase to review it, there's a good chance it'll get rejected, you have to call in to authenticate yourself and then start over.

I also don't want to have to make an appointment to go in branch if I want to send a wire. It would be great if they could do it over the phone.

I did not have to go into the branch. Did it all through the website. Everything went through quick and efficient, no review, no fraud alerts.
The wire limit online for my account is $250K, but I didn't check if the limit would have been higher if I had gone into the branch. (A couple of the wires needed to be split over two days to get over the $250K/day limit)

[Doctor Rhythm]

Didn't you need to show some kind of ID when you originally opened the account?

In any case, I've given my drivers license to the person behind the counter at car rentals, and had them photocopy it just so I can have the sublime pleasure of driving a Chevrolet Spark. Thus, I'm not exactly freaking out that my bank uses my DL to confirm my identify to protect my money from fraud.

As for the phone...I have one and use it for 2FA. When I log into Vanguard's website, it gives me the option of using the mobile app or a phone number for verification, so this requirement seems trivial.

[MCST]

Did you have to go in-branch? I thought the max wire online was $100k?

My issue with wiring from Chase was their fraud detection. I appreciate that they are trying to keep my money safe, but sometimes it is a hassle. You could be wiring money to the same account you have wired to before, but something about it triggers the fraud detection. Then the wire goes "under review," you have to wait for Chase to review it, there's a good chance it'll get rejected, you have to call in to authenticate yourself and then start over.

I also don't want to have to make an appointment to go in branch if I want to send a wire. It would be great if they could do it over the phone.

I did not have to go into the branch. Did it all through the website. Everything went through quick and efficient, no review, no fraud alerts.
The wire limit online for my account is $250K, but I didn't check if the limit would have been higher if I had gone into the branch. (A couple of the wires needed to be split over two days to get over the $250K/day limit)

Interesting, thanks! I got a ton of fraud flags when I was doing ACH initially. Do you utilize your assigned banker at all? If you can do everything without having to interact with Chase that would be great.

[UpperNwGuy]

What is the problem with what Chase requires? I don't see the point of this thread.

[techbud]

Do you utilize your assigned banker at all? If you can do everything without having to interact with Chase that would be great.

All of this was done online. I almost never use my assigned banker.