Chase is increasing the minimum payout for a cashback deal to £1,500 per month

Chase Bank has made another change to its 1 percent cash back offering on checking accounts, creating a bigger hoop to jump through.

The cashback deal has been hugely popular since the US giant launched in Britain in 2021 and saw millions of people open the account to get the cashback.

The digital bank, part of American giant JP Morgan, has always had a cashback offer of 1 percent on the account – which was previously unlimited.

Last year it created a maximum limit of £15 per month on the amount that could be claimed – and now it has added another caveat.

To get the cashback deal, customers will have to pay £1,500 per month. Previously, €500 per month had to be deposited into the account in order to pay out the cashback.

Experts say the new monthly fee is likely a move to entice more customers to treat it not as a secondary bill, but rather as their main bill.

Those who have had Chase for more than a year will soon have to meet the criteria to continue receiving the cash back.

Those who have had an account for less than a year will have to pay £1,500 per month once the twelve month period has expired.

Those who sign up today will get the cashback without having to pay a monthly fee into the account – and then, after a year, the £1,500 per month will apply.

For the first time, customers can pay the £1,500 per month into a Chase round-up saver if they wish, rather than into the current account to qualify for the cashback. You must have a Chase checking account to open a round-up saver.

To pay £1,500 into the account each month, many will need to have their salary paid into their Chase account – making it their primary account.

James Blower, founder of the website Saving Guru, says: ‘Chase is probably noticing that many of his customers are using it as a secondary account rather than a primary account.

“That is, they keep their existing bank account, but transfer some money to Chase to spend on the card, and use it as a prepaid card.

‘This is something that other newcomers, such as Monzo, discovered in the early days.

“This change is likely intended to encourage more customers to cash out their paychecks and use Chase as their primary account, and to incentivize higher-value savers who can meet the threshold by placing larger balances with Chase, at the current rate of 4.1 per month. cents are potentially very profitable for them.”

More than a third of Brits now have a digital-only bank account, but exclusive research for Finder’s This is Money has revealed that many people use this as a secondary account, rather than as their main current account.

In the first nine months of 2023, digital banks saw a total of more than 25,000 accounts lost through the switching service.

Monzo lost almost 20,000 more customers than it gained, while for Starling this was 4,631.

By comparison, some big bank names have seen a switching glut. For example, NatWest had 59,158 switchers between July and September 2023, and HSBC (including First Direct) had 25,037.

Challenger’s digital bank has won millions of customers by offering free spending abroad, Finder says.

While many customers opened a Chase account for the cashback offer. Customers can earn up to £15 per month with Chase’s monthly cashback offer, which equates to up to £180 in cashback over the course of a year.

For some, the new minimum monthly payment may be too high.

Andrew Hagger, founder of the website MoneyComms, says: This move by Chase will be a blow to some of its customers with increased credit financing needs of £1,500 per month, and it could prove unaffordable for some people who end up switching elsewhere.’

Victoria Tilney, head of everyday banking at Chase, said: “Chase’s 1 percent cash back on everyday debit card spend remains hugely popular with our customers, largely because they can earn a little extra on many of the things they already buy every day.