Forget the teller, bypass the branch
Chase rolls out its all-mobile bank, Finn.
Forget the teller. Bypass the local branch. Chase is rolling out its all-mobile bank, Finn, nationally in an effort to woo millennials who are comfortable running their financial lives online.
Through Finn, customers can do all of their banking from their phones, such as open an account, make a deposit or send money to friends through the Zelle digital payments network. The Finn debit card, which customers can now activate through the app, offers feefree access to more than 29,000 Chase and partner ATMs across the country.
The trend towards mobile banking is gaining speed, as Americans – especially millennials – increasingly turn to their phones to not only keep up with their friends and what’s trending in the news, but also to do their banking. Finn by Chase is part of a growing list of digital-only banks, which include Ally Bank, Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Synchrony Bank.
Millennials associate traditional banks with high fees and account minimums, NerdWallet banking expert Kimberly Palmer told USA TODAY.
“So much of their financial lives are lived online that it’s relatively easy for them to send and receive payments through mobile apps and online,” Palmer says. “They often don’t see a need to have access to a bank with physical branches.”
Finn, which debuted in St. Louis in October, is now available to users of iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system. It will be available to Android users by the end of the year.
It was developed with input from millennials and has fresh features, such as allowing users to rate their purchases as something they “want” or “need” and assign emojis for how those purchases make them feel.
Customers can also set up “autosave” settings that allow them, for example, to save $5 every time they go shopping.
The digital bank offers free, no-fee savings and checking accounts and provides 24/7 customer service. Chase’s regular checking and savings accounts also offer digital bank- ing services.
The Finn by Chase app doesn’t allow customers to overdraw, which helps them avoid costly overdraft fees. According to a 2017 Overdraft Study by research firm Moebs Services, an economic research firm, the median cost of an overdraft is $30.
A study by Pew Charitable Trusts a few years ago found that “younger, lower-income ... account holders, as well as those who did not have a credit card, are among those who were more likely to pay an overdraft penalty.”
“Finn continues to evolve based on the meaningful feedback that we get from our customers,” Melissa Feldsher, head of Finn by Chase, said in a statement announcing the rollout. “We look forward to adding new features and experiences.”
As cyber banking acceptance grows, all-mobile banking is poised to take over as the “default choice” of financial customers, Palmer predicts.