Let me get this straight. You’re upset because something called a “Free Checking Account” has deceived you by being, in point of fact, a checking account that is free?
Not all bank accounts are automatically free. “Free Checking” is almost always the lowest tier in any bank’s checking hierarchy; higher-end accounts, which offer a greater number of products and services at no charge (such as, say, free check orders) generally have minimum balances or other requirements to avoid a monthly or annual service charge. A lot of people who have these accounts don’t seem to be aware of this; they likely knew it at one time, but because they satisfy the requirements to waive the fee, they’ve never been charged it and have forgotten its existence.
As an example, at my bank, Free Checking gets you a no-minimum-balance, no-monthly-fee account with free Visa CheckCard, online banking and bill pay, unlimited use of the bank’s ATMs at no charge, and unlimited teller transactions (there used to be lower-end accounts that charged you for using the tellers more than twice per month, but those have been phased out). The next step up on the checking ladder gets you one free box of checks per month, a discount on a safety deposit box and discounts on wire transfers, but requires you to have either a minimum account balance of $1,000 or total in-bank assets of $5,000 to avoid a $15/month service charge. Compare these to our high-end checking package, an interest-bearing checking account which gets you two free orders of checks per month, a free safety deposit box, free incoming wire transfers with a heavy discount on outgoing, free dual signature Traveler’s Checks, free cashier’s checks, a top-tier Money Market (high yield savings) account with no service fee, free overdraft protection, and a Gold CheckCard which earns twice the points of a regular CheckCard through the Visa Extras program (which is free). Nice stuff, but you must either maintain a minimum balance of $5,000, have $10,000 total in-bank assets, or have a credit line with a limit of $10,000 or more to avoid a $20 monthly service charge.
We also have other specialty accounts that offer mixtures of the above benefits and other services (i.e. a Student Checking that doesn’t charge a fee for using other bank’s ATMs). If you aren’t happy with your current package, customer service can discuss with you the benefits you’d like, and instantly switch you to a customized banking package that will better your needs while placing you safely within the “green zone” to avoid service charges.
So, no, not all bank accounts are free unless you meet certain conditions, and as services go, you tend to get what you (might) pay for. Call your bank and see if they have a checking package with free check orders – since you say you don’t write many checks, one free box per year ought to do it – that wouldn’t have prohibitively high balance requirements for you. I don’t know Chase’s account structures, but by all rights they should be able to offer you some kind of option.
