Premia & Discounts

15 February 2009

A while back, I got an offer from Washington Mutual Savings Bank; if I started a free checking account with them, with a deposit of $100 or more, then after a few weeks they would add $75 to that. I decided to take advantage of that offer, and deposited exactly $100. I have kept my prior checking account, and left the WaMu account dormant.

Perhaps I should have waited. Yester-day (after the original offer expired), I received a similar offer from them, only now the supplement would be $100. Having taken advantage of the old offer, I'm blocked from exploiting the new offer.

As the Woman of Interest notes, this increase to $100 is suggestive of desperation.


Last night, in CVS/pharmacy, I saw multi-packs of sparkling water on sale — regularly $3.99, now $3.97. That's a discount of just barely more than ½%.

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2 Responses to Premia & Discounts

  • Gaal says:

    I don't know when exactly you opened that account, but if "a while" had also passed since you actually got the $75 and now, than it's likely that their promotion paid off (to them), and that you will never bother to withdraw those $175.

    (Of course, your mileage may vary. "You" above is sort of an abbreviation for "If I'd have been in your shoes, I'd forget about the whole thing and thus lose $100 — which is why I rarely take up similar offers in the first place".)

    • Daniel says:

      I wonder if-and-how it would be possible to estimate reasonably the profit that is made by virtue of customers not jumping through hoops for rebates and premia.

      However, I would note that American states typically declare that if an account has been altogether idle for something like two years, then they are entitled to seize it. So if I did nothing further with the account, then JPMorgan Chase would at best do little better than break even. And, had the premium been $100 and were the account seized after two years, then they'd definitely lose money on the deal.

      (I don't know what the actual period before seizure is here in California, and obviously a longer period could reverse the fortunes of JPMorgan Chase.)

      It has not been long since I opened the account, and the $75 has not yet been paid.

      I haven't really settled on what will be the long-term disposition of the account. Part of what informed my decision to open it were previous, occasional thoughts that it would be good to have another account, accessible by ATM and all that, as a fall-back. Although I had to deposit $100 to open the account, I could keep it open with a balance of $1 (except in-so-far as I'd have to make an occasional deposit or withdrawal to keep that $1 from the clutches of the state).

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