If you have an army of credit cards (like I do) and you use credit monitoring services (like I do), there is a good chance that you’ve seen a barrage of mysterious credit monitoring alerts over the past month with “JPMCB CARD” in them.
For example, I got this alert from Credit Karma:
According to your TransUnion credit report, someone added you as an authorized user for their JPMCB CARD credit card.1
Accounts that you’re an authorized user on can affect your credit score just like a normal account, so you’ll want to make sure you trust the primary user of this card.
Check in today to see the details of this new account.
Hmm… that’s odd. I had not, to my knowledge, been added as an authorized user on any credit card recently. So I put the alert on my to-do list to look into further, as any unexplained credit monitoring alert is something that should be followed up on – especially in light of the massive Equifax hack. To make things even more concerning, Mrs. 20SF got the exact same alert on the exact same day.
Had we somehow had our identities hacked?
A few days later, I got a new “paid tradeline” alert from another free credit monitoring service, Credit Sesame:
You have a Paid Tradeline alert from TransUnion.
I noticed that this one also mentioned a “JPMCB CARD”. I surmised that “JPMCB” = JP Morgan Chase Bank. So, I decided that I should give Chase a call to see if anyone had opened new cards in our names.
The Chase representative told me that we can ignore the alerts, as they were likely triggered by a recent renaming from “Chase Bank” to “JP Morgan Chase Bank”.
Finally, I started receiving revised user agreement emails from Chase that confirmed what we were told by the Chase representative, as the emails started out with the following language,
Notice: Your Cardmember Agreement and associated Rewards Program Agreement (if any) were assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as successor by merger to Chase Bank USA, N.A., on 05/18/2019. Furthermore, beginning 05/18/2019 all references to Chase Bank USA, N.A. in your Guide to Benefits and any additional account agreements and documents shall be read as JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
Looking into both my Credit Karma and Credit Sesame account histories further, it appears that no new accounts were created with the Chase name change (this is good – as new accounts result in a “hard credit inquiry“, as opening or closing a credit card can impact your credit score), and all full account histories for each card are now displayed under “JPMCB Card Services”, example below.
Putting everything together, my take on what happened is:
- Chase officially renamed itself from “Chase Bank USA” to “JPMorgan Chase Bank”.
- This renaming set off false alarms and automated alerts with credit monitoring services like Credit Karma and Credit Sesame.
- No new accounts were created, so there is no impact on your credit score.
Nothing to worry about.
I think this little saga – and a seemingly weekly update of yet another hack – serve as important reminders that we should all be using free credit monitoring services that can alert us of suspicious activity.
Also – if you feel like you have legitimately become a victim of identity theft, as of 2018, free credit freezes (and thaws) are now available to all Americans.
Related Posts:
I use Credit Karma – is there any advantage to having a Credit Sesame account also?
Credit Sesame offers free $50K in identity theft insurance. Check out the link above for my Credit Sesame review for more info.
This is false. I got a hard hit on Trans Union from JPMChase- thank you Credit Karma for letting me know. I called Chase Credit Cards and someone applied for a charge card in my name on June 11th. They are closing the application and removing the hard hit.
Both things can be true.
this was very informative, thank you!
Thanks! I was so confused. Showing the information really helped because it looked just like mine.
Thank you! I already have a freeze on my credit due to previous concerns and then this pops up and I’m like how?!
Good answer, except it doesn’t explain why a simple corporate name change would entail a credit history hit. Or, why this is happening annually.
“Looking into both my Credit Karma and Credit Sesame account histories further, it appears that no new accounts were created with the Chase name change (this is good – as new accounts result in a “hard credit inquiry“, as opening or closing a credit card can impact your credit score)”
A new account does NOT result in a “hard credit inquiry”. Only a hard inquiry results in a hard inquiry. It’s true that creditors typically do a hard inquiry before opening a new account, but correlation does not equal causation. And in the case of an account change like this, the creditor should *not* be doing a hard inquiry.
The potential FICO impact with this kind of creditor/account change is when the creditor incorrectly reports the old account as being closed and a new account being opened (rather than updating the existing account). A recently opened account has a short-term negative FICO effect, along with the long-term effect of the resulting reduced AAoA (Average Age of Accounts),
I had the same problem with JCM, but my credit score declined even though my balance shows zero. Do you know how I can rectify this? JCM assured me that no new accounts were opened. Thanks.
@Riche Goode – As long as the creditor correctly reports it as an account change and not as a new account, then there is no FICO impact with this type of account change.
Mine came in as a closed account. What should I do?
I received one that had a $279 Balance. I sometimes but things online but try to use the same card each time so not sure if its valid or not without seeing the exact purchases/. So I have some homework to do Ugh!
I got a hard hit too :(
Thank you for the clarification. On Credit Karma I thought it was a secondary user also – nope – just the name change but came thru as a hard hit – only one I’ve ever had. Thanks for the post and info.
I also got a hard hit, but I called them and told them I never tried, or applied for a chase card, but was told because they have all my information as correct. So now what can I do?
I don’t have a Chase account & I’ve never applied for a Chase credit card. I have a hard hit on my credit report which made my score go down. What should I do about this?
Thanks for this very good info….Just checked my Credit Sesame messages, saw this (From June 15th), and thought WTF?!…Great!, and thanks again for sharing with the group)
Amazing, thanks for sharing. At first I thought it was JC Penny card I closed year ago, and started to freakout with all those data leaks.
I just saw this JPMCB and it say’s I owe $39. For what?
I’ve received notification of a New JPMCB Account in my name as of July 7, 2019. I have not opened any new credit accounts anywhere in the pass 6 months. Please research this for me. I should not have this account as far as my knowledge of accounts that I have.
Thanks so much for you help.
Mrs. Morris
I just got the alert for a card inquiry and I never applied. The number is an automated account questions with no real customer service option. Who do I call? It just says jpmcb card services. Two hits trans union August 25th and Experian August 27th, 2019.
received a notice that a credit card has been opened in my name and I have not authorized any such account.
Thank you for this detailed and helpful post.
I am just trying to figure out why all of a sudden I have a $69 balance owed to JPMCB – CARD SERVICE who I have never heard of and I can’t get thru to report it – locks me out every way I try. ?
As they say, your credit report is just a snapshot of your creditworthiness. It must be a very cheap camera that takes that picture. Pay off the balance of your credit cards each month? Too bad. High monthly credit card balance that is paid off each month? Too bad your percentage of total credit is too high. Remember Kodak Brownie? Instamatic?