My excitement at buying an investment property ran into a snag this morning, when I attempted to send over a wire to pay for the property. Chase bank places has a limit on how much can be wired from a personal account.
When I attempted to create the wire transfer to the title company, this is the error message I received:
The most you’re allowed to send in a single transaction is $50,000.
There are a couple different ways this could be remedied, including breaking the amount into multiple wires instead of one big one, but that can be confusing for the recipient.
When I contacted Chase about the limit and how to remove it, I was told that one solution is to transfer the money into a Chase business account (assuming a person has one), then ask to have the wire limit removed. After talking to the local rep about how to do this, he told me he didn’t know, but could transfer me to the online banking department. He made it sound like he had someone in particular who would pick up the phone and take care of the issue for me.
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When I was transferred to the online banking department, I went into a “Press 1 for…” queue, which usually means I’ll be on hold for an indeterminable amount of time and transferred between a few different people before someone either figures out how to change the setting or tells me that it can’t be done.
This particular problem is one of the reasons it’s a good idea to have a local bank. It’s also an example of why I should have done a bit more planning. I had talked to my local Chase rep just a few days before, including depositing enough money into my account to make sure it was ready to be wired today. I was told that I would be good to go. Apparently we all overlooked this $50,000 limit, so I’ll have to go into the local branch to (hopefully) get this done.
Being on a time crunch to close on the property makes it a little more stressful.
Update: I went into the branch to have them help me with the wire transfer. I was able to send the wire from the local branch. Also, the local branch manager (who was available to help me send the wire) told me about the ability Chase gives customers to send wires over the phone. I had to set up that capability by signing a form and designating a limit to the dollar amount that could be wired over the phone.
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The moral of this whole experience is to make sure that you are prepared beforehand when you need to send a wire transfer, including making sure that you are not limited to a designated limit if you’re trying to send a wire and don’t have convenient access to a local Chase branch.
I’d guess that most banks have similar security checks in place as well.
