The Banks Behind California's Bank On Accounts

Chase

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. traces its lineage to the Bank of the Manhattan Company, chartered in 1799 out of New York City's first water company. It merged with Chase National Bank in 1955 to form Chase Manhattan, and with J.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000. It is a national bank supervised by the OCC.

Jamie Dimon is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. On June 25, 2026 the company named Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh Co-Presidents; Rohrbaugh became Chief Executive Officer of Consumer & Community Banking, the division that owns this account, succeeding Marianne Lake, who is retiring. Jennifer Roberts is Chief Executive Officer of Chase Consumer Banking.

Customer service: 1-800-935-9935. Chase publishes no service hours for that line and no consumer email address; messages go through the secure message center after sign-in.

More than 5,000 branches across 48 states and the District of Columbia, and nearly 15,000 ATMs, as of a company release dated February 18, 2026. Chase publishes no California branch count on any page we could read, and we are not taking one from an aggregator. A February 2026 release named six states for 2026 branch openings; California was not among them. Non-Chase ATMs cost $3 in the United States and $5 elsewhere, on top of the machine owner's surcharge.

Holding company total assets of $5.1 trillion as of September 30, 2026. Bank-level figures for the N.A. entity we could not retrieve.

The account is not free. Chase's own application page reads "$4.95 OR $0 Monthly Service Fee." The $4.95 is waived in any statement period in which the account receives $250 or more in qualifying electronic deposits, or an account owner is aged 17 through 24, or the account is linked to another qualifying Chase checking account. ACH, RTP and FedNow transfers count toward the $250; Zelle, cash, checks, wires and interest do not. New accounts are not charged for at least the first two statement periods. Beyond that: no minimum to open, no overdraft fees — transactions decline instead — and no paper checks, which the account cannot write. Mobile deposit, Zelle and online bill pay are free.

Two changes in the window. On May 5, 2026 Chase widened the age waiver to cover all customers aged 17 through 24, added incoming wire support to the account, and began letting 17-year-olds open it in a branch. Separately, the fee schedule effective June 14, 2026 names the product only "Chase Secure Checking" and does not contain the phrase "Chase Secure Banking" at all, while the application page uses the marketing name and the Secure Checking name in its disclosure. We found no announcement of a rename, so we are not calling it one — but the divergence is inside Chase's own live documents, and anyone comparing the two will notice it.

Provident Credit Union

Founded in 1950 in the California Teachers Association's San Francisco office, as the California Teachers Association Bay Section Credit Union. It became CTA Credit Union in 1966, Provident Central Credit Union in 1974, and dropped "Central" in 2002. It is a California state-chartered credit union, DFPI licence 9550019, NCUA-insured rather than FDIC-insured.

Jim Ernest is President and Chief Executive Officer. Jennifer Lee is Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative and Financial Officer. Provident publishes no board roster, so we name no board chair.

Member service: (800) 632-4600, Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm. Provident's page gives no time zone, so we do not add one. There is no published member service email address; contact is by phone or secure message. Head office is at 303 Twin Dolphin Drive, Redwood City.

Twenty-one branches, all in California: Alameda, Belmont, Daly City, Dublin, Folsom, Fremont, Hayward, Los Gatos, Millbrae, Oakland, Palo Alto, Redwood Shores, San Francisco (two), San Jose (three), San Mateo, San Ramon, Sunnyvale and Walnut Creek. ATM access runs through CO-OP, which Provident describes as nearly 30,000 surcharge-free machines, plus more than 5,000 shared branches. The first four non-Provident ATM transactions each month are free; after that they cost $1.50 each.

Provident's own history page records $3.5 billion in assets and 135,000 members for 2025. A third-party compilation of NCUA call report data puts total assets at $3.59 billion as of June 30, 2026, which we repeat as third-party-sourced rather than as Provident's own figure.

Membership is the thing to check first, because this is not a credit union any Californian can join. Residence-based eligibility covers only the City of Los Angeles and nine counties: Contra Costa, El Dorado, Humboldt, Monterey, Placer, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara. Alameda County is not on that list, despite Provident operating five branches inside it — someone in Oakland or Fremont needs an employer, association or family connection instead. The association route is wide, and includes the California Teachers Association.

Digital Edge carries no monthly fee, no minimum balance, and a $25 minimum to open. Provident's published wording is "No monthly fees, minimum balance, overdraft, or NSF fees." Its own footnote adds that the account prevents overdrawing in most cases, that a negative balance is still possible after something like a later-added tip, and that the card is blocked until the balance is positive again. Two things we could not confirm, and will not print as facts: mobile check deposit and online bill pay. Our database records both as yes. The product page never mentions mobile deposit and twice calls the account check-free and checkless, and Provident's bill pay documentation says payments are debited from a Provident Checking account without mentioning Digital Edge at all. One more gap worth knowing: Digital Edge does not appear on Provident's service charge schedule at all, and that schedule still lists a $14.00 Courtesy Pay fee and a $14.00 NSF fee with no stated exclusion for this account. The schedule also carries no effective or revised date.

No merger, acquisition, rebrand or branch closure announced in the last 18 months. One caution for readers searching on their own: at least five distinct institutions use the name Provident or Providence, in California, New York and New Jersey, and aggregator sites conflate them. The national Bank On directory lists a Provident Bank account two lines away from this one.

SESLOC Credit Union

Founded in 1942 with $500 in assets as the San Luis Obispo County Schools Credit Union; the first official meeting, on January 8, 1943, was attended by thirty-two county school employees. It was renamed School Employees of San Luis Obispo County Credit Union in 1949, which is where the acronym comes from. The charter opened to all of San Luis Obispo County in 2001 and to northern Santa Barbara County in 2015. In 2024 the members voted to convert from a federal to a California state charter, which is why "SESLOC Federal Credit Union" is now the wrong name. NCUA-insured, not FDIC-insured.

Mike Quamma is President and Chief Executive Officer. Tom Lebens is Chairman of the Board. Note that California's DFPI regulated-entity record still lists Geri LaChance, who left the role; that is stale regulator data, not a current fact.

Member service: (805) 543-1816, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm. There is no published member service email; SESLOC directs members to the secure message centre inside online banking. Mail goes to P.O. Box 5360, San Luis Obispo.

Six branches, all with lobbies open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm and closed at weekends: Paso Robles, Atascadero, San Luis Obispo on Broad Street, the Cal Poly campus branch, and Arroyo Grande, all in San Luis Obispo County, plus Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County. Headquarters on Broad Street is appointment-only. ATM access is SESLOC and CO-OP; SESLOC publishes the figure as "55 local and 30,000+ nationwide."

Total assets of $1.26 billion as of June 30, 2026, from a third-party compilation of NCUA call report data; SESLOC's own about page says $1.2 billion with no date attached. State charter number 68741, superseding the old federal number 4980. The 2025 annual report gives 55,800-plus member-owners, which we prefer to the two different figures on the about page.

Membership is open to anyone who lives, works or attends school in nine counties: San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Tulare, Kern, Fresno and Kings. Family members of existing members also qualify. Joining costs a $5 non-refundable membership fee plus a $5 minimum deposit into a share savings account, and that $5 share balance must be maintained. SESLOC accepts ITINs.

Basic Checking has no monthly maintenance fee and no minimum balance. Basic Checking is excluded from the overdraft transfer fee, the NSF fee and Courtesy Pay — which is worth reading twice, because being excluded from Courtesy Pay means the account has no overdraft coverage at all, not merely no overdraft fee. Mobile check deposit and bill pay are both named on the account's own page. Two costs our data does not record: paper statements are $2.00 a month unless you take eStatements, and transactions at ATMs outside the SESLOC and CO-OP networks cost $2.00 each, with no waiver shown in the Basic Checking column. The minimum opening deposit is not published anywhere we could read, so our $0.00 is not a figure SESLOC stands behind — and in practice nobody opens this account for nothing, because membership itself costs about $10.

No merger, acquisition, rebrand or branch closure announced in the last 18 months. SESLOC's wealth management arm moved from CUSO Financial Services to LPL Financial effective May 17, 2025, which is a vendor change, not a merger. One staleness flag: the consumer fee schedule governing every dollar figure above is effective November 1, 2024, making it the oldest current document on this page.

Tucoemas Federal Credit Union

Founded in 1948 by nine members who pooled their savings. The name is commonly explained as standing for the Tulare County Employees' Association, but the credit union does not say so on any page it publishes, and we do not print etymologies we cannot source. It is a federally chartered credit union, charter number 5718, NMLS 487815, NCUA-insured rather than FDIC-insured, and a certified Community Development Financial Institution.

Brice Yocum is President and Chief Executive Officer. The board is listed by name — Carmen Becerra, Brandon Gridiron, Maria Espinoza, Amy Shuklian and Christopher Juarez — without titles, so we name no chair.

Member service: (559) 732-8892, and supportcenter@tucoemas.org. Tucoemas publishes no contact centre hours; branch hours are given per branch, with the Center Avenue branch open Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm, Friday to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 2pm.

Five branches, all in Tulare County: two in Visalia on Akers Street and Center Avenue, a third inside the Save Mart on Noble Avenue, one in Tulare on Bardsley Avenue and one in Porterville on Henderson Avenue. ATM access is the CO-OP network. Tucoemas puts that at "over 30,000" on one page and "nearly 30,000" on another, and never describes the figure as surcharge-free — so our record of 30,000 free ATMs is an inference the credit union has not made.

Total assets of $336.9 million as of the first quarter of 2026, from a third-party compilation of NCUA data. Tucoemas's own about page says "2,000+ members," which cannot be right for an institution of that size, so we do not repeat it.

Membership is open to people who live, work, worship or attend school in Tulare County, and to businesses there. Opening requires government-issued identification and a deposit of as little as $5 into a savings account.

Rise Checking is where our data needs the most work. The account requires a share savings account, and the credit union's own bullet list gives both "$1.00 minimum opening deposit" for the checking account and "$5.00 per-value minimum opening deposit" for the required savings — so the real figure is $1 to open the checking and $6 to get in the door, where we record a flat $5.00. The account includes five free cashier's cheques a month and access to a certified financial counsellor, neither of which we record. Paper statements cost $1.00 a month unless you take eStatements, and out-of-network ATMs cost $2.00 a withdrawal and $1.00 a balance inquiry — our data has no out-of-network ATM fee at all. On overdrafts we have to report a conflict rather than resolve it: the checking page says "Zero overdraft or NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds) fees," while the schedule of fees effective June 3, 2026 lists Courtesy Pay at $17 per item and NSF at $20 per item and names no exemption for Rise. Bank On certification should rule both out. We would not open this account without asking. Mobile deposit and bill pay exist across the credit union but are not listed as Rise features, and are not stated to be free on it.

Two further notes. Rise is not marketed as a Bank On, second-chance or credit-rebuilding account anywhere on Tucoemas's own site, even though the CFE Fund lists it as certified — worth saying plainly rather than implying branding the credit union does not use. And the apply link in our database points at a path that no longer exists; the live checking page sits at /bank/checking-accounts/. No merger, acquisition, rebrand or branch closure was announced in the last 18 months.

Mission Federal Credit Union

Founded in 1961 for San Diego's educational community, with the field of membership opened to all of San Diego County in 2003. The founding detail comes from a Mission Fed page last modified in July 2023, which makes it the oldest source behind any founding fact on this page; the credit union's own October 2026 release, marketing 65 years in San Diego, is consistent with it. Federal charter number 14384, NCUA-insured rather than FDIC-insured.

Doug Wright is President and Chief Executive Officer, a role he took in March 2024 after serving as Chief Financial Officer from 2016. Malliga Tholandi is Chair, Lora Duzyk is Vice Chair, and Dr. Timothy Glover is Treasurer/Secretary. Debra Schwartz, who still appears in older write-ups, is the former chief executive.

Member service: 800.500.6328 toll-free, or 858.524.2850 locally, Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm and Saturday 8am to 4pm. The member service email address is obfuscated on Mission Fed's own page and we could not read it, so we do not publish one.

Thirty-three branches on the live locator, all in San Diego County — Carlsbad, Chula Vista, El Cajon, Encinitas, Escondido, La Mesa, National City, Oceanside, Poway, San Marcos, Santee, Solana Beach, Vista and a dozen San Diego neighbourhoods. Mission Fed's own boilerplate still says 34, a figure that traces to a branch opening announced in October 2022 and has not been updated since; we use the locator. ATM access is CO-OP, 30,000 fee-free machines, with other ATMs costing $1.50 a withdrawal and $1.00 a balance inquiry on top of the owner's surcharge.

Total assets of approximately $7.29 billion as of June 30, 2026, from NCUA call report data via a third party. Mission Fed's own safe-and-sound page still says $6.6 billion with no date, which appears to be out of date rather than a different measure. Membership figures on its own pages range from 320,000 to over 330,000; the 2025 annual report says nearly 327,000.

Membership is open to anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in San Diego County, to immediate family and household members of existing members, and to employees and volunteers of partner organisations. Opening an account requires two forms of unexpired identification including one government-issued, plus a Social Security number or ITIN.

Breeze Spending is the cleanest account on this page. It is free with no waiver conditions at all — which distinguishes it from Mission Fed's own Easy Checking at $2 a month and Smart Checking at $7. Five dollars opens it, there is no minimum balance, and Mission Fed charges no monthly, overdraft or NSF fee. It is checkless: no cheque writing at all, which is the one functional limit worth knowing before you open it and the one thing our database does not record. Mobile deposit is free with a $5,000 daily limit, bill pay is included, and the minimum age is 13, with a signer required below 16. Overdraft coverage is opt-in and capped at $50, or $200 if the account receives at least $500 in qualifying direct deposits, with negative balances repayable within 30 days. The debit card carries a 2% foreign transaction fee. One gap: the fee schedule dated April 1, 2025 contains a general negative-balance fee of $10 per item above $10, capped at $30 a day, and does not say which account types it applies to or that Breeze is exempt. Mission Fed's product pages and its own May 2026 release say plainly that Breeze has no overdraft fees, and Bank On certification requires as much, so that is what we publish — but the schedule's silence is the kind of gap that produces corrections.

Bank On certification was announced on May 11, 2026. No merger, acquisition, rebrand or branch closure turned up, though Mission Fed's news index could not be retrieved, so treat that as a negative finding from the sources available rather than a clearance. Of the five institutions on this page, Mission Fed is the only one where every field in our database checked out.

Where published terms differ from our data

Where an institution's own published terms differ from what our database says. These are corrections to the data, not footnotes to this page.

Three accounts we left out

One institution scoring at the top of our California list is not profiled above, for the third edition running.

Compare every California account

This page covers five institutions. All 79 Bank On certified accounts available in California, ranked by cost, are on our California checking accounts page.