What is My Chase Loan and How to Unlock It

My Chase Loan is Chase's version of credit card flex loans (a Chase flex loan if you will). As a recap, credit card flex loans allow you to borrow a specific amount of money from your credit limit, which you can then repay over time. In this article, I will go over how you can get access to Chase's My Chase Loan feature.

How to Get My Chase Loan Offer

My Chase Loan is a targeted offer (similar to other flex loan providers) so you will not be able to take a flex loan at will. In order to apply for My Chase Loan, you must receive a direct offer from Chase (usually via email). Once you've received the offer via email, you can simply click on the "Review your offer" button, which will direct you to Chase's official website. There, you'll need to log in to your account. Ensure that the credit card selected aligns with the one specified in the offer email. Afterward, you can review the terms of the offer.

Which Cards are Eligible for My Chase Loan?

If you go to Chase's website and read up on My Chase Loan, you'll find that there's also no documentation on which credit card is eligible for My Chase Loans. Because of this, it's not clear if it's applicable to all Chase cards or only a select amount. The only way to find out is to actually have received the offer. However, the good news is that I have a handful of Chase cards and know at least two of them are eligible. They are:

• Chase Freedom Unlimited
• Chase Freedom Flex

Both of these Chase cards are eligible for My Chase Loan and cardholders should have a chance of getting an offer. Chase does not disclose how they determine offers, but I suspect they factor in the following when determining if a cardholder should get an offer or not:

• Card Age - Chase will likely consider how long you have been a member with Chase when determining eligibility for the My Chase Loan offer. My example is a bit extreme, but to give some data points--my Chase cards are about 4-7 years old (as of August 2023). I don't expect card age will be a big factor even if it is used.
• Seasonality - Since 2021, I have received a My Chase Loan offer at least once a year around June - September time frame. I have a suspicion that Chase anticipates spending to be elevated during summer months with travel, home projects, etc so they offer My Chase Loan during this part of the year to increase likelihood cardholders will take the offer. Likely, you might not see this offer in off seasons.
• Low Credit Utilization - My credit utilization for both Chase cards is very low since I pay off my statement balance regularly. I also have a large credit limit for both cards ($20k+). I have a suspicion that My Chase Loan is only offered if you have a decent amount of available credit limit on the card since it allows you to borrow more and Chase can get more interest from you.

If you are already a cardholder for these Chase cards, I recommend maintaining a healthy credit utilization for these cards to have the best chances of getting access to My Chase Loan. I also recommend regularly updating your income on your profile and be patient until that offer arrives!

Applying for My Chase Loan

When you go to review your My Chase Loan offers, you will first be asked how much you want to borrow and for what purpose. Then after you provide that information, the Chase website will take you to a new page where it'll list out loan offers with different rates and terms. Shorter terms will have better interest rates. Longer terms will have worse interest rates. There's no application for My Chase Loan. You just need to select the rate and term you want and then the bank account you want the loan to be deposited to. Then you just wait for a confirmation email and the money to land in your account. Shortly after the money lands in your account, your credit utilization for the credit card will increase equal to the loan amount. This will impact your credit score, but as you pay off your flex loan, it will have less impact each month.

My Chase Loan Rates

So how does the My Chase Loan rate compare to persona loans? Well, it's pretty competitive. I typically see about 3-4%+ premium from what you can get from US treasuries. So if competitive interest rates are around 4%, then you are expecting the My Chase Loan rates offers to be as low as 7.99% APR or so. Comparing it to other loan products, I would say My Chase Loan is not as good as mortgage or 401(K) borrowing rates, but it's better than personal loans and margin loans.

Is My Chase Loan Worth It?

One of the main advantages of My Chase Loan or flex loans in general is being able to borrow without an application. Having no application makes getting a loan a lot more predictable and relieves the stress of needing to maintain the right credit health to be eligible.

You also do not incur a hard inquiry, which can take about 6 months to 2 years to fall off your profile for most credit-based applications. The trade-off here is you get a credit hit from credit utilization, but credit utilization has short-lived impact since you are paying off your flex loan over time and will bring it back down. You can also mitigate this impact altogether by having a large credit limit (which I recommend as part of mastering your credit score). By having a high total credit limit, taking a flex loan will not push your credit utilization outside healthy ranges.

Final Thoughts

My Chase Loan is a pretty handy feature offered by Chase. I use flex loans for a variety of occasions and primarily as a cash advance and minimizing how many assets I need to liquidate to fund large purchases. I have been exploring some other crafty strategies with flex loans as well though such as swipe churning (even though this has been nerfed heavily) and rate hacking (which I'll get into my next post!).