# Chase Bank, online banking, FreeBSD, and poor support



## neel (May 14, 2022)

I am a customer of Chase Bank (large US bank), largely since my family standardized on Chase as their bank. For some reason, Chase blocks FreeBSD from online banking, but not Linux. Chase told me "we only allow Windows or macOS" and even when I mentioned Linux works, they gave me the usual BS about "unsupported systems" even when Linux is "unsupported". This happened even at the executive level.

I can only log in using a User Agent Switcher or Chrome in a Ubuntu Linuxulator.

While agent switchers work, since Chase gave me such poor service, I am in the process of moving my checking/credit card accounts to an online credit union (Alliant) and my Chase investments to Fidelity (which I am also a customer of). It's not like Chase's website uses HTML5 EME or ActiveX (like South Korea in the past) which is platform-limited.

While the US telecom sector is known for being poorly rated, Verizon and CenturyLink have given me better support than Chase. CenturyLink couldn't fix my issue (that a JTAG cable was able to solve on GPON equipment), but CL at least tried. Verizon once blocked Tor middle relay IPs on their website (I run Tor relays from home), but they happily unblocked it.

Another example, HP, where "supporting" FreeBSD would be far more expensive for HP than Chase whitelisting FreeBSD (which is trivial versus millions of dollars to write drivers) has given me better service, that for a FreeBSD bug (one I committed a fix for). And HP laptops aren't even as well supported in Linux/BSD as Lenovo ThinkPad or Dell. My HP Spectre is newer than any ThinkPad I have access to, but still.

Even take Outlook on the Web, which is used at my job (disclaimer: I work at Microsoft in the Exchange/Outlook umbrella) gives Firefox on FreeBSD the basic interface, but (at least the last time I tested) not Chromium (due to the user agent saying Linux and FreeBSD). However, my personal email uses Roundcube so it doesn't affect me here.

Going back, if a company is actively hostile to FreeBSD without a good reason, I'd recommend that unless you have to do business with them, _don't_. If it's binary software, it's easier to understand, but for a website, there's no reason to whitelist operating systems. If they think it's a good idea (outside of software downloads), just don't do business with them.


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## Phishfry (May 14, 2022)

neel said:


> there's no reason to whitelist operating systems.


Agreed. Closing your accounts is understandable and the best way. They couldn't give a hoot less about outliers.
BOA gives me crap about SeaMonkey unsupported but never OS problems.

My timekeeping program ADP will only work on Firefox. SeaMonkey trails Firefox versions by too much.
I was thinking the other day, I wonder how many clients of ADP are on FreeBSD browsers. Probably only a handful.
I would like to see the metrics.


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## neel (May 14, 2022)

Phishfry said:


> Agreed. Closing your accounts is understandable and the best way. They couldn't give a hoot less about outliers.
> BOA gives me crap about SeaMonkey unsupported but never OS problems.
> 
> My timekeeping program ADP will only work on Firefox. SeaMonkey trails Firefox versions by too much.
> ...


SeaMonkey is often blocked since its based on a long-obsolete version of Firefox, and since the web moves at lightning pace a browser version dies within weeks of release. While it may move too quickly, I can understand how we got here: IE6 made the 2000s web stagnate to 2001 standards, and the web won't accept getting burnt again.

I don't have BOA, but to what I understand BOA is more competent than Chase. They still say the same thing about OS support, but BOA at least has the sense that other OSes exist and doesn't enforce an OS blockade. If it weren't for my parents, BOA > Chase, heck even Robinhood or some FinTech startup with no real customer service is better than Chase.

But since I already did my research why not take a credit union instead of a Big Bank if I get more favorable terms? Alliant's website is far ahead of Chase's, it's faster, cleaner and doesn't block FreeBSD at all, the only thing they're against is IE11 (which is actually understandable). I have to adjust my MSFT payroll to go to Alliant instead of Chase, though.

Nothing against Big Banks, but still.


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## scottro (May 14, 2022)

FWIW, I make use of Fidelity's site with FreeBSD and have no problems. I also use Capitolone TheAppleBank and Amex, all without problems. I remember Citibank, in the early double oughts, I think, having their site not work with Linux. I figured out a way to get it going, let them know and got the response WE DON'T SUPPORT LINUX.  

Fortunately, most sites seem to be O/S indifferent these days.


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## sidetone (May 14, 2022)

Quit Chase, and do business with a credit union or a small bank. Credit unions are better. They may still require Flash Player, and I may need my phone to use it, but at least their business is more honest than a greedy bank. They still overcharge for bounced charges, but that has become normal (unfortunately). It used to actually be costly (a fraction of what they charged) for them to make up when a customer bounced a charge, but with new technology it's not. If you use Bank of America, quit them too. Quit on credit cards too. Only use debit.


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## neel (May 14, 2022)

sidetone said:


> Quit Chase, and do business with a credit union or a small bank. Credit unions are better. They may still require Flash Player, and I may need my phone to use it, but at least their business is more honest than a greedy bank. If you use Bank of America, quit them too.


That's what I'm doing. I'm switching to Alliant Credit Union.

Alliant is a national "online" credit union, but in fact their website is far better than Chase's: faster, cleaner, doesn't block FreeBSD. The only thing Alliant is against is IE11 which actually is a good thing for the first time.

I didn't want to be tied to a credit union if I ever move, so that's why I took Alliant. Alliant is still small, only 600,000 customers versus Chase's 62 million.

I already cancelled my Chase card.

My parents think highly of Big Banks (well, my dad works in Big Finance), but me, not so much.


scottro said:


> FWIW, I make use of Fidelity's site with FreeBSD and have no problems. I also use Capitolone TheAppleBank and Amex, all without problems. I remember Citibank, in the early double oughts, I think, having their site not work with Linux. I figured out a way to get it going, let them know and got the response WE DON'T SUPPORT LINUX.
> 
> Fortunately, most sites seem to be O/S indifferent these days.


I use Fidelity's website on FreeBSD also without issue, as I also have Fidelity investment accounts. I prefer Fidelity to Chase by a huge margin, and my Fidelity credit card is my primary card these days.

Most websites, even banks, don't block FreeBSD since most developers know it will cause more trouble than it's worth. It's code that has to be tested, code that could break, not to mention more support calls and even bad press. Chase is less competent than about anyone else, heck even Robinhood is better in this metric despite being worse everywhere else.

Most developers are very competent in this regard, but there are still bad apples, and Chase is an extremely rotted poisonous apple.

Only when checking OS on a website is justified is if it's a software download to give you a link to an installer or ZIP, or for metrics. For whitelisting, just go home.


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## joplass (May 14, 2022)

I never had troubles login on chase.com from my FreeBSD box. I have to check this out when I get home.


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## joplass (May 22, 2022)

I little late but confirming that chase online does not allow FreeBSD.


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## Jose (May 22, 2022)

Yeah I got forced on to Chase 'cause I share a boat with some friends. That Web interface is a freakin' nightmare! Works fine with user-agent switcher, until your ISP gives you a new IP number and Chase wants to send a security code to my friend's phone.


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## grahamperrin@ (May 28, 2022)

I might cease to use a service due to poor support.

If the only problem is lack of support for a particular browser, or platform: I'll simply change the user agent for that service. 

(User agents are not a panacea, but a simple change is often enough.)


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## K5KGT (Jul 23, 2022)

Speechless.  I didn't know this was a thing.  Just happened to try to log into my Chase account at this FreeBSD box and couldn't figure out why it was dumping me back to a login screen.  "Oh well" I say to my self, "must be something weird with Firefox, so I'll just use Chromium real quick".  NO DICE.  Came here and find it's an actual decision Chase must have made.  Gonna call my local FCU and see if she'll let me xfer my balances over.  Why would this even be a thing?


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## neel (Monday at 5:46 PM)

Since my last reply, my family has asked me to switch back to Chase, mainly since the family circle depends on Chase as a bank.

However, if you don't want to mess with user agent plugins, there is one alternative: Tor Browser which is now in Ports.

Chase while being anti-*BSD fortunately does not block Tor Browser or the Tor network. I didn't test TB on FreeBSD, but Tor Browser on OpenBSD works with Chase.com fine.


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