Among the many blessings in my life, one I remain especially grateful for is the opportunity I had to work at the Toronto Star early in my journalism career. In its heyday, the Star ranked among the best local newspapers in the world, even punching far above its weight on international stories that mattered to its readers. I was mentored by seasoned editors who taught me invaluable lessons about pursuing—and telling—a compelling story.
One of those editors was the late Cosentino (Cos) De Giusti, then the assistant business editor. He edited most of my business copy. After I submitted one of my first stories—chock full of financial data and arcane detail—Cos pulled me aside.
“Companies are run by people,” he told me. “You need to focus on the people responsible for making corporate decisions—and use facts and figures to support your storylines.”
With that in mind, I pose this question: Who would you be more inclined to trust with your money?
- Abigail Johnson, the refined, brainy CEO of Fidelity Investments—a customer-focused firm with $15 trillion in assets under administration. Fidelity’s mission is to provide low-cost tools to help investors build wealth, and despite its massive equity and bond trading power, it has remained virtually scandal-free.
Or:
- Jamie Dimon, the swaggering CEO of JPMorganChase—a schlocky megabank built through decades of consolidation. JPM rakes in billions by nickel-and-diming customers with punitive fees, and its rap sheet includes allegedly defrauding the precious metals and U.S. Treasuries markets, for which it paid $920 million to avoid criminal prosecution.
Comparing Fidelity to Chase is like contrasting Toyota with GM or Ford. But just as all three make cars, Fidelity and Chase both offer credit cards.
Fidelity’s card is simple: no annual fee, and 2% cash back on all purchases. Unlike the tooth fairy, Fidelity doesn’t leave money under my pillow but instead deposits it directly into my account.
By contrast, Jamie Dimon’s Chase Bank is pushing a $795 annual fee card—the Sapphire Reserve—larded with so many terms and conditions that even ChatGPT struggles to understand and explain them coherently.
Here’s Starkman Approved’s Top 10 lessons on why you should tell Dimon what he can do with his $795 credit card.
Lesson No. 1: If You Can’t Understand a Financial Product, Don’t Buy It
Any honest financial advisor will tell you: complexity is rarely your friend. The more convoluted the terms, the more likely you are to get burned. Ask JPMorgan customers who were sold structured notes in the 2010s.
Structured notes are complex debt instruments tied to equity indexes, interest rates, or market benchmarks. They were marketed with phrases like “principal protection” and “enhanced returns with limited downside.” But the fine print told a different story:
- “Principal protected” only applied at maturity—sell early and you could lose money.
- The payout formulas were so complex that investors had little chance of earning the advertised returns.
- Many notes capped gains but offered no liquidity.
Who got burned? Retail investors—especially retirees—steered into these products by JPM advisors. Many thought they were buying safe, bond-like investments. Instead, they got opaque, illiquid traps.
In 2015, the SEC fined JPMorgan $267 million for failing to disclose conflicts of interest in the sale of these proprietary products. Advisors were incentivized to push the investment firm’s in-house offerings over better alternatives.
The fine amounted to a wrist slap, which Dimon I imagine regarded as a nuisance cost to make SEC regulators feel they weren’t totally useless.
Lesson No. 2: Jamie Dimon Didn’t Get Rich Making Customers Rich
Dimon’s $2.6 billion personal fortune wasn’t built by creating value for Chase customers—it was built engineering products that overwhelmingly favored the bank and ultimately himself.
By contrast, Abigail Johnson, with a net worth of $33.5 billion, became wealthy from her family-controlled business that actually did right by its customers. Fidelity also funds and operates America’s largest private charity.
Lesson No. 3: Cash Is King
I’ve long used Fidelity’s 2% cash-back card. I charge everything—from coffee at Peet’s to insurance payments—and the rewards add up. I use that money however I choose, including to fund airline and hotel upgrades.
If Delta has an empty premium seat, and I offer CEO Ed Bastian a couple of Benjamins, I get the upgrade. Delta’s points-hoarding “loyalty” customers? No upgrade for them! Bastian can’t fund billions in stock buybacks with SkyMiles.
Lesson No. 4: Dimon Was Losing Money
According to airline travel blogger Gary Leff, Chase’s Sapphire Reserve card attracted young, affluent customers but lost the bank $2 billion over the five years after it was introduced. Dimon doesn’t like losing money.
Given Dimon’s penchant for vulgarity, one imagines a conversation where Dimon summoned his underlings:
“Why are we f—ing losing money on a card that’s good for our customers and not for me? This isn’t some goddamn charity. Fix it—or I’ll find someone who can.”
Solution? Raise the annual fee 45% and deploy Chase’s proprietary software to design “benefits” that looked generous—but quietly padded the bank’s bottom line.
Lesson No. 5: Beware the Chase Travel Portal
Three years ago, Chase acquired Frosch Travel, a high-end agency. Marianne Lake, head of consumer banking, could barely contain her glee:
“Along with controlling the customer experience, which is everything, we now have full ownership economics,” Lake boasted to Travel Weekly. “We have all of the travel commissions.”
Translation: more potential fees and friction for customers. Many Sapphire Reserve perks only apply when booking through Chase’s portal, which potentially lets Chase tack on “processing,” “agent assistance,” and “modification” charges—often unnoticed until it’s too late.
I once tried booking a flight to Israel through Chase’s travel portal when I had the Sapphire Reserve card. A friend who is a seasoned travel pro found me a better deal on Virgin Atlantic, including a business class upgrade for just a bit more. I paid for it using my Fidelity cash rewards.
As an aside, Marianne Lake is considered a potential Dimon successor. She was also one of the execs who greenlit the acquisition of Frank, the student loan platform founded by Charlie Javice. Chase believed Frank had four million users. It had closer to 300,000. Javice, now a convicted felon, was only in her twenties when she allegedly conned the executive potentially in line to run America’s biggest bank.
Lesson No. 6: Spend, Spend, Spend!
The Sapphire Preferred card is designed to make cardholders spend more and feel clever about it. Points, tiers, and rebates are gamified to convert rational people into rolling the dice on Chase’s travel portal.
Case in point: Southwest’s Companion Pass promotion. Spend $75,000 in a calendar year on the Sapphire Reserve card, and your companion flies free (plus taxes).
Sounds nice. But if I charged that same amount to my Fidelity 2% card, I’d earn $1,500—real money, no strings attached.
I just priced a premium roundtrip Business Select fare on Southwest from LA to San Francisco: $609.60, with perks like two checked bags and Wi-Fi. That would still leave me with nearly $900—enough to fly a companion and buy her dinner at Kokkari Estiatorio, one of San Francisco’s finest.
No blackout dates. No loyalty gimmicks. Just value — and an opportunity to savor some pretty awesome grilled fish.
Lesson No. 7: Customer Service Matters
With fraud and identity theft rampant, quick access to real human support is essential.
Every time I’ve called Fidelity’s card line, I’ve reached a knowledgeable rep within less than two minutes— no offshore handoffs, no “unusually heavy call volumes,” and no hostile Chatbots when I chose to zero out and ask for a representative.
JPM? I also carry their higher-tier JPMorgan credit card, considered the crème de la crème of credit card finance. Fidelity’s credit card support is better and faster – and it’s not even run by Fidelity.
Lesson No. 8: Dimon Wins Even When You Cancel
I’m heartened to see cardholders online announcing they’re canceling over the $795 fee. But here’s what many don’t realize:
Canceling a credit card can lower your credit score. And guess who potentially profits from that?
Jamie Dimon, whose bank dominates auto and mortgage lending. A lower score means a higher interest rate on your next loan.
An apt slogan for Chase: Heads Jamie wins, tails you lose.
Lesson No. 9: If You Must Play the Game…
If you insist on playing travel rewards roulette, Craig Joseph of NerdWallet makes a strong case for the Capital One Venture X rewards card. It carries a $395 annual fee, but the benefits—including cell phone insurance with theft and loss protection—are clear and easily discernible. Joseph filed a cell phone claim and got reimbursed within 48 hours. That’s a meaningful benefit.
Lesson No. 10: There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute
“There’s a sucker born every minute,” goes the famous saying. Jamie Dimon is betting that plenty of them will happily covet a $795 credit card, mistaking it for status.
Me? I feel empowered with cash in my account—most of it at Fidelity, where Abigail Johnson pays me better interest and reimburses the $3.50 Dimon imposes when I withdraw from the last Chase ATM in my neighborhood he hasn’t yet closed.