At Bank of New York, Shorter Life Expectancy

It was a sweet offer: free checking for life. For customers of the Bank of New York(BK), however, life could end early.

That's because JPMorgan Chase(JPM), which inked a deal April 8 to buy all of Bank of New York's 338 retail branches, hasn't committed itself to honoring the pledge.

Officials with JPMorgan say it's too soon to say what will happen to the accounts of customers who received the lifetime guarantee. The $3.1 billion deal, in which JPMorgan Chase is swapping its corporate trust business for Bank of New York's branches, is expected to close later this year.

Tom Kelly, a JPMorgan Chase spokesman, says the nation's third-largest bank won't make any decision until it completes a "product-by-product comparison'' of itself and Bank of New York. That process won't happen for a while. But Kelly notes that JPMorgan Chase already offers no-fee checking to many qualified customers.

JPMorgan Chase doesn't offer anything directly comparable to Bank of New York's lifetime pledge however.

The unusual "free-for-life checking'' deal, in which Bank of New York promises not to assess any monthly maintenance fees, has been the centerpiece of the lender's advertising campaign for the past two years. The offer is credited with luring new retail customers to the nation's oldest bank, which reports having 600,000 household accounts.

On its Web site, the Bank of New York touts its no-fee checking arrangement as "a deal that will last for the rest of your life.''

The fate of the lifetime guarantee is just one of the many customer-service issues that the banks will need to hash out before the merger is complete. Given that much of banking is a relationship business, industry experts say it's important for acquiring banks not to rush in and do things that offend existing customers.