You can now temporarily lock and unlock your Chase credit cards from your phone

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

• JPMorgan Chase is launching a new feature that lets customers temporarily lock and unlock their credit cards from their phone.
• If a card is misplaced, it can be locked from the Chase Mobile app, and then just as easily unlocked if found.
• The feature is live for credit cards and will roll out to debit cards later this year.

Next time you misplace your Chase Sapphire Reserve in your couch or leave it at a bar, you won't necessarily need to jump straight to cancelling it.

Instead, with a new feature launched Thursday by JPMorgan Chase, you can temporarily lock any Chase credit card from your mobile phone or computer, giving you time to look around or go retrieve it without worrying about somebody potentially abusing your card and racking up charges.

If you find it, you can go into the app and unlock it; if it doesn't turn up, you can keep it locked until you request a new card.

"We are always working on ways customers can pay with confidence every time," Jennifer Piepszak, CEO of Chase Card Services, said in a statement. "Now you can protect your credit card with just a few clicks on your phone or computer."

The feature is live in the Chase mobile app initially just for credit cards, but the company says it will also roll out the feature for debit cards later this year.

See also:

• Inside JPMorgan Chase's New York City tech office - the 'mothership' of the bank's $10.8 billion digital ambitions
• Credit-card super users are searching for answers amid a string of shutdowns from Chase, as billions in costs on lavish rewards pile up
• You no longer need a card to get cash from nearly every Chase ATM