Chime Reviews
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About Chime
Chime is a financial technology company that aims to provide helpful and easy-to-use online banking services. You can open a checking account, a savings account with a 0.5% annual percentage yield and a secured credit card that helps increase your credit score. Chime charges no monthly fees and no overdraft fees. U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are at least 18 can apply on Chime’s website or using its app.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 0.5% APY on savings account
- No-fee overdraft protection up to $200
- Secured credit card with no fees
- Over 60,000 fee-free ATMs
Cons
- Some services require direct deposit
- No joint accounts or secondary cards
Bottom Line
Chime is a mobile banking fintech company offering checking and savings accounts, along with a secured credit card. There are almost no fees. Some services are available only to members who use direct deposit.
Featured Reviews
Getting a Chime card and account was the best idea I’ve had in years. No overdraft fees, no surprises and the app is amazing!! Big banks scam is but chime is not one of them. I ca...
Read full reviewI have had an active Chime checking account for about 14 months now. All of my deposits, transfers, withdrawals have gone absolutely smooth. The Spot Me feature is amazing if you ...
Read full reviewWhat is Chime?
Chime is a fintech company partnering with two banks to offer “member-first” banking services online to members in all 50 states. It offers a checking account with a Visa debit card, a savings account with a 0.5% APY and a secured credit card that helps build credit. Other benefits include fee-free overdraft protection, early direct deposit and over 60,000 no-fee ATMs. There are no monthly fees or minimum balances.
Chime is based in San Francisco and has offices in Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia. Members can reach customer service by phone seven days a week.
How does Chime work?
Chime is not a bank; it’s a fintech company that partners with two banks: The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank. It's online only, with no physical banking locations. Members can log in to their accounts on Chime’s website or using the app. There are no fees to set up and maintain a Chime checking account, savings account or secured credit card.
To be eligible to sign up with Chime, you need to be at least 18 and a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S. with a valid Social Security number. Once you open an account, you get a Visa debit card. You also have the option to open a savings account and apply for a Credit Builder secured credit card. Chime also lets you:
- Set up direct deposit and get access to the funds up to two days early
- Send (including paper checks) and receive money without fees
- Withdraw cash without a fee from any MoneyPass ATM
- Deposit checks with mobile deposit
- Get fee-free overdrafts up to $200
- Get balance notifications and instant transaction alerts
Chime accounts
Chime has three types of accounts. When you become a Chime member, you open a checking account and receive your Visa debit card. You then have the option to open a savings account and apply for a secure credit card.
Checking
Chime offers an overdraft protection program, SpotMe, which gives you protection up to a limit (between $20 and $200) with no fees.
Savings
Two optional savings features allow customers to automatically transfer money to savings. With Round Ups, all purchases you make with your debit card are rounded up to the nearest dollar; Chime transfers the amount to your savings account. The Save When I Get Paid feature automatically transfers 10% of direct deposits of $500 or more from checking to savings.
Credit Builder
You can pay the monthly balance automatically with the Safer Credit Building feature. You can also pay manually. Chime reports to all three major credit bureaus. There is no credit check when you apply for the card, no annual fee and no interest.
Chime fees
Chime has no monthly fees and no overdraft fees. The only fee at Chime is a $2.50 charge for out-of-network ATM withdrawal or a withdrawal at a bank or credit union where you present your debit card.
You can also be charged a fee by an out-of-network ATM operator, third-party money transfer services or retailers other than Walgreens that allow you to make cash deposits to your checking account.
Chime FAQ
What bank is Chime?
Chime’s banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank. Both are FDIC-insured; accounts are insured up to $250,000 per depositor.
How does Chime Credit Builder work?
Chime Credit Builder is a secured Visa credit card that is designed to help members build credit. Chime reports to all three major credit bureaus. To apply, you need a Chime checking account and qualifying direct deposits of at least $200; no credit check is necessary.
Once you have the Credit Builder card, you can use it anywhere Visa is accepted and start building credit. Your credit limit is based on the amount of money you move from your checking account to the secured account. There are multiple ways to pay off your card each month, including Safer Credit Building, which automatically pays your balance.
What time does Chime direct deposit hit?
Direct deposit funds are available as soon as Chime receives the payment file from the payer. This can be up to two days earlier than the scheduled payment date. Chime recommends contacting the payer if you have questions about the timing of direct deposit.
How do I add money to Chime?
Members can transfer money electronically from other banks. They can also add money via direct deposit and mobile check deposit and by depositing cash at thousands of retail locations (free at Walgreens).
Is Chime a prepaid card?
No, neither the Chime Visa debit card nor the Credit Builder secured credit card is a prepaid card. The Credit Builder card is secured by the money you move into the secured account.
What are the cons of Chime?
Some of Chime’s services have eligibility requirements. SpotMe, the fee-free overdraft program, requires a qualifying direct deposit of at least $200 over the previous 34 days. Credit Builder, the secured credit card, also requires a $200 qualifying direct deposit.
Other cons of Chime are it doesn’t allow joint accounts or secondary cards, and it doesn’t have a rewards program.
Is Chime legit?
Chime is a legitimate financial technology company working with The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank, which are both FDIC-insured. Members in all 50 states use its mobile banking services, including Chime’s checking account, savings account and secured credit card, and benefit from overdraft protection, early access to direct deposit funds and easy sending and receiving of money — all with no fees. There are many fintech companies in the mobile banking space; consider comparing Chime with several others before deciding on the right one for you.
Chime Reviews
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Reviewed Nov. 27, 2023
My account was hacked with Chime back and was not able to get my money back. Even when I didn't make purchases. I called them to let them know. I got an email saying my info was changed. And they still let them take my money the next day. Now I have to sue them. Had to get lawyer. Don't trust this company.
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Reviewed Nov. 27, 2023
I received a text message from the bank asking me if I had attempted a 903.00 purchase from Walmart. I responded, "NO". They advised me that my card had been restricted and that a representative would be contacting me shortly. I then received a phone call from the bank advising me that my account had been hacked and they would be moving all of my money to a new account. They put me on hold and never came back to the phone. I hung up the phone and called the bank back. They advised me that this was not them calling me and wasn't sure how the person who called me had gotten access to my account, but they had "tricked" me. I provided proof of the transaction being initiated by the other party as well as the multiple calls that I received from Chime and filed a dispute.
My dispute has been denied three times. I am starting to believe that maybe Chime has something to do with it because I don't understand why they wouldn't approve a dispute that I have shown proof of it not being an authorized transaction. I am fighting to get my money back and they are not trying to assist me at all. I have been with this bank for 8 years and they treat their loyal customers like scum.
Reviewed Nov. 24, 2023
I transferred money from my debit card to Chime on the 10th of November and still have not received access to my funds. Now they sent me some crap about verification of the debit card when clearly it's the provider's card, a GOV'T card, my name on it and they're telling me that the card is not on their policy. They wanted copies of all my personal identification as well as copies of my provider's bank account statement, etc. I'm pretty sure they spoofed me, when I call them to close my account they start acting like they can't hear me on the phone and end up hanging up on me. This has been going on since Nov 10th and I have had chime for almost 5 years. When I try to login online it says my account has been suspended or closed....SMH
Reviewed Nov. 12, 2023
Chime has been a complete nightmare for me!!! And I will NEVER recommend this service/company to anyone!!! I regret ever opening an account with them!!! God forbid you ever get a new phone number because you have to get a code in a text message to login to your account. And in order to change your phone number on your account to be able to sign in again, you have to all but give a blood sample! I just went and counted and I've had to email, send selfies, and send the same documents to them FIFTY-FIVE TIMES this week!!! 55 TIMES!!! I've sent all the documents and stupid selfies holding the requested documents that they asked for 55 TIMES and I still cannot get into my account to get my money!!! I've never seen a worse, disorganized, waste of time, incompetent company in my 42 years of life, EVER!!! And once I get my money out of this account, I will NEVER use this company/service EVER AGAIN in my life!!!
Reviewed Nov. 6, 2023
A scammer on Craigslist wanted me to send them money through Venmo, PayPal, Zelle and finally Chime. I reported to each of these institutions the accounts that the scammer provided me. I kept pretending with the scammer that I was having problems sending payment so the scammer kept providing me with additional accounts where I could send payment. When reporting the suspected scammer accounts, each institution said they would look into the accounts used by the scammer except for Chime. I kept going back and forth with the Chime customer support where no matter how many times I explained the situation, they just kept responding with findings about my own account. They never said that they would or would not look into the suspected scammer's account.
As a result of simply trying to report this account, they ended up closing MY Chime account. It was truly bizarre. Do they have some policy that says they won't look into an individual's account based on an accusation from some random person like me? I don't know. They never acknowledged what I asked them to look into. All I was trying to do was do a "good deed" by hopefully shutting down the scammer's accounts but Chime cracked down on me instead. When I first reported the issue, I didn't even have a Chime account. I only created one because when I first made the report of the suspected scammer's account they responded saying that they couldn't locate my account and requested that I resend the report using the email address associated with my Chime account. From that point on, they would only tell me things about the status of my account for some weird reason.
Reviewed Nov. 5, 2023
I wish I could give them a negative rating, but that's impossible. I've had Chime for almost a year, and I've had to change my Debit and Credit Builder cards multiple times because Chime allows transactions even after blocking the merchants and getting new card numbers. All they want you to do is file a dispute and replace your card as if that solves any problems. But it only cleans up their mess. Oh, and the worst customer service experience ever! You are better off talking to a robot. At least it may have more common sense. I will be reporting them to the BBB and will also close my account to work with real banks that actually do their job and care about their customers.
Reviewed Nov. 2, 2023
This is the worst of the worst customer service of any financial institution I have ever seen. If I could rate this with negative stars it would be at least NEGATIVE 5. I have called multiple times, spoken to several support agents and supervisors. I have had to answer the same questions over and over. It seems like their ticketing system and/or their CRM and/or their employees do not have the ability to document my answers so the next agent doesn't have to repeat the same questions.
My wife has a Chime account and suggested I sign up. I signed up 10 minutes before she sent me the referral link. We immediately called support and they assured us it was not a problem, and instructed me to continue with the direct deposit and card activation and when that was completed they could manually link the accounts for the referral bonus. So I directed my employer to make a $200 deposit out of my payroll to Chime and that transaction went through. I also activated the debit card when it arrived. At this point I was just trying out the service.
I called back, as the agent instructed, to get our accounts linked, as I had completed all the requirements. The problem, I was told, was that the deposit was not an ACH transaction. I knew that it was, but Chime agents apparently don't have the capability to see that. They can only see what the "system" tells them, and the "system" incorrectly flagged that transaction as not qualifying for the referral program, when in fact it does qualify.
From their web page https://www.chime.com/invite-friends-terms-and-conditions-100-evergreen-august-2021/?embedded=true "A Qualifying Direct Deposit is a deposit of $200.00 or more by Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) that comes from your employer". I then procured the ACH transaction details from my employer's bank, which I attached to the support ticket.
The supervisor I spoke with on Oct 31 agreed the system incorrectly flagged the transaction and it was in fact a qualifying ACH deposit. She promised she could take care of it and I would receive email confirmation "shortly". That email never came, so I called again Nov 1, jumped through the initial agent hoops again, and finally got a supervisor. He said he couldn't help me, so I asked to speak to his supervisor. He said sure and transferred me. At this point, I thought I had been escalated and reached a supervisor of supervisors, "Bruce".
So I do the same dog and pony show with supervisor "Bruce", answering the same questions, and at the end of the long and useless conversation, he tells me there is nothing he can do. He's not a supervisor of supervisors. The previous supervisor simply transferred me to a peer. "Bruce" then tells me there is no one else that can help. He is the highest level of escalation that exists. There is no one in charge of the supervisors. Only "the system". The "system" is the real boss and makes the final decision. There is no human in charge and the "system" cannot be overridden or corrected. The "system" has final authority. Right. He also said there was nothing he could do about linking our accounts, contrary to all the other agents and supervisors before him. At least he was honest, I guess.
So now I'm wondering, if Chime cannot 1) handle customer support any better than this and 2) if Chime cannot honor their own terms of a promotion, why should I trust them with a lot more money? Why should I deposit my entire paycheck into a system that has such simple, yet ostensibly uncorrectable problems and such poor customer support? I would be crazy to let Chime handle my money.
I've already wasted too much time on this, but I give them one more chance to resolve the issue, 3 strikes and all that, and I tell them as much. I was told this morning that "the team" was working on it and would have it resolved by end of day. That didn't happen. I jumped on chat support to check it. Round and round we go. I'm done. Luckily I found this out without losing more than $92 (assuming they didn't really move it out to my real bank - if that transfer actually goes through I will have lost nothing but time). I advised my wife to stop putting her money there and get it all out. I'll be reporting then to BBB and also letting Stride Bank, their backer, know what's what. Maybe they already know. Maybe this whole thing is a scam.
Reviewed Nov. 2, 2023
I’ve had issues with my checks not being deposited through their app. I’ve asked to talk to a manager 8 times and keep getting pushed to another clueless rep. Save yourself the time and bank elsewhere.
Reviewed Oct. 30, 2023
I have a fraudulent charge on my account and Chime refuses to refund the money. They said they conducted an investigation and will not refund my money. Not sure what they investigated, I called on Saturday afternoon to report it and I got an email Sunday morning: "Based on our investigation, we have concluded no error occurred. Therefore, no funds will be credited to your account and this claim is considered closed."
Not sure what kind of investigation could be done between Saturday afternoon and early Sunday morning. I explained to them that I did not make this purchase and did not authorize it!!!! How can it be investigated so quickly. I DID NOT MAKE THIS PURCHASE! They REFUSE to refund the money that came out of my account. Plus, they had to cancel my card in order to investigate and it is going to take half a month to get a new card. There is no way to expedite shipping. I have no access to cash or a physical card. HORRIBLE BANK!
Reviewed Oct. 29, 2023
I had Chime for years! I had no major issues, when I disputed charges, it may have taken a few weeks for them to investigate for me to get my money back! My son had my credit card so I was able to send him money whenever, which I liked! The bad and worse experience is, I had to close my account with chime on the 10th of October. They tell you, it takes 30 days for you to get your money back in a check. 30 damn days, for me to get my own damn money back!! I worked to hard for me to wait 30 ** days to get my own money back!!! It takes a few seconds to add money to my account, it takes a few seconds to withdraw my own money, but it takes 30 days to get My own money back that I put into my own account!!
I have bills, a kid and other things I have to take care of that I can't because I have to wait longer than I should have to get my OWN MONEY BACK!!! Then to keep calling with no answer and sending emails with no response. This is absolutely ridiculous! I was going to open a chime once my money finally came but at this point, I'm so done with chime! They lure people in with the, no monthly fees, no overdraft fees, and the spot me **, but if you do your research, there are some Banks that have no Monthly fees also. And have the same benefits that chime offer! They will never see my money ever again!! I hate them.
Chime Company Information
- Company Name:
- Chime
- Website:
- www.chime.com