Chime isn’t a bank — it’s a fintech company. Chime’s deposit accounts are federally insured through the FDIC, thanks to its two Member FDIC banking partners, The Bancorp Bank, N.A., and Stride Bank, N.A.
Chime isn’t inherently more trustworthy or better than any other fintech or bank, but it is widely popular and offers many of the same security measures, deposit coverage and customer safety features you’d expect from a reliable institution. While Chime isn’t a bank itself, your Chime accounts are still protected under the same insurance provided by other banks up to the typical amount of $250,000.
Chime has been in business for over 12 years. In July 2023, Chime was estimated to have over 38 million customers, more than Current, Dave, MoneyLion and SoFi® have combined, as reported by Cornerstone Advisors.
Chime’s popularity and success can largely be attributed to its flagship product: the Chime Checking Account.
The Chime Checking Account has no monthly fees, opening deposit requirements, overdraft fees or foreign transaction fees. It offers great perks, like early paycheck arrival, a peer-to-peer payment service called Pay Anyone, no ATM fees at over 40,000 Allpoint ATMs and the ability to deposit cash at more than 90,000 retail locations. With direct deposit of at least $200 per month, you can access the free overdraft service SpotMe and possibly qualify for cash advances through the MyPay cash advance service.
These features have earned it a spot among the best checking accounts on the market, including our best free bank accounts list.
Chime also offers a unique Credit Builder card, a credit-building secured card with no interest charges or annual fees. To qualify for the Credit Builder card, you must have received a single qualifying direct deposit of $200 or more into your Chime Checking Account.
There’s also the Chime savings account, which is unlocked with the checking account and earns a 2% APY with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. The savings account’s 2% APY is notably lower than other top high-yield savings accounts but is still significantly higher than the national average of 0.46% for savings accounts.
In February and May 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against Chime.
In February, the CFPB found that Chime had issues with slow responsiveness to complaints and made errors in handling them. Without admission or denial of any violations, Chime agreed to pay $2.5 million to the CFPB and ensure that customers have 24/7 access to customer support while committing to improving response times and complaint handling.
Soon after, the CFPB found that Chime was failing to issue post-account-closure refunds to customers within the fintech’s own 14-day policy. Failing to provide refunds within the time frame violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010. These refund failures caused significant financial harm to impacted customers, as they couldn’t access their funds. As a result, the CFPB ordered Chime to provide at least $1.3 million in redress to affected customers and pay a $3.25 million penalty into the CFPB’s victims relief fund.
Chime has well over 8,000 customer complaints on its Better Business Bureau (BBB) profile, and Chime does its due diligence to respond and resolve issues. Most complaints involve issues with receiving refunds after account closures, slow deposit times, attempts to get refunds after fraudulent charges or customers’ accounts being hacked. While the volume of complaints is higher than we typically see, these types of complaints are fairly common with banks and fintechs.
Chime has a 2.3-star rating with Trustpilot, based on over 9,000 reviews. Although the star rating is considered “poor,” it’s worth noting that the majority of customer reviews are positive. Happy customers report being with the fintech for “years” with little to no issues, praising the easy-to-use app, early paycheck arrival and overdraft service SpotMe. Many also highlight the 24-hour customer support.
On Reddit, most long-term customers say that Chime is great. They praise the fintech in many of the ways happy Trustpilot reviews do, saying they love the fee-free accounts, early paycheck arrival, seamless direct deposit and credit-building opportunities. Additionally, many Redditors point out that reviews for banks and fintechs are often skewed, as most people only leave reviews when something goes awry.
Chime’s deposit accounts are insured by the FDIC, meaning that in the unlikely event of bank failure, your funds are protected up to $250,000 per depositor.
The Chime Visa Debit Card is protected under Visa’s Zero Liability Policy, guaranteeing that customers won’t be held responsible for unauthorized charges or fraudulent purchases made with their card or account information.
Chime’s other security features and measures include:
Chime doesn’t have a lot of fees, which is always nice.
| Fee type | Cost |
|---|---|
| Monthly service fees |
| Opening deposit requirements |
|
| Overdraft fees | $0 |
| Late fees | $0 on Chime® Credit Builder Secured Visa® Credit Card |
Chime’s reputation isn’t squeaky clean, but its products are hard to beat. The checking account has no monthly maintenance fees, offers early payday, and by meeting direct deposit requirements, you can unlock credit-building opportunities, cash advances and a fee-free overdraft protection service.
However, Chime isn’t the only place with affordable banking products. See how Chime and its top competitors stack up against each other.
Chime isn’t owned by a bank, nor is it a bank itself. Chime Financial is a fintech company with banking partners that provide banking services and FDIC deposit insurance. Chime’s banking partners are The Bancorp Bank, N.A., and Stride Bank, N.A.
Unfortunately, no. You can’t use Zelle with Chime. Since Chime is not a bank, it isn’t compatible with Zelle, which only offers its services to financial institutions. Learn more about Zelle here.
You can load your Chime card at over 90,000 retail locations, including Walmart, Speedway, CVS, Family Dollar, Rite Aid, Walgreens and many more. To load your Chime card for free, cash deposits at Walgreens don’t cost anything. Other retailers may charge third-party cash deposit fees.
To load cash onto your Chime card, open the Chime app and tap Move Money, then Deposit Cash and have the cashier scan the barcode on your phone’s screen. The cashier will deposit the cash into your Chime checking account after you swipe your card.
Some of the best-rated mobile banking apps include SoFi, Chase, Discover and Wells Fargo. See our full list here.
Earn a checking account bonus of $200 by getting the Upgrade Card and making 3 qualifying transactions.
Fifth Third Bank currently offers a $325 checking account bonus when you open a new account and set up qualifying direct deposits.
Earn $25 with Varo by referring a friend. See the fine print on how to earn this bonus here.
One of PNC’s best bonus offers is its $400 direct deposit bonus. But if you don’t meed the criteria, there are other ways to earn cash.
Chime offers a competitive $100 referral bonus and a $100 direct deposit bonus when you meet certain requirements. See details here.
SoFi offers several bonus offers, including a direct deposit bonus, welcome offers and referral bonuses. See how to snag up to $300.
Banks like PNC, SoFi, HSBC, US Bank, Axos, KeyBank, Fifth Third Bank and more offer instant fund availability with mobile check deposit.
Instant sign-up bonuses with no deposit are not typically offered. However, these bank account bonuses have easy requirements.