Do you have a “free” checking or savings account at one of the big banks? If you’re a financial boy scout or girl scout, the account is truly free to you. But someone who is a financial wreck is subsidizing you. If you’ve ever overdrafted on your account, the $35 per day overdraft charge proves just how “free” your account really is.
Big banks collect big money from overdraft fees, account minimum fees, and bounced check fees. All these fees make it even more difficult to break out from the paycheck to paycheck trap that ensnares so many young people.
But not every bank abides by this philosophy. Chime, a mobile forward, deposit and savings institution is making money management and savings easier. This is how they’re doing it.
Mobile Forward
Like many internet banks, Chime keeps their costs low by investing heavily in technology and eliminating brick and mortar outlets. However, they’ve also had the foresight to focus on their mobile platform. Recently, they’ve been featured by Apple as one of the top money management apps.
The app makes it incredibly easy to set up direct deposit, to transfer money among your accounts, find an ATM and review your recent transactions.
The app is responsive, intuitive, and it has the information you need. You can see recent transactions, account balances, how to find an ATM, and your linked account balances. It’s easy to pay a bill or transfer money right in the app.
Easy to use interface
Easy to set up direct deposit
Fee Free
Chime’s fee schedule is 4 lines long. There are no maintenance fees, overdraft fees, foreign transaction fees, bounced check fees. You can even use MoneyPass to have access to more 24,000 ATMs for free.
You will pay $2.50 to use an out of network ATM and a 3% external debit charge (when you load your account via debit instead of a direct transfer). That’s it.
Chime is as close to a Fee Free account as you can get. They take pride in aligning their business profits with their members needs. If you join Chime, you can expect transparency and a bank account with no fine print.
Make Saving Simple (and Rewarding)
In addition to keeping the fees out of banking, Chime allows you to set up an automatic savings program.
The bank rounds up each transaction to the nearest dollar, and sets the money into a savings account. They also add a 10% reward to the money you set aside- up to $500 per year. The savings account yields a paltry .01%, but the rewards and automation more than make up for it.
If you’re struggling to save for a rainy day, a behavioral tool like Chime Automatic Savings can be a perfect solution. You can always access the money or transfer it back to your spending account, but mentally separating it is an easy solution to a savings problem.
But Will it Meet My Needs?
If you have straightforward banking needs, Chime is an excellent bank for you. It’s fee free. It’s got a built in savings tool. You can spend money with a visa debit card, pay bills via the mobile Chime Checkbook.
The beauty of Chime is in its simplicity. It’s easy to see how fee savings and extra savings from their program offset their paltry .01% interest rate.
However, the simplicity has some drawbacks.
The Chime Checkbook only allows $5000 in a single transaction but otherwise, there is no limit to how many checks you can send per day. Lump sum expenses like a rental deposit (first, last and security deposit) typically requires a big check, and $5000 might not cut it.
Chime also doesn’t yet have the option to deposit paper checks (which is a bummer, as many banks currently allow this by taking a picture on your phone). This is a feature that they plan to release soon. To deposit cash, you need to go to a Green Dot location. Anyone who deals in the cash economy should consider another bank.
Finally, Chime is not set up for joint account holders. If you and your spouse want to share a checking account, Chime isn’t a good option right now.
With these drawbacks, we can't rate Chime that highly today, but it shows promise for the future.
I’m excited to see how Chime will grow and transform in the coming years. Their commitment to fee free banking represents a needed change in the marketplace. Hopefully, Chime will come up with even more ways to expand their product to people who need it.
Chime Bank
Pros
- As close to free as you can get
- Great mobile app
Cons
- Not suitable for people who use cash
- Lack of check scanning feature
- Low transaction ceiling
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Chime also doesn’t have a live person to talk to either. Big help if possible.
Hey, Chime has a customer service center. However, if you’re on Eastern Standard time there’s a little 3wait because they’re on Central Standard Time.
How does there over draft work? Do they pull fees out of your next direct deposit?
Here’s what I found from their site in terms of overdrafts:
“Chime does not offer overdraft protection, but we are looking into options for our direct deposit members. If you do not have sufficient funds on your Chime account, any attempted debit card transaction will be declined. The exception to this is if a merchant forces a transaction through, you leave a tip at a restaurant or salon that exceeds your account balance, or if you go to a gas station and pay at the pump.”
Although, chime is a fee-free bank and you receive early direct deposits, their customer service is horrible! I’ve been a customer for about 6 months. I found out on Monday, while trying to purchase food for my family at walmart, that my card and funds were blocked due to an unauthorized charge I have no knowledge of. It’s going on day three of this so-called investigation and no one is able to give me any answers. All of my funds are tied up in this investigation and I have no way to access it. I am one disgruntled customer and I don’t recommend this bank to anyone. It’s still much for them to learn about serving others.
This is the exact comment i was looking for. Thank you very much because i almost went with this company. Without doing my research first.
This happens with every bank… I just did 2 test calls to customer service and although the response time was long (5-9 minutes), I was able to speak to a live person.
Plus they are on Central Standard time
Just pray you never have any problems. Four day waits for email support. 20 min waits on the phone. And when you do get a hold of someone either way, they either don’t know what to do and need to you call back, tell you it’s not their fault and hang up, or recognize that something is going on, but refuse to tell you what that something is and give you no solution.
And if you don’t use direct deposit, do not use this card. I’ve had an account with chime for a while and never had a problem, I loved my account in fact, until I switched to a job at a small business that writes paper checks.To deposit your check you have to: a. cash the check and then use a green dot to load it which can be expensive b. use a mobile app that charges you 5% of the check or you have to wait 8-10 business days to avoid the fee or c. use the worthless mobile deposit function which may or may not accept your check depending on how chime is feeling that day, then get the run-around on why the check was not accepted.
I have been a customer of chime since they started. It’s nice if all goes well, have an authorized charge, need to talk to someone knowledge or have an issue logging into your account, GOOD LUCK. I just can’t see myself putting money somewhere that I have no one to talk to in person. Nobody that can fix an issue. And my money is just out there….somewhere. Oh, and you can only email with real problems. Then good luck with that.
Best bank ever.!!!