Chime (company)

Not to be confused with Chime Communications Limited or Chime Communications (Australia).
Chime Financial, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryFinancial services
Founded2012; 12 years ago (2012)
FoundersChris Britt and Ryan King[1][2]
Headquarters101 California Street
San Francisco, California, United States
Key people
ProductsChecking accounts, savings accounts, debit cards, P2P, credit cards, fee-free overdraft
RevenueIncrease US$200 million (2019)[3]
Total assetsIncrease US$5.8 billion (2019)[3]
Websitechime.com

Chime Financial, Inc. is a San Francisco–based financial technology company that provides fee-free mobile banking services through two national banks, Stride Bank and The Bancorp Bank.[2][4][5][6][7][8][9]

The company offers early access to paychecks, negative account balances without overdraft fees,[2] high-yield savings accounts,[5] peer-to-peer payments,[6] and an interest-free secured credit card.[8] Chime's mobile banking services do not rely on monthly service or overdraft fees or minimum balance requirements. Chime earns the majority of its revenue from the collection of interchange fees on debit card transactions.[10]

Chime is able to offer its services via its relationships with banks despite the company not being a bank itself. Customer money is held in FDIC-insured accounts at Chime’s partner banks, yet FDIC bank insurance does not directly protect Chime's customers.[11] In 2021 and 2022, Chime was criticized for closing customer accounts without notice and not returning funds in a timely manner.[12][13] The company was penalized for the use of the word "bank" in its marketing, following which it agreed to include disclaimers that Chime is not a bank in its marketing materials. In 2024, Chime settled investigations for its handling of the account closures and to pay fines.[14]

  1. ^ Maria Deutscher,"Mobile banking startup Chime lands $485M mega-round at $14.5B valuation". siliconangle.com. 18 September 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "25. Chime". cnbc.com. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  3. ^ a b Fuscaldo, Donna (December 5, 2019). "Digital Bank Chime Now Has a Valuation of $5.8 Billion". Forbes.
  4. ^ "Everything You Need to Know About Banking With Chime". Entrepreneur. 4 November 2021. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ForbesAdvReview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b "Digital Banking Challenger Chime Now Allows Users to Send Money to "Anyone and Everyone"". Crowdfund Insider. Retrieved 2021-04-17.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference ref2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b "Best credit cards for rebuilding your credit of August 2023". USA Today. 2023-08-23.
  9. ^ Barnett, Ashley (12 September 2024). "Chime promotions and bonuses". CNN.
  10. ^ "Online bank Chime is said to near funding at $1.5 billion value". American Banker. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference ref4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Zimmermann, Stephanie (November 25, 2022). "Closed accounts, no money: Chime app users complain they were suddenly shut out of their online accounts". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference ProPublica2021-07-06 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference DFPI-2024-02-27 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).