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.
Yes, Chime is legit. 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.
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.
No, Chime is not a bank and doesn’t hold its own FDIC insurance. While Chime isn’t a bank itself, your Chime accounts are still insured up to the typical amount of $250,000.
Chime’s deposit accounts are insured through Chime’s partner banks, The Bancorp Bank, N.A. and Stride Bank, N.A., up to $250,000. This means your Chime checking and savings accounts are protected under the same federal deposit insurance other banks have.
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’s popularity and success can largely be attributed to its flagship product: the Chime Checking Account and its savings account.
The Chime Checking Account has no monthly fees, opening deposit requirements, overdraft fees or foreign transaction fees. It offers great perks, 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 get Chime+ perks like early paycheck arrival, a higher savings APY, the ability to turn on the free overdraft service SpotMe, and possibly qualify for cash advances through the MyPay cash advance service.
Chime’s features have earned it a spot among the best checking accounts on the market, including our best free bank accounts list.
The Chime savings account, which is unlocked with the checking account, and earns a 0.75% APY automatically with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements, or up to 3.00% APY with Chime+.
There’s also one more tier with Chime, called Chime Prime. It requires at least $3,000 in total qualifying direct deposits in the last 34 days. With Prime, you can earn up to 3.75% APY on savings.
Without meeting the Chime+ or Chime Prime deposit requirements, your account stays at “Chime” status and earn up to 0.75% APY on savings.
Chime also offers the unique Chime Card, a credit-building secured card with no interest charges or annual fees. To qualify for the Chime Card, you must have a Chime Checking Account.
Chime offers tax return filing with no fees, for both state and federal. Chime says it accepts most situations and filings, such as employment and unemployment, gig workers, crypto sales and other typical situations. The process is reported to be very fast, with Chime saying its customers file their taxes seven times faster than average. Additionally, if you choose to have your refund directly deposited to your Chime account, you could receive it up to six days early.
However, like most tax software, if you have a complicated return or prefer in-person support Chime may not be the right fit. Chime’s tax filing is online only, and it states it accepts “most” tax situations, but that doesn’t mean all.
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.
| BBB accredited | Yes |
|---|---|
| BBB rating | A+ |
| BBB customer reviews | 3.53 out of 5 stars, based on 970 customer reviews |
| Trustpilot score | 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 12,567 customer reviews |
| Customer reviews verified as of | 07 May 2026 |
Chime has a little over 7,000 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 so-so rating with Trustpilot with over 12,000 reviews. 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 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 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.
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