Customer complaints about fintech company Chime continue

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Complaints against a popular financial technology company continue, about a year after Team 10 first covered Chime.

The clock used to be where Dayna Avelar kept her money. The company is marketed as having a simple online banking experience, but some customers — like Avelar — said that’s not the case.

“I got two direct deposits before I started having problems,” Avelar said.

She said somehow someone else managed to gain control of her account and withdraw some money. At this point, she doesn’t know how it happened. Avelar disputed that and said she was able to recover that amount.

“I changed my password. I had changed my login information. They sent me a new card. They assured me that everything was going to be fine, Avelar told Team 10 during an interview via Zoom.

However, she said that everything was perfectly fine.

Her phone number was changed on her account and even now she doesn’t know how. She continued to deal with problems.

“About two or three days later the same thing happens. They literally took all the money out of my account. Thousands of dollars,” she said.

After a police report and a lot of back-and-forth with Chime, Avelar said she was able to come to a partial resolution. “They refunded my money but refused to close my account,” she said.

“I can’t speak verbally to anyone on the phone. I have to send an email to get someone to answer me because I don’t know the number [on my account]Avelar continued.

The financial technology industry is growing, according to Dan Roccato, a clinical professor of finance at the University of San Diego.

“It’s a competitive market,” he said. “They want a piece of your purse. There’s no doubt about it.”

Roccato said the technology, commonly known as “fintech,” allows consumers to access financial services online using their smartphones.

However, customer service can be a problem.

“It has limited support in many cases. A lot of these platforms really haven’t built out their customer support capabilities to keep up with customer needs.” Roccato said.

Anaya is another Chime customer who said she had a huge loss of money. She declined to use her last name for privacy reasons.

“My money started coming out of my account,” she said. “It’s only $20, $40 here and there. It’s $500 … repeatedly.”

She said the suspicious activity started happening after her tax refund was deposited into her account.

“[Chime] closed my account because I filed a dispute for my money,” Anaya said. “They denied all my disputes during the day. With a regular bank it usually takes a few days, but with them it took a day,” said Anaya.

In Anaya’s case, a Chime spokesperson said the company “stands by the original decision” and said the member was notified of their account status.

They would not share any further information to protect members’ privacy.

Anaya said she was still looking for a better explanation and even tried contacting Chime via Twitter. They blocked her account.

She even tried contacting Chime on Twitter.

“They are very cruel. They don’t take their time, Anaya said.

State regulators say Chime is a neobank – non-traditional banking – that uses fintech to operate digitally.

Last year, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) wanted to make sure consumers knew. In a settlement agreement, the agency prohibited Chime from calling itself a “bank” in any of its marketing materials. The agreement said the company must clarify that it is working with banking partners.

Still, consumer advocate Ben Coughlin said people need to be careful.

What are they marketing? It is the same as the banks market, he said. “Even though they’re not a bank, they’re competing with banks, and that’s kind of hard for most consumers to understand.”

He encourages customers to document everything they do if they start having problems with certain companies. While legal action is an option, Coughlin knows that isn’t always possible for some.

“[Find] other avenues … writing online reviews, finding journalists who cover these things, and holding these companies accountable is incredibly important,” Coughlin said.

Consumers can also report problems to agencies such as DFPI and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

From October last year to early November this year, a DFPI spokesperson told Team 10 they received 342 complaints about Chime. The spokesperson confirmed that they are “currently investigating Chime’s dispute resolution practices.”

For both Avelar and Anaya, there is no resolution. A spokesperson for Chime told Team 10 on Avelar’s case, “the member services team contacted her on August 19 and communicated Chime’s requirements to initiate the account closure.”

Avelar cannot provide them with the necessary information, such as the phone number linked to the account, because she said it has been changed without her permission.

“Be careful. Definitely be careful about putting your money there,” Avelar warned.