This banking app closed accounts without warning and kept people’s money

bgrpro65 juillet 07, 2021

In recent years, online-only financial companies have been springing up at a rapid pace. There are many pros and cons to using an online service to replace your bank. On one hand, they lack many of the fees of traditional banks. On the other hand, they also lack physical locations. At the end of the day, some consumers will get more out of banking apps than others. But Chime's banking app -- which is one of the biggest -- is starting to sound like more trouble than it's worth.

This week, ProPublica shared a lengthy report about the banking app Chime. Chime is generating far more complaints at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau than the average bank. Since last April, users have filed 920 complaints at the federal agency. 197 involved "closed accounts," as Chime shuts them out of their bank accounts. By comparison, Wells Fargo bank has six times as many customers but had just 317 CFPB complaints about closed accounts over the same time period.