Costs, licensing, consumer protection Privacy, self-custody, censorship resistance

Chime Card

Chime · Visa

4.5/5 1.4/5
What you pocket 5%

The advertised figure holds up: nothing is lost along the way here.

After FX markup, fees and withdrawals, on an average profile of €1,000/mo (20% abroad).

Data verified on unchanged since personalise the calc the sources

Worth it if you live in the US and want to build credit history at no cost: no annual fee, no interest, 47,000+ free ATMs and reporting to all 3 bureaus.

Avoid it if you're in Italy, where the card isn't available, or you don't have a Chime Checking account with a $200+ direct deposit: without it you can't open one.

Chime Credit Builder is a completely free card, with no credit check, no interest and no utilization reporting, plus access to over 47,000 free ATMs. It requires a Chime Checking account with a direct deposit of at least $200.

72
Transparency: Medium
72/100 · see methodology
72
Data exposure: Medium
72/100 · lower is better for sovereignty · methodology

Data & conditions

§ Amounts in USD/GBP are shown in the service's native currency.

Network Visa
Card type Credit card
APR 0%
Issuance fee Free
Annual fee Free
Free ATM limit 47.000+ ATM gratuiti (Allpoint)
ATM withdrawal Free
FX markup 0%
Cashback 5% in USD · Nessuno
On-chain settlement No
Contactless Yes
Virtual card Yes
KYC Full
Privacy 4/10
Supported countries US · 1+ countries
Estimated net annual cost €0/year
Regulator FDIC / OCC
OAM Italy registration No
Segment B2C
Past incidents 2021: a wave of sudden user-account closures with thousands of complaints (ProPublica investigation); Chime later revised its procedures. · May 2024: a ~$4.55M CFPB settlement (customer redress plus a penalty) for delays in refunding balances after account closure.
MiCA / License status Partner bank charter

Plans & pricing

Strengths

  • Completely free; no credit check; no interest; no utilization reporting; 47K+ free ATMs.
  • No notable sovereignty advantage documented.

Weaknesses

  • Requires Chime Checking with direct deposit $200+.
  • Traditional credit card: not self-custody — the account requires full KYC, a credit check, and can be closed or reported to credit bureaus by the issuer.
  • Full KYC required: verified identity, zero pseudonymity.

Verdict

A D ★ 4.5/5 ★ 1.4/5 Estimated net annual cost: €0/year

It tops the category because it strips out the costs that sink rivals: no fee, no credit check, no interest and no utilization reporting, with 47,000+ free ATMs and dual FDIC/OCC backing. The only friction weighing on the score is the entry requirement, a Chime Checking account with a $200+ direct deposit, but otherwise it is the cleanest cost-risk profile in the group.

Here the verdict flips: however free and well-built, it remains a custodial, full-KYC card, FDIC/OCC-regulated and tied to a US bank account, with no self-custody or on-chain settlement. Being free does not move the needle on this lens, because privacy and independence from the intermediary remain absent.

Privacy & anonymity 30% 1.0
Fund control 20% 0.0
Censorship resistance 20% 1.5
Costs 10% 5.0

Promp's editorial rating based on real fees and net annual cost. Promp reviews third-party products independently.

"Sovereignty" rating: score computed on privacy/anonymity (30%), fund control (20%), censorship resistance (20%), trustless/auditability (20%) and costs (10%). Same data, different weights.

Reputation

What happened to people who used Chime Card, and what users say. External signals: they do not feed the promp.it rating.

Incidents & regulatory actions

Notable incidents

Documented events with consequences still open. Each entry carries a source and a date.

  1. Regulatory action Moderate $3M ● open

    CFPB order: 3.25 million dollars in penalties and at least 1.3 million in redress over balances not returned on time to customers closing their accounts

    On 7 May 2024 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the US federal consumer finance regulator, issued an order against Chime Financial, Inc. The charge concerns neither a cyberattack nor a loss of funds, but how long the company took to return money to customers closing their accounts: according to the regulator, Chime "failed to refund consumers' balances within 14 days in thousands of instances, including thousands of instances when Chime failed to issue consumer refunds within 90 days". The CFPB found the conduct unfair under the Consumer Financial Protection Act, noting that the delay prevented people from accessing their own money needed for basic expenses. The order requires Chime to come into compliance, to pay a 3.25 million dollar civil money penalty and at least 1.3 million dollars in consumer redress, and imposes compliance, regulatory reporting and enhanced recordkeeping obligations for a period of five years — so until 2029. The figure recorded here as the amount is the penalty, not a loss suffered by users. One clarification is needed to avoid confusing two different companies: in November 2023 the CFPB closed another matter, for 3 million dollars, against "Chime Inc.", operator of a remittance app — a separate entity from Chime Financial, the card company, and unrelated to this order. Chime operates as a fintech: accounts are issued by FDIC-insured partner banks, not by Chime itself.

    ↗ source

verified on

Public reviews

4.8/5 2,609,021 reviews
  • App Store ↗ 4.8/5 1,529,057 reviews

    Ratings for the “Chime — Mobile Banking” app as a whole (account, debit card, early direct deposit), not for the Credit Builder card alone. Exact figure from the iTunes Lookup API, US store.

  • Google Play ↗ 4.7/5 1,079,964 reviews

    Ratings for the Chime app as a whole, not for the Credit Builder card alone. Exact count (1,079,964) and score (4.7283) read from the structured data on the Google Play page; the visible label shows a rounded value.

Weighted average across 2 public review platforms (2,609,021 reviews in total), weighted by volume. This is not our rating: it is those platforms’ average.

FAQ

Is Chime Card a safe card?

Chime Card is a custodial card on the Visa network. As a payment card, loaded funds are e-money and are not covered by a bank deposit-guarantee scheme. Fund custody is custodial.

How much does Chime Card cost?

The card has no annual fee. Issuance is free. The FX markup is 0% (no surcharge). See the tier table for full conditions.

Does Chime Card offer cashback?

Yes: up to 5% on select categories (credited in USD). It is a US credit-builder card, not crypto.

Is Chime Card available in Italy?

No, Chime Card is not currently available in Italy.

Is Chime Card custodial or self-custody?

Chime Card uses a custodial model. Funds are held by the issuer: you do not have direct control of the private keys.

Sources

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Update history

✓ Terms unchanged since Jul 10, 2026

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