Chime Card™: An exceptionally low barrier to building credit comes with limited value

Instead of requiring the upfront security deposit of typical secured cards, what you deposit into your secured account becomes your credit limit. You must open a Chime Checking Account and set up one direct deposit of at least $200 to be eligible to apply for the Credit Builder Visa card.

You can send your entire paycheck to your Chime Checking Account or just a percentage of it, but the hassle of setting up a direct deposit with your employer is mandatory — even if you’re not planning to use direct deposits after this required setup.

Since you can’t spend more money than you have in your secured account, you can’t carry a balance and owe interest. However, you also shouldn’t have a problem paying off your card every month.

Ultimately, the combo of a secured card and several accounts mean you’ll need to manage money between your:

• Chime Checking Account
• Secured account

• Chime Card™

• Linked external banking account (if you aren’t solely using direct deposits)

Chime makes moving money between these accounts relatively easy, but the process could be tedious if you’re new to credit cards and want a simple experience. The direct deposit factor could even be a deal-breaker if you don’t want your paycheck going into your Chime account or if your job doesn’t provide direct deposits.

The only way to add funds to your secured account is by transferring money from your Chime Checking Account. Fortunately, you have various deposit options, with automatic direct deposits being the easiest (the “Move MyPay” feature). Or you can manually transfer money from a linked external bank account, which you can do through the Chime app if the bank is supported by Plaid. If you’re in a real pinch, you can deposit $25 to $200 from your external bank’s debit card one time during the life of your account. (MyPay is only offered in select states.)

Otherwise, you can add funds via check deposits through Chime (if you’re eligible), Pay Anyone peer-to-peer money transfers in the Chime app and cash deposits at in-network ATMs.

You can choose to either pay manually each month or activate the “Safer Credit Building” auto-pay option. Using the auto-pay and deposit settings make managing your Chime accounts and Credit Builder Visa more convenient. Simply move the money from your Chime Checking to the card’s account each month and you won’t miss a payment.

Choosing to pay manually provides more options if you prefer to closely monitor your money. Chime will still help keep you on track with a due date notification every month, and you can also pay with your linked external banking account. This extra ounce of freedom makes paying manually worth it if you’d rather keep a consistent credit limit — or as little money in your Chime accounts as possible.

Building credit with a secured card generally focuses on paying off your card on time and in full every billing cycle, keeping your ratio of used credit low compared to your limit and keeping your card active to increase your average account age.

A positive payment history is the most important credit score factor, and the Chime Card’s prepaid-style credit limit and “Safer Credit Building” auto-pay setting form guardrails to help keep your credit journey on track. However, Chime doesn’t report your credit utilization to the three major credit bureaus, which can be a double-edged sword.

No credit utilization ratio reporting can be a big advantage if you won’t be able to keep a high secured account balance. On the other hand, you won’t be able to accelerate your credit score progress with the Chime card’s top-of-the-line credit limit range (up to $10,000). Establishing a positive payment history and lengthening your account age take time, so credit utilization is the biggest credit score factor you can immediately control. 

The Chime Card™ also can’t upgrade to an unsecured card down the road like traditional secured cards can. These factors mean the Chime Card™ may take a bit longer to improve your score, but it’s a safer option if your funds are limited.

The only way to withdraw cash from your Credit Builder card’s secured account is at an ATM. There’s no fee if withdraw cash at one of the in-network Allpoint, Visa Plus Alliance or MoneyPass ATMs. Otherwise, Chime charges a $2.50 out-of-network ATM withdrawals.

Out-of-network ATM withdrawal and over the counter advance fees may apply except at MoneyPass ATMs in a 7-Eleven, or any Allpoint or Visa Plus Alliance ATM.

Like the Chime Card™, the SuperCash Card uses a similar secured account balance for its credit limit and waives most of the same rates and fees, including APR.

Rewards-savvy cardholders may find SuperCash to be a more valuable pick since it earns unlimited 1 percent cash back on all purchases and 5% cashback on anything from Super Shop. You may also build credit a bit faster with the SuperCash card since it reports your credit utilization to the major credit bureaus. Both cards require you to manage fluctuating secured account and credit card balances, but the SuperCash doesn’t require a checking account to deposit your money. 

Although the Chime card touts that it doesn’t require a minimum deposit to open, the required Chime Checking Account’s mandatory $200 direct deposit means the SuperCash could be more accessible upfront since it links to your debit card, so it doesn't require a minimum secured account balance to open the card. However, keeping a low deposit balance with the SuperCash could slow your credit-building efforts. If you think you'll keep a positive credit utilization ratio and want a taste of a rewards card, then the SuperCash might suit you best.

Since the Chime Card™ requires a $200 direct deposit to open the required checking account, the Discover it® Secured Credit Card is just as accessible with its $200 minimum security deposit.

There’s no doubt that the Chime Card™ has a lower barrier to entry since there are almost no card potential costs altogether. However, this Discover card packs some of the best value available for a traditional secured credit card. It not only features a solid cash back rate but also a welcome offer: Discover matches all cash back you earn at the end of your first year with the card. You’ll have a reassuring safety net thanks to its minimized fees — including no annual fee, foreign transaction fees, penalty APR or fee on your first late payment (then up to $41) — and Discover automatically reviews your account starting at seven months to see if you can transition to an unsecured card. 

These features combine for a possible faster path to an unsecured card and higher credit score. The Discover it® Secured Credit Card might be well worth it for its long-term value, easier account management and no neobank middlemen involvement, but the Chime Card™ could be better for some cardholders just for the lack of interest and credit checks.

No, you won’t be able to make any purchases with the Chime Card™ if you don’t have any money in your secured account. In fact, the card’s application disclosure states that you must add funds to your secured account within 60 days of your approval notification or Chime will cancel your card.

Chime is a financial technology company that doesn’t issue its own credit cards or banking accounts. Instead, Chime partners with Stride Bank or The Bancorp Bank to issue the Chime Card™ and Chime Checking Account.

The Chime Card only transaction limits are a $1,015 cash advance limit and an up to $10,000 spending limit (or up to your Available Spend Amount for either transaction).

Yes, but with a few points of caution. Chime is a neobank — meaning it isn’t actually the bank that holds your money, but a digital-only middleman that offers unique perks and services while partnering with traditional banks to issue your credit card and related accounts. Since neobanks (also known as “challenger banks”) are relatively new to the financial market and typically serve underbanked customers, they don’t have the same federal regulations as traditional banks.

Chime maintains a reputation as one of the most popular neobanks in the U.S, and it provides basic assurances like 24/7 customer support, its Visa cards’ “zero liability policy” for unauthorized purchases and FDIC insurance up to the standard $250,000 maximum deposit with its partner banks that store your money. 

However, Chime has raised a few eyebrows since regulators have stepped in occasionally over the past few years due to Chime’s disproportionate customer complaints of mistakenly closed accounts and slow dispute resolution compared to many established banks. The most notable instance followed a 2021 ProPublica report of the many Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Better Business Bureau (BBB) complaints. The CFPB’s legal action against Chime’s delay of consumer refunds led to millions of dollars’ worth of fines in May 2024, but not before Chime was fined another few million dollars by the CFPB in October 2023 for similar violations surrounding customers’ international money transfers through its Sendwave partner.

The Chime Card™ you receive is made of plastic, but you could upgrade to a metal card by completing the transactions listed in its promotional offer.

A student or credit-building card’s cost has a large influence on its overall score. 

Students already face a ton of expenses, so extra card costs are best avoided if possible, and people with limited or damaged credit tend often find the cards they can qualify for are much pricier than traditional credit cards designed for people with a good or better credit score. 

We compare a card’s total cost, including any annual fees, account activation fees, monthly fees and more against the total cost of other cards in this category and assign each card a score based on its affordability. We also factor rewards-earning potential into our assessment of a credit-building card’s total cost, subtracting a card’s expected earnings from the sum of its fees. 

To get a sense of a card’s rewards-earning potential, we estimate its average annual rewards rate and average annual earnings based on the most popular spending categories (as covered in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer spending report). 

However, we use a slightly lower spending assumption ($300 per month or $3,600 per year) to estimate average earnings, assuming students and credit-builders will start out with a lower credit limit, will want to keep credit utilization low and will focus primarily on small purchases they can easily pay off.

Given the many costs students face — from textbooks to laptops — the presence of an introductory APR on purchases or balance transfers also plays a role in a student card’s score.

A card’s APR is also a major factor in its credit-building score. Each card’s average APR is compared against the average APR of other cards in the category, and the cards with lower-than-average APRs receive a higher rating. 

Though high APRs are hard to avoid when you’re just starting out or working on your score, credit-builders should strive for as low an APR as possible since they’re likely to either be new to managing cards or trying to establish better financial habits and avoid falling into debt.

Along with a credit-building card’s cost, our rating system takes into account how easy the card makes it to build credit. To assess this, we evaluate its credit limit potential and minimum deposit requirement.

Unsecured cards with a high starting credit limit and secured cards that let you put down a large deposit and get a matching high credit limit will score the highest according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric and are more likely to appear on our list. 

This is because a high credit limit can make it much easier to keep your credit utilization low, a primary credit-building factor that makes up 30 percent of your FICO credit score. 

Secured cards have a slight advantage in this category since the maximum credit limit on a secured card tends to be much higher than the typical starting credit limit on an unsecured card that’s available with a bad or fair credit score. However, unsecured credit-building cards have the upper hand in another key aspect of building credit: accessibility. 

Cards that carry no or a low deposit requirement can also receive a high score according to our “Ease of building credit” rubric since these cards offer a lower barrier to entry than secured cards that require you to put up hundreds of dollars in an upfront deposit. 

Indeed, some users may prefer to pay a non-refundable $50 annual fee while they work on their credit score than tie up hundreds in a refundable security deposit.

We also evaluate each card’s benefits based on how useful they are for students or someone looking to build a positive credit history and save money on everyday spending. 

We consider the inclusion of a rewards program, student-centric perks and access to your credit score or a credit monitoring service of prime importance, along with the ability to prequalify for the card with only a soft credit pull and a clear path to increase your credit limit or graduate to an unsecured or full-fledged rewards card.

Cards that include these benefits are likely to score higher according to our credit-building card scoring rubric.