Chime Financial, Inc. is an American financial technology company, based in San Francisco, California, that provides fee-free mobile banking services through two national banks, Stride Bank and The Bancorp Bank. The company offers early access to paychecks, negative account balances without overdraft fees, high-yield savings accounts, peer-to-peer payments, and an interest-free secured credit card. Chime's mobile banking services do not rely on monthly service or overdraft fees or minimum balance requirements. Chime earns the majority of its revenue from the collection of interchange fees on debit card transactions. Chime is able to offer its services via its relationships with banks despite the company not being a bank itself; customer funds are routed to a chartered bank. FDIC insurance is only available to users via the partnered banks, not directly through Chime. In 2021 and 2022, Chime was criticized for closing customer accounts without notice and not returning funds in a timely manner. The company was penalized for the use of the word "bank" in its marketing, following which it agreed to include disclaimers that Chime is not a bank in its marketing materials. Wikipedia