How the Chime bank account put me back in control of my finances

Are you still using a bank that charges you a monthly service fee, punishes you for an accidental overdraft, or charges you to digitally send money to your friends and family? I was getting run over by these kinds of fees before I found the Chime online banking app.

I couldn’t seem to get ahead on my checking account balance. First if all, I have ADHD. That is my biggest challenge. We tend to be impulsive spenders anyway, not to mention running into issues like using the wrong button at the gas pump. How can you use the wrong button at the gas pump? Well let’s just say if it’s a debit card that you are using you better be using the DEBIT button on the pump. Especially if you are on a tight budget. If you choose credit, random gas stations will only put a one dollar hold on that $40 tank of gas you just pumped. You may assume that the $40 has already been removed from your account, go on with your day, assuming the balance in your checking account is correct. The next day you wake up with your account overdrawn, an overdraft fee from your bank, and even an overdraft fee from the gas station sometimes! To me this is being punished for making an honest mistake. By the Grace of God, I found out aboutthe Chime bank account.

Chime not only has no overdraft fees, but they have a SpotMe benefit that allows you to borrow up to $100 until your next payday. The SpotMe feature only activates once you direct deposit at least $500 a month into your Chime account. This benefit will not only save your ass sometimes, but it’s free to use, unlike those nasty payday loans that also charge outrageous fees. I used to be caught up in that cycle myself so I know how we can easily become dependent on them and the company continues to make unfair amounts of money as it unfolds. With Chime, the next time you get paid the money is removed from your deposit right off the top, minus the ungodly fees of that payday loan. Chime will offer you the option to tip them for helping you out after the money is paid back but you are clearly told in the app that you are not obligated to in any way. You will still be able to use SpotMe again and again even if you decide to never tip them for flipping you a Benjamin when you need it. They won’t complain one bit. Personally, I was quite grateful for this benefit during the process of leaving my husband, Shipt and Instacart were spotty business wise and I used it alot. I would tip the minimum amount which I think was $1. Just to express my gratitude for even offering a service like this. Chime is the first bank account that I have not personally self destructed myself with in many years. Especially through the huge shift in technology in the past few years like I described with the gas pumps. Things like that kept finding their way into my life and quite honestly, I have left a bloody trail of banks that I owe money to in the past few years.

Do you like sending money back and forth to friends and family? Well once everyone has a Chime account you can send up to $2000 to friends and family for FREE.

Chime has hundreds of affiliations with banking institutions so you can use ATMS at no cost. You can also go to thousands of retailers and get cash in hand back from the register. In my darkest hours, I would have $2 in my Chime account, go to Walmart, buy a soft drink for $1.75 and do the cash back option on the register. I would tap the $40 button and out came $40 for me to get through the rest of the week on. Of course when my Shipt paycheck would arrive, my money would be paid back immediately, but NO overdraft fee for “working the system” a little bit to make it to payday. It was a true blessing for me many times just so I could get gas and maybe a little food before payday.

Speaking of payday, Chime releases most paychecks two days early. Combined with the SpotMe feature, I only had to worry about maybe one day until payday would come. It really helped me a lot. You are never required to have a minimum balance on your Chime spending account so you never have any monthly service fees.

Okay, now I am gonna share some real hustler secrets I had to use a few time when I descended lower than the dark times I used SpotMe or cash back for. This is what happens when your grocery delivery service begins to dry up in your local area for whatever reason. If I knew something was getting ready to come out of my account automatically and I had say, $50 in my account, I would shift that $50 into my cash app or into my Chime savings account to make sure that money was not taken. I have had a rough 2020 y’all. Yeah, I said that. I have to have money for gas or my income stops. I can do a Promise to Pay on the Verizon app and pay my cell bill a bit late. But if they come in and take the $50 for gas and food, I am screwed for the week. This also saved my ass a few times even lately. I have not had the money for Spotify lately so I set the reminder for the day it was due to come out and I shifted the cash in my Chime spending to one of my other accounts. You can shift it to your Venmo, your Paypal, or your Cash App. The easiest way however, is just to shift it into your Chime savings account, or better yet, into your Chime Credit Builder Card. This can again, save your ass sometimes when you are in a pinch financially.

Moving onward and upwards, let’s now begin talking about the benefits of the Chime savings account. I used to use Acorns to do round-up savings with my debit card. Because your Chime Savings account is integrated right into the app, with the flip of a switch, you can do round-up savings right on the app. You have immediate access to all of your savings if something comes up, you can quickly transfer money from your savings account right to your Spending account with the move money button at the bottom of the app. You simply go to the gears button within the Chime app and scroll down to the round up option to turn it on. Every time you use your Chime debit card for any purchase, the amount up to the next dollar amount will be deposited into your Chime savings account. There is also an option to save 10% of each direct deposit every time you get paid. That way the money is taken off the top and put into your savings before you ever miss it.

Now you’re probably wondering hey, what if I want a paper trail for that asshole doctor that is trying to cut costs by doing their own paperwork that tries to claim that you never paid for your visits when you did not have health insurance, not that this happened to me or anything, but you can still request that a paper check be sent to someone just so you can cover your ass. Plus you now have a paper trail for say, tax time in case you can write off whatever you are paying for with a check. Plus believe it or not, there are some businesses that still want a check for payment out there. Not many, but you may occasionally find the need to provide an actual check for someone. If this is ever the case, have no fear, that option is still available right in the app too. You just enter the receiving party’s name and address, the money is taken right then and there unlike those annoying old school electronic check setups using your account number and routing number that can take days or even weeks to clear your account. Sometimes the receiving party can take forever to deposit the check at their leisure or for that money to eventually clear your account. Old systems like this electronic checks can set you up for another accidental overdrawal on your account. This ends the cycle of constantly overdrawing your account. Enough of that shit already!

Finally for those of you in the same boat I am in, rebuilding your credit, you will be excited to know that Chime sets you up for success with this as well. I’m not going into detail with this but I want to at least mention the Credit Builder Card. You may not be offered this card right away, as that was the case with me. It’s basically a way that instead of using your Spending account so much, you can move money into the Credit Builder Card account and use it as a prepaid credit card. Y’all know what I’m talking about here. The old school offers would come in the mail and tell you that you can rebuild your credit if you send them $350 PLUS and $80 annual fee up front. Not only that, but these overly greedy companies that have been capitalizing on our mistakes and mishaps for decades will still charge you late fees if your payment is late even though you have put your OWN money up to cover your credit, plus they will charge you interest on every single cash advance or purchase you are making!!! It is absolutely insane to participate in these types of offers any longer. Chime gives you this card for FREE. They don’t charge interest for any purchases. I don’t know if you can even do a cash advance, which simply removes a form of temptation for me anyway. This is a very well thought through way to help you rebuild your credit by offering you a way to simply shift your money from your Spending account while you’re standing in the grocery store line and use that credit builder card. You can also add money anytime you want to leave in there if you know you have a large purchase coming up. I’ll be honest. I am just now learning about the Chime Credit Builder Card, but the most important part to know is that every thirty days Chime reports to the credit bureaus on your behalf and the more you use this card, the better your credit will become. That’s adding something positive to counterbalance some accounts that may be delinquent that you may not be able to pay on just yet. We are still creating and bringing SOME form of positivity to your credit report. This puts you into the mindset of success. Your momentum begins to carry you more towards more and more success. That is the type of energy that we are looking to tap into.

Now we are all on the road to victory even though at the beginning of this article it may have seemed like I was snowballing into the negative, here I am sharing all of these back door techniques to help you keep more of your own money in your own pocket. Now I will share the way you can begin making money with your Chime account. I have a dear friend who I shared this information with. He was in a terrible cycle tangled up in payday loans and I remembered that Chime offers EVERYONE who has an account with them a personal link to share. I sent him my link and the day his first direct deposit hit his bank account, two days early on top of it, we BOTH received $75 in our Chime bank accounts. For this referral link to work, your friend must direct deposit at least $200 monthly. Even if you work at Walmart you can meet that requirement! Everyone uses direct deposit nowadays!

Once you sign up for Chime, if you decide to do so, you will also have access to a link to invite friends and earn the easiest $75 you ever earned, plus you have helped someone escape the old system that was created to keep you in a negative state of being that seems to snowball and make us resent dealing with money at all.

The whole year’s events and lessons that I have had this year inspired me so much that I am here sharing my worst moments to begin helping you shift out of your negative relationship with money. I am openly sharing with you that you can bring money into your life by sharing YOUR personal invitation link with your friends and family. The first step in that process is getting the account. This is also an amazing way that we can begin to support each other by using these links to help each other manifest prosperity in our lives. There is absolutely no obligation to use it but I am offering you an opportunity to give back to me for providing my time and all of this information to you. I am grateful for every single one of you who takes this information and changes your life for the better. I am still grateful for the read and the interest in the information. You may run into a friend or family member who needs to know about a checking account that does not punish you for unintentional mistakes. If you do decide to sign up for the Chime account I would be super grateful for the click through this link. It will continue to help me on my own personal journey.

We’ll both get $75 when you open a Chime bank account and set up direct deposit! https://chime.com/r/miscelaneconley

Everyone have an amazing day and trust the process. We are moving into a new age of unity and hope! I am super excited to be a part of that and I want you to be optimistic about your future with money!! Stop letting old debts keep coming out so you can’t get a positive balance on your checking account.

UPDATE: Since writing the content and information above I had yet another epiphany about something! Now granted, some of you will be pissed and maybe even call me a loser for sharing this kind of information with people. If I were not bulletproof to these kinds of objections I would not be writing an article with this kind of content. Obviously this is not the article for you and you have no empathy for someone who has alked this path because you have been blessed enough to be blind to this type of thinking. Comment as you like, I will not feed back into negativity. You cannot be reasoned with until you walk the path yourself so I choose not to participate. That being said, I will move forward sharing the latest epiphany that is going to save my ass again. It may seem unethical, but to someone who is otherwise struggling to keep the money I am currently earning in my bank account, I really don’t care what you think. I have made mistakes, and I don’t see any other option. I can clean up my credit later if I can take the reins back with my money in the present moment. This is not an option for me but a MUST.

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this sooner, but I have to report my debit card for Chime as being lost. I have a gym membership, an old purchase on an old Apple ID which I have tried PROFUSELY to get to the bottom of with no level of success even after a walk through call with Apple themselves, a streaming service that I can’t get into but I am still being charged for, and a music streaming service that I can move to the new card once it gets here. I must report the current card as lost. This will cut off the automatic payments to the services that I can’t even USE any longer and prevent them from taking what I am earning currently. To me, this does not make me irresponsible. This choice is putting ME back in charge of where my money is going. Yes I made mistakes, I have exhausted my energy in multiple ways trying to reverse and cancel them. This was a last resort choice, trust me. I thought about it from all angles and I finally said, hey...my credit is already jacked up anyway. There’s actually a benefit to hitting rock bottom with my credit. I have nothing to lose! They will just have to wait until I get a handle on things again before they get paid. I am putting my OWN self first for once in my life. This is empowering me! I don’t feel any shame sharing this. If it helps one person recover from being bombarded and harrassed by creditors, then hey, I have helped someone. Thanks for the read everyone and God bless us everyone!

Happy Holidays no matter which ones you celebrate!