Chime remains popular with consumers despite a
The neobank faced the wrath of customers after a slew of accounts were closed, and the account owners were unable to access their funds.
The company said the account closings were part of an effort to curb suspected fraud related to unemployment claims. Chime had seen a surge of new account openings during the pandemic. But some customers, who said their accounts were incorrectly closed, had trouble reaching Chime to regain access to their money. ProPublica first reported on the incident last year.
Since then, the firm has worked to implement changes to ensure that doesn't happen again, including new fraud controls that allow it to block 80% of synthetic accounts and reduce the need for account suspensions.
"We have also established better ways to verify a member's identity for immediate re-enablement during a phone call. We are constantly assessing our interactions, including response and re-enablement rates and our [net promoter] score based on members' interactions with customer service," a Chime spokesperson said in a statement.
These recent troubles notwithstanding, the neobank came in at No. 5 on Arizent and Monigle's
"I really admire what Chime is doing with their social media content," said Lori Ho, vice president of digital marketing and analytics at BECU in Tukwila, Washington.
Her institution ranked ninth on the list. She called Chime's Instagram account "really fun and engaging. They're making banking approachable, with humor" and digestible tips, Ho said, adding that she was interested in doing likewise for the $29.5 billion-asset BECU if given the opportunity.
For instance, one recent Chime post reads, "Fill in the blank: I'm building credit so I can ________," with a comment by Chime below: "What are you working towards?" The post received 839 likes and 727 comments.
Vineet Mehra, chief marketing officer at Chime, agreed that the fintech's strength lies in the robust social media and peer-to-peer components of its business model. On Instagram, the hashtag #WhyChime frequently trends, he said. Chime's account has roughly 880,000 followers.
"We really spend a lot of time curating that. Sometimes we'll send people Chime swag to celebrate a milestone they just achieved with us," Mehra said.
The fintech reached an agreement with California regulators to disclose clearly that it’s not a bank and that its services are provided through bank partnerships.
He said a popular feature of Chime's app is the SpotMe Boost: Each customer receives $50 in extra money that they can give to other members, including "complete strangers" on Instagram who might need help avoiding an overdraft limit, Mehra said.
"There's stories of people doing that and grabbing coffee at a cafe nearby," he added. The social network this creates, he says, helps Chime differentiate itself in customer engagement.
Innovative product features like this appear to be helping the neobank perform well in consumer surveys.
"While challenger banks are still building faith among customers that they can be as trustworthy as traditional banks, they are generating more buzz and pulling ahead of traditional banks and credit unions in the mind of the consumer for innovative products and services and rewards and other monetary incentives," said Janet King, vice president of research and content solutions at Arizent. "This is reflected in Chime's No. 5 ranking, which is driven largely by consumers' view of them as a leader in digital banking that offers customers the self-service banking tools that they want."
