Chime calls its everyday checking account a “spending account.” The major selling point of Chime is that it charges almost no fees, as you can see from the list above. We can almost forgive the fact that it doesn’t offer any interest on this account because fee-free checking accounts are harder to find these days. However, there are certainly low-fee checking accounts that pay interest, so check out our roundup of checking accounts here.

Upon account opening, Chime will issue you a VISA debit card to use at the ATM and to make purchases everywhere VISA is accepted.

Noteworthy features

• No minimum deposit amount to open
• No minimum balance requirement
• No overdraft fee
• No monthly fee
• No ACH transfer fee
• No foreign transaction fee
• Send 15 fee-free ‘Friend transfers’ (P2P) each month
• Doesn’t earn interest
• Can’t request an additional card for another user.
• Limited to $500 in ATM withdrawals per day

Get your paycheck early
If you set up direct deposit to your Chime spending account, you may gain access to your funds up to two days early. That’s because Chime makes the money available to you as soon as your employer deposits it. Generally speaking, that’s about two days before you’d see your paycheck deposited to your account with most banks. This is a common feature of prepaid debit cards, but not seen with many traditional bank accounts.

ATM access
Use MoneyPass ATMs and you’ll incur no ATM fees. If you go to an out-of-network ATM, the fee is $2.50. ATM withdrawals are capped at $500 per day and card purchases that require a signature and PIN are capped at $2,500 per day.

No overdrafts
There are no overdraft fees to worry about because Chime won’t allow you to make a charge that will overdraft your spending account. If a transaction will overdraft your spending account, the company will refuse to process the payment. If your spending account becomes negative for whatever reason and remains negative for 15 days, Chime will transfer money from your savings account to bring the account back to a positive balance.

Chime Bank account vs. Aspiration Summit checking account

As Chime Bank is one of a growing number of fintech banking challengers, we wanted to see how it compares with its new peers, specifically the Aspiration Summit account.

Rates. Unlike the Aspiration Summit account, a Chime Spending account does not earn interest (although the optional Chime Savings account does). With the Aspiration account, you will be paid 1.00% on balances up to $2,499.99 and 1.00% on the entirety of balances of $2,500 or more.

Fees. The Aspiration Summit account offers no-fee ATM use anywhere, while Chime will charge an ATM fee unless account holders locate and use a fee-free ATM as designated by Chime. Neither bank charges a monthly account fee, however, Chime takes the lead here with no strings attached. Aspiration offers a somewhat complicated, usage-based fee pricing structure which may or may not charge a fee, depending on the user.

Overdrafts. The Aspiration account charges an overdraft fee, whereas Chime account does not – the bank will simply refuse to process the transaction if adequate funds are not in the account. Aspiration’s account is targeted toward middle-class users, whereas Chime seeks to appeal to the millennial or youthful demographic and pushes mobile account access as the norm, as opposed to simply an option to access an account.

Access. The Aspiration Summit account can only be opened by invite and when responding, an applicant may receive an email that they’ve been added to a “waitlist” and to “stay tuned for updates.” However, anyone who meets the basic account opening requirements can apply to open a Chime Spending account.

The bottom line: For individuals who want free global ATM access, Aspiration Summit account is the way to go. For someone who wants to perform most of their banking from the palm of their hand on a mobile device – a Chime Bank Spending account is the better alternative.

Who Chime Bank is best for

Chime is ideal for someone who is tech savvy, maintains a low bank balance and wants to avoid fees and save money without thinking (too much) about it.

Someone who wants a fee-free prepaid alternative
Because Chime doesn’t run a credit check to open an account and offers early access to your paycheck at no extra cost, it may be a viable alternative to using prepaid debit cards, which commonly offer early direct deposits but often come with hidden fees.

Someone looking for a solution to overdraft fees
The bank requires no minimum deposits and avoids overdraft fees, which can be beneficial to anyone who generally maintains a low checking account balance and regularly incurs overdraft fees as a result.

Someone who wants to save money automatically
The account’s automatic saving feature makes it easy to save money for anyone who isn’t used to regularly saving a chunk of their paycheck or wants to save a little bit more money with each purchase.

Someone who won’t miss brick-and-mortar branches
Chime doesn’t have any physical branches, which can be an inconvenience to some individuals. Additionally, Chime’s customer service hours are limited to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST most days. If you’d prefer to have a physical branch to walk into in case you need help with your account or 24-hour customer service, you may be better off banking elsewhere.

Only after opening a Chime spending account will you be permitted to open a Chime savings account. The account requires no minimum deposit to open. However, if you maintain a zero balance for nine continuous months, your account may be closed.

At a measly 0.01% variable APY, the interest on Chime’s savings account isn’t impressive compared with other high-yield savings account options currently available. However, the savings account comes with some attractive features that may make up for the poor interest rate.

Noteworthy features

Save as you spend
Once you open a savings account, you can enroll in Chime’s automatic savings program, called “save when I spend.” Chime will automatically round up every purchase made with your Chime VISA card to the nearest dollar and transfer the amount from your spending account to your savings account for you. You can turn automatic savings on or off anytime using the Chime app or on the Chime website.

Automatically stash away 10%
Chime’s “save when I get paid” feature makes it easy to pay yourself first. Not only can you access funds from your paycheck up to two days early, but you can also set the app to automatically transfer 10% of your check to your savings account each time you’re paid. You can enable the feature using the Chime app.

No excessive withdrawals fee
Like most savings accounts, under federal Regulation D you are limited up to six certain withdrawals or transfers from the savings account per statement cycle. However, Chime won’t charge you a fee once you hit your limit like other banks will; it simply won’t allow you to make any more than your six withdrawals.

Chime’s partner The Bancorp Bank, an FDIC member, insures Chime deposit accounts up to $250,000.

Chime mobile app

Chime users can use the full features of Chime via the free Chime mobile app on iPhones and Android devices. The Chime app comes packed with full banking features. The app includes mobile deposits and notifications directly from the app, but also a few features exclusive to Chime users, like an in-app P2P system and the ability to send checks.

Notifications. The app will let you know how much money you have left to work with each day with daily account balance and a transaction notification each time you swipe your debit card.

Mobile check deposits. Just snap a photo of your check and it will get deposited into your account. Mobile check deposit is only available for Chime users who have their payroll direct deposited to their spending account.

Security. The account’s security features allow you to toggle on and off the ability to make domestic and international transactions. This is useful if you lose your card and need to block it ASAP so no one else can use it, or if you simply want to restrict your own use of your debit card.

Send money to friends with Chime. You can send money to your friends who use Chime using the in-app “Pay with Friends” feature. The P2P payments option can come in handy if you need to split dinner with friends or bills with roommates. You can send money to other Chime users using their name, Chime nickname, phone number, email or by selecting them from your contacts.

Pay with Friends also works with popular P2P payments app, like Venmo, in case your friends don’t use a Chime account. Just select pay with Venmo after entering the amount you’d like to send and Chime will launch the Venmo app.

Chime’s Pay with Friends caps users at $2,000 or 15 transfers per month. Transfers to Chime members will immediately post in the recipient’s Chime account, while transfers from recipient’s Venmo account to their external bank account may take up to two business days.

ATM Map. Chime built its ATM map right into the app, so you can find an ATM easily on the go. Chime is in network with more than 30,000 MoneyPass ATMs. Chime allows you to withdraw up to $500 per day, only from your spending account.

Send a check. Chime won’t issue you a checkbook, but it will mail a check to whomever you owe on your behalf from the app. Enter the recipient (business or individual) and the amount you want to send, and Chime will take care of mailing the check for you. You can send and unlimited number of checks, up to $5,000 per check.

How to open a Chime Bank account

Signing up for a Chime account is relatively simple and easy. Chime says it takes less than two minutes to enroll.

You can sign up using the free Chime iPhone or Android app, or by visiting Chime‘s website. You must be at least 18 years old and either a U.S. citizen or permanent resident with a valid Social Security number to be eligible to open a Chime account. Chime uses a third-party service to verify your information before approving your account. Chime does not run a credit check for approval or require any other forms of identification like a driver’s license number to apply.

The initial enrollment only opens a Chime spending account and so you will still need to open a savings account if you want one. Chime will present you with the option to open a savings account after your spending account is set up, but if you don’t want to do that right away, you can always do it later online or through the app.

Your Chime VISA debit card should arrive within 10 business days after you open a spending account. As of this writing, Chime does not offer joint accounts.

Linking an external account
You can link an external bank account you own to your Chime spending account in the Move Money section of the Chime app or by logging into your account online. Under Move Money, select Transfers and you will then be prompted to enter your other bank’s login credentials. Your external bank account will be instantly linked to your spending account.

How to fund your Chime account

There are currently five ways Chime allows you to put money into your chime account. As of this writing, Chime does not support wire transfers, but says it may later add the feature.

1. Set up direct deposit with your employer. Funds will post when Chime receives them (that may be up to two days earlier than your payday!)
2. Initiate a transfer to your Chime account from an external bank. Chime says this is the fastest way to move money from your external account to a Chime account. If you use a debit card to transfer funds to your Chime account, the funds will be made available within minutes. There are no limits on direct deposits, but if you use a debit card, the minimum transfer you can make is $25 and the maximum is $200 per day.
3. Initiate a transfer from an external account using Chime. After linking an external bank account, you can transfer up to $200 per day, or $1,000 per month to your Chime spending account. It may take up to five business days for the funds to be made available for use.
4. Use the mobile app to deposit a check. Chime users can use the app to deposit checks using their mobile devices.The feature is only available to users who receive payroll direct deposit to their Chime spending account.
5. Deposit cash at a one of over 60,000 Green Dot locations. Visit a Green Dot location and ask to add the cash to your Chime spending account. You can deposit up to $1,000 within 24 hours, or $10,000 per month. Green Dot may charge up to $4.95 to make a cash deposit to your Chime spending account. Find a location near you here.

Overall review of Chime

Overall, Chime offers fairly standard checking and savings accounts, but it’s mobile-first approach to banking and robust mobile app features make it stand out from others in mobile banking. If you aren’t super excited to use the Chime banking app and aren’t afraid to do a little extra work, you can achieve most of the same features with a higher-yield checking or savings account offered elsewhere.

In simplest terms, Tally is an automated debt manager. With the aid of algorithms, automation and a line of credit, Tally says it helps consumers pay down their credit card debt faster, reduces the costs related to carrying credit card debt and minimizes the emotional stress of debt management.

The free Tally app launched in 2017 for iOS devices. The company released a free app for Android devices in September 2018.

Tally acts as the middleman between you and your creditors. You make one payment to Tally each month and Tally uses that money along with your Tally line of credit to make payments on your credit cards at least two days prior the due dates. Tally prioritizes paying off your most expensive debts — the highest balances with the highest interest rates — to save you money in interest payments along the way.

You Pay vs. Tally Pays

For each of your credit cards, you have the option to decide if you want Tally to pay the bill on your behalf using your Tally credit line (Tally Pays) or if you would like to manage the credit card payments on your own (You Pay).

If you elect Tally Pays, then Tally will pay your cards using the Tally credit line.

Cards with rates higher than the rate on your Tally credit line: Tally will pay as much as possible toward the balance with your Tally credit line, so you can repay Tally at a lower interest rate.

Cards with rates lower than the rate on your Tally credit line: Tally will make only the minimum payments.

Tally will then send you one bill. It first uses your payment to cover the minimum payments (minimum payments are not added to your credit line balance), and your remaining payment goes toward paying the principal and interest on the line of credit. Tally does not compound interest. You must pay at least the minimum payment on your Tally line of credit, but you can pay more if you wish. Tally told MagnifyMoney its average customer pays 2.5 times the minimum each month. Tally charges a minimum payment equal to the greater of $25 or at least 1% of the total balance on your credit line each month.

Tally does not charge a fee if you go over the Tally credit line limit. You won’t be charged, for example, if your minimum payments send you over the Tally line of credit limit.

With You Pay, using Tally gets a bit more complicated. Tally reminds people using You Pay to pay their credit cards a few business days before the bills become due. You have the option to pay through the Tally app using funds in a linked checking account or pay directly on the creditor’s website. If you use the Tally app to make the payment(s), Tally will show an estimated date of payment arrival.

If you use the creditor’s website, Tally recommends making the payment at least seven business days ahead of the due date to avoid double payments with late payment protection. Tally’s system needs the time to register that you made a payment. If the system can’t detect you made a payment close to the due date — even if your card is set to You Pay — Tally will still make a payment if you have late free protection enabled. For that reason, the company recommends those who pay through a creditor’s website disable its late fee protection to avoid double payments.

Eligibility

While anyone across the U.S. can download the app, as of this writing Tally is only licensed to serve consumers in 16 states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Colorado, Louisiana Minnesota, Utah and Arkansas. If you don’t live in one of those states, you can sign up to be notified once Tally is available in your state.

You must be 18 years or older to use Tally’s services, and as of this writing, only those approved for a line of credit are eligible to use Tally. Tally requires a minimum 660 credit score and conducts a soft pull to determine eligibility, so your credit score isn’t harmed if you apply.

Tally’s service is two-part: Tally Advisor and a personal line of credit. (Again, you can only use Tally Advisor if you qualify for the line of credit.)

Tally Advisor

Tally Advisor is the app’s automated debt management feature. It analyzes your credit card balances, spending habits and goal debt-free date to recommend a monthly payment amount. Tally Advisor also shows you how much faster you can get out of debt by paying more each month.

Line of credit

Tally issues a line of credit it will use to help you save money on high-interest credit card debt. Tally charges a variable interest rate between 7.90% and 19.90% APR on the line of credit. Your credit limit and APR on a Tally credit line will be determined by the information obtained using a soft pulland other factors, like your card balances, interest rates on your credit cards and spending habits. Tally reevaluates your profile every six months and may offer you a higher line of credit or a lower interest rate.

If you elect Tally Pays, the line of credit automatically consolidates high-interest credit card debt at a lower rate. Tally monitors your card balances, interest rates and due dates, so you don’t have to keep track of which cards it’s consolidating. Considering the average credit card charges 16.5% APR, it’s likely you would save money using Tally’s line of credit.

Tally will automatically use the credit line to pay your credit card balances with APRs higher than the line of credit’s APR, and then you will pay down the line of credit. Once space is freed up on the line of credit, Tally will use it to pay debt from the card with the next highest APR and so on, as long as it saves you money in future interest payments.

For the cards with interest rates below the rate charged on your Tally credit line, Tally will only make minimum payments. Tally says it does not use the line of credit to make minimum payments; rather, it plays middleman by repaying your credit card issuers using the payment you make to Tally.

Cost

• The Tally app is free to download.
• Tally doesn’t charge any fees to use the app or any maintenance fees associated with the personal line of credit.
• You pay interest on the line of credit used to consolidate debts, which is how Tally makes its money.

What we like about Tally

The automated debt avalanche

Tally follows the debt avalanche method. It prioritizes and pays off your credit card debts in order of interest rate, from highest rate to lowest rate, ensuring you pay off debts in the order that saves you the most money.

A credit line using a soft pull

Tally uses a soft pull to determine your eligibility for a line of credit. The number of credit inquiries, or hard pulls, on your credit report comprises 10% of your FICO^® credit score, and having several hard inquiries for new credit can damage your credit score. Since a soft pull isn’t factored into credit scoring formulas, applying for a Tally line of credit won’t damage your credit score.

Late fee protection

Tally provides late fee protection. It promises never to miss or make a late payment, as it pays your cards at least two days before the due date. Tally also promises to refund late fees if it makes a mistake.

Improve your credit score

Tally told MagnifyMoney that the majority of its users see an increase in their credit scores after signing up.

The app’s services focus on both ensuring on-time payments and paying down credit card balances, targeting the two factors that make up 65% of your FICO credit score: payment history and credit utilization. Payment history determines 35% of your FICO score, while credit utilization — the amount of credit you use out of your total amount of credit available across all your revolving lines of credit — makes up another 30%.

No fees

Tally does not charge any fees for its services. There is no origination fee on the line of credit and it does not charge a late fee if you miss a payment or make a late payment. Although you wouldn’t pay a fee, Tally does report payments to the credit bureaus.

Willing to work with you

If you miss a payment with Tally, the company’s customer success team will reach out and try to work with you to customize a payment plan, Brown told MagnifyMoney.

“As long as they will collaborate with us we will come up with a plan to work with their situation,” said Brown. However, he added that if someone isn’t willing to communicate or collaborate and refuses to pay, Tally will be forced to turn the account over to collections.

After a user misses two payments and they are unresponsive, Tally begins the collections process.

No compound interest

Most credit cards accrue and compound interest daily. The Tally line of credit accrues interest daily but does not add it to your principal balance.

What’s not so great about Tally

It’s complicated

If Tally approves you for a line of credit large enough to cover all your credit card debt and at a rate that’s lower than all your credit card rates, it’s easy to understand how Tally saves you money — it’s simple debt consolidation.

It gets confusing if your Tally line of credit can’t cover all your debt. The idea with Tally is you don’t have to worry about it — Tally automates the debt-payoff process to save you money — but the bite-by-bite debt consolidation by way of a middleman is difficult to envision. It also makes it difficult to know how much debt you have, because until it’s all consolidated, you’ll continue to get bills from multiple creditors. You have to remember that Tally will distribute all your payments appropriately.

It’s particularly complicated if any of your credit cards have a lower APR than your Tally line of credit, because you will hit a point at which you’re merely using Tally as a payment intermediary. When that happens, you’re likely better off setting up automatic payments with your credit card issuer.

Limited availability

Tally is currently only available to residents of the following 16 states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Colorado, Minnesota, Utah, Louisiana and Arkansas.

Brown tells MagnifyMoney the company aims to be available in all 50 states by the end of 2018. He adds the states where Tally is already licensed to operate are home to nearly 60% of the American population.

Not for subprime borrowers

As of this writing, those who fall below the minimum required 660 FICO credit score cannot use Tally. While the average FICO score may be 700, about a third of U.S. consumers have scores that fall below 660 and would not be able to take advantage of any of Tally’s features.

Avalanche isn’t for everybody

The debt avalanche method helps people save the most money in the long run, but not everyone finds this approach motivating. Even though it doesn’t save as much money, the debt snowball method (paying off small debts quickly) gives some people the momentum they need to get out of debt.

Doesn’t discourage spending

As Tally consolidates your high-interest credit card debt with the personal line of credit, it frees up space on your credit card. Seeing your credit card bill go down — even though the debt has merely moved to a different creditor — may tempt you to keep spending. And because Tally may not pay off all your credit card balances immediately, it can be hard to tell how much debt you have and how much you’re adding to it by continuing to use your credit cards.

Not the best rates

The high end of Tally’s rate range on its personal line of credit (19.90%) is higher than the average APR on credit cards. The low end of the range (7.90%) is competitive, but borrowers may be able to qualify for a better, fixed rate with a personal loan.

Maxed out line of credit

Even though Tally doesn’t perform a hard inquiry on your credit report in the approval process, using Tally can still affect your credit. The company reports your line of credit activity to the credit bureaus. Because using Tally may not consolidate all your debts immediately, you will have more revolving accounts with outstanding balances, which can hurt your credit score. And because the credit line is designed to consolidate as much of your credit card debt as possible, you will have a maxed-out revolving credit line on your credit report (also not great).

Who Tally is best for

Tally’s services may be appealing to those who have been unsuccessfully trying to dig out of credit card debt, carry a balance most months and find it difficult to manage multiple credit card payments.

For those struggling to get out of debt, Tally comes up with a strategy and takes action automatically. The app sorts and pays off your eligible credit cards in an efficient way. All you need to do at that point is make one payment to Tally each month and avoid putting more debt on the credit cards.

How to sign up for Tally

To sign up for Tally, you must first download the app. You create an account in the app by entering your:

• first and last name
• email address
• password
• mailing address

Tally then asks about your credit rating. You can choose from four options:

• excellent
• good
• fair
• rebuilding

Then, Tally asks you to scan in your card information, which you can do using the camera on your mobile device.

In the event you have trouble scanning the card, you can manually enter the card’s number.After scanning the cards, you must link the accounts by entering your login information for each creditor.

Then it’s time to see if you qualify for a Tally line of credit. You must be at least 18 years old and have either a Social Security number or an equivalent ID number. Enter your date of birth, phone number and income, then agree to a soft pull to see if Tally approves you for a line of credit.

If you do not qualify: You can ask to be notified when Tally expands to cover users who are not approved for a line of credit. You can also choose to close your account at this point, given you can’t use any of Tally’s features if you’re not approved for a credit line.

The bottom line

If you want to better manage your debt, Tally’s features may help you learn to be a better credit card user. However, if your goals are to save the most money on your debt payoff and simplify your repayment, a personal loan may be worth considering as an alternative to Tally. Here are a few reasons why:

• If you have the required minimum 660 FICO score to qualify for line of credit with Tally, you may also qualify for a personal loan.
• You could use the personal loan to consolidate your credit card debt right away instead of in chunks, like with Tally.
• Consolidating all of your debt right away at a lower rate could save you money as your debt is immediately removed from your high interest credit card(s).
• A personal loan generally carries a fixed interest rate as opposed to Tally’s variable interest rate, so you will have the same payment each month. This isn’t guaranteed with Tally.
• A personal loan has a fixed repayment term, so you know the exact date you’ll be done with your debt, which may help to motivate your payoff.

Additionally, a personal loan may carry a lower rate than the Tally line of credit, so it’s worth shopping and comparing your terms with multiple lenders before you decide. In either case, you have to be serious about getting out of debt, or else you run the risk of racking up more debt if you use up the newly available credit on the consolidated cards.