Consumer complaint received 2022-06-03
Company: Chime Financial Inc
State: OR
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
In XXXX of XXXX my chime account was hacked and XXXX or so was taken from my account. I notified chime and within about a week they credited my money back. I then closed the account. In XXXX of XXXX I was buying some stocks online but couldnt tell what account they were Coming out of. A few days later I was up late on my laptop and an email popped up saying my chime account was charged for something. I was surprised because I had closed my chime account months before this. So I started looking at the emails. And could see that this wasnt the first time it had charges. A couple of them being the stock purchases I made. I them called chime who at the time seemed very helpful. They got me in m touch with a few people, I think fraud department and or member services. I explained what I had found. They told me to log into my account and dispute the charges. I was unable to log in because who ever reopened the account had changed all the passwords and login information. The reset the account so I could log back in. When I went to log back in the app wanted to send my phone number a 5/6 digit password. I hit ok but nothing happened. No code was sent. So for months I would email chime my drivers license, my picture with the date written and answer a few security questions. They would reset the account. And same thing each time, no code ever came. Almost a year of this. This is all so I can log in and see what transactions are not mine. Something I told them we could do over the phone if they read them to me. They were not going for that option. They finally told me I needed to get a new phone number so I would receive the code they send. They said it was the only way. So I got a new number to use for this account app only. It finally worked. I was in the account and could see the XXXX of multiple charges I needed to dispute in my account that I had closed and they reopened. When I went to dispute them the app told me I would have to call them. Hmmm. So I give them a call and guess what. We went over every dispute over the phone. Yes I could see what needed to be disputed know vs my recommendation of just having them read them to me and I would say yes or no if I made them. Just seemed weird to me because we could have taken care of this so long ago. So they start the disputes. Tell me its going to be minimum 45 days. They cant credit my account anything because it has been too long. To long because their system wouldnt not send my phone the code and because they could not do over the phone even though thats basically what happened ( doing them over the phone ). Ive sent them multiple emails asking them for a credit due to this is not my fault. I have sent emails asking them to expedite the dispute process due to this is not my fault. So now Im in the waiting game of the 45 day. Dont forget this is now a XXXX XXXX issue. I started thinking why would they dispute the charges with the companys that the hacker purchased from. This was clearly chimes fault for reopening a closed account. As far as I know. Banks or companies acting as banks should never reopen an account with the same account number. If they would have left it closed my stimulus check would not of been deposited and it would have been rejected back to the federal account and a paper check would have been mailed. So this is where Im at with multiple emails to chime stating that they are the one at fault I dont think there is any need for the disputes and they should own up to the issue and credit my money back immediately. As it has been over a year long process and so much of my time waisted. Now Im waisting your time because a company didnt follow some simple protocol that would have elevated this whole problem.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation