Consumer complaint received 2020-12-18
Company: Chime Financial Inc
State: MI
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
During the Summer I stayed at a hotel and paid with my Chime Visa debit card, I would reload cash in the card daily to cover the room when i stayed there. After being at the hotel for a month I received a portfolio and went over it with my transaction history and there were many duplicate charges as well as unathorized transactions for random amounts that did not correspond to the hotel rates. I immediately showed the hotel the issue and they informed me that the charges I was seeing were only supposed to be holds on account not charges and that I should contact my bank immediately. I contacted Chime and they contacted the merchant, who on the phone told them that several of the charges they had were not authorized and I should have my money returned. I was given XXXX dollars that was pending and the other transactions XXXX in total was going to have to disputed I was told by the chime employee since they had already settled. He told me he would assist me in getting my funds and understood the hardship this was causing me. I asked the chime employees should I file the claim as unauthorized transactions or duplicate since they had both occurred. He said do not worry he would take care of that information and proceeded to ask me questions about my debit card. He then informed me my card would be canceled and a new one sent out because of the transactions that occurred. I told him I was ok with that but to allow me to use the card one more day so I could get my affairs in order, but to not allow any transactions for the disputed merchant to be processed. I was told if i sent my documents in before the XXXX of XXXX I would get a provisional credit if they had not completed the investigation. The paperwork was sent in before the deadline and the XXXX of XXXX came and went, I called on the XXXX and I was told 3 more business days and they were sorry about the inconvenience. I kept calling trying to figure out what was going on and every day they would extend the time, next I was told XXXX XXXX XXXX for my credit. When I informed them that i would be contacting the legal authorities that deal with this type of thing I received an emails stating that although I filed my claim on the XXXX of XXXX, my paperwork stated duplicate transactions and they listed unauthorized transactions so they had to reclassify my claim which changed the date to XX/XX/XXXX which placed some of my transactions in beyond sixty day and they no longer had to offer any credit and my investigation for refund would be complete by XX/XX/XXXX! 
Also the merchant that I asked to not be allowed to debit my account was able to debit my account by XXXX dollars leaving my account over drafted by nearly XXXX dollars. When I asked how is this possible with the card they had on file closed and no preauthorization. They have never been able to answer this and when i filed a dispute on those transactions they immediately declined it, one of the reason is because they said I have a relationship with the merchant! I already informed them i stayed at the hotel but did not allow the duplicate or fraudulent charges. This situation has left me with a deep distrust In the mobile banking system and the way chimes employees just disregard the law Im sure there are horror stories much worse than mine. I just wish this had not happened during XXXX season while going through a lock down for a pandemic, without friends and family I would not have made it through.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation