Consumer complaint received 2025-07-23 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report — Account status incorrect
Company: Chime Financial Inc
State: OH

Complaint narrative:
I opened a Chime Checking, savings, and credit builder account in XXXX. The credit builder account was a new product to build credit. It was not a regular credit card. To use credit builder, you would transfer money from your checking account, to your credit builder, and that would be your spending limit. Back then, there terms for credit builder were very clear. Your transactions were limited to the amount of money in your credit builder account. They did not cover overdrafts. They did not allow accounts to go negative. It was impossible. If a charge was attempted, and there were no funds in your credit builder, it would decline. ie : if i transferred {$500.00} to my credit builder from my checking, and used my credit builder to pay bills, gas, etc, with each transaction, it would deduct from my credit builder balance. If i spent the entire {$500.00} that month, and my balance was back to XXXX, chime reports to the 3 credit bureau that i paid in full on time. its literally a 2nd checking account that reports on time payments. but not utilization rates, since your limited to the balance of money you add to it. and it builds credit. i used it occasionally. Then i stopped after a while, leaving a {$0.00} balance. chime continues to report it is in good standing with a {$0.00} balance. At anytime, you can transfer money from your checking acct to use it again. But at {$0.00}, the account will decline any attempted transaction. They allowed {$20.00} " spot me '' with checking accounts ONLY. Credit builder was NOT eligible overdrafts. It was physically impossible to go negative with their safer build credit builder account, until XX/XX/XXXX, when they introduced spot me overdraft protection to credit builder, and also started to offer unsecured credit, that the consumer would manually make their payments at the end of every month. But I had the First version of credit builder, and my account was closed 3 years before they made these changes. after a couple months of using my checking account, instead of credit builder, i went to transfer funds to my credit builder, as I had left my balance at {$0.00}. Thats when I saw that my credit builder account had been closed. after investigating statements on the app, I found out that an unauthorized charge for - {$73.00} was approved to my {$0.00} Balance, and went negative {$73.00}, and they closed it. this was impossible. I did not authorize the payment. And Chime credit builder did not allow overdrafts, or charges with no funds available. I never received notice, call, email of being negative, or ask me to transfer the funds, since they don't approve overdrafts. over the past year ( + ) I have called chime, spoke to support for hours, explained it was an unauthorized charge. They don't allow credit builders to go negative, so there was confusion from both sides how this happened. And we needed to have it removed from my credit, I even offered to pay the {$73.00}, even though i didn't feel it my responsibility, just so it would go away. and every time they say they understand and would escalate and contact me back. They never do. I Saw it on my credit report so i contacted them again, and this time, i once again explained, and she agreed it wasn't my fault. She said she would be submitting something to have it removed from my credit report. After that, my credit report updated, to a closed Credit Card account with Chime, with late payments, and a {$73.00} charge off. leaving me with a {$0.00} balance. but that is not good enough. That still negatively affects my credit. i called again, and this time they said they took it very seriously, they were going to have someone from management contact me, to have the charge off and late payments removed from my credit report. as well as looking into re-opening the credit builder account. I never heard back. Ive Disputed with XXXX, and it always leads to verified reporting from chime, due to lack of options to select from relating to this specific incident. Its fraudulent. they say theyll fix it, and dont. Not only was the {$73.00} charge fraudulent. But so is the false reporting to the 3 credit bureaus. Their Refusal to comply and fix mistakes they admitted to. As well as Denying me the ability to just pay the bill to make it go away. But Chime was correct. I shouldnt have to pay it, as I didnt approve it. my credit is being punished due to an error made by chime, and the refusal to address the situation and call me back. They just wrote it off. and now its stuck on my report. I cant dispute it properly, due to the lack of options to supply the information, since this isn't a regular credit card. So when a dispute is filed, Chime just shares documentation that i had a credit card with late payments, that went delinquent and was closed for {$73.00}. but they don't share any of the notes or facts regarding the case, or how they were supposed to withdraw the false reporting several times already.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation