Consumer complaint received 2025-07-23 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: Chime Financial Inc
State: AZ

Complaint narrative:
We are apart of an app for my daughters high school ( my daughter will be a XXXX  this upcoming year ) cheer/pom team. The app requires an invite code and approval to be apart of. On XX/XX/25, one of the girls on the team reached out asking if anyone was interested in buying concert tickets for the next day that her and her family had. My daughter had expressed interested so the girl sent her information to her to talk more about the tickets. My daughter is new to the team and the team is very large ( multiple teams within the app ). On the afternoon of XX/XX/25, we agreed to buy the tickets from this girl and her mother. The girl sent an option for XXXX or Chime to send the money to. I chose to send through Chime, since they advertise that they are a safe, secure online banking platform. I was given an email and her user information to Chime to send the money. After sending her mother {$300.00} for 6 tickets, I never received the tickets. Multiple text and phone calls were made with no answer. I immediately got onto our schools app where all of the messages coming from this girl had recently been reported. I reached out to the coach and he informed me that this person had some how gained access to the app and was reported and blocked. I immediately called Chime ( XX/XX//25 at about XXXX XXXX  MST ) to let them know what was going on and that this had been a fraudulent transaction and opened a dispute. I was told that this was pretty much a cut and dry situation and that it could take up to 45 days to investigate the issue, that I would have a temporary reimbursement, and should have my money back in no time, and that a thorough investigation would be conducted. Less than 48 hours later, my dispute was denied ( XXXX XXXX  XX/XX//25 email received denying ). I called and they reopened the dispute and again told me it could take up to 45 days for the investigators to fully investigate the problem. I went online and uploaded all the documentation I had, like Chime suggested I do and less than 12 hours later I was denied again. I called several times trying to get answers, but was just getting nowhere, so I asked to be escalated to a manager. The woman I spoke with informed me that my dispute was denied because they ( Chime ) did not find any evidence showing that they ( Chime ) were at fault for anything. They told me I needed to request the money back from their other customer using the Chime request money option and that I would need to contact the police and/or FBI to try and attempt to have them collect my money from the the scammer. The other tickets that were " purchased '' were for friends of my daughters and mine. I was forced to return their money back to them for the amounts that were sent to me to cover the cost of these fraudulent tickets. I am a newly single mother of 2 and normally wouldn't use that at any sort of pillar to an argument and {$300.00} does not seem like a lot some, but that is school supplies and clothes, food on my table for my children. It is a huge blow to my finances with the upcoming school year. I believe that Chime could be doing more to protect their customers and their assets. The person that the money was sent to has an active account with Chime, an account that a ssn is needed and verification is required to be opened. As of XX/XX//25 AFTER they had taken money from me, I had a family member text the number and they were trying to sell them the tickets for 3x the amount that they got from me, requesting they send it to their account ON CHIME! I relayed this information to Chimes employees several times, that they had a customer that was actively scamming people and having money sent to their active Chime account via fraudulent activities and they didn't seem to mine at all. I will be pulling every XXXX I have in their bank for fear that my assets are not safe there. I hope people can learn from what I had to go through and not chose to use them for any sort of money handlings.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation