Consumer complaint received 2025-12-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card
Company: Chime Financial Inc
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year>, I discovered a series of unauthorized fraudulent transactions on my Chime XXXX XXXX XXXX that occurred while I was asleep, between XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX, totaling {$1900.00}, as confirmed in the police report. 

I called Chime at XXXX AM on XX/XX/XXXX, which was approximately XXXX hour after the last unauthorized charge. Chime told me they could not take any action because the transactions were still pending and instructed me to contact the merchant instead. The merchant claimed the charges were made through XXXX XXXX, even though I had no XXXX XXXX usage on my device, and although my phone was previously stolen ( documented ), nothing about these transactions matched my device history. 

Chime told me to dispute through the app, but the app would not allow me to include all the fraudulent charges, which prevented me from submitting a complete dispute. When I called Chime again, they opened multiple disputes, each containing incorrect dates, incorrect amounts, and even unrelated transactions from XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX. None of these reflected the actual fraud from XX/XX/XXXX. 

Even though I tried to dispute the charges on XX/XX/XXXX, Chime refused to accept the dispute until the transactions finalized, which forced me to wait until XX/XX/XXXX to officially file it. After submitting my evidence, Chime delayed the investigation for XXXX weeks, then denied the dispute based on incorrect transactions. 

When I called after the first denial, Chime representatives told me by phone that they never received my documents, even though I had already uploaded them. I re-sent the evidence, and the dispute was reopened, but Chime again attached the wrong transactions and denied the claim a second time. 

Because Chime failed to follow Regulation Z, I then contacted The XXXX XXXX, XXXX, the actual issuing bank responsible under federal law. I sent XXXX a formal written Regulation Z Billing Error Dispute Letter on XX/XX/year>. XXXX responded through their Consumer Advocacy Department and Card Operations, but instead of conducting their own investigation as required, XXXX redirected me back to Chime, even though Chime had already mishandled the dispute. 

XXXX sent inconsistent responses one saying they were researching, another saying they do not handle disputes ( which is incorrect under Regulation Z ), and another summarizing the wrong transaction amounts ( such as {$700.00} and {$1400.00} ). At no point did XXXX ever review the actual fraudulent transactions from XX/XX/XXXX totaling {$1900.00}. 

Neither Chime nor XXXX ever investigated the correct transactions, ever considered the police report, ever considered the merchant communication, ever provided provisional credit, or ever suspended collection of the disputed amount. The errors, delays, and confusion were entirely caused by Chime and XXXX mishandling, not by me. 
Both entities failed to comply with their obligations under 12 CFR 1026.13, including failing to conduct a reasonable investigation, failing to obtain or provide merchant documentation, failing to investigate the correct transactions, failing to accept a timely dispute, and improperly determining that no billing error occurred.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation