Consumer complaint received 2021-07-08 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Can't close your account
Company: Chime Financial Inc
State: OR

Complaint narrative:
On XXXX XX/XX/2021, I received two emails from chime.com with the following subject lines : " Welcome to Chime! '' " Your {$10.00} has landed! Thanks for joining Chime. '' To my knowledge I have never requested, asked for, or been referred to Chime. I didn't know Chime existed at all before I received these emails. 

At my first opportunity, I emailed Chime support and requested they place a hold on the account and close it. 

Chime 's first response was to ask me if I was *really* sure I hadn't opened an account with them. 

After my next email, explicitly stating again that I had not opened an account, Chime responded : " In order to close this fraudulent account created with your personal information, could you please be so kind and send us a picture of your valid government-issued ID and the last 4 digits of your Social Security Number. I know this might make you feel insecure and I do understand that, I can assure you, here at Chime we are a secure Bank and we do not tolerate fraud. '' I replied, taking issue with the request that I provide personally identifying information ( PII ) over unsecure email. I offered to confirm my personhood over TLS or other secure means if absolutely necessary, but if made it clear I expected Chime to handle the responsibility for such means. 

Chime answered : " I totally understand your point XXXX, however, we are unable to proceed if you do not verify this for us. We really want to help you report this account. If you feel insecure sending the documents by email here is our Fax number XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX, we will be happy to proceed once we have the documents. '' I replied to explicitly state my expectation was that Chime would place the account on hold and close it, as I had not made a request to open an account, and that I would not provide my PII over unsecure means. 

Chime responded again, restating the need for my PII " due to security purposes. '' To Chime 's credit, these responses were timely. However from the language used ( " I totally understand your point XXXX, however, we are unable to proceed if you do not verify this for us. We really want to help you report this account. '' ) it sounds as if to consider the account under report, they expect me surrender my PII. I find this unacceptable.

In the very best case it is possible that another consumer may have simply entered their own email address in error, leaving mine on file with Chime instead of the one that consumer intended. However, there is clearly no interactive validation process on Chime 's behalf to ensure that this sort of incident does not occur. ( And industry
-standard models for this exist. [ Models. Plural. ] ) Worse though, is that despite a legal settlement earlier this year ( XXXX  : XXXX ) agreeing to stop referring to itself as a bank, Chime 's representative explicitly stated so in the act of requesting my PII over email. 

If I were describing this in person I'd pause here for dramatic effect. Instead, allow me to draw your attention to this statement : " I know this might make you feel insecure and I do understand that, I can assure you, here at Chime we are a secure Bank and we do not tolerate fraud. '' Chime needs a closer look from the CFPB. They seem to be a predatory lender with dogdy technology and limited customer support. These business practices are unsound in a general sense, but for a XXXX XXXX so closely associated with banking, it seems egregious. 

Chime is the weak link that sent my afternoon sideways and required me to take action to protect myself. I'd rather be spending this time at work. ( Thank God for my understanding employer! ) How many half-days are spent collectively by people like me to wrestle with Chime support only to need to file a complaint and credit alerts? ( And for those without an understanding employer, how much worse must it be? )

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation