Megan Lee is a writer and editor who specializes in travel, personal finance, education, and healthcare. She has been published in U.S. News & World Report, REI, USA Today, and elsewhere, and has spoken at conferences like NAFSA’s Annual Conference & Expo. Megan has built and directed remote content teams and editorial strategies for several websites, including NerdWallet, GoAbroad, and Ramp. When she's not crafting her next piece of content, Megan adventures around her Midwest home base, where she likes to drink cortados (it’s research for her coffee blog, she swears), attend theme parties, ride her bike, and cook Asian food.
Key takeaways
MyPay credit limits can range from $20 to $500, depending on your direct deposit activity and account history.
Your credit limit is recalculated every time you receive a qualifying direct deposit – it can go up, down, or stay the same.
Consistent direct deposits and sharing work information like your email or location can help increase your limit over time.
Credit limits may decrease if your deposit patterns change or you stop sharing additional information.
MyPay is a line of credit that lets you access up to $500 of your pay before payday.1 If you've already enrolled, you've likely noticed that your MyPay credit limit may change from one pay period to the next. Here's how credit limits are determined and what you may be able to do to increase yours.
How are MyPay credit limits decided?
Your MyPay credit limit is the maximum amount you may access in a single pay period. It's determined by a combination of your direct deposit activity, account history, employer information, and other criteria. Credit limits are recalculated every time you receive a qualifying direct deposit, and may increase, decrease, or stay the same.
When you firstenroll in MyPay, your initial credit limit typically starts between $20 and $100. Your credit limit may vary based on factors such as your Chime membership tier and how you receive qualifying deposits.
If you receive a direct deposit from a new source – for example, you've switched jobs – this may also cause your credit limit to be recalculated.
How to increase your MyPay credit limit
Your credit limit may increase as soon as your next direct deposit, and may continue to grow overtime with consistent deposits. How much it might go up depends on how regularly you receive direct deposits, how large they are, and how long you've been using MyPay.
Sharing your work email or enabling location sharing can also help increase your credit limit more quickly. Currently, the maximum credit limit is $500.
You'll have a better chance at increasing the amount you can access if you:
Regularly receive qualifying direct deposits – several months in a row is a good target.
Direct deposit your entire pay for the best chance to increase your credit limit. If you can't do the full amount, the more you deposit the better your chances.
Share information like your work location and work email address, or connect to a payroll provider, if you get paid by an employer through payroll or as a gig employee.
Can MyPay credit limits decrease?
In some cases, MyPay credit limits can decrease. If this has happened to you, it could be for a few reasons:
Inconsistent direct deposits or the loss of a direct deposit source.
Stopped sharing additional information like your work email address or work location, or unlinking your payroll provider. This information is used to help verify employment-related information and determine your eligibility and credit limit. It is not used for marketing purposes, and Chime will not contact you at your work email address.
Use of other Chime products like SpotMe® – we try to prevent a situation where a large amount of your next deposit has to go towards repaying outstanding balances.
If your credit limit has decreased, focusing on consistent direct deposits and re-sharing your work information can help it recover over time. Learn more about the difference between MyPay, SpotMe, and Get Paid Early.
What is "available now"?
The amount you see as available now is the maximum you may take as an advance on any given day. After you receive a qualifying direct deposit, your "available now" starts as a small portion of your credit limit and usually increases every day until you reach your credit limit.
Any advances you take get subtracted from your "available now" amount. When your next qualifying direct deposit arrives, your outstanding MyPay balance may be repaid from your Chime Checking Account,2 your "available now" resets, and your credit limit is recalculated.
Here's a simplified example of how this might work. Say on the first day of your pay period you have $40 available now of a $200 credit limit. If you don't take any advances, your available now may gradually increase over the following days until it reaches your $200 credit limit. The exact pace may vary.
If you took a $20 advance on that first day, your available now would drop to $20. Without further advances, it would gradually increase over the following days until it reaches $180 – your $200 credit limit minus the $20 advance. When your next deposit arrives, $20 may be deducted from your Chime Checking Account to repay your MyPay balance. 2
Take control of your payday
With consistent direct deposits and following these tips, you could begin to see your MyPay credit limit grow, giving you more flexibility to access the money you need between paydays.
FAQs
Can I request an increase to my credit limit?
You can't currently request an increase to your MyPay credit limit. Your credit limit is recalculated automatically every time you receive a qualifying direct deposit.
What happens on payday?
When you receive a qualifying direct deposit, we recalculate your credit limit. Most members can access between $20 and $500 between pay periods. MyPay calculates the pay period as the time between qualifying direct deposits. Most members have access to at least $20 on day 1, so you don’t have to start off at $0.
When does my MyPay credit limit reset?
Your MyPay credit limit is recalculated each time you receive a qualifying direct deposit, so it effectively resets every pay period.
What time does MyPay update?
MyPay updates your available now amount and credit limit when your qualifying direct deposit is received, which can vary depending on your employer and bank processing times.
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Chime is not FDIC-insured. The Bancorp Bank, N.A. and Stride Bank, N.A. are the FDIC-insured members. Deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply. FDIC deposit insurance limit is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category.
Chime Checkbook: While Chime doesn’t issue personal checkbooks to write checks, Chime Checkbook gives you the freedom to send checks to anyone, anytime, from anywhere. See your issuing bank’s Deposit Account Agreement for full Chime Checkbook details.
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Option to get funds instantly for a fee of 3% of the advance amount ($2 minimum, $5 maximum) per advance, or get funds for free within 24 hours. See Bancorp MyPay Agreement or Stride MyPay Agreement for details.
With authorization, outstanding MyPay balances will be repaid from your Chime® Checking Account when you receive a qualifying direct deposit. See Bancorp MyPay Agreement or Stride MyPay Agreement for details.
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Qualifying members will be allowed to overdraw their Chime Checking Account and/or their Secured Deposit Account up to $20 in total, but may be later eligible for a higher combined limit of up to $200 or more based on member’s Chime account history, direct deposit frequency and amount, spending activity and other risk-based factors. Your SpotMe Limit will be displayed to you within the Chime mobile app. You will receive notice of any changes to your SpotMe Limit. SpotMe for Credit and SpotMe on Debit share a single SpotMe limit. Your SpotMe Limit may change at any time, at Chime or its banking partners’ discretion. Although there are no overdraft fees, there may be out-of-network or third-party fees associated with ATM transactions or OTC cash withdrawal fees at retailers. SpotMe won’t cover non-card transactions, including ACH transfers, Pay Anyone transfers, or Chime Checkbook transactions. SpotMe terms and conditions.
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