Pay Friends Instant Transfer FAQ For Non‑Chime Members

Instant transfers allow you to transfer funds that were sent by a Chime member directly to any U.S. bank issued debit card – all for free. 

Once the Friend Transfer has been successfully claimed, the funds are transferred to the bank account associated with the debit card information you have provided. 

Funds availability may depend on your receiving bank. The funds transfer transaction may appear in processing or pending status and your available balance may not update until the transaction has been fully processed by your receiving bank. This may take up to 30 minutes depending on your bank. 

Instant transfers can be used to claim Friend Transfers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year regardless of holiday or weekend schedules. Please note that claiming Friend Transfers may be affected by circumstances beyond our control (such as fire, flood, power failure, strike, labor dispute, critical service provider failure, computer breakdown, telephone line disruption, government or regulatory action, or a natural disaster), despite reasonable precautions that we have taken.

Additionally, Friend Transfers are reviewed and could be declined, delayed, or blocked if the transfer could result in fraud or another form of financial harm. We may request you provide additional information to verify your identity. 

We may limit how many Friend Transfers you can claim and the amount of funds you can claim in a single day, week, or month. 

Funds that are sent to you by a Chime member are available to be claimed for 14 days from the time the Friend Transfer is initiated. After 14 days, the transaction will expire, and the funds will automatically be transferred back to the sending Chime Member.

Instant transfers only work with U.S. bank issued debit cards. Credit cards, pre-paid cards, and debit cards issued by foreign banks will not be eligible to use with this feature.

Instant transfers can be reviewed and declined for a variety of reasons, including Chime’s automated internal security measures. Before attempting an instant transfer, please make sure you’re using a card that is registered in your own name. Likewise, here is are some common reasons why you might be receiving an error message:

1. Did I enter my debit card information correctly?
2. Did my debit card expire?
3. Does the ZIP code I entered match the ZIP code on file with my debit card?
4. Did I enter my credit card information?
5. Did I enter my pre-paid information?
6. Did I enter my foreign bank account issued debit card information?
7. Has it been more than 14 days since the payment was sent?
8. Have I already claimed these funds?
9. Would claiming these funds place me over the non-member recipient dollar limit?

If you continue to receive an error message after considering the above, this means that the instant transfer feature you can use to claim your Friend Transfer is not currently available. This might happen even if you’ve used a debit card for instant transfer successfully in the past. 

After you have successfully provided a valid name, email address, and U.S. debit card information for the transfer, you will receive a confirmation on the web page indicating whether the transfer was successful. You will also receive an email confirmation of the successful transfer as well.

You can also check the status of the transaction from your bank account. You can reach out to your bank directly if your transfer is not showing on your bank statement. When you contact them, it’s important to explain that the money will appear as an original credit transaction (OCT) or a real-time payment, not a missing ACH/direct deposit.