At Chime, we do things differently. Unlike traditional banks, building member trust and love is at the center of everything we do – which is why we work every day to democratize financial services and deliver innovative financial products that work for everyone and address our members' most pressing needs. Ultimately, we thrive when our members thrive – an ethos that resonates with our community and has helped us cultivate deep, trusted relationships with our members. Our differentiated approach and low-cost consumer-aligned products all within FDIC-insured accounts, have helped Chime become the #1 most loved banking app1.
As Chime's Chief Experience Officer, my team is dedicated to building on this incredible member support initiative to continue to meet, and hopefully exceed, members' high expectations through every transaction and interaction they have with us. That includes continually investing in our capabilities to ensure we can best serve members' needs and keep them safe in an increasingly complex world.
We're Here When You Need Us
Chime is the primary banking relationship for three-quarters of our members. We take that responsibility seriously. That's why we have 4,200+ customer service experts providing 24/7 live support via phone and live chat channels to help resolve questions as quickly as possible. Chime manages more than 60 million member interactions each year!
Our members' needs are always evolving so we continue to add even more convenient and simple ways to reach our team. In addition to 24/7 live support, the Chime app offers robust self-service options, and our online Help Center empowers members to get many of the answers they need in minutes – 70% of our member interactions are resolved instantly via self-service.
Safeguarding Against Industry-Wide Frauds and Scams
Fraud is a serious challenge across the financial system globally, with bad actors and hackers employing sophisticated schemes to circumvent processes and trick consumers. According to the Federal Trade Commission, Americans lost nearly $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022 alone, a 389% increase when compared to the year before the pandemic. And from 2019 to 2021, fraud reports to the FTC increased by nearly 65%.
This is why it's crucial for Chime to ensure members are who they claim to be and that legitimate consumers are not falling victim to fraudulent activities. To do this, we employ advanced practices in fraud detection and prevention efforts. Sometimes as part of those practices, we may require additional methods of identity verification, to help remedy fraud-related issues. Although it's a challenging task across the banking system to find the right balance between fraud prevention and customer verification, our policies are rooted in prioritizing the safety of our members and our platform, while minimizing the impact on our members.
Regulations are also important in ensuring member privacy and protecting members from bad actors. Our services are subject to the same oversight and regulation that traditional banks and their offerings face such as Regulation E, Know Your Customer requirements, as well as other rules and regulations. We also work closely with law enforcement to aggressively pursue bad actors that have tried to scam our members, and proactively collaborate with industry partners, like NASWA (cybercrime) and Visa, along with government agencies like the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Secret Service, the FBI, and other agencies to share best practices and provide the strongest protections for our members.
We understand that trust, fairness and experience is everything, and we are continuously investing in more sophisticated support services to ensure we can best serve and protect our members, including:
Employing industry-leading threat intelligence capabilities that enable us to identify, analyze, share and otherwise respond to significant cyber-enabled fraud threats
Increasing the number of member services representatives to resolve member issues faster
Improving existing processes so that we can close out member requests quickly and efficiently
Integrating sophisticated financial monitoring systems to catch instances of fraudulent activity on Chime accounts in real time
Ensuring that we continue to build and mature our high standards for member verification and account controls.
Taken all together, we've created a dynamic and rigorous human-first approach supported by AI tools to better protect our members from threats and identify potential issues.
How Chime Manages Fraud Inquiries
When members flag a fraudulent transaction to Chime, we prioritize quick and compassionate support to resolve the situation and return lost funds as quickly as possible, when applicable. 93% of calls are connected to our member services team in less than 40 seconds, and a similar percentage of those calls are provided with written correspondence within three hours.
When Chime detects suspected fraud, we notify the member via email and limit activity. For the overwhelming majority of Chime members, life goes on as normal as we resolve the issue in the background. Of course, there are times when we must ensure account safety by suspending or closing an account – thankfully, only 0.21% of Chime accounts are impacted by suspension and just 0.05% are closed for fraud reasons. It's important to know that these rare actions are taken to satisfy legal and regulatory requirements, as well as prevent further fraudulent activity on the Chime platform, and with members' accounts.
What's Next
So far, our significant investments, focused on enhancing our members' experiences, have yielded tangible results that reflect our priorities of deepening member trust and love. But we're eager to keep delivering. We are committed to continuing to be a resource for Chime members to help protect themselves from fraud and keep their accounts safe. We regularly update the Safety and Security section of our blog to keep our members aware of new tips and guidance to help keep their accounts and information secure. Visit our Trust & Safety page to learn more about how we protect our members' money, use security controls, and keep accounts safe.