3 ms·

This happens on the regular with established "normal" banks in the UK and other EU countries. I believe US banks also have the right to suspend accounts for "f

by bserge 5y ago

This happens on the regular with established "normal" banks in the UK and other EU countries. I believe US banks also have the right to suspend accounts for "fraudulent activity", correct me if I'm wrong. Therefore, you can't expect banking startups to be any better. Fix it on a higher level.

chipotle_coyote 5y ago
The article starts out by comparing Chime to "normal banks" that haven't attracted nearly the same level of complaints; the situation may not be unique to Chime, but those banking with, well, banks apparently haven't been running nearly the same risk of "we took your money too bad so sad".
- withinboredom 5y ago
  Banks have a well established situation for this. When my debit card purchased a whole boatload (literally) of shoes in China, my card and account was frozen. But guess what, I was still a customer of the bank. I had all the resources I'd normally have: customer support. From there, they shipped me a new card. I was still unable to buy groceries for a day or two, but I never lost access to my money.
shkkmo 5y ago
One issue is that, as stated in the article, Chime seems to be much worse and have an order of magnitude more complaints per customer than actual banks. The other issue is that Chime is not legally a bank so is not regulated in the same way that banks are.
- the_snooze 5y ago
  >The other issue is that Chime is not legally a bank so is not regulated in the same way that banks are. "The rules don't apply to us" is one hell of an unfair advantage to tout on a VC pitch deck.
swiley 5y ago
>If you don't like it go somewhere else >Also crypto should be illegal
hocuspocus 5y ago
What we've seen in many cases is startup banks coming to the market with a streamlined onboarding (open your bank account in 5 minutes over videochat), and then realizing that many accounts are used for money laundering. They eventually get a warning from the financial authorities and subsequently implement fraud detection algorithms that might be a little too trigger happy, to be on the safe side. It wouldn't be an issue if you could appeal and talk to a human, but challenger banks are, by design, understaffed, and they have no legal obligation to explain why they're terminating your account. However I haven't heard of any bank (proper bank, with a license, challenger or otherwise) keeping your money in such case.

by bserge 5y ago

chipotle_coyote 5y ago

The article starts out by comparing Chime to "normal banks" that haven't attracted nearly the same level of complaints; the situation may not be unique to Chime, but those banking with, well, banks apparently haven't been running nearly the same risk of "we took your money too bad so sad".

withinboredom 5y ago
Banks have a well established situation for this. When my debit card purchased a whole boatload (literally) of shoes in China, my card and account was frozen. But guess what, I was still a customer of the bank. I had all the resources I'd normally have: customer support. From there, they shipped me a new card. I was still unable to buy groceries for a day or two, but I never lost access to my money.

shkkmo 5y ago

One issue is that, as stated in the article, Chime seems to be much worse and have an order of magnitude more complaints per customer than actual banks. The other issue is that Chime is not legally a bank so is not regulated in the same way that banks are.

the_snooze 5y ago
>The other issue is that Chime is not legally a bank so is not regulated in the same way that banks are. "The rules don't apply to us" is one hell of an unfair advantage to tout on a VC pitch deck.

swiley 5y ago

>If you don't like it go somewhere else >Also crypto should be illegal

hocuspocus 5y ago

What we've seen in many cases is startup banks coming to the market with a streamlined onboarding (open your bank account in 5 minutes over videochat), and then realizing that many accounts are used for money laundering. They eventually get a warning from the financial authorities and subsequently implement fraud detection algorithms that might be a little too trigger happy, to be on the safe side. It wouldn't be an issue if you could appeal and talk to a human, but challenger banks are, by design, understaffed, and they have no legal obligation to explain why they're terminating your account. However I haven't heard of any bank (proper bank, with a license, challenger or otherwise) keeping your money in such case.