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Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

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Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#61

Post by ericlewis »

im3w1l wrote: post #48
techsupporter wrote: post #14

> The sudden account closures have put financially vulnerable customers under stress. Of course they have. It's no accident that accounts like these are heavily marketed to people with terms like "faster access to YOUR money" and "virtually no fees" and "manage YOUR MONEY from anywhere, down to the penny!" These companies are targeting people for whom every single dollar is of vital importance. To then yank the accou…

In my ideal world this clause would be struck down as illegal, but not only that, the company would be fined for even trying to put that in the contract. Furthermore, the lawyers involved would receive formal warnings that they will be disbarred if they keep it up.

they changed their core values / agreements after I left but when I was there: DON'T HIDE BEHIND FINE PRINT was a core value. It no longer is as they've grown and that makes me quite sad.

Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#62

Post by teachrdan »

ericlewis wrote: post #38
the_snooze wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A few complaints like this aren't all that weird, bigger banks have way more complaints and do way worse things. The article directly contradicts what you're saying. Do you think the piece paints an unfair or inaccurate characterization of the complaints? (from the article) >Of the 920 complaints filed about Chime, 197 were tagged as involving a “closed account.” The CFPB’s complaints are labeled inconsistently, and…

I think that people are more quick to react against Chime than they are the folks who also hold their insurance, mortgages, and possibly other things. Lest they have even more issues with the bank. I don't doubt Chime handles things wrong, but I do know that every person on that team when I was there did there best to try and resolve the issue.

This comment makes no sense. If my bank closed my account without warning and revoked access to all my funds, it wouldn't matter if they had my mortgage or not: I'm going to make a complaint.

>I do know that every person on that team when I was there did there best to try and resolve the issue

"My colleagues had good intentions back when I worked there" is nothing against the facts. If you had read the article, you'd see that Wells Fargo, the bank that everyone loves to hate--with 6x the customers of Chime!--has only slightly more complaints for "closed account."

It's nice for you, as a former employee, to imagine that people are unfairly complaining more about Chime taking away all their money. But you could just as easily make the reverse argument: Chime users are less wealthy than users of other platforms and are therefore less likely to have the time and wherewithal to complain to the CFPB.

You probably don't like that argument, but you have to admit that I am presenting exactly as much evidence as you are.

Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#63

Post by gruez »

im3w1l wrote: post #48
techsupporter wrote: post #14

> The sudden account closures have put financially vulnerable customers under stress. Of course they have. It's no accident that accounts like these are heavily marketed to people with terms like "faster access to YOUR money" and "virtually no fees" and "manage YOUR MONEY from anywhere, down to the penny!" These companies are targeting people for whom every single dollar is of vital importance. To then yank the accou…

In my ideal world this clause would be struck down as illegal, but not only that, the company would be fined for even trying to put that in the contract. Furthermore, the lawyers involved would receive formal warnings that they will be disbarred if they keep it up.

>In my ideal world this clause would be struck down as illegal

unlikely. A big part of the problem is that the government has deputized financial institutions with enforcing anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing laws, and those institution face stiff penalties in the event such transactions slip through.

Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#64

Post by quanticle »

41209 wrote: post #55
techsupporter wrote: post #14

> The sudden account closures have put financially vulnerable customers under stress. Of course they have. It's no accident that accounts like these are heavily marketed to people with terms like "faster access to YOUR money" and "virtually no fees" and "manage YOUR MONEY from anywhere, down to the penny!" These companies are targeting people for whom every single dollar is of vital importance. To then yank the accou…

To be fair, any bank can freeze your account for any reason. You can mitigate this somewhat by having accounts with multiple banks, but even then they can all be frozen at once. The benefit of a traditional bank is at least you can show up with an ID and beg for your money. Chime does indeed market to those who aren't financially doing great, but it's a very complicated situation. Everyone should have a minimum of 3…

And what good does it do me to have three months, six months, or heck 3 years worth of living expenses saved if the financial institution I've saved it with tells me that the account has been closed and the funds have been confiscated?

We make fun of old people who lived through the Great Depression for keeping their money as cash or gold, but if this is the future of finance, well, gold bars under the mattress are looking batter and better with each passing day.

Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#65

Post by ericlewis »

teachrdan wrote: post #62
ericlewis wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that people are more quick to react against Chime than they are the folks who also hold their insurance, mortgages, and possibly other things. Lest they have even more issues with the bank. I don't doubt Chime handles things wrong, but I do know that every person on that team when I was there did there best to try and resolve the issue.

This comment makes no sense. If my bank closed my account without warning and revoked access to all my funds, it wouldn't matter if they had my mortgage or not: I'm going to make a complaint. >I do know that every person on that team when I was there did there best to try and resolve the issue "My colleagues had good intentions back when I worked there" is nothing against the facts. If you had read the article, you'd…

It's true, but the comment does make sense. It happens all the time, some people complain, some don't. Wells Fargo was more than happy to let fraudsters and all sorts of legal impropriety happen under their books. Might be one reason they had less complaints. Chime, doesn't have that benefit of being Wells Fargo's size tbh.

Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#66

Post by ericlewis »

kotaKat wrote: post #59
ericlewis wrote: post #24

Ex-employee of chime here, joined early on (think first 10 employees) and spent half a decade working there. I can guess as to what is going on here. I am not sure if my NDA still covers me talking about stuff there, but most likely is what has happened was folks either: not using their accounts (this will trigger eventual closer) or legitimately engaging in practices that would be... improper in any banking system.…

They are. The last several(!) cases I've seen of people complaining Chime killed their accounts got (possibly fraudulent) PPP loans funneled into their accounts.

Then it sounds like alarms went off over at Bancorp and Chime is doing it's job

Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#67

Post by gruez »

wyager wrote: post #60
gruez wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you suggesting, that without telephones, you can beat the front line worker up, in hopes that he'll get mad and beat his boss up, and the violence will continue up the chain until it reaches the person responsible?

No, not at all. I’m suggesting that the level of structural abstraction is a problem precisely because it prevents people from directing their rage where it actually matters.

Suppose your hypothetical was true, and whenever you had a grievance you would speak directly to an c-suite officer. What makes you think the corporate officer in question wouldn't take preventive measures to protect themselves from violence? Business in sketchy neighborhoods place their employees/cash register behind bulletproof glass to prevent this exact issue. If a small business can afford that kind of stuff to protect their minimum wage employee, I'm sure c-suite officers of multinational corporations can afford something equal or better.

Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#68

Post by ericlewis »

amacneil wrote: post #58
ericlewis wrote: post #24

Ex-employee of chime here, joined early on (think first 10 employees) and spent half a decade working there. I can guess as to what is going on here. I am not sure if my NDA still covers me talking about stuff there, but most likely is what has happened was folks either: not using their accounts (this will trigger eventual closer) or legitimately engaging in practices that would be... improper in any banking system.…

Sounds accurate from my experience working in fintech (crypto, not banking, but subject to many the same regulations). We would literally have customers with dozens of transactions referring to drug deals, close their account (as required by both federal law and our banking partners), and then have them go around filing complaints and starting reddit threads about how bad we are for closing their account. You can't t…

This was common in our experience as well, without being a HUGE BANK you really do have to actually police this stuff.

Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#69

Post by gruez »

quanticle wrote: post #64
41209 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, any bank can freeze your account for any reason. You can mitigate this somewhat by having accounts with multiple banks, but even then they can all be frozen at once. The benefit of a traditional bank is at least you can show up with an ID and beg for your money. Chime does indeed market to those who aren't financially doing great, but it's a very complicated situation. Everyone should have a minimum of 3…

And what good does it do me to have three months, six months, or heck 3 years worth of living expenses saved if the financial institution I've saved it with tells me that the account has been closed and the funds have been confiscated? We make fun of old people who lived through the Great Depression for keeping their money as cash or gold, but if this is the future of finance, well, gold bars under the mattress are l…

>And what good does it do me to have three months, six months, or heck 3 years worth of living expenses saved if the financial institution I've saved it with tells me that the account has been closed and the funds have been confiscated

You have those funds spread out across multiple accounts, so if one goes down you still have access to some cash. you know, like a high availability cluster.

Re: Chime has been suddenly closing accounts, not returning customers’ money

#70

Post by mjevans »

gruez wrote: post #57
wyager wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My comment is precisely that the people who are actually responsible for your problems are shielded from repercussions by either minimum wage support reps or automated phone systems.

What are you suggesting, that without telephones, you can beat the front line worker up, in hopes that he'll get mad and beat his boss up, and the violence will continue up the chain until it reaches the person responsible?

Translation for ya:

Viva la Revolution - IE Off with the aristocrat's heads, is far less likely these days for lots of reasons.

Though neither the parent author, nor I, are advocating for that response, I'm using it as an extreme to tug your frame of focus along the correct discussion axis.

The least of which is that the super wealthy have both private and public security forces on speed dial. Even minor protest groups or 'gentleman's disputes' like a more basic bare assault of vigilante protest are also off the table. There is no available check against uncouth behavior which violates the social and moral expectations.

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