Chime is a free online bank that offers a $100 referral bonus if you open a new Chime account using a referral link. To earn the $100 referral bonus, you need to do the following:
- Open a new Chime bank account using a referral link (here’s my Chime referral link).
- Make a direct deposit of $200 or more within 45 days of opening your account.
- The $100 bonus posts to your Chime account within 2 business days of meeting the requirements, but typically posts instantly once the requirements are met.
When it comes to bank account bonuses, Chime is one of the easier banks out there to earn the bonus with and is one of the first banks I recommend for anyone new to earning bank account bonuses. Here’s why:
- No Fees. Chime has no minimum balance requirement and no monthly fees or maintenance fees of any kind. Since it has no fees, this makes it a very easy bank account to manage.
- Bonus Terms Are Easy To Meet. The terms you have to meet to earn the Chime referral bonus are easy to meet, making this one of the easier bank account bonuses out there. The account requires a $200 direct deposit to earn the bonus, which at first glance might seem difficult, but in fact, almost any ACH transfer from an external bank account into your Chime account will trigger the direct deposit requirement.
- Bonus Posts Instantly (Or At Most, Within 2 Business Days). Some banks have a long waiting period before your bonus posts. Chime’s terms say your bonus will post within 2 business days of meeting the direct deposit requirement, but in my experience, the bonus almost always posts instantly.
- You Can Refer People With Your Own Referral Link. A big thing about Chime is that once you open a Chime account, you get your own Chime referral link. You’ll earn $100 for every person you refer to Chime and the person you refer will also earn $100 once they open a Chime account with your link and meet the bonus requirements. This makes Chime a very profitable bank account if you have people you can refer.
In this post, I’ll walk you through exactly what you need to do to earn the $100 Chime referral bonus, as well as provide some additional strategies to make your bonus go even further.
But first, some background about Chime before we get started.
What Is Chime Bank?
Chime is an online bank account that you can access through the Chime app or via the Chime website. The most important thing about Chime is that it has no fees of any sort. This includes no minimum balance requirement, no monthly fees, no maintenance fees, and even no overdraft fees.
Chime is a fintech company, which means that it has a really good mobile app. Indeed, among bank mobile apps, I’d consider Chime one of the nicest and most intuitive banking apps out there.
Another interesting feature of Chime is how fast it posts transactions. Direct deposits and transfers into the account post 2 days early, which is nice since it means you get access to your money sooner.
I currently use Chime as a sort of business bank account for myself. I’ve made it so that all of my gig economy earnings go directly into my Chime account. This means I get my pay earlier than I otherwise would, and it helps me to organize my business earnings and expenses.
Chime Bank $100 Referral Bonus: Step-By-Step Directions
The reason you should open a Chime account is to earn the $100 referral bonus for new Chime account holders. The process should only take you a few minutes to complete, making this well worth your time. You can basically make $100 for just a few minutes of work.
Here are the step-by-step directions to earn your $100 Chime referral bonus.
1. Open Your Chime Account Using A Referral Link. To earn the $100 Chime referral bonus, first, you need to open a Chime account using a referral link. Here’s my referral link to open your Chime account. Opening a Chime account should only take you a few minutes.
2. Do A Direct Deposit Of $200 Or More Within 45 Days Of Account Opening. The next step is to do a direct deposit of $200 or more. If your employer allows you to change your direct deposit easily, then you can do it through your employer if you want to do it exactly as the terms require.
The easier way to meet this requirement, however, is to do an ACH push of $200 or more from an external bank into your Chime account. While the terms do say a direct deposit is required, in practice, an ACH push from almost any external bank account will trigger the direct deposit requirement and get you your bonus.
To do this, you’ll want to go log into your non-Chime bank account, link your Chime account to that bank account, then transfer $200 or more into your Chime account. If the transfer works, then the bonus should post instantly, but at most, within 2 business days.
When I did it, I used Discover Bank to meet the direct deposit requirement, which worked perfectly. Other good accounts to use are Ally, Chase, Capital One 360, Marcus By Goldman Sachs, and many others.
3. Once The Requirements Are Met, The Bonus Should Post Within 2 Business Days. Once you trigger the direct deposit requirement, the bonus should post either instantly or within 2 business days. If the bonus doesn’t post within 2 business days, try doing a transfer from another bank.
Remember, you need to do an ACH push into your Chime account to trigger the direct deposit requirement. This means logging into your non-Chime bank account, linking Chime to that account, and pushing the money into Chime all from that external account. You don’t do anything from the Chime interface when trying to meet the direct deposit requirement.
Pro-Tip: Refer Your Friends And Earn More Chime Referral Bonuses
When you open your Chime account, you also get your own referral link that you can use to refer other people to Chime. You can currently get $100 for every person that you refer to Chime, up to $1,000 per calendar year. Note that in my experience, Chime actually seems to limit this number to $975 worth of referrals per calendar year. I’m not sure why this happens, but it’s something I’ve noticed on my end.
If you have a spouse or partner, you can (and should) refer them and have them follow the same process to earn the referral bonus. They’ll earn $100 for using your referral link and you’ll earn $100 for referring them.
Accordingly, someone with a two-person household can currently earn $300 with just a few minutes of work. You get $100 for opening your account. Then you get $100 for referring your spouse or partner. And then your spouse or partner gets $100 for using your referral link. This makes Chime a very easy $300 net gain for a two-person household.
Final Thoughts
Chime is a very easy bank account bonus that is the perfect introduction for beginners new to the world of bank account bonuses. Since it’s a totally free account, you don’t have to worry about managing the account or doing anything with it. I would typically recommend keeping your Chime account open forever so that you can keep referring people.
The entire process to earn this bonus is really fast, so you should be able to earn your $100 Chime referral bonus with just a few minutes of work. You can open your Chime account and earn your bonus using my Chime referral link.
If you have two people, you’ll make $300 altogether with just a few minutes of work. This makes this referral bonus well worth taking advantage of.
If you’re interested in diving deeper into the world of bank account bonuses, I wrote the Ultimate Guide To Bank Account Bonuses, which you should definitely check out. That post goes into a lot of detail about how bank account bonuses work and how you can take advantage of them.
More Recommended Referral Bonuses
Chime is the referral bonus I typically recommend first, but there are other referral bonuses you can earn too. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about. Here are a few referral bonuses I recommend.
- M1 Finance is my favorite brokerage account and they also offer a referral bonus if you open an account with a referral link. Here’s my M1 Finance referral link. I’ve also written an M1 Finance referral bonus guide that I recommend checking out.
- Webull is a free brokerage account that gives you free stocks if you open an account using a referral link. Here’s my Webull referral link. For more in-depth directions, check out my WeBull referral bonus guide.
- SoFi is giving away $10 if you open a free SoFi Money account and download the SoFi app through a referral. Here’s my SoFi referral link. This is a really easy bonus to earn and should only take you a few minutes to complete. And here’s a post with directions on how to earn your SoFi bonus.
- Albert is one of my favorite fintech apps. It’s a great tool to help you monitor your finances and save more money. In addition, you’ll get $75 if you open a free Albert Cash account and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more within the first 30 days. Here’s my Albert referral link. I’ve also written an Albert referral bonus guide you should check out. And for an in-depth review, you can check out my Albert app review.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the sharing economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the sharing economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $15 welcome bonus if you open an account.
- Lili Account. Lili is a free online business checking account geared towards freelancers and sole proprietors. Lili is currently offering new users a $100 bonus if you open a free Lili account using a referral link.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $30 for opening an account.
- Albert. A great free app I use to track my finances and save more money. You can also earn a $75 signup bonus if you open a free Albert cash account.
- Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
Just a word of caution. There is a really long thread on DOC with countless complaints from people who have had their accounts either locked or closed and people are literally fighting to get their money back (sometimes thousands of dollars). My wife was one of them. Luckily it was only about $65, but took months of emails, a BBB complaint, and a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to finally get access back. If you do this, I’d recommend only very small balances and closing the account as soon as the bonus posts. A quick Google search will show you how wide spread this is.
Hey Kyle,
Story time. I was actually a victim myself of getting my Chime account shut down. I’ve been a Chime user since early 2019 (so nearly 2 years at this point). It’s been my primary bank account for all of my gig economy apps.
In December, a friend of mine sent me some money via Chime’s P2P transfer option and in the notes field, she wrote “Kevin’s Racket.” The word Racket must’ve triggered some automatic thing in Chime because a day later, I got an email saying my account was on hold and to provide information about my recent transactions and provide identifying documents. I did all of that, then received an email not too long later saying my account was shut down. At the time, I had over $7,000 in my account and it was still the primary account I used.
I tried to appeal it because this is an account I actually like, but they said no dice, my account is closed forever and they won’t reopen. I asked for copies of all my bank statements, which they emailed to me immediately. They told me that my funds would be sent to me by check after 14 days, so I’m still waiting on it. I’ve been told that my funds will arrive January 11th or 12th, so we’ll see.
Frustrating to get my account closed, but seems like they are super cautious about anything that seems fraudulent.
That said, I would not recommend closing your account. You should always keep your Chime account open because of the referral program. Open the account, get your bonus, take your money out. Then keep the account open with a penny in it or something and use it just to refer people. Don’t use Chime for anything else – I agree with you there.
Curious, why was your wife’s account closed? There had to be something that triggered it.
Her account was locked, and Chime repeatedly refused to tell us why. We asked several times via email and phone for additional details. They would only repeat a generic “account is not in compliance with internal policies” response. Her account was opened early last year simply to get her the bonus and me the referral, and she did the bare minimum to meet those requirements and hadn’t touched the account since. That was back in April. In August she attempted to log in to find the account locked/suspended. She was never informed by Chime that they had taken any action on the account.
They then asked to submit pics of ID. The first could be her driver’s license and the second could be something as simple as a bill with her name/address, so that’s what she did. THEN they asked for a clearer picture of the license. She submitted that. THEN they asked for a picture of the back of the license, so she submitted that. THEN they decided the bill wasn’t enough, so they asked for a picture of her passport. She submitted that. THEN they asked for a picture of her holding her passport. That’s where we drew the line. One… this behavior raised some red flags with us. We’ve never heard of a bank asking for such a thing. Two… had we submitted the picture of her, were they just going to ask for something additional? We didn’t know when it was going to stop.
As if this craziness wasn’t enough, their responses to the BBB and CFPB contained several untruths about how helpful they were trying to be and how forthcoming they were with information, which told us all we needed to know about this company. The CFPB complaint finally got them to reinstate her access (now after almost 4 months later). So she pulled her funds and closed it down. I closed my account almost immediately after they asked for a picture of her holding her passport (and a quick Google search revealing how widespread these suspensions/closings were).
All I can tell is that Chime is very conservative when it comes to risk, which is why they close accounts that get flagged by some automated system. My guess is because it’s a fintech company that’s likely going to go public eventually, so they’re probably just extra conservative to avoid issues (you might be surprised to hear this, but Chime is currently the highest valued fintech startup in the US).
I know why my account got the automatic flag – it had to have been because of my friend sending me money and writing “racket” which I assume is a keyword they flag.
Personally, I wouldn’t have closed any of your accounts. Any account with a referral, you should always leave it open purely for referral purposes. But if it’s about principles, then sure, I get it.
As a little update, Chime did send me my statement balance check within the time period they provided. I’m not happy my account got shut down because it means I lose out on a lot of potential future referrals, but it happens.
Yeah, I get it. But my closing wasn’t even about principles. Asking for pictures of my wife, refusing to provide anything other than a vague “policies” explanation, not telling us they took said action on the account, and then lying in their responses to BBB and CFPB… I lost every bit of trust in them. I didn’t want our money/personal information wrapped up with them in any capacity. Although the boat has certainly sailed on the personal info piece… not like they completely wiped it from their system. 🙂
I thought you said you can only make ten referrals a year that will be paid?
Hi Kevin! Just received my $75 bonus, so $75 should be coming your way soon too! Thank you so much for the detailed steps above. I have a question for you that’s both specific to Chime and more general to all bank account bonuses…
Do you keep the direct deposit in the bank where you received the bonus for a certain amount of time? Now that I have received my Chime bonus, I would like to move that $200 elsewhere to earn another bonus, but I’m wondering if I should leave it there for a certain amount of time.
Thanks!
Allison
Hey Allison, glad it worked!
You’ll always want to read the terms of the specific bank bonus to see if you have to leave the money in there. Typically, the terms will have something like a required minimum balance for X number of days.
That said, Chime is the easiest one because the direct deposit requirement is easy to meet, the bonus posts immediately, and you don’t need to leave any money in the account. You can transfer all of the money in the account out immediately.
My advice would be to leave 1 cent in the account. You don’t have to do this, but that’s what I typically do with accounts that I want to keep open forever. In this case, I recommend keeping your Chime account open forever because you never know when you might be able to refer someone using your own referral link.
I’d recommend pulling the money out via ACH transfer from your regular bank also. That is, go to your regular bank website and pull the money out of Chime from there. So if you have $275 in your account. maybe pull out $274.99 and leave 1 cent in your Chime account.
Hi Kevin,
I opened my Chime account using your referral. I used my Capital one account to use as the transfer bank. Capital one has the information but has not sent Chime the required cents transactions to verify my account. It’s been three days. I also used the Capital one account to open a Chase checking for the bonus and that went well. I was wondering if I should give Capital one more time, but it seems odd that Chime doesn’t show the small transactions to verify account? I was thinking that I don’t want to get in a 20 minute plus conversation with Capital One. Thoughts? Also, is ACH credit the same as a direct deposit? That’s what’s showing up on my Chase bank account.
Hi Lisa,
Not sure if you figured this out yet. If it hasn’t gone through yet, my guess is there’s a glitch on someone’s end. Usually test transactions take a day at most (sometimes same day with Chime even).
ACH credit is not normally the same thing as direct deposit. However, Chime’s system right now doesn’t seem to be able to differentiate between the two so that’s why ACH works right now.
Hi Kevin, I’m living in Vietnam. I want open a new Chime account with your referral. But i don’t know Viet Nam accept or not?.
Please help, thank you so much!
Hi Kien, unfortunately, Chime I think is for US customers only. Not sure if you can do it if you’re a US citizen but live overseas.
Thank you for repply the comment. I can try. 🤝
Has anyone else had difficulty with Chime or heard of these stories? I was about to sign up until I read Kyle’s comment above.
If you’re only signing up for the bonus, then really it doesn’t matter about these shutdown stories. Just get your bonus. Pull the money out and move on to the next bonus!
Not sure about anyone here, but there are MANY here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/chime-closing-some-accounts-no-reason-provided/
I signed up with Chime and received my bonus- thank you! Question- I had my husband sign up under my referral, but neither of us have received the bonus. I used the same account to transfer the funds to chime which is a joint account with a credit union that we share. Why would that have worked for me but not my husband? I did recently open an Ally account for me and was going to try transferring the money from that account to his Chime account. Do you think that will work?
Thanks for the post. I think I will sign up next week using your link. Does your referral link still work? Did you reach your max? Thanks
I will sign up next week. Do you still have room for referrals or did you max out?
Referral link still works. I switch them between friends and family whenever it gets maxed out.
Thank you. Got my $100 bonus today!!
As of August 28, 2021, do you still think that a $200.00 Chase ACH Push would allow for the $100.00 bonus?
Yes it still works.
Thank you
Hey Kevin,
Thanks for this story! I have a question. How do I make sure that a deposit to chime using cash app will go through correctly? Thanks😊
If your bonus posts, then it worked correctly. If not, try again with a different method.
I recently tried this, transfer the money from Cash App on 9/8/2021 to Chime, the slow transfer method & didn’t receive my bonus. I am not trying to do a Chase push to see if that will trigger it.
I can confirm the Chase push worked. My deposited came and a minute after got the $100 bonus.
Hopefully others will find this useful.
I can confirm a Wells Fargo transfer did the trick. The only thing is now I have $300 in acct. I can just take out or leave for X amount days?
You can take it all out
Cash app not working as of mid September. Wondering if I should try my actual bank account or zelle. Anyone have any thoughts?
I would recommend bank account
Just use a bank account. Any bank account will do.
Do you know if this offer can be repeated again after the account was closed? And if so, after how long?
I don’t think you can churn this account.