Chime

Chime Offer Instant Cash Back on Amazon, some restaurants and more

Posted on December 8, 2015December 8, 2015 by admin

New Chime offer is available: $2 instant cash back for Amazon purchases. You can earn $2 cash back when you spend $2 or more. If you don’t know about Chime card, click here.

It’s a no-brainer because you can redeem it by purchasing $2 Amazon gift card. If you want to use Amazon GC for yourself, just reload GC to cut the step of opening an email and copy&paste a code.

There are also a few restaurant offers

Starbucks $1 instant cash back
Chick-fil-A $1 instant cash back
Panda Express $2 instant cash back

I remember I used Chime card and received cash back on Starbucks GC reload online. I checked the website today. The minimum for a reload is $10. 10%-discount on Starbuck GC is not really worth it. So, I will use it in-store by purchasing something cheap.

There are many other offers for cable and auto insurance companies, H&M, Express, J.Crew, and CVS. CVS offer is $2 cash back on $20 or more spent, but you don’t have to spend that much on merchandise because CVS gives you up to $40 cash back at the register.

Chime is not dead, $3 back on amazon purchase thru July 16th

Posted on July 15, 2015July 15, 2015 by admin

Several months ago, Chime stopped offering any rewards. There had been no offers in my account until last week. All of sudden, it came back and added new offers a couple days ago. And today, I saw my favorite offer available. It’s for amazon.com, $3 instant cash back, no minimum requirement. If you don’t know about this card, please click here to see details.

You can get $3 cash back by purchasing the exact same amount of e-gift card (not a physical GC because a minimum denomination of physical GCs is $10), or reloading your balance.

It ends tomorrow, July 16th. But, limited quantities are available. I believe it will be gone quickly. You’d better redeem right now!

Credit of Chime Card Posted with Delay

Posted on January 23, 2015January 23, 2015 by admin

Several days ago, I paid cell phone bill with Chime card to redeem the offer, “Get $5 instant cash back when you pay with your Chime Card.” I made an transation, but no credit was posted. And today, I see the credit posted in my account. If you don’t know about Chime, click here to see details of Chime Prepaid Card.

I use Boost Mobile. It’s prepaid phone. Every month, money is deducted from your account. By a due date, you need to add money (it’s called Reboost) with debit/credit cards, cash in-store, or by purchasing prepaid cards and redeem them online. Minimum amount for Reboost is $10. So, I paid $10 + tax with Chime card on January 18th. (read the post “Six Chime Offers for Your Cell Phone“)

From my experience, Chime credits were always posted at the same time as checkout. However, the credit wasn’t posted this time. I thought it was not a qualifying purchase and just gave up on the $5.

And today, I had a chance to redeem the other offer and glanced at the transaction history of my Chime card. Then I found that $5 credit for Reboost had been posted. I checked emails, but I couldn’t find “Chime Time! You just saved $xxx” email. So, I don’t know when it was posted.

It’s not really good manner because you can’t tell if a transaction you just made is qualified for the offer or not. But at least, it’s good to know that Chime credits are not always posted right away.

Six Chime Offers for Your Cell Phone

Posted on January 18, 2015January 18, 2015 by admin

There are currently 6 Chime offers for your cell phone. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Boost Mobile, and Metro PCS. All of them offer $5 store credit. This type of offers don’t require minimum spending. When you spend $5, $5 will be back to your Chime account. If you don’t know about Chime, click here to see details.

I use Boost Mobile. You can pay monthly payment online with debit or credit cards. You can also purchase prepaid cards (called “Reboost” cards) in stores or online and then add money to your account at boostmobile.com.

First, I tried to add $5, but the amount have to be between $10 and $200. So, I typed $10 and proceeded. On the next page, it showed that I would be charged sales tax. They always charge sale tax. What you buy a Reboost card in stores, such as Staples and Target, it’s also subject to sales tax. Basically, you have to pay sales tax for Reboost, except for this way.

I paid the total $10 + tax. I expected an instant notification from Chime that tells me I earned $5 credit. However, the notification I received was that simply I paid $10.89, and there is no $5 credit. It seems that “Reboost” is not a qualified spending for Chime Offer.

Similar thing happened to the offer for Best Buy. It was “$5 back when you spend $50 or more.” First, I purchased an E-gift card, but there is no credit. Then I checked out a physical gift card. And I instantly received $5 credit.

I hope Chime would make detailed terms and condition of each offer.

25 Days, 25 Chime Offers! in December

Posted on November 29, 2014November 29, 2014 by admin

Every day from December 1st to 25th, you will receive new offers. Each offer expires within 24 hours. You can check all offers in advance at www.chimecard.com/users/holiday. If you don’t have Chime card yet, please read “Chime Card Reviews.”

There are many great offers. I plan to redeem ten offers out of 25. In the website, you can set up a reminder by clicking “Remind Me” on each offer. You will receive an email on the day the offers of your favorite stores are available so you won’t miss them.

Starting with amazon.com, “Free $5 Store Credit.” Free $x Store Credit means there is no minimum spending requirement. $5 will be back instantly to your Chime account after a check-out. We had the same offer just a few weeks ago. I redeemed it by purchasing $5 amazon E-gift card.

There are many other offers of the same type, as well as “Spend $XX Get $X” type of offers for major and popular stores. Check for yourself.

Lots of New Chime Offers! Amazon/Sears/Lowe’s/CVS

Posted on November 18, 2014November 18, 2014 by admin

My Chime app on my cell phone had frozen after I received a notification. I opened the app, but the screen was all blank. So I logged in from PC to see what was new. Then I found a lot of new offers. (Click here to see details of Chime card)

The offers of Amazon, Sears, Lowe’s, and CVS are redeemed by purchasing gift cards. And Amazon’s offer has no minimum purchase requirements. No matter how much you spend, you will receive Chime credit up to $5. If you spend $3 today and $10 tomorrow, you will get back $3 today and $2 tomorrow. But I think this offer is too good to be available for a long time. So, it is better to redeem now by purchasing “Amazon.com Gift Cards – E-mail Delivery.” You can choose an amount between $0.50 and $2000 in any increments. Just buy $5 e-gift card now otherwise the offer may be gone tomorrow.

As for Chime app on my cell phone, it works fine after I cleared data and re-entered email address and password. I guess that there are too many new offers for the app to handle.

I may be going to buy Amazon GCs at Sears, Lowe’s and CVS, too. Currently, there are 4th quarter of Chase Freedom, Citi divinded, and Discover credit cards (5% cash back.) Plus, Discover offers another 5% cash back in October and November. I’m very busy to buy a lot of GCs now!

Changes took effect on Chime Card on Oct 8th

Posted on October 10, 2014November 20, 2014 by admin

As all cardholders of both of Chime and PayPal Business Debit (PPBD) card expected, Chime started charging 3% fee for loading Chime card with PPBD card. An email that Chime sent last month says:

“Some” debit card transfers may also incur a fee of up to 3% that will be assessed to yourChime Card account. This will not affect a majority of bank issued debit cards and we will exclude fees on debit cards from “major banks” including; Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Comerica Bank, and USAA.

It turns out that PPBD is one of “Some” debit cards incurred a fee, but I wonder what are “Some” other cards they charge a fee.

PPBD is issued by The Bancorp Bank, which is also the issuer of Chime. And I have another card issued by the same bank, PayPal Prepaid MasterCard. I added this card to Chime account and found out that they don’t charge a fee.

Next, I added Mango Money card. And there is no fee. Mango is issued by First Bank & Trust. I believe this isn’t a major bank. I actually added money with two cards and made sure that they didn’t charge a fee.

Is there other card they charge a fee? I guess not (at least not so many.) It seems that purpose of this change is Chime needed to stop manufacture spending with PPBD and its own card. PPBD offers 1% cash back. Every load (add money to Chime with PPBD) is eligible for 1% cash back. If you set PayPal Extras MasterCard (credit card) as back up funding source of PPBD, you can also earn 1X reward points from credit card, which is equivalent to 0.83% cash back. That is why a fee is 3%. (I guess.)

You can link up to three debit cards. I removed PPBD and linked Walmart Money Card issued by Green Dot Bank. And there is no fee, either.

You won’t be able to use Chime for manufacture spending, but adding money with debit card online is still useful. Mango Money and PayPal Prepaid card have a savings account. I want to withdraw the interest earned every month because they offer lower APY to deposit exceeded $5000. (Read “Mango Money Card Reviews” and “PayPal Prepaid Reviews” for more details.) I don’t have to take the cards out of a drawer to unload the cards. It will be all done in a minute without leaving home.

The rule of a maintenance fee of $5.00 hasn’t changed. It’s charged ONLY AFTER 180 consecutive days of no purchases, withdrawals, or deposits on your account. Chime offers are less frequently updated than before, but I found it still beneficial. So, I will keep the card, check and redeem Chime offers from time to time.

Chime Card Reviews

Posted on August 18, 2014July 7, 2015 by admin

Chime Card is Reloadable Prepaid Debit Card that has a logo of Visa on it. Since it is a debit card, you can withdraw cash at ATM and get cash back with a purchase where available. But, the main feature of the card is that you can earn Instant Cash Back when you make qualifying purchases with the card.

Chime Offer

There are two types of rewards you can earn with Chime card, Earned Credit and Store Credit. Earned Credit is just like Amex Offer. Spend a certain amount at certain store and you will get certain amount credit. This type of offers looks like a left picture. One thing that is different from Amex Offer is you don’t need to sync with offers. As long as you use the card for a purchase that costs more than a requirement, you will get the credit. Store Credit has no minimum requirement and looks like a right picture. No matter how much you spend you will earn the credit. If you spend less than the amount they offer, you will receive the same amount of credit as you spend. The remaining balance of credit is kept for the next purchase.

How to Add Money

There are three ways to add money to Chime card.

Debit Card – ~~$100~~ $200 per day
Bank Transfer – $200 per day
Direct Deposit

~~None of them is charged a fee.~~ Some debit cards are charged up to 3% as a reload fee. Click here to see more details about charges. If you have a reward/point earning debit card, use it. You can do it online or with a mobile app. Money is available in no time. For example, PayPal Business Debit MasterCard offers 1% cash back for every purchase. Transferring money to Chime account is treated as a purchase in PayPal statement. So, you can earn 1% cash back every time you add money to the card.

A limit of $100 per day seems a little, but all Chime offers are mostly less than $50 (e.g., spend $35, get $5). And I have never seen an offer more than $100. When you find a good offer and don’t have enough money in the card. No problem. You can use the internet or smartphone to add money in a minute.

Fees

They charge a fee for the following transactions

Domestic Cash Withdrawal Fee: $2.50 per transaction
ATM Balance Inquiry Fee: $0.50 per transaction
Account Maintenance Fee: $5.00 per month ONLY AFTER 180 consecutive days of no purchases, withdrawals, or deposits on your account.
International Transaction Fee: 3% of the total purchase amount
International Cash Withdrawal Fee*: $2.50 + 3% of the total withdrawal amount
Check Refund Fee: $5.00 per check issued
Express Card Replacement Fee: $25.00 per card issued

As long as you use the card for redeeming Chime offers, you won’t get charged any fees. $5 for maintenance fee is avoidable. Any transaction you made waives the fee for 180 days. It is hard to get charged!

What Else?

On the back of the card, at the bottom, it says:

This card is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A Inc.

It reminds me of something. The Bancorp Bank also issues Visa gift cards. Vanilla, OneVanilla, and Target Visa gift cards are all issued by the same bank. Since Walmart updated POS system, these gift cards can’t be used for reloading American Express BlueBird, Serve, or other reloadable prepaid cards (see details here.) Apparently, the problem is that these gift cards can’t be registered (or attached your name and billing address) because of their feature. However, Chime card is personalized. Your name and address are surely attached to the card so you can make online orders. And your name is also on the card. There is nothing shady to use the card for reloading BlueBird/Serve at Walmart.

So, I went to Walmart Kiosk and added $100 to my Serve card with Chime card. The transaction went through, and here is how it looks like in Chime history.

This is great! When I add money to Chime with PayPal debit card, I got 1% cash back from PayPal. But you can bring money back to PayPal through Serve and Bank account. You can load Serve or Bluebird with PayPal debit card directly, in the same way, at Walmart, but this transaction is a PIN-used purchase which PayPal doesn’t offer 1% cash back.

I also shopped at grocery stores. I used self-checkout cashiers and got $50 (Pathmark) and $80 (Stop and Shop) cash back. ($50 and $80 are the maximum amounts for cash back allowed by self-checkout cashiers)

Aside from Chime Offer, the card can also be used for manufactured spending if you have a point/reward earning debit card. I wrote “there is nothing shady” earlier, but I think you should do these kinds of things moderately. Check all Chime Offers every week and redeem them from time to time, and reload BlueBird/Serve between these transactions.The history of Chime card shouldn’t be only Walmart and Debit Card Transfer.

Summery

Chime Offer is very good for money savings. You can see new offers every week. Each offer has a limited number, but it doesn’t fly away so quickly at least for now. As long as you use the card for redeeming Chime Offers, you won’t get charged any fee if you make any transaction within 180 days. If you add money to the card with point/reward earning debit cards, you can boost up the earning by reloading BlueBird/Serve or get cash back at registers.

You can only apply the card online. Please click here to get started.

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