Chime Prepaid Card

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Chime

I really didn't want to get a Chime prepaid card.

Between Serve, Paypal Debit, Visa Buxx, UFB Direct Airlines Debit, Visa and American Express Gift Cards, I already have too many things to keep track of before even discussing the ridiculous number of credit cards I have.

When Doctor of Credit's first post about Chime came out, I just plain ignored it.  When he started posting about easy promotions for free Amazon Gift Cards, I assumed it was a one time thing.  When another promotion came, I pretended I didn't want it anyway.  When the promotions kept coming, I couldn't ignore them any more.  As much as I hate having another card, I caved and got one for me and my wife so I'm in now.


Here is why you  might want to get a Chime card as well:

- $10 sign up bonus.  If you sign up with my referral link, or with Doctor of Credit's referral link, you will get $10 and the referrer will get $10 as well if you load $50 or more.  When I signed up for myself, I got $10.  When I signed up my wife we both got $10 so we got $30 right away for two accounts.

- Chime promotions.  Chime has rotating promotions where if you spend money on your Chime card at certain stores, you can get significant savings.  Some examples that impressed me for next month

1. Tomorrow - Free $5 store credit at Amazon
2. Tuesday - Free $2 Store credit at McDonalds
3. Wednesday - Free $3 store credit at Bath and Body Works
4. Sunday December 7th - Free $3 Store credit at Old Navy.
5. Wednesday December 10th - Free $2 Store Credit at Chipotle
6. Tuesday December 16th - Free $2 Store Credit at Subways
7. Tuesday December 23rd - Free $2 Store Credit at Wendy's
8. Thursday December 25th - Free $3 Store Credit at Starbucks

There are lots of other great deals, like $5 cashback on a $50 purchase at Walmart, Best Buy, Target and many other 10% cashback deals at places I want to shop, but these are the ones you don't even have to spend any money to get.

Loading

I loaded $200 the first time via my Paypal Debit Card for free, but after that there is a 3% fee for Paypal Debit card.  It is free to load from a checking account ($500 daily max) and some debit cards.  I recommend loading via a free method.

Fees

- $2.50 ATM withdrawal ($500 daily max)

- $5 monthly fee if you have 0 transactions in 180 days (about 6 months).  If you partake in any promotions over six months you will never pay this fee.  If you buy any item not involved in a promotion every 6 months you will again not pay any fee  That being said, this isn't a card you can forget about and never use, you need to somewhat actively manage the card.