Chime is a fintech company offering a nice referral sign-up bonus (link below) when you open an account and direct-deposit $200+ within 45 days. As of writing this, the bonus is $100. The account is basically a debit card-only checking account.
On top of that, there are rewards sites that offer Chime sign-up bonus that stacks with the referral bonus. As of writing this, MyPoints offers 44,000 bonus points, which comes out to about $290.
All together, that gets you almost $400 for 5 minutes of work. Not bad!
On your computer (not phone), open a new tab in your web browser to MyPoints or your preferred rewards site. Just log in to your account if you have one. Otherwise, sign up for an account and verify it. Their referral program does not seem worthwhile for me, so I don't have a referral link for you to use.
Open a second tab in your web browser to my Chime referral link - https://chime.com/r/brettbonderson. STOP! Do not enter your information into this tab, but leave it open.
Go back to the first tab from step 1. Enter Chime into the MyPoints search box. Scroll down on the MyPoints Chime page and click the 'EARN POINTS' button.
MyPoints will open a Chime page for you. Enter your information into this page to apply for the account. Make sure to use the same email address that you used for MyPoints.
At the final step before submitting, check the boxes to agree to their terms, but don't accidentally check the boxes to enroll in the optional 'Credit Builder' (unless you actually want that).
Once you submit, assuming you are approved, you should just get a page telling you to install the Chime app on your phone.
Install the Chime app on your phone from Google Play or the Apple app store. Log in to the app using the credentials you signed up with and create your mobile PIN.
It will prompt you to set up direct deposit. Proceed through these steps and it may email you a direct deposit form. At the end, just select 'Add later' to skip the initial deposit and get to the main menu.
At the top of the main menu, you should see the 'Your $100 is waiting' banner. This confirms your referral was successful. I'll probably get my own message indicating somebody used my link.
Tap the settings cog at the top-left corner and scroll down to see your routing number and account number. You will need those to set up your direct deposit.
You have some options now. Chime obviously wants you to set up a real, recurring direct deposit from your pay. In fact, it is in their terms for the referral bonus. You can definitely do that if you want to, but luckily, they seem to treat ACH transfers from other accounts as direct deposits. You can check here to see if your bank has already been confirmed to work. Log in to your account and add a link to your new Chime account. Then transfer some amount over $200 to it.
I have been personally informed that Fidelity and Wells Fargo transfers counted as direct deposit, but Ally and Bremer did not.
The Chime referral bonus should post into your Chime account within a couple days of your deposit.
The MyPoints rewards may take up to 90 days to post. Just keep an eye out for them. On the MyPoints site, you can click Account->Account Statement in the top-right. If your points don't show up in 'Posted' within that time, switch to 'Visited', find your Chime visit in the history and click the 'HELP' icon on it to submit a support ticket to look into your missing points.
At the time of writing this, the concensus seems to be that Chime does not report account information to ChexSystems (Intro to ChexSystems). You can close your Chime account through the app whenever you want, after you receive your bonuses and withdraw your money of course.
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