Chime VS MemoryBank

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 1.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.5 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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Pros:

  • No monthly maintenance fees
  • Pay friends through the mobile app
  • Chime Automatic Savings
  • No credit check to open accounts

Cons:

  • Limited accounts with low interest rates
  • Does not offer ATM fee reimbursement
  • No overdraft protection
  • Daily withdrawal and spending limits
  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
Advertiser Disclosure
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Pros:

  • Low opening amounts and no fees
  • Accounts are entirely online
  • Competitive interest rates
  • Interest rates are not tiered

Cons:

  • Limited personal deposit accounts offered
  • MMA does not offer checks or debit card
  • Customer service not available 24/7
  • Business accounts not offered
Chime Review

Chime accounts do not have monthly maintenance fees. The Spending and Saving account are completely free. There is not an overdraft fee or a monthly maintenance fee. There is no minimum balance required to keep in the account.

On the Chime app is a Pay Friends feature. You can send money to others instantly. You must have the person’s name, phone number, or email to transfer money. The intended person must have a Chime account or be approved for a Chime Spending account. You can only send up to $2,000 each month with this feature.

Chime offers an Automatic Savings tool. Each time you use your Chime debit card the amount rounds up to the nearest dollar. The extra amount is automatically transferred to your Chime Savings account. With direct deposit, you can have ten percent of your check automatically deposited into your savings account.

When you open a Chime account, they do not check your credit score or ChexSystems. If you have bad credit or no credit you can still be approved for a Chime account. Applying for a Chime account will not hurt your credit score.

Chime only offers a Spending account and a Savings account. The savings account with Chime does not earn a competitive interest rate. It does earn a small percentage of interest, but the rate is lower than traditional bank rates. The rate is not competitive with online or traditional bank interest rates. The checking account does not earn interest.

Chime offers 38,000 fee-free ATMs. If you use an ATM not included in the Chime network, you are charged a fee of $2.50 per ATM transaction. There is also a $2.50 fee for over the counter cash withdrawals. Chime does not reimburse these fees.

Most banks offer some type of overdraft protection. Chime does not. There is not a fee for over-drafting your account. But, if you do not have sufficient funds to cover the purchase, the transaction will not go through. You must have enough money in your account to cover transactions.

Chime limits the amount you can withdraw and spend with their Visa debit card each day. You are only allowed to withdraw $500 each day from an ATM, cash back during a point of sale transactions, or by an over-the-counter withdrawal. You are only allowed to make $2,500 in purchases with the debit card per 24 hours. The 24-hour period starts once the transaction is complete. Each of these different ways applies to the $2,500 allowed each day. No matter how you spend or withdraw the money, it cannot exceed $2,500 per 24 hours. Payments from the Chime Checkbook cannot exceed $10,000 in one month. You cannot make a check payment over $5,000.

Read the full Chime review.

MemoryBank Review

MemoryBank accounts only require $50 to open. Their accounts do not have monthly maintenances fees. There is no balance required to keep in the account to avoid the fees. The MemoryBank checking account and money market accounts are completely free.

The MemoryBank accounts are entirely online. You apply for the accounts online, and everything for your account is online. Any permanent resident of the U.S., over the age of 18, with an SSN or ITIN, are eligible to open a MemoryBank account.

Both MemoryBank accounts offer competitive interest rates. The checking and money market account rates are competitive with other online accounts. These interest rates are much higher than other brick and mortar bank rates.

MemoryBank interest rates are competitive, and they are not tiered. You do not have to have a large account balance to earn the most competitive interest rates. Any balance earns the most competitive rate offered.

MemoryBank offers limited personal deposit accounts. Those accounts include a checking account and a money market account. You can open as many of these two accounts as you would like, but only the two accounts are available.

The MemoryBank money market account does not offer checks or a debit card. To withdraw money from the money market account, you can make an electronic transfer from the MMA into your checking account. You can also request a check to withdraw money from the MMA.

MemoryBank is an entirely online bank. There are no branch locations. You can reach customer service through email, mail, phone, or through online chat. Customer service does have set hours. Those hours are Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

MemoryBank only offers personal deposit accounts. No business accounts are available at this time. The personal deposit accounts offered are a checking account and a money market account.

Read the full MemoryBank review.

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