Goldwater Bank VS Chime

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 4.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 4.0 Star Icon
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Pros:

  • Low required amount to earn interest
  • Business accounts offered
  • Personal and business loan options
  • Competitive interest rates on accounts

Cons:

  • CDs have high opening deposits
  • Cannot open account entirely online
  • High opening deposits on accounts
  • Accounts have tiered interest rates
  • Financial Rates: 1.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.5 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 5.0 Star Icon
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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
Goldwater Bank Review

Goldwater Bank has high amounts to open their accounts. Once you open an account, the amount required to keep in the account to earn interest is low. Goldwater Bank only requires $0.01 to be in the account to earn interest.

Business accounts are available through Goldwater Bank. There is a checking account for small and large businesses. There is a money market and savings account. CDs are available. Goldwater Bank offers cash management services for business accounts. This offers online banking, remote deposit, and card services. Business credit cards are available.

Goldwater Bank not only offers personal deposit accounts but lending options. They offer loans for building, remodeling, or home loans. Personal loans for vacations, cars, boats, or college tuition are available. They offer loans for business needs as well.

The interest rates for Goldwater Bank accounts are competitive. Their rates are much higher than the rates offered at brick and mortar banks. To earn the most competitive rates does require a large account balance. However, the lower balance rates are still much higher than other bank rates. They are competitive with online accounts. The business accounts also earn competitive interest rates.

The different CD accounts all require a high opening balance of $5,000. The CD terms range from 90-day terms to a 5-year term. The only fees associated with CDs is from withdrawing the money before the CD meets the maturity date.

Goldwater Bank accounts cannot be entirely opened online. To open a checking, savings, money market account, or a Visa check card you can fill out an application online. Then you must go to a branch location to finish the application and sign paperwork. Only CDs are available for out of state customers. Not all account information is on the website. A customer service representative can answer your questions.

The different accounts have high required amounts to open the accounts. The checking account requires $500 to open. Money market and saving accounts require $1,000 to $25,000 to open the accounts. Once the account is open, you are only required to keep $0.01 in the accounts to earn interest.

Interest rates for Goldwater Bank accounts are tiered. To earn the most competitive interest rates requires large balances in the accounts. The money market account requires $100,000 to earn the most competitive rates. The checking account requires $5,000.

Read the full Goldwater Bank review.

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.

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