VirtualBank VS Chime

Which bank is better for you?

  • Financial Rates: 5.0 Star Icon
  • Customer Service: 3.0 Star Icon
  • Website Experience: 4.0 Star Icon
  • Bank Fees: 4.0 Star Icon
No Rate Information
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Pros:

  • Low required opening deposit
  • Competitive interest rates on accounts
  • eMoney Market account offers high rates
  • Online and Mobile Banking

Cons:

  • Monthly fees on accounts
  • High-interest rates require large amounts
  • CDs require a large opening deposit
  • No checking accounts offered
  • 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
VirtualBank Review

VirtualBank money market accounts have a low required opening deposit. The required amount is only $100. That opening deposit is for the eMoney Market and the Jumbo eMoney Market.

The interest rates on VirtualBank accounts are competitive with other online-only accounts. You only need one penny in the eMoney Market account to earn interest. To earn the highest interest on the Jumbo eMoney Market, you must keep at least $250,000 in the account. Anything over $0.01 earns interest, just not the highest rates.

The eMoney Market account offers a competitive introductory rate. New customers to VirtualBank receive a higher interest rate for the first year of the account being open. After the first year, the rate drops considerably. The lower rate is still much higher than your typical brick and mortar bank rates. Money already in a VirtualBank account does not qualify for the higher rate.

All VirtualBank accounts come with online and mobile banking. With online banking, you can see account balances, transfer funds, and receive e-Statements. Everything that can be done online can be done through mobile banking. You can also deposit checks through the app.

The eMoney Market and the Jumbo eMoney Market account have a monthly fee. The fee is $5. To waive the monthly fee, you must keep $100 in the account.

The Jumbo eMoney Market requires $250,000 to earn the highest interest rate. You still earn interest on any amount less than $250,000. To earn the highest amount, you must have that balance. This account only requires $100 to open. The eMoney Market account earns the same amount of interest not matter how much you have in the account.

VirtualBank CDs require $10,000 to open. The CDs range from a one-month term to a five-year term. There are 11 different CDs between those term lengths. The interest rates for each different term are competitive. The longer the term, the higher the interest rates.

VirtualBank does not offer checking accounts. They used to offer an eChecking account, but it no longer available. Because no checking accounts are offered, there are no ATM or debit cards. Bill pay is not available. You can have money directly deposited into VirtualBank money market accounts.

Read the full VirtualBank 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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