Chime last week unveiled a new top membership tier for users who make the fintech their primary checking account.
Chime Prime, launched April 2, offers benefits including 5% cash back and a 3.75% annual percentage yield on savings for members who put $3,000 or more per month in direct deposits into their Chime accounts, the fintech said.
“For too long, the best perks like cash back rewards, high yield savings, and travel perks, have been reserved for the fortunate few who can afford high monthly/annual fees or maintain large minimum balances,” Vineet Mehra, Chime’s chief growth officer, wrote on LinkedIn this month.
The fee rhetoric may be an indirect reference to the likes of American Express, Citi and JPMorgan Chase – which have been battling upmarket with cards that carry annual fees of up to $895.
Chime, too, is aiming upmarket with its prime tier. Mass-affluent users are an immensely coveted audience, as banks such as Truist, Regions, Citizens and Bank of America – just in the past year – have sought to grab a greater share of the segment.
Mehra labels the target demographic “everyday Americans.”
“When members make Chime their primary account, they should receive more – more rewards, more savings, and more benefits – without large balance requirements or subscription fees,” he said in a statement last week.
Prime members can get 5% cash back on a “spending category of choice,” such as groceries, gas, restaurants, monthly bills, rideshare or travel, when they use a Chime card to make up to $1,500 of purchases a month, the fintech said.
Chime also is automatically connecting Prime members to the perks of some of the fintech’s other flagship products, such as fee-free overdraft protection with SpotMe and $500 in early wage access through MyPay. Prime members can also receive travel and lifestyle perks, such as Priority Pass membership, luxury hotel benefits and concierge services through their Chime Card, the fintech said.
Chime counted 9.5 million active members as of the end of 2025, according to its fourth-quarter earnings report. That’s 500,000 more users than the previous year. And many of those migrated from larger institutions.
“Eighty-five percent of people who come to Chime come from a relationship with a large bank,” Mark Troughton, the fintech’s president, told Banking Dive late last year.
In last week’s release, Chime cited JD Power research that found the fintech opened more new checking accounts in the U.S. than any other financial institution in the study.
Chime was last valued at around $11 billion when it went public last June.
While a number of Chime’s peers, including Varo, Revolut and Nubank, either have U.S. banking charters or are applying for them, Troughton last year said “the advantages of the bank partnership model are greater for us than the costs.”
The fintech reevaluates the charter decision about every six months, Troughton said.
“We would never rule it out,” he said. “We applaud what regulators are doing right now in terms of opening up the chartering process and making charters more available to reputable players.”
