Cash App Vs Chime Bank: Which Is Better In 2022?

When looking at the Financial Anatomy youtube channel analytics you all really like Cash App and Chime in terms of banks. So it's time for us to have a nice old fashioned competition or kung fu fight between the two to see which one is the superior bank when it comes to checking accounts. In this article, we'll be comparing the 2 bank's checking accounts in the following categories: Depositing, Account control, spending restrictions and spending features. So lets get into it! Not in the mood to read? Check the video out below!

Depositing

So when it comes to depositing money, both Chime and Cash App are a little bit at a disadvantage because a bank like Chase or Truist or Wells Fargo has a physical location that you can go in to deposit money at no cost to you. But with Chime and Cash App being both online banks, this option isn't present. The good news is they have made deals with various businesses like CVS to be able to deposit money inside your accounts. But it comes with a hefty fee. Oftentimes it costs around $5 just to deposit money into your online banking account using this factor.

When it comes to comparing the two though, Cash App just released this feature a lot later than Chime, and it's still clunky to say the least. You may actually go to a place and you will not be able to deposit money. They say, "Hey, we don't do that," even though the Cash App map says that you can. If you want details on how depositing money works on cash app, you can check the video out below

When comparing this to Chime, I've never had a situation where I couldn't deposit money in a place where they said that you can deposit money. It just costs $5. But the fact that you can deposit money all the time on Chime and you can't on Cash App is kind of iffy. You might want to call ahead of time with cash app. This gives Chime an edge when it comes to depositing money. 

Next, we'll look at the ability to deposit checks, and to be honest, neither one of them does a fantastic job of this. They both offer the feature to deposit a check, but it's pretty standard, it's nothing special. Just take a picture of the check and then it'll be deposited in your account within the following business days. For details on this, you can reference the videos below.

There's not really a real difference in terms of how long it takes. They're about the same. So they both get a point in terms of being able to deposit checks into the account. So we're doing the math, Cash App has one point. Chime has two points. So Chime gets the category winner when it comes to depositing money. Next, we'll move into account control. 

Account Control 

So right off the bat, both Chime and Cash App don't have any checking account maintenance fees, meaning you don't have to have a certain amount of money in there to avoid getting hit with a $5, $10, $15 fee. And they don't have overdraft fees either. I will say that Chime does give you the ability to overdraft if you decide to turn it on, but generally speaking both companies don't have any fees. With this being the case, neither one of them receive a point since their kind of at a stalemate. 

Let's go into where Cash App has an advantage here. Cash App gives you the ability to do what I call money laundering. So Cash App, you can link a debit card to it and then get money from that debit card via the add cash feature and then replace that debit card with another card from another bank and then cash out that money on that debit card and move that money to the bank.

Now keep in mind that there is a fee for doing this. Still, if you need to move money from one bank account to another bank account quickly, I really like that you can do this within a matter of minutes with cash app. We're going to have to give Cash App a point in that regard because Chime doesn't have anything like that. Unfortunately, that's where the pros end for Cash App in this category. We got to go over to Chime and look at what they have to offer. 

Chime has the ability to link multiple bank accounts to your Chime account. That means that you could link all kinds of checking bank accounts to your Chime account. That's a plus because if you want to transfer money from one bank account to another, you don't have to keep switching out. With Cash App, you can only link one bank account at a time and one debit card at a time.

Now if you do the math you could link your bank account from somewhere else, let's say a Chase Bank account, and then link your Wells Fargo debit card. So technically you could say that that's linking two bank accounts if you want to get technical, but the fact that you can link more with Chime gives Chime an edge over Cash App. 

So right now in this category, we are tied, but Chime does have that overdraft ability if you wanted to turn it on. We're going to go ahead and count that because it does give you more account control, this is to feature your account controls. So this gives Chime two points. 

The third thing that Chime has to offer is, and this is a more recent edition, but you have the ability to pay anyone on Chime. On Cash App, you only have the ability to pay someone or receive money from someone that has the Cash App. With Chime, you can now send money to anyone or receive money from anyone. The video below visually shows how you can do this. They can have a Chase account, they can have a Wells Fargo account, it doesn't matter. So we're going to have to give a point to Chime.  

So if you're keeping score, that's one point for Cash App, and three points for Chime. Chime walks away with the overall point for account control.

Spending Features

When it comes to spending features, I would say that Cash App has an advantage. Starting off, they have Cash App Borrow. Cash App Borrow is a program that you can use to borrow a set amount of money and pay a little interest back when you pay Cash App back. So it's basically a mini loan. When comparing that to Chime, they doesn't really offer anything like that. The fact that Cash App offers it gives them a point in this area. 

You can also spend money using their Cash App debit card and you'll receive cash back in the form of boosts or you could receive some kind of discount. Obviously, there are a variety of boosts that have a variety of benefits, so it's not just cash back, but when we look on Chime's side, they don't have any of this. So we got to give the point to Cash App.

One of Cash App's more recent features is the ability to do roundups. The way this works is you can make arrangements so that when you spend money, Cash App will automatically round the amount that you spent up and invest that money into Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, or into a particular stock.

To give you a visual what I mean, let's say you pay for something and it costs $11.30. Well if you have roundups on and you set it up to let's say round up to Bitcoin, Cash App's going to take that additional 70 cents, that would round up to $12, and invest it into Bitcoin. Obviously, this is a nice feature. They're ripping off Acorns since they were the first ones to do it, but we're not comparing Cash App and Acorns, we're comparing Chime and Cash App, and Chime doesn't have this ability. This point goes to Cash App. If you're keeping score, we're at three, so Chime is getting destroyed in this category. 

Chime does have something of value to offer here though. They offer a credit builder program that allows you to build credit just by using the card. The way that they have it set up is you get this credit builder card. Well, first you apply for the program, and I've never heard of them rejecting anyone. So you get the debit card, then you just pay for something. Let's just say you buy a box of fruit or something. It costs $5. Chime then does some accounting on their behalf to basically put that in a separate account and then they pay it back for you, and then you start building credit history, which is pretty cool. That's something that Cash App doesn't have. That earns Chime one point. 

Cash App has three, Chime has one. When it comes to spending features, Cash App comes on top. Next, let's go to restrictions. 

Spending Restrictions

Both banks offer the ability to block your debit card, which is pretty key if you want to make sure that someone isn't using your debit card for malicious purposes if they get the information online or whatever. You can block your card with both banks, so that's awesome. Chime does offer a few more features.

You can actually block different transactions on Chime. So you can block transactions inside the US but you can also block transactions outside the US separately. If you're not traveling internationally, who would turn the transactions for international on? You just leave that off, so if someone in China happens to get your information on the web somehow, they're not going to be able to use it because all transactions are going to be declined unless they're inside the US. That is a brilliant feature that I wish more banks implemented in general. So we're going to have to give Chime the point here because they just have an extra feature on here that Cash App does not have. 

Speaking of international travel, Cash App is limited in the places that you can use it in. Currently you can only use Cash App in the U.S or UK. When it comes to Chime, you can use it outside the US in other locations. Now to be 100% honest, Chime's lists of locations where you can't use your card is a lot more than your average bank. Chime just has so many, it's like, well, shoot, where can't I go to use this? At the end of the day, they do have more places you can go and use it than Cash App. We got to give the points to Chime. Keep in mind that just like any other bank, you do need to let Chime know that you will be leaving the country for a duration of time. This is called a travel notice, so let's keep that in mind. 

Another thing worth noting about Cash app is that the debit card's considered a prepaid card, so if you try and use it online on anything that doesn't take pre-paids, the transaction will be declined. 

So in the spending restrictions category, Cash App has zero, Chime has two. So Chime wins in this category. So who's the overall winner? 

The Winner

The moment of judgment has finally arrived. So, in the depositing, we have Chime that won the point. In account control, Chime won that point too. When it came to spending features Cash App won, but when it come to spending restrictions, Chime won once again so we can definitively say that the better Bank is Chime in this situation based on the categories that we brought up and compared.

However, if you love Cash App like I do, I mean I completely understand that. I do believe that Chime is overall the better bank. So maybe Cash App can play catch up sometime in the near future. 

If you're interested in signing up for Chime or Cash App, you can do so using the links below.

Sign up with Chime here

Sign up with Cash App here

That does it for this Article. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. And if you found value in this article, checkout my book "The Anatomy Of Financial Success" I will catch you in the next one, don't forget to go out there and take control of your financial destiny!