Chime SpotMe is an innovative no-fee overdraft facility offered by Chime. With Chime SpotMe, you can overdraw money on your Chime Card up to a fixed limit, called SpotMe limit. This can go up to $200. If you are curious to know if Chime SpotMe covers withdrawals at ATM and if you can withdraw money using Spotme, you are on the right post to get the answer.
Chime SpotMe works for all expenses like grocery, food, cab etc. when you pay using your Chime Debit Card. Whenever the expense is exceeding your available balance, Chime will allow you to spot the excess amount if it is within your SpotMe limit. In such cases, your Chime account will show a negative balance, which will be auto-recovered from your next direct deposit.
But many times, you run into situations where you need physical cash and expense cannot be paid directly with your Chime Debit Card. So naturally the question comes to your mind – Does Chime Spot Me allow you to withdraw cash as well?
Let’s answer this.
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Does Chime Spot Me cover ATM withdrawals? Can you withdraw cash with Chime SpotMe
Yes, Chime SpotMe specifically allows you to withdraw cash upto your SpotMe limit, at any of its 60,000+ network ATMs for free. For this, make sure you have Chime Spot Me activated on your app, insert the Chime debit card at ATM and request withdrawal for an amount which is more than your Chime balance and within your Spot Me Limit.
You can also get cash with Chime SpotMe using the cash back option at Walmart, Dollar General etc. and other supported retail stores.
Earlier Chime only covered any direct spend on Chime Debit Card and did not allow any cash withdrawals. But in July 2021, they specifically allowed withdrawals of cash at ATM as well as at retail locations using cash-back option.
The ability to withdraw cash using Chime Spotme has come as a welcome step for many members.
Now, as per the update above, you can see below what transactions are allowed in Chime Spot Me and what are not covered.
| What is Covered in Chime Spot Me | What is NOT covered |
|---|---|
| 1. Purchases on Chime Debit Card 2. ATM withdrawals 3. Cash-back transactions | 1. Payments to friends transfer 2. Automatic bill payments using Direct Debit from Chime Spending Account 3. Transfers to other apps like Venmo and Cash App 4, Chime Checkbook transactions |
So while you can do purchases, ATM withdrawals, cash back transactions using Chime Spot Me, you cannot use Chime SpotMe limit to transfer money to friends or other apps like Cash app, Venmo, make auto-bill payments or check transactions.
Do you have to pay fees on using Chime SpotMe at ATM?
No, there is no fees for cash withdrawals using Chime SpotMe if you withdraw cash at any of their 60,000+ fee free ATMs . You can find the ATMs near your area, using the ATM Finder on the Chime App. However, you may have to incur fees if you choose to withdraw cash at non-network ATMs
How to withdraw money from Chime Spot Me at ATMs? How to use Chime Spot Me at ATM?
To use Chime SpotMe for withdrawing money from ATM, you can follow the steps below:
- Make sure SpotMe is enabled on your Chime App
- Walk in at any of the Chime network ATMs
- Insert your Chime debit card at ATM
- Request withdrawal for an amount which exceeds your available balance but is within your Chime SpotMe limit (accept SpotMe if prompted)
- Enter your PIN when prompted
- Withdraw the cash and remove your Chime card
That’s it- the steps you follow are the same for the normal cash withdrawal that you do using your Chime Debit Card.
Only thing is to request withdrawal for an amount higher than your available balance i.e. which becomes the amount that will be reduced from your SpotMe limit. e.g. if you have $40 balance in your Chime Spot Me account and have a Spot Me limit of $50, you can request for a withdrawal of up to$90.
Make sure you don’t request amount which exceeds the available balance + Spot Me Limit to avoid a transaction decline issue. e.g. if you request $100 in the above example, it will be declined since your SpotMe limit cannot cover the excess amount.
What is Chime Spot Me Cash Back?
Chime also allows you to get cash on Chime Spot Me, by using a cash back transaction at any of supported retail locations like Walmart, Dollar General etc.
The way this works is -If you have a low balance and you do a normal purchase transaction at the retail store which causes your Chime balance to go into the negative. Then, you get prompted to opt for a cash back during the check out. e.g. if you have $3 in your account and attemt to purchase something for $5 and your SpotMe limit is say $50, you may get prompted to get balance $45 as cash back.
So this is an alternate way of withdrawing cash which you can opt for at any of the retail stores in Chime network e.g. Walmart, Walgreens, Dollar General, Target etc.
But here you also need to know that the maximum cash back amount allowed by the merchant varies by merchant and you may not be allowed to get the complete cash back upto your SpotMe limit . Some grocery stores allow for up to $100 cash back whereas drugstores like Walgreen’s and CVS allow for $40 cash back.
When Does Chime Spot Me Increase?
Your Chime Spotme limit is auto-determined by Chime based on your account activity and usage history. It can be modified only by Chime which will be notified to you and you cannot manually increase it at your end.
If your historical activity and usage trend works in your favour, your Chime Spot Me limit should be automatically increased by Chime with time. However, there is no set time limit or way to increase your Chime Spot Me limit. You can have your friend send you a Chime SpotMe boost for temporary situations. You can check this post on how to increase Chime Spotme limit, which talks about some ways you can explore based on the experience of some Chime users.
Wrap Up
Hope this post gave helped you in understanding how you can use your Chime Spot Me for withdrawing cash at ATM. This is a welcome step from Chime to allow using Chime SpotMe for cash withdrawals. Chime Spotme is definitely a better and cheaper way than overdrawing your account at traditional banks, which can charge overdraft fees as high as $35 in some cases.
