What Is the Chime Lawsuit?
The Chime lawsuit is a set of separate legal matters against Chime Financial, Inc., the app-based banking company, rather than a single case or a multidistrict litigation. Searches for a Chime lawsuit usually point to one of two private class actions, and two regulator orders sit in the background.
The first matter is the April 2026 data breach litigation. Three proposed class actions were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California after Chime's app went down on April 1, 2026. The second is Charles v. Chime Financial, Inc., a proposed class action in the Western District of Washington over "refer-a-friend" text messages.
No court has certified a class in either matter, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation lists no Chime MDL. That distinction matters for anyone looking for a Chime settlement, because a proposed class action creates no claims process until a court approves a settlement.
“This class action arises from Defendant’s failure to protect highly sensitive data. Defendant is a financial technology company offering a suite of app-based banking and financial services through partnerships with FDIC-insured banks.”
Source: Castaneda, et al. v. Chime Financial, Inc., No. 3:26-cv-02924 (N.D. Cal.), Class Action Complaint, Document 1, paragraphs 1 and 2 (filed April 3, 2026)
Why Are People Filing Chime Lawsuits?
People are filing Chime lawsuits because customers say Chime either failed to protect their data or sent marketing texts without their consent. The two private matters rest on different complaints.
The breach suits start with the outage on April 1, 2026. Chime's app and website became unavailable for hours, and a tracker cited in the Castaneda complaint recorded 6,647 problem reports at its peak against a baseline of four. A threat group calling itself Team 313 then posted on its leak site that it had launched "a massive cyberattack" on Chime's servers. The complaints allege the group stole Social Security numbers, dates of birth and government ID information, and that Chime did not train staff or secure its systems well enough.
Chime disputes that account. During the outage its status page told customers that their money and personal information were secure, and it has said the group did not steal data. American Banker reported that the cybersecurity advisory the complaints cite describes Team 313 as known to exaggerate or fabricate breach claims, and that none of the three suits produced evidence of a breach beyond public reporting.
The Washington case is a different theory. Plaintiff Taft Charles alleges Chime paid users $100 referral bonuses, which pushed them to text contacts invitations to join, and that Chime helped send those texts without recipients' prior consent. He says that violates Washington's Commercial Electronic Mail Act, which bars initiating or assisting commercial texts without clear advance consent.
What Injuries Are Included in the Chime Lawsuit?
The injuries included in the Chime lawsuit fall into four categories of alleged harm, none of them physical. Each category traces to a different matter, so a single customer may be affected by one, several or none of them.
All of these harms are allegations. Chime has denied that customer data was taken in the April 2026 incident, and no court has ruled that any of these theories succeeds on the merits.
Data Exposure and Identity Risk
Data exposure means that personal information held by a company is accessed by someone without authorization, which can raise the risk of identity theft or fraud.
The Castaneda complaint alleges that names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and government-issued ID details were compromised. It defines the proposed class as all individuals residing in the United States whose personal information was compromised in the April 2026 incident.
Plaintiff Michael Walsh says he received a bank alert about an attempted unauthorized card charge and a notice that his information appeared on the dark web. Plaintiff Melissa Porter described no specific injury beyond fear, anxiety and time spent monitoring her accounts, according to American Banker. The claims are pleaded as negligence, breach of implied contract and violations of California consumer law.
Account Lockouts During the Outage
A service lockout is a period when customers cannot log in, view balances or move money in their own accounts, even if no data is lost.
Plaintiffs Cindy Castaneda and Lauren Goodloe say they could not see their balances during the April 1 outage, and Goodloe says she worried about a late rent payment. Customers could not log in, check balances or send money while the app was down.
Chime has a history on this point. In an earlier case, Richards v. Chime Financial, a class alleged that a three-day outage in October 2019 caused losses, and that case ended in a settlement described below.
Unsolicited Referral Texts
An unsolicited commercial text is a promotional message sent to a phone number without the recipient's clear, advance agreement to receive it.
The Washington complaint says Chime's app lets a user tap a button beside each contact's name to send a prepopulated invitation. Charles alleges Chime's referral program offers $100 to the referrer and $100 to the new customer who meets the program's conditions.
The proposed class is made up of people who received a Chime referral text on a cellular number while residing in Washington. The state law provides $100 per violation, according to ClassAction.org, which is why per-text damages could add up across a large class.
Delayed Account-Closure Refunds
A delayed refund is a failure to return the money left in a bank account within a reasonable time after the account is closed.
This category belongs to a regulator order rather than a pending private suit. The CFPB found that Chime took longer than 90 days to return balances on closed accounts in thousands of cases, as the regulator section below explains.
The practice matters here because consumer sites often fold it into "the Chime lawsuit," even though customers in that matter were repaid through the order, not through a class claim.
Who Qualifies for the Chime Lawsuit?
You may qualify if:
- You are a United States resident whose personal information was compromised in the April 2026 incident, which is the class proposed in the Castaneda complaint
- You live in Washington and received a Chime referral text on your cell phone number, which is the class proposed in the Charles case
- You still have the text, the Chime account records or the notices that show how you were affected
- You did not already receive money for a delayed account-closure refund under the 2024 CFPB order
You may not qualify if:
- You are looking for a payout from the 2021 outage settlement or the CFPB refund program, which are closed matters with their own rules
- You received a referral text while living outside Washington, since the proposed class is limited to Washington residents
- You believe you are owed a settlement payment now, because no pending Chime class action has a claims process open
No class has been certified in any pending Chime case, so nobody is formally a class member yet and there is nothing to claim at this stage. These criteria restate proposed class definitions, not a court's ruling on who qualifies. Chime's customer agreement has historically included arbitration terms, according to consumer-rights groups, which may limit joining a class action. Only a qualified attorney reviewing your records and your state's filing deadline can confirm whether you have a claim.
What Is the Current Status of the Chime Class Action Lawsuits?
The current status of the Chime class action lawsuits is mixed: the Washington text case is moving forward after a denied motion to dismiss, while the three breach cases appear to have ended or stalled. No class has been certified and no settlement has been reached in any pending Chime case.
Two proceedings are tracked below because they sit in different courts with different dockets. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation lists no Chime MDL, so there is no consolidated case count or bellwether schedule.
Castaneda, et al. v. Chime Financial, Inc.
Cindy Castaneda and Lauren Goodloe filed the first breach complaint on April 3, 2026, through Strauss Borrelli PLLC, and Chime was served on April 7, 2026. Two companion suits followed: Porter v. Chime Financial, No. 3:26-cv-02998, filed April 7, and Walsh v. Chime Financial, No. 3:26-cv-03278, filed April 17. The three were not formally consolidated.
Trackers disagree about what happened next. The Settlement Insight tracker reports that Porter was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on May 19, 2026, and, citing Federal Judicial Center statistics, that Castaneda and Walsh ended by voluntary dismissal on June 4 and June 5, 2026. Other trackers still list those two cases as pending, so the dockets should be checked before anyone relies on either version.
| Court | U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (federal) |
| Lead Case Number | 3:26-cv-02924 |
| Filed | April 3, 2026 |
| Judge | Magistrate Judge Kandis A. Westmore, per the case tracker and the KAW suffix on the complaint |
| Proposed Class | All individuals residing in the United States whose personal information was compromised in the April 2026 incident |
| Current Stage | No class certified, no ruling on the merits, and the end of the case reported by one tracker but not confirmed on a docket reviewed for this page |
The complaint is the only primary document reviewed for this matter. It states one side's allegations and decides nothing, and the filing's own caption shows the court assigned the case a docket number ending in KAW.
Charles v. Chime Financial, Inc.
Taft Charles sued Chime in 2025 over its refer-a-friend texts. Top Class Actions reported the filing in August 2025, and the case now sits in the Western District of Washington as No. 2:25-cv-01361. Chime asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing its referral texts fit within a statutory exemption for legitimate business activity.
On May 29, 2026, the court declined to dismiss, ruling that the marketing texts do not fall under that exception, according to Law360. Law360 lists the judge as Kymberly K. Evanson. Because only the article summary was accessible, details beyond that ruling are unverified.
| Court | U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington (federal) |
| Case Number | 2:25-cv-01361 |
| Filed | 2025, first reported August 11, 2025 |
| Judge | Kymberly K. Evanson, per Law360 |
| Claim | Violation of Washington's Commercial Electronic Mail Act over refer-a-friend texts |
| Proposed Class | People who received a Chime referral text on a cellular number while residing in Washington |
| Current Stage | Motion to dismiss denied on May 29, 2026; class not certified |
The ruling lets the case continue into discovery, but it says nothing yet about whether a class will be certified or whether Chime is liable.
How Much Is the Chime Lawsuit Payout?
The Chime lawsuit payout is zero dollars for every pending class action, because none has a settlement, a settlement fund or an open claims process.
Plaintiffs ask for damages, restitution and injunctive relief, but a request in a complaint is not an award. Any per-person estimate at this stage would be speculation, and whether these cases ever pay anyone generally depends on class certification, Chime's arbitration terms and whether the parties negotiate a resolution.
Searches for a Chime payout often surface figures from older, closed matters. A 2021 class settlement over an outage and a 2024 CFPB refund program both paid real money, but neither one is a pending case that a customer can join today.
Because no pending case has a claims process, there is no official Chime settlement website, claim form or deadline right now. A site asking for personal details in exchange for a Chime settlement payout is not running a court-approved process, since a court must first appoint a settlement administrator.
For the Washington text case, the state law provides $100 per violation, which explains why some sites cite that figure. It is a statutory measure of damages in a pending case, not an amount anyone has been awarded.
Chime Lawsuit Updates
The latest Chime lawsuit updates and news cover filings in two federal courts and two regulator orders. As of November 2026, the Chime class actions remain unsettled, and the timeline below lists every verified development in order.
Chime Lawsuit Timeline of Events
Chime suffers a multi-day service outage
Plaintiffs in Richards v. Chime Financial, Inc., No. 4:19-cv-06864 (N.D. Cal.), alleged that Chime's systems went down on October 16, 2019, and that the disruption lasted roughly 72 hours. Customers said they could not reach their accounts during that window.
Court holds the final fairness hearing in the Richards outage settlement
The Northern District of California held the final fairness hearing in Richards v. Chime Financial and then granted final approval of a settlement worth at least $1.5 million. Chime did not admit wrongdoing, and sources give different dates for the approval order, including May 24, 2021.
California DFPI orders Chime to pay $2.5 million over complaint handling
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation announced a consent order finding Chime handled customer complaints unfairly under the California Consumer Financial Protection Law. The order imposed a $2.5 million penalty, required round-the-clock customer support and set two years of annual reporting.
CFPB orders Chime to pay $3.25 million penalty and at least $1.3 million in redress
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Chime Financial to pay a $3.25 million civil penalty and at least $1.3 million in redress for delaying refunds on closed accounts. Chime agreed to the order without admitting or denying the findings, and the order runs for five years.
Taft Charles class action over Chime referral texts is reported
Top Class Actions reported that Taft Charles had filed a proposed class action against Chime Financial under Washington's Commercial Electronic Mail Act. The complaint targets Chime's refer-a-friend program, which offers $100 to the referrer and $100 to the new customer.
Chime app goes down and Team 313 claims an attack
Chime's app and website became unavailable for thousands of customers on April 1, 2026, and Chime's status page said customer money and personal information were secure. A group calling itself Team 313 then claimed on its leak site that it launched a massive cyberattack on Chime and stole customer data, which Chime has denied.
Castaneda and Goodloe file the first Chime data breach class action
Cindy Castaneda and Lauren Goodloe filed Castaneda v. Chime Financial, Inc., No. 3:26-cv-02924, in the Northern District of California. The complaint pleads negligence, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment and violations of California consumer law.
Porter files a second breach class action against Chime
Melissa Porter filed Porter v. Chime Financial, No. 3:26-cv-02998, in the same federal district, alleging negligence, unjust enrichment and breach of implied contract. Chime was also served in the lead Castaneda case on this date.
Walsh files a third breach class action and alleges no breach notice
Michael Walsh filed Walsh v. Chime Financial, No. 3:26-cv-03278, saying he received a bank alert and a dark web notice. His complaint alleges Chime had not provided breach notice to customers as of April 17, 2026.
American Banker reports Chime has not filed an SEC cyber incident disclosure
American Banker reported that, as of May 4, 2026, Chime had not filed a report of a material cybersecurity incident with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The outlet said that meant Chime either had not judged the incident material or had decided it was not.
Porter v. Chime Financial is voluntarily dismissed
The Settlement Insight tracker reports that Melissa Porter voluntarily dismissed her breach case without prejudice on May 19, 2026, which ended Porter v. Chime Financial. A dismissal without prejudice leaves the plaintiff free to refile.
Court refuses to dismiss the Washington refer-a-friend class action
A Western District of Washington judge denied Chime's motion to dismiss Charles v. Chime Financial, ruling that the marketing texts do not fall under the statutory exception Chime invoked, according to Law360. The Washington text case continues.
Trackers report the Castaneda and Walsh breach cases ended
Federal Judicial Center statistics cited by Settlement Insight list Castaneda as ended on June 4, 2026 and Walsh on June 5, 2026, both by voluntary dismissal. Other trackers still list the two Chime breach cases as pending, so the status is unconfirmed.
How to File a Chime Lawsuit
Filing a Chime lawsuit generally involves the 6 steps outlined below.
- Identify which Chime matter fits you: Decide whether your situation involves the April 2026 outage and data exposure, a Washington referral text, or a delayed refund after an account closure, because each runs through a different case or program.
- Gather your Chime records: Save account statements, in-app notices, emails about the April 1, 2026 incident, and any bank or credit alerts, since those documents show how you were affected.
- Keep any referral text you received: Screenshot the message, the sender and the date if you live in Washington, because the proposed class in the text case is defined by receiving that message.
- Check Chime's arbitration terms: Read the dispute section of your Chime customer agreement, since an arbitration clause may require an individual arbitration instead of joining a class action.
- File a regulator complaint if needed: Submit a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if Chime closed your account or delayed your balance, which creates an official record without needing a lawyer.
- Consult a consumer class action attorney: Speak with a lawyer who handles financial privacy cases, because only an attorney reviewing your records and state deadline can say whether to wait for a class or act alone.
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What Evidence Do You Need for a Chime Lawsuit Claim?
Evidence for a Chime lawsuit claim starts with records proving you held a Chime account and how the issue affected you. The right documents depend on which matter applies.
- Account records: statements and app screenshots showing you held a Chime account around April 1, 2026.
- Incident notices: any email, text or in-app message from Chime about the outage or a security issue.
- Third-party alerts: bank alerts, credit monitoring notices or dark web alerts that name your information.
- Losses: late fees, bounced payments or time off work tied to the lockout, with dates and amounts.
- Referral texts: a screenshot of any Chime invitation text, showing the sender, date and your Washington phone number.
Keep originals and avoid editing screenshots. A lawyer reviewing your case can tell you which records matter for your situation.
What Have Regulators Already Found About Chime?
Two state and federal regulators have already penalized Chime, and both orders came in 2024 for problems separate from the April 2026 incident. The orders matter because they show regulators scrutinized Chime's customer handling before any of the current class actions were filed.
The CFPB order on May 7, 2024, found that Chime delayed refunds of balances on closed accounts, taking longer than 90 days in thousands of instances. Chime paid a $3.25 million civil penalty and at least $1.3 million in redress. Customers with $10 or less in a closed account received $25, and those with more received at least $150. Chime paid those customers directly, so no claim form was required.
The California DFPI order on February 27, 2024, found unfair complaint handling under state law, with errors the order places between January and March 2021. Chime agreed to reforms and did not admit liability in either order.
| Regulatory action | Agency | Date | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delayed refunds on closed accounts | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau | May 7, 2024 | $3.25 million civil penalty and at least $1.3 million consumer redress |
| Unfair customer complaint handling | California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation | February 27, 2024 | $2.5 million penalty and required customer service reforms |
Neither order concerns the April 2026 incident, and no regulator has publicly found that a breach occurred.
How Does the Chime Lawsuit Compare to Other Chime Class Actions?
Several matters are commonly called a Chime class action, and only some of them are pending lawsuits a customer could still join. Payout figures in search results often belong to closed matters rather than the current cases.
The 2021 outage case, Richards v. Chime Financial, is the one most often confused with a current settlement. Chime agreed to pay at least $1.5 million, with cash payments of up to $25 for undocumented losses and up to $750 with documentation, and the court granted final approval in 2021. That case is closed, and its claims period has long passed.
One more name is easy to confuse. Searches for a Chime mattress lawsuit refer to a mattress product sold under the Chime name by Ashley Furniture, which is unrelated to Chime Financial, and Amazon Chime is a separate video-meeting service.
| Matter | Conduct at issue | Status |
|---|---|---|
| April 2026 data breach cases (N.D. Cal.) | Alleged data theft and outage on April 1, 2026 | Filed April 2026; end of cases reported by one tracker, unconfirmed |
| Charles v. Chime Financial (W.D. Wash.) | Refer-a-friend texts under Washington law | Motion to dismiss denied May 29, 2026; no class certified |
| Richards v. Chime Financial (N.D. Cal.) | October 2019 outage | Closed; settlement of at least $1.5 million approved in 2021 |
| CFPB and DFPI orders | Delayed refunds and complaint handling | Resolved in 2024 by consent orders |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Chime lawsuit about?
The Chime lawsuit is about two pending class actions against Chime Financial, Inc.: the April 2026 data breach complaints filed in California and a Washington case over refer-a-friend texts. Chime denies the data theft allegation, and no court has ruled on the merits of either matter.
Is the Chime lawsuit a class action or an MDL?
The Chime lawsuit is made up of proposed class actions, not a multidistrict litigation. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation lists no Chime MDL, and no court has certified a class in the pending cases.
Is there a Chime class action settlement payout?
No Chime class action settlement payout exists for the pending cases. A 2021 outage settlement and a 2024 CFPB refund program were paid already, and neither is open to new claims.
Can I join the Chime class action lawsuit?
You cannot currently join a Chime class action lawsuit through a claim form, because no class has been certified and no settlement exists. If you received a Washington referral text or were affected by the April 2026 incident, keep your records and consult an attorney.
Was the Chime data breach lawsuit dismissed?
The Chime data breach lawsuit is reported as ended by voluntary dismissal in one tracker, but other trackers list two of the cases as pending. Porter was reported dismissed without prejudice on May 19, 2026, and the docket should be checked before relying on any status.
Is the Chime lawsuit the same as the CFPB action?
No. The CFPB action was a 2024 consent order over delayed refunds on closed accounts, resolved with a $3.25 million penalty and refunds paid directly, while the Chime lawsuits are private class actions filed later.