Digital only bank Chime was one of the first firms to offer customers a chance to advance part of their stimulus check and the company is now expanding the offering to 100,000 customers; the expansion comes with the caveat that users can limit advances to $200 per person; the initial program was piloted to 1,000 customers who had the ability to draw up to $1,200, most advanced between $100 and $350; “The insight we got from our first pilot was that the vast majority of people did not want to access the full $1,200,” said Chris Britt, Chime’s CEO, to American Banker. “In listening to our customers, through social media and direct feedback, a lot of people said they could use $100 or $200 to go to the grocery store one more time. We wondered if we could just reduce the dollar amount, since it appears people aren’t accessing it anyway, and offer it to more people.”; Chime is taking on the risk as it does not know who will receive stimulus checks but they believe the advance is worth the investment to acquire a customer. American Banker
