Update (September 30, 2026): Under temporary regulations published September 30, Treasury opens an account for every eligible child without one starting on or about October 1, 2026 – but employer money can go only into an account a parent has claimed.
Chime will contribute $250 to the Trump Account (530A) of any other child of a Chime employee, the company said in an August 31 release on its own newsroom. Its existing $1,000 match for children born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028 continues alongside it – so the new tier is aimed squarely at the children the federal seed money does not reach.
That distinction matters more than the dollar figure. Most employer programs on our list are built to mirror the federal seed, and the seed reaches only children born 2025-2028 – so an employee's older children sit outside them. A handful of programs already reach further, and Chime's now does too.
What Chime said
The release states the new tier in one sentence: "Chime will now extend the benefit across its employee base by contributing $250 to all other children with a Trump Account." The first tier is described the same way it has been since February: Chime "was among the first companies to commit to matching the U.S. Treasury's $1,000 seed contribution dollar-for-dollar for eligible employees' children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028."
Chief executive and co-founder Chris Britt framed the expansion in the release as covering "the Trump Account of every child of a Chime employee." Treasury quoted Britt on the original match in an August 11 press release, describing Chime as among the first companies to offer an employee match for these accounts.
Why the second tier reaches children the seed does not
An account and a federal deposit are two different things, and it is easy to get confused about this. Per the IRS, a Trump Account may be opened for a child who has not turned 18 before the end of the calendar year in which the election is made and who has a valid Social Security number. The $1,000 pilot contribution is narrower: per the Form 4547 instructions, the child must have been born after December 31, 2024 and before January 1, 2029.
So a Chime employee with a child born in 2019 has had an account available all along and no federal money to put in it. Our reporting on which older children qualify walks through that gap. Chime's $250 is employer money that lands on the near side of it – and the release's own wording, "$250 to all other children with a Trump Account," reads as money for an account that already exists. From on or about October 1, 2026, Treasury opens that account itself, per the September 30 temporary regulations – but employer money can go only into a claimed account, so claiming it is the step that comes first.
What the release does not say
Quite a lot, and an employee should treat these as questions for the benefits team rather than assumptions:
No effective date or start date for the $250 tier.
No enrollment steps.
No stated age limit on "all other children," and no stated geographic scoping – the original match was reported as covering U.S. employees, and Chime's own pages have never carried that qualifier.
No count of employees or children covered.
How this lands on a W-2
Employer contributions routed through a Section 128 program are excluded from an employee's taxable wages, per the IRS instructions for Form W-2, which add a box 12 code "TA" for them. The exclusion is capped at $2,500 per employee per year – and the cap is per employee rather than per child, so contributions for several children share it, and anything above it is ordinary taxable wages rather than tax-free. A Chime parent with one child in the $1,000 tier and two in the $250 tier is at $1,500 for the year, comfortably inside it; a parent with two children in the $1,000 tier and two in the $250 tier would be at $2,500, right at it. Our reporting on whether an employer contribution counts as taxable income covers the mechanics, and Treasury's proposed rules for these programs, out August 11, are still proposed rather than final.
Separately, employer money is not extra room. Per Treasury's guidance, employer contributions count inside the account's $5,000/yr limit alongside a family's own deposits, not on top of it – the categories are sorted in our reporting on what counts toward the $5,000 limit.
What else may stack on an older child's account
A Chime employee claiming the account of a child born between 2016 and 2024 may find more than $250 aimed at it. Under the terms Invest America published before automatic enrollment, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation's $250 gift covers children born in those years who have a valid Social Security number and whose ZIP code has a median family income of $150,000 or less – and per Invest America's rewritten page, families do not need to apply or take any action to receive it and can check whether their child received it beginning October 13. Our reporting on the Dell contributions reaching accounts has the detail. Two $250 contributions from different sources are not the same commitment, and neither is promised to any particular child – but a parent checking one may as well check both.
To see which employer, state and charitable contributions may apply to your own child, start with our Match & Bonus Finder.