  We discuss the properties of fluctuations of the electric charge in the
vicinity of the chiral crossover transition within effective chiral models at
finite temperature and vanishing net baryon density. The calculation includes
non-perturbative dynamics implemented within the functional renormalization
group approach. We study the temperature dependence of the electric charge
susceptibilities in the linear sigma model and explore the role of quantum
statistics. Within the Polyakov loop extended quark-meson model, we study the
influence of the coupling of quarks to mesons and to an effective gluon field
on charge fluctuations. We find a clear signal for the chiral crossover
transition in the fluctuations of the electric charge. Accordingly, we stress
the role of higher order cumulants as probes of criticality related to the
restoration of chiral symmetry and deconfinement.
