Acorns App: An average user perspective

Let’s start by saying I’m not an investment guru, or anything even close to it. I’m just the average person that is trying to save money and sharing my experience with using this service.  This is in no way sponsored and I am not affiliated with the app. You need to make sure you chose an avenue for your finances that makes sense for you.  So with that, let’s begin. 

What is Acorns?    The Acorns app rounds up your purchases and invests them according to your plan, to help you grow your spare change into something more significant over time. 

It really is a super easy process, but can feel quite invasive. Especially since If you do not like participating in apps that want personal banking information. By linking your bank account it will monitor your purchases and roll the spare change into your acorns account.  It rolls the spare change once it reaches a certain dollar amount, mine is set to 10.00*. So if I buy something from target and it’s 25.75, the .25 will be moved to the acorns account AFTER I accumulate more change to get to 10.00*.  The withdrawals are random so that can be a negative if you keep your account pretty lean. I also have a 10.00 monthly recurring amount. On a particular day that will go into my acorns account to help me grow my account.  They also have an option called ‘Found Money,’ its an area in the app with various retailers that offer a cash back or deposit a $ or percentage amount into your account.  The only found money option I use is occasionally getting gas from Texaco and then I will get .25 cents deposited into my account. 

Let’s talk what it really looks like for the average user. 

When I logged onto my account today, it indicates I’ve invested 64.73 in the last 30 days.  

The breakdown looks like this: 

*During the making of this post and sharing the round up amounts it is clear that 10 dollars is not my limit. In fact, It appears to be totally random when it transfers and it is between 5-10 each round up.  

I’ve been a member since 2017, after being referred by my husband. He mentioned this app and that it was an easy way to start saving. At the time, there was a 10 dollar referral code for him and the recipient. So I signed up, indicated I was an aggressive investor and linked my personal banking account. 

Per the app: I’ve invested 2,586.50 (Since Nov 2017)

The reality: I withdraw the money when I get to about 500. I’ve taken a withdrawal to buy cryptocurrency in 2018, I’ve taken a withdrawal to buy Christmas presents and most recently I took a withdrawal to pay for the neurofeedback therapy I would like to start in November.  So I’m sitting at about 100.00 and that is it.

The negatives: 

• The round ups are random
• It costs money to use this service. I’m on a 1.00 a month subscription plan. Which isn’t a lot on the surfaces (Approx. 17% of my balance)
• You cannot select specific stocks or funds to invest. So if you wanted to place your account into a particular stock like Tesla, this isn’t the way to do it. This is for the novice investor who just wants to select a plan. Like moderately aggressive or aggressive.

The positive:

• This pays a higher yield than a traditional savings account. which is typically 1% (.01)
• It’s hassle free in the sense that you just set it up and move along. You don’t have to watch the market, move your money around or work the account in any way.
• You can access your funds fairly easily. You just log on and request a withdrawal for an amount that you have available. It takes about 3 business days for the funds to be deposited into your bank account.

 

The take away: 

I’ll continue to use the app and will probably share my referral code if any of my family or friends would like to sign up.  By the way, all members can get a referral code. Its found in the app labeled as “invite friends” right now the promo is for 5.00 for the person that signs up and I would get 5 dollars too.  If you would like to sign up — the code is CQ9949.  Again this is not sponsored in anyway by Acorns. I just decided to withdraw some money and thought I would share my experience with the application. 

Next, I plan to discuss the App Fetch.