topic Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save) in Personal Finance

Aspiration (Spend & Save)

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 01:30:12 GMT

I read an article in Forbes today about this (new?) F.I. I decided too take a deeper dive and consequently signed up for an account. I haven’t heard mention of it around MyFico. Do any of you have experience - good, bad or indifferent with this account, fam?

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

Floyduda — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 01:54:47 GMT

I tried to sign up in May of 2018, but at the time you apparently needed an invitation to complete the process. I recieved an invitation a couple months ago followed by a lot of high pressured emails to sign up, kind of turned me off to the idea....

Were you able to sign up without an invitation?

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:03:43 GMT

Indeed. It was a simple, 30 second process. I would post a referral link - although I think the powers that be would frown upon it. If you google search the account - there are several direct links to sign up.

The account boasts of cash back on all debit card purchases - but offers no additional details. I’d love to know what the deal is......? I do like the 2% APY and no fees - its a great back up to my Discover MMA.

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

Floyduda — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:21:56 GMT

No link needed, they send me emails almost everyday.....If I'm not mistaken, to earn the 2% APY you need to make at least 1 deposit a month of $1or more or have a minimum daily balance of 10k....and yes, even in the small print all they say is that customers will earn cash back on all debit purchases.....somewhat ambiguous huh? They also make the distinction that it is a "cash management account" and not a savings account......hopefully you won't have any issues and everything will be cool.....What do you think about their monthly service fee that they say you don't need to pay but they hope you will?

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:42:31 GMT

I’m going to defer paying any fees until I see the ease in which interest payments are disbursed and until I can effectively determine how in the world cashback works.

The fact that this is a CMA account does kind of irk me - similar to the “checking account” that Robinhood offered at the end of 2018 - which has since been recanted - means there may be underlying loopholes working favorably for them and not for consumers.

Regardless, I’m glad to be the litmus test for the next 30 or 90 days with my $100 deposit - I’ll update this thread accordingly. 😉

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:36:56 GMT

...it just occurred to me - if it is a true CMA account - is the savings feature excluded from the 6 withdrawals/month that apply to standard savings accounts? Hmmm, I like that, if so.

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

Revelate — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:43:35 GMT

Not heard of them before today, think Nerdwallet called it right: one of the better checking accounts available (debit swipe rewards are .5% according to the review) but there are some oddities like their saying their fees are whatever you donate to them, but everyone should be aware that isn’t the only revenue stream for banks and investment companies.

I guess I would just ask what is the point:

1) Credit cards basically do everything better than Debit cards from a consumer perspective if your spending is the same on both.

2) Don’t be my former self with an absurd amount of money in a checking account; 2% barely covers the current inflation mark, and is a losing proposition longer term. Also if we are talking small amounts of money vis a vis the $100 test, that is only 2 bucks over the course of the year... I get mathematically every little bit counts but I guess I can’t get excited about any checking account return: I would be better off throwing that money towards my auto loan or even my mortgage instead of keeping much in any checking account other than liquidity purposes.

Checking / money market accounts are at best short term investment vehicles in ugly markets, but that isn’t where you want your money long term... and credit card rewards may or may not disappear longer term but right now they exist, go get paid better and with improved protections in most cases than using a debit card.

My theory anyway

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

Floyduda — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:39:31 GMT

You have a good plan, everything will be fine....looking forward to any updates...

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

mumbogray — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 19:35:53 GMT

I have had a checking account with Aspiration for about 2 years. I would stay away.

I opened it for the ATM rebates and 1%apy at the time. They partnered with RadiusBank. It was nice as you could use the Radius online login portal, and customer service had full access to the accound, could reorder checks, etc. The Aspiration website is pretty barebones.

Recently there has been a months-long transition to Coastal Community Bank as their backend. In this process, Aspiration has gotten really shady. As recently as last month, they were advertising the Radius > Coastal account conversions, with the new feature benefits. This was an email on 02/09:

In the next few days, we’ll be inviting you to upgrade to your new Aspiration Summit Account!

You’ll be receiving instructions on the super-easy, 60-second process of transferring over, but we wanted to give you a sneak peek at what to expect from your new account.

In short, it’s all of the same things you love about your AspirationSummit Account—along with some great new and improved benefits:

Zero ATM Fees Everywhere. It’s your money and you shouldn’t have to pay ATM fees to get it back. That means no fees or full-reimbursement at any ATM in the world.

*new* 1.00% APY Interest on your entire balance. That’s up to 100 times more than what the biggest banks offer.

*new* Cell Phone Protection Coverage and Identity Fraud Expense Reimbursement—added benefits when you use your Aspiration card for even more peace of mind.

*new* Zero Overdraft Fees and Zero Stop Payment Fees. Mistakes happen—we’d rather not punish you for it.

*new* All Extra Services Provided at Cost. We’re in the business of serving you, not gouging you. An incoming domestic wire transfer costs us 82 cents to handle. We charge you 82 cents. A bank like Wells Fargo charges $15.*

Pay What’s Fair Monthly Fee. You pay us the monthly fee you think is fair, even if you choose to pay us $0. We trust you to treat us fairly if you’re happy with what we do.

Your personal impact score, Aspiration Impact Measurement (AIM) to help you make sure your spending matches your values.

App features that let you do mobile check deposits and pay your bills or pay back your friends in an instant.

*new* Even better support! With new self-help tools and lots more highly-trained people on our customer service team, you can be sure you’ll get all the help and support you need:

Shortly after the account transitions took pace, Aspiration regniged on some of the new features, and instead converted the checking into Save and Spend. the 2% APY is not good enough for a savings account. Their big pull was the 1%APY on checking. Total bait and switch.

I am also pretty sure they did this without any sort of notice whatsoever. I have a multitude of emails about my "new aspiration account," but never received any info about "save and spend." I logged into my account a few days ago, and got a prompt instead that my account had switched. Just go and read the fine print at the bottom of Aspiration.com. It's nothing that will make you feel safe about keeping your money there. I do plan to close my account with them.

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 08:20:00 GMT

This is really useful information and I’m glad fig shared. I’m definitely taking a cautious approach until I have additional information (and tangible t&c explaining the account benefits) before adding funds other than my opening deposit.

Re: Aspiration (Spend & Save)

ThetoriParadox — Sun, 19 May 2019 17:48:18 GMT

I too have had an aspiration account since before the roll over to save and spend from their partnership with radius bank.

Since then it has been the worst regarding mobile deposits (the only way to deposit checks) there is NO way to deposit cash either, which is ridiculous.

My first deposit (my paycheck) into the new save and spend was held for 13 days. During which, I was unable to reach anyone at customer service via email or phone. This was the most frustrating experience with a bank seeing as they have NO physical branches.

After this went through eventually, everything seemed normal with the bank, no OD fees, and I pay 1 dollar a month for a checking and savings which is nice. My paycheck deposits (same bank and similar amounts) were coming through in ONE business day. Which for them was great.

UNTIL

5/15 just after 2 pm I deposit my paycheck via app.

I receive an email stating they accepted and are processing the check and it will be available in 1 business day.

Sweet. Business as usual.

5/16 NO DEPOSIT.

email them and ask whats happening.

Prompt response- I missed the deadline by 19 minutes...

OK, my bad. The following day is Friday and she says it will be available 5/17 around 4pm PST.

Cool, open up the app on friday evening because my card gets declined.

NO DEPOSIT

I respond to the previous email.... NO RESPONSE. Im freaking out at this point...

I create a new email on their website and ask what is happeneing again.

Get an immediate response...

SO I am out ALL of my paycheck... for an indefinite amount of time... They never reached out to me to notify me of this bug. I asked for a credit of even 100 dollars so I can pay some bills that are now late.... big no on that front.

They offered to submit a request for late fee reimbursement for anything that I incur...

As soon as this money is in my account I am pulling out 100 percent from this bank.

I'd rather use money orders and cashiers checks than put up with this...

horrible experience.

DO NOT DO IT!!!!!