The best savings apps of 2020

Qapital

With Qapital, you determine when your purchases get rounded up. For example, you can ask the app to make a deposit every time you dine out or visit the gym. Once you set your goals and rules, sit back as the app rounds up change from your purchases to the nearest dollar and moves it to your savings accounts.

Compatibility:iOS 11.0 or later and Android 5.0 and up

Monthly fee: $3, $6 or $12

Service fee: $0

Pros

• 30-day free trial. Try before you buy with Qapital’s 30-day free trial.
• Create savings goals. Put money aside for multiple goals like a vacation or a car, and decide how much you want to save.
• Set rules. Set rules to reward yourself for spending less than you normally would or to save more money when you spend on dining, entertainment or other wants.
• Investment features. Step up your savings efforts by investing in Qapital‘s prebuilt portfolios. The app will diversify your money — just tell it how much you’d like to invest.

Cons

• Monthly service fee. You’ll pay $3, $6 or $12 a month to use this service, depending on which features you want.
• Low interest. The Spending account — which comes with the top two membership tiers — only earns 0.1% APY.
• Limited customer support. Qapital doesn’t offer phone support and you can’t chat with anyone on the weekends.

Acorns

Compatibility: iOS 11.0 or later and Android

Monthly fee: $1, $2 or $3

Service fee: $0

Pros

• Three plans. The $1 plan gives you access to Acorns’s micro-investing tool, the $2 plan allows you to save for retirement and the $3 plan comes with a free checking account.
• Flexibility. Adjust your investments, risk tolerance and financial goals at any time.
• Special perks. Access perks like the Found Money program, which offers cash back for your portfolio when you make a purchase at over 100 participating companies.

Cons

• Limited investment options. Your money is invested into one of five pre-diversified portfolios made up of ETFs, so you can’t choose specific stocks, bonds, or other assets.
• No tax benefits. Some investing apps help you reduce your taxes through tax-loss harvesting, but Acorn doesn’t have this feature.

Digit

Compatibility: iOS 9.0 or later and Android 4.1 and up

Monthly fee: $5

Service fee: $0

Pros

• Free trial. Digit is free for the first 30 days and there are no minimum balance requirements.
• Automatic savings. The app learns your spending and savings habits, then transfers extra money into savings for you.
• Earns interest. Earn 0.5% APY and transfer funds back to your checking account at any time for free. If you save for three consecutive months, you could score a 0.5% bonus on your balance.
• Overdraft protection. If Digit causes your account to overdraft, it will reimburse the fee for up to two transactions.

Cons

• Monthly fee. You’ll pay $5 a month for Digit, which adds up to over $35 a year.
• Limited support. The only way to reach out to customer support is through email. There’s no phone or live chat feature.

Stash Invest

With Stash Invest, you can start saving for your future with as little as $0.01. The app starts by asking you a series of questions to gauge your investing experience. Then, it suggests certain stocks and ETFs based on your answers.

Compatibility: iOS 11.0 or later and Android 5.0 and up.

Monthly fee: $1, $3 or $9

Service fee: $0

Pros

• Three plans. The $1 plan is for individual investment accounts, the $3 plan is for retirement accounts and the $9 plan is for custodial accounts.
• Free checking account. Each Stash Invest plan comes with a free checking account that gets direct deposits up to two days early.
• Auto-Stash features. Automate your investing in three ways: transfer money into your account on a recurring basis, round-up your purchases to the nearest dollar and transfer your extra change to your account or let Stash analyze your spending habits and move $5, $10 or $25 into your account.

Cons

• No free plan. The monthly subscription fees could eat up a large chunk of your returns depending on the size of your investment account.
• Trades aren’t instant. Stash Invest executes trades one or two times a day when the market is open, so don’t expect instantaneous trades.
• No mutual funds. Stash doesn’t offer mutual funds or cryptocurrencies through its platform.

Robinhood

Compatibility: iOS 11.0 or later and Android

Monthly fee: $0 or $5

Service fee: $0

Pros

• No commissions. Robinhood doesn’t charge any trading fees for stocks, funds and options.
• Free plan works for most people. Unless you plan on investing on margin, the free version of Robinhood may offer all the tools you need.
• No minimum account balance. You can get started with Robinhood with as little as $0.

Cons

• Limited securities. You can’t invest in mutual funds or bonds with Robinhood.
• Limited research. Compared to other investing apps, Robinhood lacks well-researched information on various companies.
• Monthly fee for Robinhood Gold. You’ll pay $5 a month if you want to borrow money from Robinhood to buy stocks.

Simple

Compatibility: iOS 11.0 or later and Android

Monthly fee: $0

Service fee: $0

Pros

• Earns interest. Open a Protected Goals Account and earn 0.6% on your total account balance.
• Safe-to-Spend feature. Simple automatically deducts your expenses, goals and scheduled payments from your account balance so you know how much money you can spend without derailing your budget.
• Autosave features. Turn on round-up rules and Simple will automatically save your spare change when you make a purchase. Once you have at least $5, it transfers the money to your Protected Goals Account.

Cons

• Requirements for high APY. If you don’t open a Protected Goals Account, you’ll only earn 0.01% APY on your account balance.
• No cash deposits. Simple is an online-only bank, so it doesn’t support cash deposits. Instead, you’ll have to mobile deposit a money order, deposit the money into an external bank account or use a third-party payment service like Venmo.
• No in-person support. Because this account is fully online, the only way to reach customer support is by phone or an online help request form.

Mint

Compatibility: iOS 10.0 or later and Android 5.0 and up

Monthly fee: $0

Service fee: $0

Pros

• No monthly fees. You won’t pay to use this service.
• Free credit score breakdown. Get an in-depth analysis of your score and how you can improve it.
• Easy to use. View all your financial accounts in one place to get a clear picture of where you stand.

Cons

• Access to financial accounts. Mint must have access to your banking data to track your income and expenses.
• Technical glitches. Some users have reported synchronization issues where the app won’t connect to their financial accounts.
• Several ads. Mint makes money through in-app advertisements. Some users report that these ads are irrelevant to their current financial situation.

Clarity Money

Compatibility: iOS 11.0 or later and Android 5.0 and up

Monthly fee: $0

Service fee: 33%

Pros

• Budgeting tools. After analyzing your spending, the app creates weekly budgeting goals, tracks your progress and notifies you if you’re spending more or less than usual.
• Bill negotiations. Clarity Money negotiates your bills for free. But it keeps 33% of the total amount you save if it successfully lowers a bill.
• Cancel subscriptions. Review your list of recurring subscriptions and cancel any you don’t want straight from the Clarity Money app.

Cons

• No customized budget. You can’t create a customized budget to use as a guideline each month.
• Third-party account. It doesn’t come with a savings or checking account to help you manage your money. Instead, you must link to existing financial accounts.
• US-based banks only. Clarity Money doesn’t sync to overseas banks.