Are you looking for a financial app that does pretty much everything well? Empower Finance is a newer financial app that looks like it could be the best financial app for most people.
It lives up to its name when it says that empowers people to take control of their money.
Here’s what you need to know about Empower.
Quick Summary
- Financial account aggregation and budgeting app
- Free basic service, $4 per month premium service
- Great for tracking subscriptions and recurring payments
How Does Empower Work?
Empower is a financial aggregation and budgeting app. When you download the app, you’ll connect to all of your checking, savings, investment, and debt accounts. You can also connect to your crypto wallets, to track your cryptocurrency investments with your other financial investments.
Once you’ve connected your data, you can categorize expenses, track your spending, and more. Empower will automatically set a budget for each category. Empower also recognizes recurring bills including subscriptions that you might not be using. Empower will cancel subscriptions for you, but unlike Clarity Money, Empower does not negotiate bills on your behalf. It just alerts you of your subscriptions or when your bills increase.
Within the app, you can also set up AutoSave to pay down debt faster or to set money aside in your high-yield savings account. On top of that, you can export all your transactions to a CSV file.
Pros and Cons of Empower
In a lot of ways, Empower is a financial app that says, “Me too.” However, it differentiates itself from the pack by doing so much well. As you can see, Empower has many more pros than cons.
Here are some Empower pros:
- Excellent design — it’s easy and intuitive to use
- CSV export
- Recognizes bills and subscriptions
- Automatically sets spending limits
- Connects to cryptocurrency wallets
- Set up high-yield savings accounts within the app
- Transfer money within the app
- Set up auto-savings or auto-debt pay-down within the app
- Cancel subscriptions in the app
Here are some Empower cons:
- Must pay extra for custom categorization
- Spending limits may not work for variable incomes
- Must pay to separate business and personal expenses
- Not great for proactive budget planning
How Much Does Empower Cost?
Empower is free to use unless you upgrade to Empower Premium. Empower Premium costs $4 per month and gives you access to custom categorization and 24/7 chats with financial experts.
Even with the enhanced categorization, Empower isn’t designed to be a proactive budgeting tool. For that, You Need a Budget, EveryDollar, or Mvelopes make more sense. Even Mint.com would be a better tool.
Are There Good Alternatives to Empower?
Empower is impressive in its design and how much it empowers users to take action within the app. In my opinion, its only rival on the design front is Clarity Money which offers as robust of design with better budgeting options.
If you look at each feature that Empower offers (such as transferring money, paying down debt, tracking spending, etc.) you can find an app that does it better. I think the Rize app makes a lot of sense for transferring money between accounts for example, and Mint.com or Personal Capital offer better financial tracking.
However, as a total package, Empower is a contender to be called the top new financial app.
Final Take on Empower
If you’re not tracking your finances, you should download Empower and start using it today. It’s a great app — designed for ease, information and action.
I’m impressed by the app, but not so impressed that I recommend switching from an app that’s working for you. If you have your finances under control, then you don’t need to check out Empower. But for everyone else, Empower could be the start of controlling your money for the first time.
Check out Empower Finance here.
Empower Finance Review
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Cost - 80
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Commission and Fees - 100
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Ease Of Use - 80
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Customer Service - 80
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Features and Options - 80
Mike says
I accidentally moved $200 instead of $20 into savings. I notified customer support only to be told there’s “nothing we can do” (they replied 12 hours later telling me if I had contacted them within the first few hours they can reverse the transfer. When I told them I contacted them immediately after the transaction they claimed a “bot” was responding and that they actually cannot reverse the transfer.) They refuse to listen to customer concerns or actually assist their customers with issues. I sent them a screenshot showing their agent giving me this info and they never replied back. Still waiting for the transaction to be reversed, not holding my breath. 3 days fighting with them.
Megan Williams says
I do not recommened Empower App – My account for some reason was blocked today, and you can only reach these guys by email. so I emailed them at about 1pm to inquire the reason, it took about 4 emails before they responded, and then when they replied the following was said:
Hello…..Sorry to hear you’ve been locked out. Can you tell us what happened that you got locked out of your account? Did you switch phones or phone number recently? Did you get an error message? We will need to ask you some verification questions before we can unlock your account. – Syd
So reply advising No change in phones or numbers, and not sure what happened, but did try to link my credit union account for access to transfers, then told their platform isnt set for that yet, so I wasnt able to do such. In the meanwhile I am waiting for the questions, I reply asking if they need to call me, and if so advised that I did have to be at work, and also provided them my work number for them to call me there to ask the questions… a whole hour has passed by now, and still no response, I arrive at work, and have a response from another rep, Michael now, stating the following: @ 2:28pm
“We can do that right here
What institution(s) you have connected to Empower?
What is the current balance of your checking account?
After we verify this information, we can unlock the account for you and you will be able to reset your passcode in the app.
Thank you, Michael
so feeling a little relief, I reply providing the answers to Micheals questions (so much for security right) in any event, after providing the answers, No response ever received from Michael at all or in response to what he advised following me providing the answers So i am sending several follow up emails, asking if he received my response, if will be assisting me, will someone be contacting me, hello, and time is just moving forward now. As they close at 5. Im emailing asking will someone assist me prior to them closing advise them of the deposits i am expecting. and then out the blue the agent Sacandar jumps on the thread and replies to my emails with the following:
” As my colleague Michael mentioned, we’re looking into this issue, and hope to have an answer for you within one business day. We’ll let you know when we’ve gotten an update.” Sacandar
Where in Michael’s email did he state such, IDK, and why Sacandar jumped online 5 mins prior to them closing to say such and show that he has no desire to assist, doesnt find any seriousness in your issue, and by almeans doesnt care either. How do u just tell a BOLD FACE lie, and the 2 reps told me to answer questions and they would release my account, obviously was 2 lies as well, and you cant talk to them its all via email (making matters worse) and after a whole 4hrs this is the end result and and not to mention I received their notifications advising me of my expected deposits posting my account, now I have no access to my funds, and they closed, and my account still blocked. DOES THIS SOUND LIKE A BANK THAT CARES FOR ITS CONSUMERS, I would not and do not recommend these guys, and you see why “ITS ALL WRITTEN” and full of LIES