Are you looking for a financial app that does pretty much everything well? Empower Finance is a mobile app that has a comprehensive set of personal finance features and is perfect for people who want only one app to manage their finances.
It lives up to its name when it says that it 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
- $8 per month, 30 day free trial
- Great for tracking subscriptions and recurring payments
Empower Details | |
|---|---|
Product Name | Empower |
Min Deposit | $0 |
Monthly Fee | $8/mo |
APY | 0.25% APY* |
Promotions | Free 30 Day Trial |
How Does Empower Work?
Empower is a personal finance app that helps you take control of your money. Once you connect a checking account, you’ll be able to get a complete and accurate snapshot of your financial life and effortlessly cut unnecessary expenses, save for a rainy day and uncover additional savings.
Some of Empower's key features include:
- Track your spending
- Save with Empower's Autosave features
- Find hidden savings based on your transaction history
- Flexible interest checking account
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.
However, other apps like Clarity Money are a bit easier to use.
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.
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
- Recognizes bills and subscriptions
- Categorization of spending categories
- Automatically sets spending limits
- Connects to cryptocurrency wallets
- Set up interest checking account within the app
- Transfer money within the app
- Set up auto-savings within the app
Here are some Empower cons:
- Spending limits may not work for variable incomes
- Not great for proactive budget planning
Empower Banking
Empower also offers a checking account and a high yield savings account - however, you only get savings if you have a checking account. The rate is competitive, but it typically a bit lower than you'd find with the best high yield savings accounts.
Empower offers an integrated interest checking account. This checking account connects with the app. You can control the debit card anywhere and anytime within the app plus get 24/7 notifications to track your spending. There’s also no account minimums, no overdraft fees, no insufficient funds fees and unlimited withdrawals.
Combining Empower's budgeting and goal setting features with their integrated bank account can make saving for future goals easy!
Empower Cash Advance
Empower recently rolled out a Cash Advance feature for their Empower Banking subscribers. The cash advance feature allows subscribers to get up to $150 in fast cash for emergencies with no interest, no late fees, and no credit check.
Empower does use your bank account history and activity, recurring direct deposit, and average monthly direct deposit to determine if you’re eligible to receive a cash advance.^
See how Empower compares to other cash advance apps.
Eligibility Requirements Apply. Banking services for new accounts provided by nbkc bank, Member FDIC.
How Much Does Empower Cost?
Empower is free for the first 30 days. After 30 days, Empower charges $8 per month for continued access to its full suite of money management tools.
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 here.
* Banking services provided by nbkc bank, Member FDIC. 0.25% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) may change at any time. APY as of Apr 20, 2020. Empower charges an auto-recurring subscription fee of $8 for access to the full suite of money management features offered on the platform after your first 30 days.
^ Eligibility requirements apply.
Empower Review
- Cost
- Commission and Fees
- Ease Of Use
- Customer Service
- Features and Options
Overall
Summary
Empower is a financial budgeting app with built-in savings and goals.
Pros
- Spending Tracking
- Robust Categories
- Easy to link a savings account and transfer in the app
Cons
- The monthly fee is expensive
- Missing critical banking features
Robert Farrington is America’s Millennial Money Expert® and America’s Student Loan Debt Expert™, and the founder of The College Investor, a personal finance site dedicated to helping millennials escape student loan debt to start investing and building wealth for the future. You can learn more about him on the About Page, or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.
He regularly writes about investing, student loan debt, and general personal finance topics geared towards anyone wanting to earn more, get out of debt, and start building wealth for the future.
He has been quoted in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox, ABC, NBC, and more. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.
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.
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
I have had every issue in all comments happen to me. And the “customer service team” Michael and Jason are the same person, he admitted this after I relentlessly emailed them over and over because they locked my account for going over my spending limit (I hadn’t used the card in days) and my balance was only $20 but still my last $20. I couldn’t get my kids dinner. It was finally unlocked 6 hours later
Another time it was declined at 6 different stores for absolutely no reason at all
The Empower app sucks. There is absolutely no customer service. You will get a canned bot response every time. It is huge to download. Transfers are difficult and unwieldy. The card is unusable. They don’t care and it’s obvious, they are just looking for subscribers. It sounds good, but in reality, it is a waste of time. Don’t send these people your money or download the app. Go with STASH instead. I have had zero problems with this one.
DISMAL describes my experience. All funds and activity in account disappeared yesterday showing $0 balance. When I emailed about it, I was sent a screenshot of Empower’s computer system showing my correct balance, but it’s not the same on mine. I sent a screenshot back showing all zeros and no response. Debit card has been worthless for the last two weeks despite assurances that it was “unlocked.”
An interesting experiment but a total failure. A real phone number and person to talk to would be a nice touch.
8 days after posting comment above, nothing has changed. No correction of errors in App. Debit card still “frozen” and has never been used. Until a few days ago, I would receive an email each morning saying “Engineering is working on a correction.” That stopped 4 days ago but no correction. There is absolutely no phone number any where to call, only generic “help” email.