Your checking account is the centerpiece of your financial life. It’s how you get your paycheck, how you pay your bills, and, if you’re like most people, the balance in your account tells you when it’s time to stop spending.
But when was the last time you checked to see if your checking account is right for you? The answer for a lot of people may be never.
If you haven’t shopped for a new account in the last decade, one account you should absolutely consider is The Spend & Save Cash Management Account from Aspiration. And see how it compares to other accounts on our list: Best Money Market Accounts.
Here’s what you need to know about it.
Quick Summary
- A cash management account with no fees where it counts
- Currently pays a high APY of 2.00% (as of May 1, 2019)
- Does have limits on getting physical cash
Aspiration Spend And Save Details | |
|---|---|
Product Name | Spend and Save Account |
Min Invesment | $10 |
Monthly Fees | $0 |
APY | 2.00% APR |
Promotions | None |
High Yield Savings
The Spend & Save Account from Aspiration can be broken down into two parts.
The spend account offers 1% cashback on every purchase with a business that has a high “Aspiration Impact Measure” (social responsibility score) and 0.5% back on all other businesses. Very few financial firms offer any sort of cash back on debit card purchases, so this is a great perk for debit card users. Cash back is credited to the spending account once per month.
Additionally, you’ll earn up to 2.00% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on all deposits (minimum $10 opening deposit) in the save part of your account. Which is actually pretty incredible. It’s also helpful to note that Aspiration has a competitive rate on interest paid on deposits.
Opening a Spend and Save Account
The Spend and Save account has a $0 minimum balance, but you need $10 to open the account. You must be at least 18 years old and a US citizen or permanent resident to open the account.
No Fees Where It Counts
When it comes to choosing where to put your money, you want to avoid as many fees as possible. In particular, you need to avoid monthly fees and overdraft fees.
The Spend and Save account has no monthly fees, no overdraft fees, and myriad other $0 fees.
In fact, it is one of the few banking products that has no international or domestic ATM fees. Aspiration will even reimburse you if the other bank charges you a fee for an ATM withdrawal.
However, you will have to pay any currency conversion fees.
The main fees on the account are $0.82 ingoing and outgoing domestic transfer fees, $2.50 international wire in fees, and $15.00 international wire out fees. You could also be charged $1.15 for a returned item fee if you bounce a check. A full list of service charges can be found here.
Is It Really Free?
The Spend And Save account really doesn’t charge you fees, but you can opt to pay a monthly fee for the account. Aspiration calls this “pay what is fair.”
However, Aspiration also has a charitable angle and pledges to give 10% of all profits to charitable causes, so you may want to pay for your account. The choice is yours.
Any Concerning Fine Print On The Spend and Save Account?
The main drawback to the Spend and Save Account from Aspiration is that it doesn’t have any branches. You can call them to get customer service, but you can’t walk into a branch.
This could prove to be a bit of an issue if you’re a baller who regularly gets large checks. Why? When you get a check over $5000 you have to mail the check to Aspiration’s partner bank:
Coastal Community Bank, PO Box 2103, Everett, WA 98213.
The money won’t be available in your account until the physical check has been received and cleared.
Another possible issue with the Spend and Save Account is getting physical cash. Since you can’t go into a branch, you’re going to face certain limits. These include:
- $5,000 per day external transfer limit
- $500 cash limit
- $2,000 PIN limit
- $2,000 signature based limit
Usually, these limits won’t be a problem, but if you want to buy a used car using cash (for example), you might be hard pressed to get what you need from your account.
Finally, deposits in your Aspiration account are FDIC Insured up to $2,000,000 per depositor by being swept to FDIC Member institutions (visit https://www.fdic.gov for more on this). This is common practice for other cash management accounts like Fidelity or Schwab offer.
Final Take on Aspiration’s Spend and Save Account
Overall, the Spend and Save Account may bean awesome centerpiece to your financial life, but it’s not perfect.
Brick and mortar banks may still make some sense for you to consider, especially if you deal with cash on a regular basis.
If access to physical currency isn’t too important to you, the accounts from Aspiration could be a great choice.
Aspiration Review
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Interest Rates - 80
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Fees and Charges - 100
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Customer Service - 80
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Ease of Use - 80
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Tools and Resources - 80
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Products and Services - 80
DouglasInDallas says
Advertises that customers get Cash Back Rewards for shopping at businesses with a higher Aspiration Impact Measurement (AIM) score. But you have to give a company money first before you can find out how good/bad a merchant is (posted transaction in app and online reveals score but it’s not available elsewhere).
Rewards are not explained in the Disclosures as required by the FTC, but instead are buried in their FAQ’s where they explain they have the right to change them without notice. Using the Internet Archive, I see now that on 05/12/2019 they were offering 1% Cash Back for businesses with a HIGH AIM and 0.5% for all others. Ten days later on 05/22/19, they changed that to 0.5% for business with the HIGHEST AIM and 0.25% for all others and for the first time revealed the list of (only 23) businesses with extra rewards:
Adobe Systems CVS Page Plus Cellular
Aetna DirecTV Skype
Allstate eBay Sprint
Apple Esurance Target
AT&T Google Verizon
Boost Mobile Jet.com Walmart
Boots MetLife Xbox
Cricket Wireless Microsoft
My concerns were repeatedly being dismissed by a representative “Nicole W” who at first said she too wanted more clarity on the rewards and then said if I don’t understand their [vaguely written] legal Terms I should seek legal counsel. She claimed that my request for transparency would require engineers that they couldn’t justify for a “one-off” request. However, it doesn’t take an engineer to put the score next to the above list or with the list of the THOUSANDS of businesses they advertise they have scores for (website shows Amazon, Netflix, Tesla, Nike, Urban Outfitters, Hyatt, Whole Foods, YouTube, Starbucks) so you have to first do harm by supporting a bad company and then learn from your mistake. Furthermore, “highest AIM” seems subjective as CVS has a 93/100 People Score and 91/100 Planet Score, but Walgreen’s has scores of 88/100 and 91/100 and does not earn extra rewards. They’ve got AIM scores on THOUSANDS of businesses but only 23 are the “highest”(?!!) Assuming their use of “thousands” only means 2000, Aspiration is not rewarding you for shopping at 98.85% of known businesses; 3000 businesses equates to only 0.77% eligible for incentive… (For past 15 years, Global 100 reviews 3.7 million data points to rank 7500 companies and only 1 of their top 100 is in Aspiration’s 23: MetLife at #53) “Rewards” for shopping at any known business, except the 23, are same as for businesses Aspiration doesn’t know. Again, no where can you find the score until you’ve already spent money and no where can you see why the score was given or what is considered the “highest AIM” (as required by the FTC). Chief Compliance Officer, Christopher Mates, was contacted about concerns regarding Rewards transparency and provided copy of FTC’s Disclosure requirements (read receipt received) and response from Aspiration’s rep was that consumer transparency is a feature not a requirement.
Both app and website report purchases with Transaction Date (not Posting Date) so when using third-party financial apps or software, it makes it difficult to reconcile transactions which will have a tip added later. For example if you use You Need A Budget (YNAB) and purchase a $5 cup of coffee every day from Starbucks but tip different amounts, the original authorized amount immediately is imported as $5 on Transaction Date but is sometimes duplicated with the final amount Posted with tip. Original authorized transaction amount imports as “cleared” only to later be changed or duplicated with final amount with tip.
Transactions cannot be exported or downloaded (which would ordinarily show you both the Transaction and Posting Dates) until a statement is generated and then, despite their WebConnect with YNAB and Quickbooks Online (set up by Aspiration NOT by YNAB or QBO), are only available as a PDF. No option for a Quickbooks Desktop file either. Support request for fix during a 1.5hour call 10 days ago provided not even an acknowledgement email.
As an accountant, after reading all the complaints regarding service issues, after personally receiving condescending responses for legitimate concerns, earning $1 for every $400 spent (until they change/lower reward again without notice), doesn’t seem worth doing business with Aspiration. You’re better off downloading the full Global 100 list and supporting those businesses with a different card that has higher/clearer rewards like “Discover It” which gives 1-2% back on any purchase.