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Rocket Money (formerly TrueBill) is one of the most popular personal finance apps among Americans. It helps you save more, spend less, and manage your money smartly in one click.
However, a few apprehensions are inevitable when it comes to entrusting your financial details online. You may be worried “Is Rocket Money safe?” and if your money is in good hands.
Here is the complete review of the Rocket Money app.
About Rocket Money
Rocket Money is a money management and budgeting app. You can link all your bank, credit card, and investment accounts through this app for a consolidated view and management of your finances in one place.
It is available for Android and Apple mobile device users. You can also sign up for a web version; all you need to do is create a Rocket Money account to access it.
The app has the following seven key features:
Smart Savings
You can put your savings on autopilot according to your financial goals and frequency. It can help you save money the way you want.
Budgeting
You can monitor your budget by categories and get alerts to stay on track.
Manage Subscriptions
You can manage your subscriptions. More importantly, the app will find unused and unwanted subscriptions. You can cancel the subscriptions for which you are incurring unnecessary costs.
Bill Negotiation
You can negotiate better rates on your cell phone, cable, and other bills to save money. The app even helps you get refunds on bank overdrafts or late fees.
Credit Scores
You can track and understand your credit score.
Spending Insights
You can evaluate top spending categories to adjust your spending to save better and avoid low-balance situations.
Net Worth
You can monitor the growth of your wealth and estimate your net worth over time.
The app has more than five million customers. The massive number of users itself speaks about its credibility and partly answers your question: is Rocket Money safe?
Free and Premium Version
Rocket Money doesn’t charge you anything to download its app.
Free Version
You can start with the free version to get an initial idea about the app. You can access features such as credit score, budgeting, daily or weekly account syncing, and spending tracking.
Premium Version
Unfortunately, the free version doesn’t include star features such as subscription management, credit reports, and bill negotiation that make Rocket Money worth its usefulness.
The Rocket Money team can cancel subscriptions and handle bill negotiations on your behalf with service providers. The premium version, priced at $3-$12 per month, allows you to use these features and a few more: premium chat, real-time data syncing, and unlimited budgeting categories.
You can choose the premium price plan depending on your requirements. It is called the “Pay What’s Fair” plan. The good news is that you can get a free trial of the premium plan!
However, there is a catch with the bill negotiation feature. If Rocket Money can lower the bills, you will have to pay them 30-60% of your first year’s savings on the bills. There are no charges for unsuccessful negotiation.
Rocket Visa Signature Card
Rocket Money launched this credit card in March 2023 exclusively for homeowners. You can earn up to 5% cash back in mortgage savings every time you swipe or tab this card for any purchase. You can use this cashback to pay closing costs and down payments on buying a home. If you own a home with Rocket Mortgage, you can earn up to 2% cash back on card spending to pay off the unpaid principal balance of the mortgage.
Did you know the Rocket Visa Signature Card is integrated with the Rocket Money app? That’s not all. The company waives the $95 annual fee on the card if you have Rocket Mortgage. So, you can get the premium version of the Rocket Money app for free with this card.
Drawbacks of the Rocket Money App
Rocket Money app provides a seamless user experience and excellent customer service. However, you must also know a few cons to get an accurate picture.
- You have to pay a steep price for premium version membership.
- The web or desktop version has limited features.
- The fee on bill negotiation feature over and above the premium version membership fee is a pinch on your wallet.
- The cancellation of premium version membership is quite tedious.
- The app may not have your bank in its network.
- The app lacks a dedicated feature for investment management. You may still have to use another app to track your investments.
Safety and Legitimacy
Let’s delve deeper into your question, “Is Rocket Money safe?” The primary concern of online users is the safety and confidentiality of their data. Rocket Money seems to have taken utmost care to keep your data safe. Its security measures comprise the following:
Encryption
Rocket Money uses 256-bit bank-level encryption to store your data on its platform. It also adopts the latest industry protocols for security.
Plaid as a Partner
Rocket Money has partnered with Plaid to protect your data during transmission. Plaid is a reputed financial services company that builds advanced data transfer networks for more than 15,000 financial institutions across the United States. Many other apps, such as Venmo, NerdWallet, Chime, and Acorns, have integrated Plaid into their network architecture.
When you enter your digital banking credentials during the registration process on the Rocket Money app, Plaid transmits them to your bank or credit card company. Rocket Money doesn’t store your data on its servers. Rocket Money processes your transaction only after it receives an encrypted token from Plaid.
AWS Server Hosting
Rocket Money hosts its servers on Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the most secure online data storage and hosting services. AWS is a trusted partner of many well-known institutions such as NASA, the Department of Defense, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), etc.
Control of Account
You have complete control of your account and data with Rocket Money. You can delete or unlink your account anytime to revoke Rocket Money’s access token. Rocket Money can’t make any modifications to your account.
Transparency
Rocket Money believes in giving data security assurance to its customers. You can send an email to security@rocketmoney.com for any questions regarding the security. Security researchers can also email vulnerability-report@rocketmoney.com if they find a security problem in Rocket Money products.
FDIC Insurance
Your smart savings account in Rocket Money has Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance coverage. The standard FDIC insurance coverage limit is $250,000 for an individually owned account and $250,000 per owner for jointly owned accounts.
Rocket Money has elaborated on its app’s safety and privacy features through terms and conditions on its website.
The Verdict?
There is no doubt that Rocket Money offers valuable services to improve your financial health and grow your hard-earned money. However, no one can give you a 100% guarantee of its safety. Some of the biggest companies in the financial sector have fallen prey to data breaches.
The best way forward is to compare Rocket Money’s features against other budgeting apps such as Empower, You Need a Budget (YNAB), TRIM, etc. You can even read Rocket Money customer reviews on its app store, YouTube, and other social media sites, then decide and use it accordingly.
This article originally appeared on Wealth of Geeks
To make Wealthtender free for readers, we earn money from advertisers, including financial professionals and firms that pay to be featured. This creates a conflict of interest when we favor their promotion over others. Read our editorial policy and terms of service to learn more. Wealthtender is not a client of these financial services providers.
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