Rocket Money (formerly Truebill)

Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) is a service that helps you in saving money on your monthly bills. The company in return receives a portion of the money it finds to put back in your pocket. Rocket Money has a lot to offer to help you save money and identify where your money is going. Truebill was renamed Rocket Money on August 17, 2022, when it was acquired by the financial services firm Rocket Companies.

On the surface, that appears to be a fair trade-off. Yet, like many things in life, this process isn't as effortless as it looks. Before you put Rocket Money to work on your finances, you should be aware of some things and potential drawbacks.

Quick Summary

An app that allows you to keep track of your subscriptions.

Will also assist you in negotiating bills and saving money.

Track and organzse your expenses to help you meet your savings targets.

App automatically tracks making it easier to automate your savings.

There are two versions of the app: free and paid.

With over 3,500 reviews, Rocket Money has an excellent 4.8 out of 5 TrustScore.

Rocket Money Pros & Cons

PROS

Allows you to see all of your recurring charges in one place.
Has a simple budget tracker that can assist you in better understanding (and controlling) your spending.
To keep your private data safe, it employs bank-level encryption.
Detects service outages and keeps track of subscription renewals.
No subscription fee for the basic service.

CONS

Access to personal information is required.
Some features require a premium subscription, which starts at $3 per month.
At least 30% charges on the annual savings it negotiates off your bill, which you must pay upfront.
There are a few negative reviews on the Better Business Bureau website.

Besides that, many users may relate this platform with Trim, another company that attempts to reduce bills in exchange for a percentage of the savings. In this Rocket Money review, I'll go over the similarities and differences between the two. Also, how Rocket Money works and its excellent features.

So, What is Rocket Money?

Rocket Money logo

Rocket Money was launched in 2015 as Truebill by brothers Haroon and Idris Mokhtarzada. In 2022, Rocket Company purchased Truebill and rebranded it as Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a budgeting/billing app that allows you to find subscriptions, manage bills, and even cancel recurring payments with a single click.

Their goal was to make a new and useful tool for financial empowerment that would help users become independent and give them more control over their financial life. Rocket Money is an all-in-one finance app. The application is currently fully integrated with budgeting tools. Rocket Money has been the best budget app for a long time.

The free version, on its own, has one of the most user-friendly and useful budget trackers I've come across. While Rocket Money has many useful features, its main offering is a bill negotiation service. The service is effective, but it is important to know that the basic cost is 30% of the annual saving, billed in advance.

There are over 3.4 million members who trust Rocket Money in the App store to save more and spend less with one personal finance app.

Now, Understand how Rocket Money works

Let's now understand how the software works in this Rocket Money review. Rocket Money works by budgeting and managing money using a variety of built-in features. The ultimate goal is to teach users better spending habits and encourage regular savings.

Unlike most apps, Rocket Money provides users with several options for saving money through the platform.

They are Budgeting and Expense Tracking, Bill Lowering, Subscription Monitoring, Outage Monitoring, and Electric Saver.

To use the full set of rocket money premium features, you must first download the Rocket Money app, which is available for both iOS and Google Play. Rocket Money can be accessed via a desktop browser, which is useful for syncing accounts, but the majority of the core features are only available in the app.

To get started, you'll need to create an account and link your bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts.

Rocket Money Pricing

As we have discussed the app is free to use in this Rocket Money review. But not all of its features are free as it comes with a premium package.

Premium Membership

You'll have to pay $3 to $12 per month, or $36 to $48 per year, to upgrade to Premium. If you choose to pay monthly, you can cancel a few services right away and then downgrade to the free service.

Rocket Money charges around 40% of your annual savings the first year you use it if you use the significant feature of the app that helps you lower your bills. This fee will be charged as soon as the negotiation is completed.

Steps to cancel your Premium Membership

Select Premium from the app's Settings menu.

Select Modify Premium at the bottom of the page.

To cancel your subscription, go through the confirmation steps.

Rocket Money Features

Rocket Money, a personal finance tool offers many different features, some of which are free and some paid.

Features Overview

Premium features

Automated cancellations

Premium Chat 
Unlimited budgeting categories 
Smart savings 
Cancellations Concierge

Net worth

Overdraft and late fee refunds

Credit reports

Real-time account sync

Free features

Bill negotiation
Financial monitoring

Two budgeting categories

Credit score checks

Account alerts

Features Details

A free Rocket Money Truebill account gives you access to the following:

Bill Negotiation

Bill negotiation is a time-consuming and costly process. As a result, it is charged by Rocket Money. To avoid losing money on a failed bill negotiation, they only charge IF the bill negotiation is successful. As a success fee, the platform charges you a percentage of your first-year savings. When submitting a negotiation request, you can select any amount between 30% and 60%.

Bill negotiation service by Rocket Money

Financial Monitoring

View your bank account balances, recent transactions, upcoming bills, monthly expense breakdown, subscriptions, and more. The balances are refreshed once a day. Connect your investment and retirement accounts to see how your funds have grown over time.

Financial monitoring with Rocket Money

Budgeting

Create and monitor up to two budget categories.

Budgeting with Rocket Money

Credit score

Get access to your credit score, which comes from Experian.

Track your credit score with Rocket Money

Balance alerts

Receive notifications when your bank account balances reach a certain level.

When you upgrade to a premium account, you will gain access to the following additional features:

Cancellation Concierge

A service that handles subscription and recurring bill cancellations. The free version of Rocket Money allows you to see and track the various subscriptions you're paying for. If you want to cancel, Rocket Money tells you how to do so in the most efficient way possible as I described above.

However, the premium version includes a service that will cancel some of these subscriptions on your behalf. Please keep in mind that not all subscriptions are compatible with this service.

If Rocket Money cancels a subscription on your behalf, no fee is charged.

Premium chat

During business hours, chat with professionals and receive immediate support.

Smart Savings

An FDIC-insured bank account designed to help you automatically save for financial goals. Smart Savings is created to make it simpler for you to save for small and short-term financial goals.

For example, if you want to save $150 per month for a trip and want to use your Smart Savings account to do it. You can set it up so that regular amounts are taken out of your checking account.

Auto Pilot savings with rocket money

Net worth

Get a complete picture of your assets and debts all in one place. Make changes and track your financial journey over time.

Grow Net worth with Rocket Money

Pay advance

You can get up to $125 from Rocket Money's Pay Advance feature before your next payday. To be eligible, you must link the bank account into which your paycheck is directly deposited.

The funds are then transferred to the associated debit card/checking account. When your paycheck reaches, your advance is automatically deducted from the same account.

As with Rocket Money, you can choose to tip them for using this service, but it is entirely optional.

Credit score and credit report

Get access to your credit score and credit report, which are updated every 30 days. Rocket Money also monitors and alerts you to recent activity on your report.

Spending reports with Rocket Money

Real-time sync

Accounts are updated in real-time, as compared to once per day in the free version.

Shared accounts

You can permit someone else, like a spouse, to use the account.

Export data

It can be useful in some situations, such as when you have a side hustle or a small business and don't have a separate checking account. In this case, your expenditures may be tax-deductible, and you can export the complete list of those expenses at the end of the year. This can save you time when preparing your taxes.

Is Rocket Money safe to use?

Rocket Money has read-only access to your financial information. If a hacker gained access to your Rocket Money account, they would be able to see how much money you have and where it is, but they would be unable to transfer it out of your linked accounts.

Rocket Money employs bank-level security (256-bit encryption), which is the industry standard. It gains access to your financial accounts through Plaid, a third-party provider that is widely used and trusted in the industry. Plaid supports two-factor authentication for some banks but not all.

6 Things To Know Before Using Rocket Money

Now, I will share a few things you should know about using the app in this Rocket Money review.

The free version's tracking and budgeting are top-notch. It has little advertising and upfront information. The free version updates transactions daily.
The premium service is available with a  seven-day free trial.

Some users may find the pricing to be complicated. Simply put, Rocket Money is a free app with premium add-ons. To use the premium services, you must pay a monthly fee of between $3 and $12. This fee grants access to features such as Smart Savings and Cancellation Concierge. In addition to the monthly fee, Rocket Money charges a "success fee" of 30% to 60% for their bill negotiation services. You get to choose how much you pay within that range, just like you do with the monthly fee.
Rocket Money charges an upfront success fee. This fee is collected beforehand if Rocket Money negotiates a bill credit or saves you money. For instance, if Rocket Money saves you $20 a month on the internet and you pay Rocket Money the advised 40% success fee, you'll pay $96 upfront (40% of the $240 annual savings).
This success price is criticized. Rocket Money's huge bill negotiations or outage credits surprise users, according to reviews.
Turn on TrueProtect when uploading or syncing a bill for negotiation. Turning on this feature allows Rocket Money to negotiate and alter without your permission. You can start slow by activating this function at one or two service providers.

Rocket Money Vs. Trim

Rocket Money and Trim are very similar services. Many people are confused by the close rival apps Trim and Rocket Money (formerly Truebill). Both aim to reduce monthly bills, manage subscription costs, and identify savings opportunities for customers. Besides that, both provide free budgeting tools and savings accounts, as well as the ability to cancel unwanted subscriptions. Each company serves nearly 15,000 financial institutions.

Differences in Competing Services

Rocket money vs trim

Trim and Rocket Money's bill negotiation service prices differ most. Trim takes 15% of first-year savings. Trim is cheaper if you have many invoices to negotiate.

If Rocket Money saves you $100 per month on your bills or $1,200 per year, the default 40% success fee would be $480. Trim saves the same amount for $180.

Another handy feature provided by Trim is the ability to negotiate your credit card APRs - a potentially major savings opportunity for anyone with credit card debt.

Rocket Money FAQ

How does Rocket Money make money?

Rocket Money does not charge a fee to download and use the app. It charges a monthly fee for the premium features we discussed above. It also takes a cut that is at least 30% of the annual savings of the amount it saves you when successfully negotiating lower monthly bill rates.

How much does Rocket Money charge?

There is no cost to download Rocket Money and use the app to track your money.

Rocket Money has an optional premium subscription that costs between $3 and $12 per month.

You will pay at least 30% of the annual savings if Rocket Money successfully negotiates a lower rate with one of the eligible providers.

When Rocket Money successfully negotiates on your behalf, you must pay the full success fee upfront.

Can Rocket Money get overdraft fee refunds?

No, Rocket Money doesn't negotiate refunds from your financial institutions. However, they provide an in-app script and guidelines to help you call and try to negotiate those fees yourself.

Does Rocket Money Sell My Information?

Rocket Money doesn't sell your details to third parties, but the site will advertise insurance and credit cards. If you connect to insurance or credit card comparison websites, your information will be sent to these companies.

Aside from that, your data is kept private and secure.

Final Take: Is Rocket Money Worth It?

We advise giving the Rocket Money budgeting app a try if you haven't already found an app for personal finance management that you like. It's a wise option among many others.

Concerning premium services, it's important to ask yourself if, in the past 12 months, have you reviewed your account for unused subscriptions or got in touch with service providers to discuss negotiations.

If “no,” you’ll likely profit from using a service like Rocket Money. All of these products are truly cost-free for your use. Rocket Money can easily complete these jobs if you've put them off.

This was all about the Rocket Money review. Thank you for reading, share your views below in the comments.

Rocket Money Review

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