Acorns
Reviews and Complaints

As someone deeply invested in financial services, I understand the importance of trust and reliability when it comes to managing your money. Looking at the reviews for Acorns, it's clear that customers have had mixed experiences. While some users appreciate the ease of micro-investing and the potential returns, others have faced challenges with account suspensions, withdrawal issues, and customer service. It's crucial to carefully consider your needs and preferences before choosing a financial platform like Acorns.

1. Some of the navigation is not intuitive and I have trouble finding what I need.

2. I need more information in the Spend section from what the money was spent on... like a bank account shows you. I’m missing info about what and where I spent that I need to plug in for work, self employment taxes, and budget tracking.

3. And I’m hoping SO MUCH that the “Found Money” section that lists the shops gets a navigation overhaul because there are too many to scroll through. I’m spending money left and right in there but missing a lot of good ones because I didn’t know they were there before I had already signed up with a new service or spent money for the first time there. It takes too much time to go through them as it is, but then also to click every one to find out what it is... is it a clothing outlet? Shoe shop? Insurance company? Because if I don’t know the brand already, I have to look. Acorns could at least put them under categories so I can search quickly if I’m suddenly looking for a bike supply store and don’t have time to scroll and click to find one myself. I’ve tried and spent hours I don’t have to waste.

4. Aside from numbers 1-3, I’m absolutely loving Acorns.

5. I have money saved for the first time in years. I can access my regular savings any time, but the Roth IRA for retirement requires work to access and therefore it will sit and grow. Just $5 a week if I cannot do more...

6. I love the set it and forget it parts of Acorns from investing I don’t have to worry about, to roundups, weekly withdrawal to savings for retirement and savings for rainy days, etc.

7. I like that I don’t have to know anything about investing, but still getting to choose my different portfolios for the Spend (banking and investing) account and the Later (retirement account with Roth IRA investing) insofar as how aggressive those portfolios will be. Then walk away and know it’s fine. I can check in, but I don’t have to.

8. And I use the awesome titanium card anywhere I use any bank or credit card, online or in person.

9. After having my bank card number stolen last year, I knew I needed a second card so that I was never put in that mess again where my account was drained by thieves and it takes a few days to get the money back and then a couple of weeks to get a new card. I chose Acorns and I’m glad I did. Now I have that second card so I will never be without again after theft.

10. I like that you can access a few articles off the app about financial things.

I give Acorns a 4/5. I appreciate that this app makes investing easy and accessible to unsophisticated investors and those who want to use spare change to grow their resources. I invest through a traditional brokerage, a Roth IRA, and also through a work-sponsored tax advantaged account. But Acorns is actually a fun app. I have two major concerns about the app: (1.) the “Found Money” feature is hard to navigate and unpredictable, and (2.) the “Invite Friends” feature does not always work. Found Money. I have redeemed just under $50 in Found Money bonuses. However, I definitely made three additional and relatively large purchases (hotel booking, flower delivery, and satellite radio subscription) through Acorns and never had any money invested in my account (the 120-day estimated time limit has long come and gone). For those new to this concept, Acorns has partners that offer either a flat fee bonus or a percentage bonus deposit of your purchase into your Acorns account. So a flower delivery or music subscription service mayfer you $10 bonus for placing an order. Or perhaps your favorite travel booking website or clothing store mayfer you a 4% deposit bonus back for a purchase. The problem is that you click on the icon for the store you want to shop with, and in a single sequence of selections, you have to make your purchase. Obviously this is not how the average consumer shops, and it’s customary to switch windows in your browser, respond to messages, or answer a call while you are making a purchase. Notwithstanding this, I can tell you the app has not always monitored my purchases and I have not gotten all of the Found Money I contemplated. Referral Fees. You can get a $5 for referring friends. Sometimes you can get a substantial bonus for referring enough friends (if your friends actually sign up) within a given period. I have gotten one $250 bonus for getting 4-5 folks to sign up in one month. One weekend I had company staying with me and invited them to join Acorns through the link. I watched my guest download my link through the text message I sent them, but neither of us got the $5 bonus after they linked Acorns to their bank account. Indeed this is a new app so some bugs are expected. In fairness, I have gotten the referral fee on 7 other occasions.

***
Update, I’ve had the account for years now and it’s still growing. It would be nice and optimal if you could add beneficiaries in the Invest account directly in the app, instead of via a printed sheet of paper that needs to be uploaded. That is crazy complicated for a near 100% cell app.

I setup an account to try it out and see if I could save some money and see where it goes. I couldn’t deposit money until Monday because I only had $40 to my name due to a different company/institution do something dishonest, so I wanted to make $100 over the weekend and deposit for a start. I take screen shots and make sure I set everything up correctly, every time with every company. They charge me the next day for something yesterday, that wasn’t supposed to EVEN HAPPEN UNTIL MONDAY! Naturally I called them and told them I took screenshots and pictures. They blamed me like the pirates they are. They got me for $100 then also got me with, not one, but tell em Bob well you’ve just won two overdraft fees putting me negative $-132. I literally had just fixed my account from progressive doing something dishonest and causing my bank to charge me EIGHT overdraft fees. $288 in a month. I call them they blame me and say I changed it and it’s my fault. I have the screenshots proving it wasn’t. If you want things to go a certain way and money transactions to go quickly and instantaneously AND with NO ISSUES OR EARLY TRANSFERS AND NO LYING AND EXCUSES WHEN A COMPANY MESSES UP like I do, then you’ll most definitely want to avoid this company as they will run you over and take your money and not help or take accountability when something goes wrong on their end affecting you. Thanks for putting me negative again you thief’s and everyone gets what’s coming to them, especially people who are unwilling to help someone when it’s their job and responsibility to make sure peoples money is accounted for and not missing and being taken without their permission on the wrong dates. I’m not calling a lawyer and I’m not going to waste anymore time on this trash. If they want to do the right thing and transfer me my losses that’s great, but they’ve burned the taste of dumpster juice right into my mouth for them. I pride myself on being honest and having integrity and principles. You can’t expect other people to ha e them that’s for sure. Definitely makes living amongst them a challenge. This company caused me to go have a returned car payment because they withdrew money on the wrong day. It was setup to come out on Monday and came out on the week before. When I set something up to come out on a certain date it’s for a reason. They have nothing but excuses and try to blame me when I have screen shots proving it because I know companies like this like to pull shady moves like that. I would highly recommend getting involved in the market yourself as this is a scam and they will not treat you or your money accordingly.

First of all: Acorns App is a bank fully FDIC insured and protected. All you simply do is create an account, input your information, income etc and the program tells you which investment option is the best for you.

Using Acorns to invest allows you to invest as low as 1 penny. Example: Let’s say you go to the gas station and you’re unable to squeeze the last 15 cents into your tank, you’ve paid with your debt card or whichever card/s you’ve link to your Acorns Account. Then Acorns will automatically invest the 15 cents into your Investment Portfolio instead of putting it back into whatever card you’ve used. Same way if you’ve spent $9.99, the 1 penny will be invested into your Acorns account.

These are called “Round Ups” and you can multiply them if you choose to. You won’t even miss the penny, yet it is invested. I set mine at 2x’s so instead of 1 penny it’s 2 penny’s, 15 penny’s is now 30 penny’s and it is invested as soon as your Round Ups reach $5, then it starts all over again. You also have the option to not use Round Ups at all or turn them on/off but it is such small amounts you don’t even realize how much money you’ve actually saved by buying everyday items. A great affordable way to consistently save every single day! Of course there’s ALSO larger investment opportunities as well as monthly reoccurring investments. Let’s say you want to save $25, $50, $100 or more per month, you can set it and forget it or change it at anytime, you’re never locked in. In addition to monthly reoccurring investments you can also add on the Round Ups which grows rapidly without you ever realizing how fast you penny’s grow! It’s remarkable how much so little turns into so much. If you’re 55 and younger I totally recommend this little side savings account and reinvestment of your dividends for an even greater return in the future.

You can cash out at anytime, it’s your money. There are also extra added bonuses called FOUND MONEY when you shop at your favorite stores. Example: They just had a Sams Club for any new sign ups only, they gave you a FREE $20 just for signing up. Signs ups are $35, so you get a $20 refund that is invested directly into your Acorns Account. I called it a mini 401K however it can be as big or as little, moderate or aggressive investing as you choose. I totally recommend this great little investment opportunity for you or your child’s future.

Five Star Affordable Investment Program! Don’t wait get started today! And if you sign up using my email I will receive $5 for each friend who invests and in return you can do the same thing and earn by referring a friend.

Great Investment Opportunity

Well, it’s that time again, folks! Apple has fouled up something on their iTunes App Store servers, and so those of us who are still using iTunes 12.6.5 for Enterprise iOS device support and management are unable to (1) download new purchases from the store, and (2) update existing apps. When you clock the “download” button in the App Store, you see a message “Downloading …” but nothing happens and no error message appears. Similarly, if you click the “update” button on an app update, or the “Update All Apps” button, you will see the same “Downloading …” messages, but nothing will actually download and you’ll see no error message to explain why. This happens for every single app in the app store and every single update shown in the iTMS app updates interface.

Maybe the Big Brains at Apple have chosen this particular moment to finally, silently cut off all iOS app download/update methods except those done via the iDevice’s individual App Store interfaces, making it impossible for IT managers to control app purchase/update rollouts across all of their devices in anything other than an anarchic, catch-as-catch-can fashion. Or maybe they’ve just bungled their backend app update servers, like they seem to do with increasing frequency throughout these last few years of continuing decay and cr*pification of Apple’s feeble Web Services offerings. As usual, Apple support aren’t listening to end-users who submit error reports for this issue, so the only recourse for us is to pass the buck by giving one-star reviews to every app update that’s affected, in the hopes that developers with money on the line and access to actual iTunes Technical Support (as opposed to the teenage babysitters assigned to deal with lowly end-users) can get the problem fixed sometime before the next ice age arrives.

As of 18:22 on Monday, 23 March , this is the list of app updates I’ve found that exhibit this problem:

Acorns
American Airlines
AT&T Call Protect
BestParking
Blue Shield of California
CARR
DocuSign
DuckDuckGo
Cornell University’s eBird
Epocrates
Eventbrite
Fandango
Farmers Insurance
File Hub
Garmin Explore
Google’s Gmail
Google Drive
Hulu
ibotta
IMDB
Instagram
Joule
Lyft
Lyft Driver
Medium
Microsoft Authenticator
Microsoft OneDrive
Microsoft Outlook
MLB Ballpark
MyTSA
Netflix
Nextdoor
O’Reilly Publishers
OmniFocus 3
Pandora
ParkWhiz
Patreon
Periscope Live Video Streaming
Photoshop Express
Postmates
Priceline
Progressive Insurance
Reddit
RegEx Lab
Rocket.Chat
Route: Package & Order Tracker
SmallFish Chess
Snapchat
Songkick
SoundCloud
Spotify
StubHub
Sync - Secure cloud storage
Ticketmaster
Travelocity
Waze
WordPress
Yahoo Sports
YouTube
Zillow
Zomato
17Track

I am very new to investing altogether. I am also very skeptical and careful of scams and everything that seems to want to take my money. What I realized is that I waste money on unnecessary things before using this app and one of the cool concepts of this app is about saving that every little amount of change estimated when you spent money and put that into investing which is called roundup. Roundup is nice and easygoing concept but I like to keep track of my investing so I rather invest one time of a much bigger amount. I think of this app as a saving account because it somehow does a much better job at keeping my mind focus on actually saving money and what's important. Of course it is just my opinion and not for everyone if they're already saving money wisely and have great money management. However, The amount of money I put in Acorn have give me dividends that way offset the fee they charged so far. In other words I am also making small progress and profits in the two months that I used Acorn. You guys have to realize is that nothing is free and of course there is a fee so look into that carefully before deciding on this or anything. Everyone is trying to make money one or another but what's matter is the concept and the realization you get out of it when you invest. I see all these nonsense reviews and giving Acorn a one star or less than five on such small issues that can be explained or fixed if you have patience. It's not like they take your money and ran off with it. Get your life and plans together first and not blame others so right off the bat. Anyhow, my plan is long term but I will of course see how well it do in a year span and whether or not Acorn has any controversies. So far very great app at helping me see the long term goals in life! Whether or not it holds true is yet to be seen. If I haven't came across this app I would been spending money so recklessly and not realized how much a dollar adds up over the months and year. Anyone would say of course it adds up idiot but they don't ACTUALLY REALIZE it does add up. I have an example: Say you donate TWO DOLLARS($2) a week to the church every Sunday mass that would be about EIGHT DOLLARS($8) a month and NINETY-SIX DOLLARS($96) a year roughly. And that's just two dollars a week. Now imagine a person spent how much on luxury of eat out and other unnecessary things a month almost every month for a year.. Believe I made my point. In conclusion, I want to thank everyone in the Acorn company for making Acorn possible and whether I become rich with this is another story. What I get and realized out of this is already valuable by itself. Thank you guys again and keep up the good work. And Happy 4th of July!

I have had this account for almost 3 years now (UPDATE: 5 years now). It is nice to have an app that will do the math for rounding up the difference of what you spend and transfer it to a savings account. It doesn’t cost much since it is only $1 per month subscription fee. (UPDATE: service is now $3 a month.)

Until the recent update, it was nice being able to look at all of my transactions made on all my credit cards that were linked up with Acorns. Heck, 2 years ago I was able to spot a fraudulent charge on one of my accounts and get that resolved before it became a bigger issue. Acorns customer service was really good at helping me figure out the details of that fraudulent transaction, I even received calls from them and spoke to a customer service rep.

However, the last couple times I have emailed them regarding and issue, I have not received a response. They recently updated the app and now I am only able to see the last 2 most recent transactions. Unless I “round-up” those transactions, I cannot see any others. Well, once I have 2 transactions that require a full $1 “round-up” I cannot see any other transactions and I am not going to “round-up” full dollar transactions.

Since I have sent out an email asking how to see all of my transactions (about 4 days ago), I have not heard anything from Acorns except from an automated message stating that they have a high volume of email they are responding to. This is the same message I received before when I did not get any other responses.

Furthermore, I have had issues with a “linked” account and the issue has not been resolved even though when I try to click the link to resolve it, I get a message stating that the account has been “re-linked.” It has not. I emailed customer service about this and have not received a response.

The company has grown too big to keep up with customers’ questions, and I am ready to close this account. There are other apps which do the same as Acorns without charging a monthly fee. I have given them 2 stars because of the the horrible update and the 2 or 3 times I have emailed my concerns without responses from customer service. Therefore, they have 3 strikes. Had I received timely responses and the update wasn’t so horrible, I would give it 5 stars.

UPDATE 9/29

They still don’t have their [censored] together! Plus, they raised their monthly fee from $1 to $3 a month.

Why should I pay $3 a month when I have to unlink and link my account every freaking month. I don’t save as much as I should be with an app that actually works as it promises.

I’m done! I am not paying $36 a year if the app can’t even save me $50 a year on autonomous mode.

This should be a brainless and hassle free service for the price you want to charge.

One of the great appeals to new users of the acorns app is the “found money” option. This allows you to get cash back by choosing from various offers that acorns makes from a wide variety of companies/retailers. I have used found money multiple times and know how to “follow the rules” to properly complete the transaction (involves clicking a link and completing your purchase within the same uninterrupted session), so I do have experience with this facet of the app.

In short:
I properly completed a found money transaction, and acorns is claiming that I did it incorrectly and will not give me the cash back offer.

Details:
I found an acorns offer for $15 cash back through a picture framing company called Framebridge. I made the ~$80 purchase on 6/19 after spending a couple days deciding on the design. In order for the offer to be redeemed properly, you HAVE to click the offer, and complete your order within that session, I obviously did this, and have done it multiple times before with other offers.
Now comes the part that should keep everyone very nervous about using found money. I notified them that the found money cash back offer was not being processed, gave them the info they asked for, and their engineers got back to me saying “After checking with my team, it looks like the found money link was selected on 7/2, rather than the date of your purchase, 6/19.” So they informed me that they will not complete the promotion. I called to explain how it does not make sense that I would click the offer (for the first time) almost 2 weeks after my purchase. I had never heard of Framebridge before found money-the only way I had learned about it was through the Acorns offer. So obviously their software is extremely incorrect if it recorded my first click being on 7/2.
Anyway, this isn’t about the $15 refund that they won’t abide by. It’s about their grossly incorrect software giving them information that doesn’t make sense. I can’t help but wonder how often this happens to people, and how often they just say sorry, we’re going to trust our software over the customer’s word. I have 100% confidence that if they looked closer into the issue they would see their software is reporting this case to them incorrectly. There is absolutely no way I selected the offer link 2 weeks after my purchase. I can’t even fathom why it recorded a random date 2 weeks later...?

If you are attracted to the idea of found money:
Due to their inability to see this situation clearly I would recommend using one of the other dozen apps like acorns out there.
I will certainly be closing my account with acorns. Shifting the funds to any of the other passive savings apps I have makes more sense than staying with an app that doesn’t put the customer first.

I used this and did recurring investments. Seemed good. Suddenly, they still take money out of my checking account for round ups from OTHER linked accounts. But the checking acct says "mfa infraction. Error". Besides the fact my pin always never works, I logged INTHE SUPPOSED ENCRYPTED APP and put in support request ((they turn off phone 10 min early)) which INCLUDED MY PERSONAL INFO! The jerk agent emailed with INSECURED EMAIL, saying "can't help u tip u tell me name SSN ETC! Are you kidding me. A detail bug/error SENT FROM WITHIN AN ENCRYTED APP WITH MY NAME ACCT NUMBER and this customer service ASKED PERSONAL DETAILS THAT COULD EASILY COMPROMISE ME ON AN INSECURE EMAIL! I responded were they nuts and I pointed out how this didn't Make sense since I use their secure app and had my information on that. Their response exact same thing give them my Social Security number name data birth. I'm dumping my shares I have a tiny 6% gain on $1200 that would've been tens of thousands had they shown that they were secure overtime but they show no care whatsoever to hire people who would even think about fixing an issue. And I still don't know what an MF A error is with my bank when my bank has no problem whatsoever and my bank is very suspicious of them and that request and that error but everything worked fine up until about 10 days ago but they violated the contract of roundups so anyone looking for a class-action lawsuit I'm willing to lead it or be a part of it JW are my initials and my email address is my username and I use AOL.com and have for 30 years but I referred people to this and I won't be held responsible for them losing money because of this ridiculousness where they have some support teams asking for personal information that hackers can use to be sent to them on unsecure websites ridiculous and still no answer do as to why my pin number stop working then I called got a new one then change it again and suddenly it stopped working again and now the only way to access it is to login with the password are in an app the father and son who started this don't seem to be watching what's going on at the bottom rung's so my guess is they're going to take that 23 million they just got and run and do what you want with your money but I'm removing mine and everything I said is true and not slanderous or libelous I can prove every word of it but when you can't get a simple answer and you have support from my suppose it secure website or company that needs to be secure asking for information over an unsecure email that's a problem. Sorry about the fake reviews below from their own company but this one's a real onejust look at their standard responses were even a good response they messed up and put their standard response something is wrong

I’ve been using Acorns since the beginning. For the basic saving/super basic investing app, it’s good. Certainly plenty of room for improvement. I got the checking account with debit card right when they came out and have been using it as my primary account since then. Most of the time, I don’t have issues. Except for when I want to transfer money from my Invest account to my Spend account. NOT POSSIBLE! I know, a banking app that wants you to transfer money OUT to another account is required. Then, I can transfer money from my other, separate account with a Credit Union, back into my Spend account within Acorns. Meanwhile, at least 5 days has gone by, with my money in limbo. The performance of the Invest account, is mediocre, at best. You’re talking 3-4% gains on an aggressive portfolio. Meanwhile, Vanguard, a collection of stocks you can invest in by purchasing one of many Vanguard stocks, performs more than triple that on average. And Robinhood also offers a debit card now. So I’ll end up switching my primary account to Robinhood so I can invest and spend from the same account, with WAY better returns, and just as safe. And Not have to wait 5-10 days to access transferred money. The round-ups is cool, and adds up pretty quickly, surprisingly, without noticing I’m any lower on spending money. Another problem is trying to link this acorns account with any other app. Example, NerdWallet or any other budgeting app. Can’t link. None of my friends who use acorns can either. Also, I cannot transfer money directly from acorns to Robinhood or fidelity for real investing. I have to transfer to my credit Union first, then to Robinhood. Another 5-10 days of limbo. Anyone that knows stocks knows time of the essence on many trades. 5-10 days makes a difference. So with this lacking many features that they don’t seem to be addressing, because they seem to be focused more on creating a 401k for people, than to address the issues that would make this app/company more of a real value to me, and many others who may read this review. Just download Robinhood, buy any of the top Vanguard stock, and you’ll get a much better return on your investment. And they still offer a debit card with no fees. And your company probably already does a 401k that matches a certain percentage of money invested, so do that. It’s a lot better! Acorns is becoming good for a niche market, but not great. It used to be great for many people, for the few things it did. They do too much now, and not enough of what’s most important in accounts/money management. Unfortunately, I’ll be transitioning my accounts to Robinhood. These are NOT new issues. It’s been this way since the beginning. Just thought they’d fix the little things that make sense for a financial company like Acorns. They did not. It’s been years. Not weeks or a few months with basic issues. Years. Get better.

I downloaded this app with very high hopes regardless of the Negative comments I had found upon doing my research before downloading. I have had the app for about 6 months and at first it seemed great! I started and completed all the account set up steps. I set up round ups, monthly contributions, and even made a few one time deposits. I used the aggressive portfolio because that’s where I felt the most gains could be made. In the beginning with my one time contributions and apparently heavy spending, it seemed that my money was growing quickly. After month 4 rolled around I was starting to notice that quick/steady increase slowed down. So I decided I wanted to take advantage of the app’s promotional referral bonus. I was very particular about the people I referred and made sure that all of them were in compliance with the rules. After waiting for the reward payout for over a week after it should have been invested into my acorns acct, I decided to reach out. It took 3 different responses to get 1 legitimate in depth response to my issue. Each time
I responded to one of the representatives from acorns I got a friendly response from a different representative. None of which were responded to within 48 hours.(I may be a little particular about this one... but This is people’s money that they are trusting into the association and employees of the app). It would have been nice to feel as if I had actually gotten a response from a person who cared about the finances of their customers from the app but I didn’t get that. I don’t want to get into details about my referral bonus... but I didn’t get it.

Aside from poor customer service, the app itself isn’t entirely “foolproof”. It took me a good while of studying the app and clicking through the different pages before I felt comfortable with what what it had to offer. Until the day I decided to withdraw my funds I can say I never fully felt confident in the apps interface to display the different layers of information effectively/clearly. I found myself going back and forth often.

Finally once I withdrew my funds I went back into the app to make sure nothing could be attached to my financials. I turned off recurring payments/roundups and unlinked my cards. Unfortunately it still shows my bank in the app with the last numbers of my acct number. Telling me that it’s linked somehow still. I went to click on the literal “close account” button after this and the next page I was brought to was a contact support page. This is what triggered me to write this review. I was planning on withdrawing my funds deleting the app and moving on with my day. But the fact that I have to deal with contacting their crap service team just to close my account and ensure they will not charge me any fees was truly the last amount of patience I could put into the app.

I suggest anyone not to waste their time like I have here. You’re far better off investing your money into either IRA or other mutual fund. But acorns is not the one if you’d like to see real growth.

Great tool to help beginners save. But that’s about it.

I rate 6mo ago or whenever fees were installed at 4/5*** now more of a 31/2

This is all my personal opinion this is one of my few reviews on apps.

When you brought out the card and who wants another card in your wallet dded with the additional costs even on the Roth IRA which I can get managed for free on other trading platforms, brokerages.
But one main issue I realized was its faster to sell or buy on dips and rises where this app...and no explanation of the margins money on the switch of portfolios
This app is good for people willing to get the card but without it if your not investing a minimum of 60$a month plus round ups it’s hard to make money and this goes to my stress test below.
(I understand not a long term savings,but depending on the money you have you can either buy gold bars, or accept those high yield savings accounts.)

I wish any linked card was investing in those percentages of the corporations not the personal acorns card it seems like what square cash app is developing, rolling out.
I loved the idea I think You found the niche market you all have had and there’s certain markets to grow or expand but I think with all the partners you have there’s different alternatives you can pursue. When you show what each dollar is invested in then anyone can make their own, also depending on portfolio and trying to switch it the transition price you sell and buy at I have knowledge of.
I truly believe you have a great beginning business model, company and people are extremely satisfied when it was created during a bull market then everyone’s making money. Of course!

I work in risk management, so I believe the stress test you use to align with the portfolio is not as in depth for investors. Along with maybe showing more portfolios if I don’t want to be in global index but I don’t want just strictly bonds. I think the portfolios can be automated in to where the investor can make there portfolio EX: moderate aggressive,
Blue chip US 20% but I want the small caps to be matched 24% 48% add Gold, bonds, notes and etc. 8% real estate
In my opinion I’m sorry but the generic emails are some what korny and almost continue to remind me information I already know, and asking clients to please stay on and keep your account. I may come back to the app if I saw changes.

Pros:
-if you have the app, then get the card the benefits are good.
-Base idea was solid for beginner investors but don’t expect a huge return, understand where each dollar is going which they do a good job of showing
-If you have loose change it does add up but don’t get emotional

Cons:
-It’s not a brokerage account or a guaranteed savings
-Doesn’t show margins and may take almost a full business week if you switch portfolio
-When I closed my account I believe I got charge their extra 3$ because I had to wait till my withdrawal processed to close the account
-Emails only make the clients that don’t often look at their acorns acct look at it more and become emotional
-Limited control and access to different portfolios, stress test
-You can’t use personal linked credit or debit cards to get cash back only the acorns card

My review originally was very positive. Since then I have had some new developments that are key in my opinion to customer experience which I rate now a negative 5. This all began with my funding source change. It is not unusual to change banks as the customer service can be hit or miss these days. How fitting! So I chose back in early June to switch banks. As a result you do the update new accounts process with everything associated with the old accounts before you close them. Acorns was one of those accounts. So I did all the upload the old/new funding source requests via app voided check blah blah. Then I kept getting please verify new funding source again and again with the same info requested. So I reached out to customer service and got an email stating that because of the type of funding source I had previously I needed to fill at a form letter to confirm Im the sole owner of the account and if not my account would be closed. I responded immediately with the form letter filled out 6/29. I noticed a few days ago I was getting the verify funding source again. Frustrated as all get out I sent another inquiry to customer service and got a request for the same form letter to be filled out. So I sent the same letter as previously requested and sent before again today 8/13. Note all of my addresses, contact info etc has remained the same except my bank info obviously. At this point I am very disappointed to say the least. But what is more frustrating is the lack of someone just picking up the phone to try to get to the bottom of the problem at
my request. This is like you do not know how good your insurance is until you have to really use it. In this case customer service receives a "F". A business should strive to excel in all categories of service.
Pick up the phone once in awhile! Maybe take some lessons from the company running the app store as they seem to be rocking it out.

The response from the developer has nothing to do with my situation. I am changing my funding source to a personal account. My original funding source was linked to a NON CORP business account DBA, Sole proprietor. Acorns assumed it was Corporate account when I requested to change to a new personal account funding source at a new bank. So they requested I send/sign a form saying the original funding source was my account as it always had been. Stepping up the customer service? If need to call you call this number! So I am trying to still figure out what you are telling me I can do or not do with, "Oh holy cow MY MONEY"! Pathetic , still not an attempt by ACORNS to contact me over by phone as requested
over I guess my confusion?
Not resolved!

So I received a developer response still talking around the problem. This was about assigning a new funding source to an already existing account. This has never been an issue of trying to link a EIN business or any business account as a new funding source! Weak response in that this does not even echo my last phone conversation customer support.
On another note the can debit your account in less than a day but it takes up to 6 business days not calendar days to withdraw. Funny, thought it was still my money!

To whom it may concern:

I felt that it’s time for me to express gratitude and assistance with the growth of the company, hopefully. I’m almost 40, single and childless, most say why; but mainly because I am ambitious and goal oriented...so, sorry. However, I have lived a life of consumer driven companies and thriving in the wake of the “e-commerce” age. So, I know a thing or two about how to make companies more profitable. I’m very exquisite when it comes to accounting, excel, pivot tables, expense reports, Human Resources, hiring, firing, rebuilding, coding, analyzing, assessing, managing, reporting, recording, projecting, root cause analysis, preventive maintenance, equipment operating, sales, procurement, ownership, rent, quotas, liabilities, insurance, OSHA, fire marshals and on and on and on and on...blah,blah,blah. I know enough to make you sick, trust me, my last boss was a naval academy test pilot, with an aviation degree, a degree from Harvard and wait for it ...M.I.T. So, I can fully understand, relate and apply the newest concepts and ideas in the worlds of business... However, from an institutional level, the consumer shouldn’t be asking themselves questions like
: How do I know how much I’ve invested and how much have I gained? I know these are simple questions, but from a company’s mindset (which I’m thoroughly knowledgeable in); I shouldn’t be asking simple questions like that. You’re company’s goal is help people moderately invest in their future, without them changing their lifestyle. I applaud you for you ideas, concepts and innovations; I believe in what you are trying to doing. However, for the average, which I am not, but I’m well versed in applied economics from a small business aspect to a multi billion corporation. With that wisdom, and also because I would like for both of us to succeed in this financial journey together; I feel that it is my obligation to express my view, from the consumer side of things. The app, is very misleading and hard to follow, point blank! The analytical breakdown has to be more user friendly, similar to etrade, but with a commercial/consumer side; like you’ve already done. Again, not an aspect that I fully grasp on the app either, it needs to feel more rewarding and gratifying. What am I getting out of those companies? What am I benefiting from them by investing/shopping with them? Again, very unclear and very convoluted, the concept is sound but not structured well. Lastly, this point of view is coming from your long term investors, such as myself. I’ve been using your app for about three months, I contribute weekly on top of my round ups. I’m not looking to get rich quick, I strictly is the app to save my money and that’s it. I don’t explore the withdraw options because that’s not the idea of the app. If you want it to work, you have to use it properly, that’s not supernatural, it’s mathematics. I don’t want to get into a rant, because believe me, I can work a soapbox. I commend you for your vision and I believe in it, but we, the consumers, cannot fully accessorize the full potential of the app because it’s functions are not user friendly.

With all due respects,
Bradley McCampbell

Update: 8.4.15
Losing money still -
-1.73% now and previous was
-2.97%
I just sent them an email:
We need a way to make money with this app, as we are constantly losing money. Please listen to the reviewers out there. We are in the trenches using an app that was created by your company to help better all futures for those investing. If we are not able to make any money. What's the point of investing? I also know the market fluctuates, but it doesn't go down hill, an continue. Unless of course bad investing. Which is why some are changing services. I wanted to like Acorns and if I can make more in a simple savings account, I may as well take out the funds and transfer to that. Hope Acorns hears us out.. It hasn't helped or improved yet. I'm just glad I haven't invested more into this.

Update: 7.9.15
Losing money still -
-2.97% now and previous was -2.52%. Have made decision to pull money once the increase has happened. Acorns had made emails to kinda state reasons for this downfall, I'm tired of losing money with this app. There are other better ways to invest. I highly recommend all to look elsewhere. Their fees are ridiculous.

- - - -
Update:6.29.15
Losing even more money since I have written the previous review. They are playing with your money and helping you lose by limiting your gains. It appears they have dropped my gains even more. I have now lost over 2.52%. This app is horrible, I respectfully tell anyone looking at it to look elsewhere. This is very unnerving to have a continual loss. Really no gains? Come on help us invest and grow. It must not be in your roots.
- - - - - -
Update:6.16.15
Losing money daily, have a little over 800 invested in last 10 months. Once I get a small gain, will most likely be pulling all money and placing over at SIGFIG. This app is not worth the hassle. They don't know how to manage funds. As a investor I like to try new things and like most are hit and miss. This is s miss by a long shot. They need to hire someone to better manage fund allocations and how they are invested. If I can't make any money on something in a year, time to call it quits.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
When depositing funds, it shows false gains for the following 3-5 days as it makes it way back down to the real number. As in time for next new deposit and starts all over again. Very annoying and highly misleading to us, as consumers of your product offering. This should be illegal as it falsely shows these gains. I'll be surprised if they are not sued on this very thing. Currently @ highly aggressive and only seeing return of 2.1%... Not bad, but this number should be more in the 7-9%. If I go down to moderate or moderately aggressive I see 1.5- 2% respectively. Not much of a difference between the allocation portfolios. I know the %allocated is different for each section of funds but what's the point of doing highly aggressive if you're going to see same or similar results at moderate.
Re-allocation of funds - and better fund offerings is the only way it will change these %'s.
Also altering the funds at each level, not just changing the % of each.

Hopefully acorns reads these reviews and are willing to hear us out.. Otherwise nothing will change and they will laugh merrily to the bank as they have made their money.

To say I’m disappointed is the understatement of the year!

I use my debit card for EVERYTHING these days and thought this would be a great idea! I save my spare change in a jar and when it’s full, I average $125 per jar of “found money” And they’ll invest it for you? This will be great! Or so I thought.

So, I sign up, link my bank account and made an initial $100 investment to start out and then went on to set up my “linked cards” which is not, as one would think, just entering in your card number. You link them through your login to their website. Ok. So I think, I’m an old lady who has crossed that technology threshold and I just don’t understand how the technology works. Whatever.

STRIKE ONE: I find out that my bank (Eastern Bank) is not supported. But it’s still “looks” like it’s an option since you can actually select “Eastern Bank: Home Connect” and attempt to login, but then get an error message. So I contacted customer support and 24 hours later I was told:

“it appears as though Eastern Bank does not support our Round-Up technology...Although you cannot Round-Up transactions from this account, you are still able to invest through recurring and one-time investments.”

Well…yeah…I CAN…but that’s not why I signed up or this app over another lets face it – more legit investment apps. In the meantime, I had added the cards I COULD add…because…well. Why not?

STRIKE TWO: So they say that you can “set it and forget it” and there’s even a little video that says you can just go on and have your latte and Acorns will automatically invest the spare change. Which would be great, if it were true.

When the “Round-Ups” appear in you account, which takes far too long in my opinion, you have to then select them in a two-step process to add them to be invested. And then you have to wait until you reach $5.00 before it actually gets invested. Which, I understand, but again, is NOT how they claim it works

OK, so I thought, well, I can still do the monthly investment and go from there. After my bank account was verified and I FINALLY had some money invested, I immediately LOST $0.22. Which, again I understand, it’s the market and nothing to do with Acorns, but it just didn’t bode well in my mind.

STRIKE THREE: So trying to justify having singed up for this app that doesn’t do what they said it would – I decided to try their “found money” feature. This is awesome! I thought. You click though links and can get a percentage of your purchase amount (or set dollar amount with purchase) put into your acorns account to invest. Great! Or so I thought. So I made a couple of purchases and waited to see my bounty show up in my account. And waited. AND waited….so I decided to go to the support page and see if they had info about how long this would take to appear in my account. 90-120 DAYS?!?!? Are you freaking kidding me? In this day of instantaneous everything, how on gods green earth does it take NINETY DAYS minimum for this to happen? Even with the slow bank time thrown in?

That’s it for me Acorns. I’m a nice person. I tried to overlook your flaws and really tried to make this relationship work. I just can’t take the lies and deceit. But let me say, it’s definitely YOU and not me.

So I go to close my account and my “withdrawal” is going to take 3-6 days to show up in my account. *SIGH of course it is.

This isn't about the app (which is amazing), this is about the investment service. I don't think most people are deciding whether to get this app based solely on UI.

For 90% of the people considering using Acorns, you can just pretend my review is 5 stars. This app really lowers the barrier to investing, letting younger and less affluent people take advantage of compound interest.

Ignore what people say about losing money. They talk about the scale of 10 months, while reliable gains in equities will take 10-20 years. In fact, even including the 2008 recession, if you'd deposited equal amounts every year to their "moderately aggressive" allocation, since the 1970's, you would have had a compounding 19% growth rate (not even including dividends!). Try and beat that with your savings account!

Now for the bad: I'm not sure how solid their allocation is. REITs make up a significant portion (up to ¼!) of their asset allocation, and I personally think their desirable qualities - specifically, super high dividend yields - are much better left in IRAs and out of taxable accounts, since you have to pay ordinary income taxes on those dividends. In addition, this is the only robo-advisor that has ZERO developed market allocation - so none of your money will profit from gains in Europe, Australia, or Japan. These countries have underperformed in the past, explaining the choice in excluding them, but nobody can say with certainty that they won't outperform in the future.

I also am not fond of their choice in corporate bond ETF. Pimco's CORP seems poorly managed and has underperformed with greater risk compared to iShare's LQD or Vanguard's VCIT. Since every other fund is Vanguard or iShares, it makes me wonder if any underwriting caused them to choose CORP instead. Also, tax efficiency-wise, I find it surprising that they didn't go with municipal bonds, since their dividends are not subject to regular taxes.

Acorns can also change their portfolio on a dime without telling you, and then rebalance the next day. I noticed that they changed my bond allocation and forced the sale of a number of shares to that effect.

Finally, a lot of the services that make an advised investment service worth the money - tax efficiency, for example - have been thrown out the window. If they rebalance or you need to withdraw, they sell the first share you purchased first, and continue, oldest to newest. That means they will most likely reap a lot of gains before losses. In addition, if you produce losses through rebalancing or withdrawing your money, they have no ability to protect those losses (since they have no alternate tickers), and will most likely wash over every single loss with dividend reinvestments.

For most, however, I think Acorns may be the way to go. You can really start with basically no money, and "set it and forget it" - if you just set a recurring transfer and hook up your cards, you can delete the app and forget you have it for a few years while market changes will invariably cause your money to grow. Fees are a bit high, especially considering how little Acorns seems to offer in the way of added investment value besides fractional shares and rebalancing, but for their target demographic, I think their service generally excels. We can expect them to continue innovating into the future as well, bringing improvements with each update.

I have been locked out of my account. The customer service representative informed me the ONLY way to access my account, is to send them a screen shot of my bank account (which would include my balance and my bank statements/history). Evidently this is the only acceptable way for their business to confirm my identity...and it's 'for my security' (LOL). According to them, an attempt was made to transfer a large amount of money to my account and they need to make sure it was me (If it was large enough to be suspicious I don't think it was, unless I made a mistake). Not sure why I should feel threatened by money going IN my account? Unless it was part of a plot to get my bank statements and all my bank info... This protocol is treating customers like criminals 'For their security'. It's very suspicious and most certainly not the safest or most ethical way it could be handled. The only way to contact anyone to resolve any issue is through automated emails, or call centers. Everyone has strong foreign accents, very difficult to understand. There are no managers reachable through call centers. 'sorry' 'I understand how you feel' 'that's all I can do' were the only responses I got from them. As of now it seems my options are: A) lose my money to Acorns or B) give up all my info and maybe get my money, but definitely have to open a new bank account and transfer all my funds first, then close that one after and just hope my identity will be safe. There are plenty of ways I can prove my identity which I would appreciate and understand and comply with. This is a no for me. I strongly regret investing with acorn! HIGHLY recommend NOT doing business with them. UPDATE: The suspicious 'large amount' turned out to be $100, which was in fact me. I had moved and my address was not updated so it caused some confusion I guess. After a ComplaintsBoard.com complaint, a month or so of a huge hassle: responding to emails several times and being sent the same automated email over and over, claiming I didn't respond; attempts to close my complaint ticket with the ComplaintsBoard.com claiming they have not been able to reach me; wasted time calling and being hung up on and having to call and wait to get through again... AND this issue was FINALLY resolved. I was contacted by a REAL person I could understand and he was able to confirm my identity the right way and get my account closed I'm opening the champagne now, CHEERS! Little piece of advice if this happens to anyone else, If you try to respond to acorns emails, make sure it gets sent and doesn't go to your drafts. Mine didn't work until I stopped using 'reply' and typed a new email and the email address. Somehow my email wouldn't recognize the recipient until I did that... As long as my money is returned to my account in the 3-4 business days promised I will be grateful. My biggest suggestion to Acorn is to use an authentication app or something else from now on, to make this a much easier issue to deal with for Acorns and those who still support them. I believe businesses that focus more on what they have to offer people than they do on their profits, will consequently be more profitable and sustainable. In conclusion, I am very relieved and grateful to Acorns for choosing to return my money in a practical and ethical way and I hope to see them grow and evolve from these issues. I believe this business could be great for everyone involved. Best of luck!

Trying to change my name (got married) proved to be challenging to even find a way to contact them. They need proof of a name change - no problem. I also wanted to change my funding source because my old bank was bought out and I rarely use that account since then. Apparently the type of account that is my funding source is not an approved account type. Now they need all this documentation to change my funding source. I don’t have many of what they are asking. So now I want to cancel my account and move to a different investment vehicle. They won’t give me my money without providing said documents to switch to an approved funding account. What?! It’s great as an easy way to investment spare change without much effort. However if you need help or want your money out (which I never intended to do until I retire (20+ years from now)) good luck. Now that I think about this... this “new technology “ is probably not something to put my investments in and expect it to be around and legitimate in 20+ years. At least other online brokers have real investment advisors that you can work with. It isn’t dependent solely on an app with no real humans behind it. My other investment accounts give me full control in real time over my money. This was just an extra investment account because it was easy and just bonus money. Now I am at their mercy to get my $5K out. Wish me luck...

***UPDATE - Still 1 Star. The developers response is contrary to truth. THEY were in NON Compliance when I originally set my account up. Now that I want to change, they realized it and need ME to jump through hoops to fix their non compliance issue. I am now getting responses but certainly not timely... my app is locked in the “you can’t do anything until you verify the amounts we deposited”. Except they didn’t deposit anything... I’ve told them about this numerous times and no response to that and still locked out with no options to verify again, remove that funding source or add a different one. Customer Service said they would manually do a withdrawal. I wanted my Core account withdrawal. I requested that 3 days ago (were 90% of my money is) but instead after another reminder yesterday they sent confirmation that that initiated the withdraw on my Later Account. This account only has $500 in it and is subject to withdrawal penalties. Only THEY didn’t tell me or disclose this, I know this is the case because it is an IRA type of account. 90% of my money is still locked up with Acorns and still no sell initiation has been done on my stocks. My other investment account happens in real time and I’m in control. They better hope that whenever they get around to initiating the sell request that my stocks have gone up and now down from the day I requested. Keep documentation folks! Take screenshots of the app that doesn’t work. Also, the debit card... guess who gives you no help if you card number is stolen and used fraudulently?! You got it! Acorns! They offer a little button in the app (assuming it will work for you at that time) to lock the card. Good luck finding someone and having them help get your money back... I literally recommended this app to many people because it was an easy way to do extra investing (hopefully this isn’t your only investment) but it is a really really bad idea! Get a real account and have it just auto invest weekly. I don’t see this company being around in 5 years. Think about that as you plan for your retirement (most of their customers are younger which means 30+ years before retirement). Run from them! If you are already in, you’ll need patience getting out but please do it before you need to. BTW: I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed an app before. This one is just that bad...

Another Update: I don’t have questions about HOW it works. I get HOW it works, the problem is that IT DOESN’T WORK. No deposits were made and now I am stuck. The app doesn’t do what it/you (the developer)/the FAQ’s say it does. I can no longer even log in after complaining. Weird and still don’t have my money nor access to the $5K I’ve invested so far. Two weeks now...

I have had my account going on 4 years. I requested a withdrawal. Unfortunately, my checking account was compromised so I had to send in my bank statements from the closed and new account, which I did. I asked the representative what the turn around time, and he's said 3 business days. Well 3 business days later...no funds. Called and asked for a supervisor and was told that I would receive a callback in 24 hours. Asked what happened to the transfer and no response and I still have to wait 3 to 5 business days for the withdrawal. This was supposed to be my emergency fund. Well the emergency has passed and I will be penalized because I assumed that the withdrawal would be here by now. As soon as I can close this account I will. Nobody wants to do their job or take responsibility when mistakes are made.

Only try using this if it’s free for you or if you can really afford to experiment. I thought this would be perfect for me because I’m poor, work tons of freelance contract jobs, I’m never going to have a traditional retirement fund, don’t know anything about investing, etc. It was only $2 a month so worth a try. But an unfortunate side effect of being poor was I wasn’t really generating enough roundups to justify the monthly fee. So after trying it awhile, and running into money problems I decided to withdraw my $25 and close my account. When I clicked on “close account” it said I couldn’t just do that because I have multiple accounts so I have to email them and get help. This seems 100% unnecessary. Why isn’t there just an option to close them all? Or close them one at a time by myself? No, you have to contact Acorns. But they won’t just let you e-mail. First you have to click on all the help topics which encourage you to simply click “close account.” Which of course I tried to do in the first place. When I try to click “email instead” nothing happens. One time, somehow, I actually managed to get to the email screen and wrote that I wanted to withdraw my money and close all my accounts and stop using Acorns. I waited a few business days and apparently I was able to withdraw the money but my accounts are still open and still trying to use roundups? Now not knowing what I’m doing is becoming a huge problem because apparently I might be in danger of overdrawing from my personal account because investments are still turned on? Needless to say I have serious regrets about experimenting with something I had no clue about and trusting it would be safe and handy for novices. I just tried again to unsuccessfully close my accounts and I’m just so frustrated. Why must everything be SUCH a hassle?

Having spent more time using this application I can say better and more about the downsides of it. I am still unable to use a Discover credit card, something about the higher level of security that Discover requires which prevents a constant link between Acorns and Discover—oh, well, guess I can’t complain about my Credit Card Company being TOO secure. The biggest drawback of this app is that you’re, for the most part, dealing with small sum investments, which seams great because you would think that earning something back (even if it is a couple cents here and there) is better than just letting money sit without earning anything at all. But, because small investments don’t yield all that much within a single month, whatever you really end up earning is zeroed out by the monthly dollar fee (that is if you even earn a dollar worth of returns in a month). The app is a great if only you plan on making a somewhat large investment or if it works ideally (but, come on, nothing is ideal) and you will always run the risk of losing (just like any other investment anywhere else). Really, it’s just a great way to force yourself to save. But I don’t expect to truly make profits off investing. At this point, I really just expect to lose some change each month. Which, if you really think about it, is just the price you pay to use the app. So, no harm, no foul, but I don’t see the use in the app if you aren’t earning anything that they aren’t taking. Not to mention, unlinking your funding source isn’t as easy as just selecting “unlink”, which is very sketchy. Closing you’re account still seems to allow them access to your funding source, which you cant unlink yourself. So I really do not trust this company. I would advise against using this application as there seems to be many unknowns and false reviews.

I don’t recommend this app to anyone. This company doesn’t honor their clients and customer service never responded to questions, especially the harvest team.

About two months I saw that acorns was advertising a bank fee reimbursement program. After I signed up and followed through with the steps for the reimbursement I received an email with a header called “reimbursement receipt” although there was no number disclosed in the email. In the email I was told the harvest team would follow up in the next 2-3 business days after they calculated their own fees for the program. Well, since then I have never gotten an actual amount for the reimbursement nor was I told which account my money would be reimbursed to. As I stated before this is going back to the middle of September.

Since then I have been tried numerous times to get a hold of the harvest department, and all I’ve been told by customer service is a representative from the harvest team will be reaching out. By the way, there’s no number for the harvest team. There is an email but no one responds, there is a web page, but no one responds, and there’s a chat line, but no responds. The only representative you can get a hold of is the general customer service agent. When I asked to escalate this issue and talk to a manager or supervisor I’m told I can not, only they can. It’s a huge problem!

It’s almost as if acorns set up a harvest refund program with no one in charge of it. When I ask to speak to a representative from that team I’m constantly told someone will be reaching out, but no one never actually does. I have been a loyal customer with Acorns since 2016 and all I’m looking for is transparency and I can’t even get that. I will be pulling my money out today.

THIS COMPANY DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CLIENTS. THEY ARE MONEY HUNGRY AND ALL THEY WANT IS YOUR FUNDS.

And customer service is super unhelpful. I've went back and forth with at least 4 different people. There is no way to actually talk to someone. Everyone apologizes but no one cares enough to actually figure out why it's not working. Their advice is basic, how to link your card steps. Not one person has the desire to solve the problem or find someone that can.

I've had acorns for years. It has worked in the past and when it did it was great. I've withdrawn twice in the total of $900. It was a very easy way to have money automatically growing without any work on my part. It now goes entire months without rounding up one single charge. But the app always says card is linked, round ups are on, toggle is green. And it's not my bank doing this. Acorns has access to my bank account and they charge me every month without fail. The most recent customer support employee seemed like they were going to help. Their response sounded like they finally got it and they were ready to resolve. But all that has changed is now I get a daily email warning me that my round ups aren't working and I need to relink my card. I follow the steps. Relink is successful, Roundups on, toggle green. Next day, I get a new email. Same thing again. It's not working. And I look through my round ups and they're weeks old. New charges are not rounding up. And the weeks old round ups weren't automatic. I had to select them and confirm they be deposited. I'm not even getting that option now. Plus it's supposed to be automatic. Ahhhh! I am so frustrated

I really don't want to cancel. I want this to work so much. I have no choice but to cancel. I can't continue paying them $1 a month to hold $50 in a account that doesn't grow. I don't want customer support apologizing once again. And they better not tell me to contact them. Unless they have a phone number I can call.

Customer service is pretty terrible. The first request was met with “you know there’s a tax penalty”, without explaining anything like that I could simply rollover into another IRA. It felt like a threat and I felt pressured to keep the account open awhile longer.

I decided to rollover to a different service for an IRA and I had to request my acorns later account be closed another three times. Each time I got a response from three different people—so there’s no consistency. The first of these three times I was told I had dividends that needed to settle and I understood. I waited for the funds to settle and when they did I reached back out. Got a different person and they said it would take 1-2 business days.

Seven days passed and nothing happened, so I replied to the email like they said I could. I simply asked if there was a step I missed. I had withdrawn a majority of the funds and the dividends were mere cents and I was told they would be liquidated. A different person responded to my reply and a minute later the account immediately closed. That person also said they received my request to close my “core and later accounts”, which is not what I asked. I only wanted my later account closed. I was worried they would close my core too, but they didn’t. That was incredibly confusing and it felt like they just didn’t read my email in the first place.

It took so much just to close my later account, I then thought why bother keeping my core account? So I closed that too. I’m waiting for my core money to finally deposit into my account and I hope it all comes in like it should. They owe me my money back.

If customer service were more consistent and friendly, I would’ve been much happier with the experience. This left me with a seriously negative impression of acorns.

Definitely do your research before starting accounts with them.

So recently I downloaded acorns and only because of the fact that it seems to be an app to invest in stocks and bonds EASE FREE. Well that’s at glance of what it seems, underneath there are many errors underlying their code, on top of that they will freeze your account and stop all investments if you happen to accidentally click the one time investment & your funding source happens to lack the funds. I’m mostly talking about the referral program being a scam, I recently got 2 people to sign up and all of a sudden this morning my $10.07 that was in my account from the 2 referred people disappeared, on top of that none of the new people I got to join using my link have showed up although they sent me pictures showing proof that they have their $5 distributed to them. I have my account linked and verified so there should be ZERO issues on that end since it’s been set up and processed. Now from my understanding they just seem to be scamming and getting people to sign up without actually giving us our deserved referrals. I mean who’s not gonna jump on top of a $1,000 referral bonus and only have to get 10 people to invest $5? It’s literally the easiest GRAND to make, yet they don’t have their stuff together so it might not even fully process for me before the month is up. It’s crazy how terrible the customer support is as well, I’ve literally emailed them from the email account associated with my acorns account and they still asked me “verify your info” as if I was using a black listed email from a fake IP address. If I don’t get my $1,000 for successfully doing what’s asked of me I will boycott the profit out of this company and make sure thousands of others don’t use this app for investments, as well as make sure I promote Stash or Robinhood so that no one uses such a terrible app with a crap UI + bad coding along with terrible customer support ☺️

They have a buggy SW that won’t track your referrals (purposely)! The worst part is that the SW developer team knows it and they don’t actually want to fix it because they are taking advantage of it! You may feel like you are making money here and there with the app but when I face these sort of problems, I totally lose my trust to entire application. In good faith, I raised the issue to the customer service and even one of their top managers multiple times (emails and calls) in a hope they move forward with fixing the issue and return the money they owe me but they shamelessly not only ignored my complaint but (even though admitted their SW has a bug) but also put the fault on my end who followed their exact written procedure in T&Cs. I’m telling you people: This is a fraudulent company. I would recommend everyone to cash out ASAP and go with any other app out there for investment before it’s too late. I trusted the app and they took away $515 of mine. They might as well do it to you before you even know it. I’m an ordinary investor like most of you and felt the urgency to share my experience with everyone else. Hope it saves you a trouble ...

Update: The Developer team responded to my comment a day after my post and saying they are so sorry and asking me to send them an email or giving them a call (see below)! For God sake, at least don’t copy paste responses from other complaints! Do some research first! Just go check your inbox where I have sent you 15 emails in the past ~5 weeks asking for your support or even listen to my recorded calls to your “customer service” (Lisa, Ricardo, Rovie ...) and their manager and then come here and act like you care! You had all the time to resolve this and you guys failed big time! In fact, I just found the exact same complaint from another client of yours 2 years ago! Why would I even bother! This is so messed up ...

I used to like this app and have used it for the past few years until recently , after paying bills I was low on money in my bank account which is your “funding source” for depositing into your acorns portfolio and there’s this thing called “round-ups” where they round up to the nearest dollar on every charge to your card and every time it hits $5 or more they automatically invest it into your acorns portfolio . Well I was broke in my bank account until i was supposed to get paid again so I turned off my “round-ups” . The next day I was charged to my account for a round up which then charged me a $34 overdraft fee then the next day they rounded up my overdraft fee and charged a round up to my account for that which incurred ANOTHER OVERDRAFT fee which the also charged a round up for and got me ANOTHER OVERDRAFT fee ! I noticed this by the next day and checks my acorns account and my “round-ups” were on again even though I turned them off to avoid this issue . I emailed support in the app to let them know what was happening and still have got no response and today when I woke up there were 2 more round up charges to my account each including another $34 overdraft fee ! Now this app has ran my bank account down -$477 dollars ! Because they kept rounding up my overdraft charges which got me more overdraft charges on over draft charges and it has been a vicious cycle ! I’m negative almost -$500 in my bank account now and my whole check this week is going to be gone as soon as it hits my bank account because of this and I have all my bills coming up next week . This has been an absolute nightmare and I still don’t know if the charges will stop by tomorrow ! I have paused my funding source and turned off round-ups and everything and I am praying they don’t charge my account again tomorrow ! This is so stressful . I have emailed them now 3 times in the past 2 days and they haven’t responded !

So I deposited a cashiers check. They locked my account when the check was available in my spend account. I got an email asking for proof of why I received the check and what for. So I uploaded the receipt from the check that stated what it was for. Then I received another email saying I had to upload proof that I didn’t cash the check anywhere else. So I asked repeatedly what type of proof did they want because I was unsure of the type of proof since I uploaded a receipt the first time since that is what they asked for to unlock my account. They lied. They never responded with the type of proof they needed. They kept responding with the same thing asking for the proof. So I told them nevermind I will cash it somewhere else that I want in my account closed. Then I noticed they took the three dollars out of my checking account for my subscription after I said I want to the account closed. Directly after that they reversed the check for my spend account and unlock my account. Now they are saying if I want to cash the check anywhere else that they can’t close my accountUntil the check clears which makes no sense because the check is not from them it’s from a different bank so what doesMe cashing the check elsewhere have to do with them closing my account. It all sounds crooked to me. People going to invest with stash there’s so much better a way better bank than Acorny. So I still have an open account with him that I will never use just like I never use it in the first place the only reason I decided to cash the check there is because I work a lot of hours and it was easier just to deposit the check online then going to a brick and mortar. Will never make that mistake again. I think they’re trying to rip me off and that’s why they’re telling me to wait to deposit the check anywhere else because they try and keep the money for themselves. I don’t know I’m thinking maybe I need to contact the FTC...

I would like to be able to say when to automatically stop roundups if my account balance gets below a certain dollar. My account was just over drafted by Acorns, costing me $60. Which blew everything I saved in the last week and then some.

I would also like to be able to select what investments are made. Not necessarily complete control, but maybe ethical investments or personal preference groups. I’m not at all happy with investing in companies like Exxon and am seriously considering using Stash instead because they do offer finer controls.

Fix those two issues, which are actually pretty nasty, and I’ll be a life long user. Don’t fix them and I’ll move on.

EDITED AND UPDATED

Shortly after posting my initial review I picked up a chargeback from the Acorns app, then logged into the app to discover I somehow gone from a $52 Balance to $31 overnight.

I immediately closed my Acorns account and am still waiting, a week later, for my money.

My experiment is done. The concept is brilliant but the app is a complete fail for those who could use it the most. I’m glad I didn’t connect it to my main bank account.

IN RESPONSE

The whole idea of having an automated savings plan is that it is automated.

Seriously, how difficult would it be to add an option that says “Do not withdraw from my bank account if the balance falls below X amount of dollars.”

Sending emails suggesting I suspend my account two days after overdrafting it twice for the same attempted withdraw and then attempting an auto deposit the day after sending those emails is just poor programming.

My having to call the company to get my money returned weeks after I close my account and being told “Sorry, I’m not sure how that happened. We’ll get right on it. Maybe 6-8 business days.” Isn’t just poor programming, its poor accounting.

I’ll say it again, you are on the right track and I might consider trying again in the future. Just not today.

So I first heard about Acorn when Ashton Kutcher promoted it on The Ellen Show, so I figured it had to be legit. Then after reading the negative reviews I was a little leery about the whole thing. But I was like ok it still sounds cool let’s check it out. So I did, I signed up, added my bank account and Agnes my certificate. I also added a $5 investment every Sunday. It said it would be 1-3 to set it up, now mind you the reviews I’m ready say 3-5 days & how ppl we’re waiting a long time. After Acorn starting rounding out my spare change a total of $26 & change, that will process when I’m verified, and the $5 on Sunday. So the next night in my account i see a transfer request for the rounded up monies & the $5 for Sunday (which it’s a Tuesday) in my account which had a $.97 balance. So I’m think oh man I’m going be negative. So I try to contact someone on Acorn to ask why would you do that if I hadn’t been notified I was verified, there’s no number to call only a email that said they were backed up from receiving lots of emails. So I close my account, then I email them again to say I’m closing my account, same no response. Then just like I thought I get not 1 but 3 NSF fees in my account, $35 each! so I’m upset. I’m emailing them again to close my account, same no response. I then finally get a welcome email how to get the best from my account, mind you the account is closed. And then i get a email the next day saying my account is suspended due to the monies not being available, DUH! How can you suspend it if I’ve already closed it several times already. It hadn’t been 3 days, which if it was there would of been money in my account. So then I go in my account & try to email them again that I’m closing the account, same no response. Now day 3 after my account should be closed they try to transfer out an additional $5+ which then adds me another $35 NSF fee. So in total $140 of NSF fees for a closed account that I made no monies from no gain in my income, nothing! Thanks Acorn!

Acorn just sent me an email asking me what I think about their service and here’s what I told them: Acorn performs scammy fraudulent business. I have read the reviews in the Apple store only after I opened an account with Acorn and found that other Apple users have claimed the same or similar experiences with Acorn. It’s a shame because I really wanted to continue to use the services on Acorn but I was sent an email by Acorn days later after I emailed them about how I did not authorize Acorn to take out $250 out of my bank account. I only authorized $25. The app must have errors or glitches. And I was not satisfied with the response I received back. Acorn’s response to my email was that they would still proceed in taking out $250 out of my bank account and they have locked me out of my Acorn account immediately. The response went out to further state that if I wanted my account unlocked, that I would have to submit a bank statement from my bank and a screenshot of the most recent balance and transfer on my Acorn account. First of all, how can I send a screenshot of my Acorn account if Acorn locked me out of my own account and prevents me from logging in? And why would I need to send a screenshot of my most recent balance and transfer of my Acorn account when Acorn already can see this on their system from their end? It is a SCAM to take money from my bank account when it is their app’s errors that caused the unauthorized transfer. And it’s also a SCAM to lock a customer out of their own Acorn account during the transfer to ensure that I don’t have access to my own money. That is fraudulent business, which proves that Acorn can’t be trusted to handle inquiries properly or anything else for that matter. Way to go to make a first impression on a new customer! I’ll be sticking with my regular bank now since they have better customer service and don’t perform scammy business like Acorn.
Word of advice: Stay away from Acorn.
Just download STASH, I’ve heard reviews that they do better than Acorns.

I’ve been an Acorn customer for several years more, but I am ending that and have no desire to ever return. There are many other platforms available that provide the same service, and—even though I’m not making these companies a lot of money with my measly investments—I’d like to think ANY other company would treat me with more respect than Acorn did. PLEASE let me paint a picture: After entering her savings account info by accident and immediately correcting it, my friend/referral’s money came out of the bank on July 11th. It showed in the Acorns app as available on July 15th. The DEADLINE for the reward was July 16th. After hearing I qualified for the reward, I was then told I didn’t because her “investment” had not settled until July 19th. ? *** I was told I qualified for a reward after asking two friends to enroll and spending time walking them through it (AND talking them into trusting Acorn HAHA). I was essentially told that they choose when a deposit is “settled” and they apologized for “any frustration” it may have caused me. After countless emails, I’ve still received nothing but vague emails that ended with a cheerful “one of our support staff will reach out!”. I’ll quote part of the email below. Maybe elsewhere online I can share a screenshot of it. ***I’m sorry, but $500 is quite a bit of money for some of us, especially in this climate of inflation, etc…PLEASE PLEASE don’t get your hopes up over something like this, just to have it yanked back.*** When my friend I referred reached out after they told me they wouldn’t communicate further about why I didn’t qualify, they responded within the hour every time. WHEN I REACHED OUT IT TOOK DAYS. It’s not alright that they’re able to do this. Just please be aware that they probably won’t honor their referral reward, no matter how much effort you put into it. Apparently they set their own rules and don’t have to share any real information as to why. I was really counting on this money and worked hard on it, but they didn’t care about that.

I would strongly recommend against anyone using this app, you can buy ETFs and index funds on your own. My problem with acorns is their disingenuous referral program, where they scam you into signing people up but don’t pay you the big weekly bonuses they promise for doing so. If you happen to sign up the right number of people, make sure you keep their names, phone numbers, and email addresses so in case they ask you to prove it to them that your friends signed up. You must do this even though they send you the $5 referral bonus confirmation emails for the sign ups, within the week specified. I signed up and received the 2 referrals bonuses and met the 2 signee requirements met for two particular weeks where 2 were required for bonuses of $200 and $300. It showed clearly on my app that I received these two sign up bonuses, AND I received email confirmations from those two weeks that I met the requirements, but they never paid out the weeks’ larger bonus. When I inquired why I hadn’t received the bonuses, they told me for a week straight that they needed me to furnish the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of those I signed up. I kept arguing that they had already confirmed on their end that this was the case, and I did indeed show on my app and through my email inbox that the two signees were verified - both within the contest time periods. After arguing this point over and over, for the better part of a week they kept insisting that I needed to show them details that were never stipulated as part of their contest rules (they needed phone numbers, email addresses, my referral code, and the dates I sent the referrals) and ONLY then could they “research” who signed up and when. I kept telling them how preposterous it was that they couldn’t see that they had already credited me the $5 referrals for each week. The final email I received stated that they were somehow miraculously able to “research” my claims and told me that I only signed up two referrals total, even though I’d been paid the $5 referral for FOUR people during those two weeks. These guys are scam artists and you’re wasting your time signing up referrals if you use their app. Do a quick Google search on acorns referral program - you’ll see many many disappointed and frustrated people like myself. Stay away from this shady company.

Additional comments since Acorns responded to my review below:

Acorns claim that all investment services are subject to market changes. Well, obviously. But most investment services provide a net gain - usually low, but a steady net gain. Acorns provide a slow, steady net loss. They tell you that you can go look at their portfolios before-hand, but that’s just their way of saying “check what you’re getting into, but we won’t comment on the fact that we aren’t good at investing.”

I won’t pretend that I am an expert investor. I do a little here and there myself and use mostly investment apps and get into portfolios. My review below stands as it is. Acorns is a fantastic concept, but they lose money over time - they have bad investors who make bad portfolios. Acorns’ response, “well you could’ve taken a look at our portfolio,” doesn’t change that fact.

They also responded that the “found money” function just takes time. It does not. It works sometimes and it works quite quickly. The other times it doesn’t work, it didn’t work. It hasn’t been months - it’s been over a year for several uses for me. If they are claiming that their functions sometimes take over a year, that’s just lying. Like I said - they are almost fraudulent.

————————————

I have had this app since the beginning of 2017. The concept is good, but there are two key things about Acorns that makes it horrible.

First, they lose your money. They aren’t great at investing and the overall return on your money is a negative. Although it’s great that you get to save through little amounts that you don’t have to think about, those funds are put aside into portfolios that diminish. You will actually have losses when you use Acorns.

Second, Acorns advertises “found money,” which in essence incentivizes using certain brands. Those brands, in turn, are supposed to put money into your Acorns account (often advertised as a fixed amount or a % of what you spend). This concept is awesome - even airbnb is on there, which I use frequently. However, it barely works. Most of the time, Acorns and the advertised company cannot communicate properly, and the extra $ that you were excited for is nowhere to be seen. The Acorns help will tell you that it takes time - and you will eventually give up and regret wasting your time with Acorns.

Hope that helps investors!

I’ve been using acorns for about a year and a half and I have liked the concept of roundups. It’s a nice passive way to save money. That’s where I give my stars.

However, I have recently lost trust in the company. They have a referral program that has high payouts that I decided to go for. 5 referrals in a week you’d get $1200, 2 referrals the next week you get $500. And each referral you get $5. So I’ll admit I paid people to sign up with my referral code and got all of them signed up far in advance before the deadline. They did all the requirements, deposited money and everything.

It’s been 2 months now and I have not received anything from acorns. The referrals say “in progress” so I contacted customer service over chat and they’d refuse to answer the problem and just said, “sorry it didn’t work and doesn’t count” which I think is strange considering I had 7 people sign up you would think even one of them would count for the $5 right? Nope. I get other accounts privacy being important but they already knew what was happening. Then the customer service rep quickly ended the chat out of nowhere.

A few days later I decided to call Acorns. The lady was helpful but told me the reason was because they didn’t “verify their accounts” which makes no sense as they had to already deposit money and they all showed up as “in progress” on the referral status updates. If they weren’t verified they wouldn’t show up at all and shouldn’t have been able to move forward with acorns. And the terms and conditions they have say NOTHING about that. However they just said there’s nothing they can do and just said I should try for the next $5 bonuses (the bonuses go down significantly after you do one or two). I don’t think so. I’m going to need some real compensation to make this one alright not just a “too bad so sad” or a pity response from the developer on this review with no actual help/results. While speaking with support the whole thing felt pretty fishy if you ask me.

While I originally loved the concept I can’t recommend it anymore because I don’t trust this company to live up to any of its promises. I’ve seen other people have the same problem. I will more than likely be moving my money out of my account and I suggest if you’re debating whether or not you should as well take some time to look into the company and how well they keep their promises. At least don’t do their referral program as it’s more than likely a scam.

So many problems recently:

(1) I can’t verify my bank account in Acorns because the micro-deposits never showed up, there’s apparently no way to restart the verification process, and I can’t remove my bank account from acorns because my bank doesn’t include full account numbers on statements and I don’t have checks for my checking account (Acorns requires a photo of your bank statement or a voided check to remove your bank account).

(2) You can’t get an Acorns Spend account (their high interest checking account) without also paying for an Acorns Later account (a retirement account). I don’t need another retirement account.

(3) For some reason Acorns failed to be able to “verify the necessary information to open an Acorns Spend account for” me. Betterment, Robinhood, Tastyworks, and TradeStation, all had no trouble verifying my information and opening my accounts. Also there is no option to double check my information and try again. If I try to downgrade my account and then upgrade again to get an Acorns Spend account I get the warning, “If you close your Acorns Spend account, you won’t be able to reopen it or get a new one.”

(4) There is no way to call or even email Acorns for support. The only way to contact Acorns is through a form on their support site. Most companies nowadays annoyingly don’t provide phone support, but I wanted to at least email them. I had taken some screenshots of many of these problems so that I could refer to them in my email in order to save time by not having to write a complete explanation for every problem. Then I learned about the contact form and no published email address. You can’t attach screenshots with their support form so I’m stuck wasting time typing out paragraphs of explanations of these problems. That’s when I decided that if I have to spend too much time writing a long email and since they’re making everything so difficult, I would share my problems with their app publicly as a review here instead of through their web form to save other people the trouble.

(5) Many other people have complained about the excessive time it takes (3-6 days) to withdraw funds from Acorns. (I wouldn’t know because I can’t even verify my bank account with them, but if this is true then they are the slowest of any investment service/app I’ve ever used.)

I would not recommend this App to anyone I care about, but maybe to my enemies. Anyway, I’m off to look for a different app/service to automatically invest my spare-change/round-ups.