Purchased by for $4 billion by Paypal, Honey is a free browser extension that will quickly search for coupons and promo codes, and automatically apply the best available coupon code at checkout. You can currently use the Honey extension with Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Opera.

2020 Honey Coupon Review

Name: Honey

Description: Honey is a free browser extension that will quickly search for coupons and automatically apply the best available coupon code at checkout. You can currently use the Honey extension with Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Opera.

Offer price: 0.00

Currency: USD

Operating System: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera

Overall

4.7

• Ease of Use
• Savings
• Cost

• Get the Free Honey Extension

In this latest Honey coupon review, I will show you how I personally use Honey. This free browser extension saves my wife and I a ton of time since we no longer have to search and test each promo code we find in Google. In fact, shopping trends for Americans show that American shop online 52 times per year and on average we will spend just over 7.3 minutes searching for a coupon code. This means we spend just over 6 hours every year searching online for a promo code before we hit the checkout button!

As I am sure you can agree, time is one of our most valuable resources. With that said, what if there was way we could turn that 7.3 minutes of searching into 2 seconds with a simple click of a button?

The best way I have found to automatically search for every online coupon at checkout is with the free Honey browser extension.

What is the Honey Browser Extension?

I pulled this straight from the Honey website to let them explain it to you as simply as possible:

“Honey is a service that makes it ridiculously easy to save money and time. Honey automatically finds coupon codes for the site you’re shopping at and applies them to your order when you check out, saving you money and coupon searching time.”

How cool is that?? So, instead of having to search dozens of coupon sites to find coupon codes to save cash on your purchases, you can leave that work all to your Honey app, and it’ll find your coupon codes for you AND apply them to your purchase!

BAM!

Doesn’t that sound a whole lot easier than having to search and find coupon codes on your own? Honey does the work for you, and you get the credit (i.e. the cash savings).

What’s really cool about using Honey instead of searching yourself is that if you’ve ever searched the various coupon sites for codes when you shop, you’ve likely had the same experience I’ve had – many of the coupon codes you find if you search manually for them don’t work.

They’re either expired codes, or bogus codes to begin with. You copy and paste each code you find into the coupon code box at the store as you go to check out, only to find they’re invalid codes.

So you spend all of this time searching for discount coupon codes and end up with nothing for your time.

The Honey app automatically finds the valid coupon codes that will work for your purchase, and does all of the work of applying them as well. It’s that easy.

How Does it Work?

So, you might be wondering what Honey has that you don’t – what makes it so easy for Honey to find coupon codes when you have to search dozens of websites, all the while often coming up empty-handed?

Technology, baby. Here’s how it works.

Have you ever arrived at the online checkout and you notice the empty box that says “Do you Have a Coupon Code?”

You then decide to quickly search Google for available coupon codes and apply them one at-a-time only to be disappointed to realize none of them worked and you just wasted 7.3 minutes of your life that you will never get back?

Honey’s job is to help get that time back for you all the while making this process absolutely painless. After you simply install the extension for your desktop browser (only Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Opera), the little extension goes to work for you by scouring the internet for every website you land on.

Honey’s technological expertise makes coupon finding super fast, and you don’t have to do anything but click the Honey button on your browser bar.

What Does it Look Like?

This happens quickly and seamlessly, and you won’t even miss the time. And, Honey can be installed on multiple computers and multiple browsers on your computers, so you’re not limited in where you can use it on your PC or laptop.

When Honey finds a coupon or discount, the Honey app then lights up with the available coupons it found for that retailer. You can click on the button to see what is available BEFORE you shop or you can wait until checkout and let Honey do the real magic.

The real magic is when you click on the Honey Button to search and apply for all coupons at checkout. Then Honey simultaneously applies every coupon found to your cart to make sure they work and to make sure you are getting the greatest discount with the best possible combination of available coupons!

Did you hear that? Honey actually works to find coupons that you can combine to save even more money.

Instead of you having to search all over the internet and waste precious time scouring through the dozens of coupon codes that probably won’t work, Honey does this all for you (for free) with the click of a single button.

Do I Need to Register to Get the Deals?

Here’s the thing: you don’t need to register with Honey to get publicly available coupon codes. However, Honey also shares exclusive offers and savings that you won’t find online publicly.

If you want access to all of Honey’s money saving coupon codes you have to register and open an account. But don’t worry: registration is free and super simple.

What if I Have My Own Coupons?

Guess what: if you have your own coupons, you can submit them to the Honey site for additional discounts.

There are two ways to submit coupons to Honey. The first way is by using the extension – just scroll to the bottom after you click on the “h” button and add your code into the “share a code” box.

The second way to use coupons you find is directly through the Honey website. When you go on the site you’ll see a live feed of coupons being submitted by Honey members.

You can submit your coupon right to that live feed for all to see, and get the additional discount on your purchase if the coupon is valid.

Which Stores and Sites Does Honey Work With?

Honey works with thousands of different stores and sites. Chances are they’ve got you covered for at least some of your online shopping. From pizza places to high end clothing stores, you can get additional discounts if you’re using Honey.

Here is just a small list of the stores and retailers Honey helps you save money at when you’re shopping online.

• Amazon, Walmart and Target
• Kohl’s and JC Penney’s
• Papa John’s and Pizza Hut
• Various online flower shops
• Groupon and Living Social
• Shutterfly and Tiny Prints
• Starbucks
• Michael’s Crafts and Joann ETC
• Cafe Press
• Eddie Bauer and The Sportsman’s Guide
• Macy’s Williams Sonoma and Lord and Taylor
• Fandango and Vista Print
• Harbor Freight Tools
• ThredUP

It’s easy to see from this small sample list of retailers Honey helps you get discounts on that there’s something for all of your shopping needs with Honey.

Honey also supports stores in Canada, the UK and Australia, so if you see your Honey button lighting up while shopping online at one of those international stores, click to get your discount.

Want to shop at a store Honey doesn’t yet support? They’re continually looking to add retailers to their list, so you can just submit a request to have your favorite stores added and Honey will look into doing so.

Whether you’re shopping for sporting goods, high end clothing or every day stuff at big box stores, you can get extra discounts on all of your shopping with the click of your mouse.

The Amazon Trick

Honey also has something I have been using with Amazon. Since coupon codes are very product specific when on Amazon’s site, rarely will you find a coupon for the product you are looking for. However, Honey does search Amazon’s site and makes sure you are getting the best deal. If not, Honey notifies you to let you know you could buy from a different seller and save money.

WOW. So Honey will actually do your comparison shopping for you as it’s searching for coupon codes to see if you can get a better deal at another retailer. Amazing!

Anything Else?

Yeah, there actually is. I want you to think for a moment beyond traditional online shopping and think everything online.

Let me give you an example: Last week we were hanging out with some friends and decided to order up some pizza from Papa John’s for dinner.

As I placed the order on laptop, I noticed that my Honey extension browser started lighting up. I clicked on the button at checkout and realized that Honey removed 30% from our order!

My friends were super impressed and I became a hero for the next four minutes of my life. So I encourage you; anytime you can buy something online – anything at all, whether it’s takeout or delivery from a local restaurant, work from a service provider such as an appliance repair service, or just your every day online shopping – take the extra two seconds and click on the Honey icon at top of browser.

You might find yourself pleasantly surprised at what kind of money savings you end up being handed, all for the simple work of clicking the Honey icon at checkout.

Not only will you impress your friends, you might just end up saving huge cash in the process.

Honey Droplist

Another benefit Honey can offer you is through a program called “Droplist”. Droplist is a feature from Honey that helps you make sure you don’t miss out on savings if you’re not quite ready to buy yet. Here’s how it works:

If you’re looking at a specific item but don’t want to buy quite yet, you can hit the “Add to Droplist” button if the item is available at select retailers, such as Amazon, Macy’s Overstock, Target, Walmart, Kohl’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and a few others.

Honey will automatically put the item you’re looking for on a watch list for either 30, 60 or 90 days. When the price drops more than five percent, you’ll automatically get an email from Honey telling you so.

Honey will also let you know when the deal is about to expire so you don’t miss out if you choose not to order it right away.

You can also manually check your Droplist items any time just to see what the current prices are so you can take advantage of a good deal if and when you’re ready, but if you’re not ready to buy yet Droplist will continue to monitor its prices for you.

More “amazing”!

Refer-a-Friend

Just like so many other rewards sites, Honey has a referral program where they pay you points (points that you can use as cash discounts when you shop) every time you invite your friends and they download the app and use it.

The process for referring others to download the Honey app is easy: You simply invite your friends with a custom referral link that Honey creates especially for you, or you can spread the word by sharing your custom referral link on your social media accounts.

Honey will pay you $5 (500 points equals $5) every time up to $1,000 when they purchase online using Honey!

HoneyGold

There’s also another benefit to using Honey: the HoneyGold program, which is the company’s cash back rewards program. As you start to use the Honey, you will accumulate points which you can later redeem for Amazon Gift Cards.

Honestly, this isn’t the reason you should be using Honey as it doesn’t pay enough in points to get you rich or pay for all of the gifts you buy throughout the year, but since it doesn’t require any extra effort, then I call it a padded bonus.

Just a little extra money savings for you, simply for downloading and using the Honey app.

The Triple Savings Trick

Want even more money savings with Honey? If you want to get a little crazy, you can do what I have been doing. I call it the Triple Savings Trick. I describe the process below, but I also actually made this super short video to show you how to use the Triple Savings Trick.

I use Rakuten, Honey, and Giftcard Granny all at once to save the absolute most money possible. Here’s how I do it.

When I arrive at the online retailer I activate my Ebates to get my CashBack activated. Then at checkout, I click on the Honey app to apply any available coupon codes.

Once I know my final checkout price, I search Gift Card Granny for an online gift card at a discount (for instance, someone may be selling a $50 gift card for $42 to get rid of it. The money savings aren’t usually that extreme with Gift Card Granny but hey, every cent adds up, right?).

By using the Triple Savings Trick, it means I am getting the cashback discount, the maximum discount using any and all coupon codes, and then the discount at the end with a bargain gift card.

Triple Whammy my friend! A ridiculous amount of money savings when you shop with very little time for your efforts. Definitely worth using the system.

Related: How to use Rakuten to get Cashback on Everything

Does it Work on Mobile Devices?

Yes!

There is a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices. Unlike the browser extension that goes with you when you visit the online store, the Honey App brings that stores to you through the app.

Just click on the button above and you’ll start enjoying savings on your online purchases.

It just couldn’t be any easier to start having fast access to valid coupon codes for all of your online shopping. Remember, this includes shopping at Amazon, pizza, travel and more.

Using the Honey browser extension is kind of like being handed free cash every time you shop. How can you say “no”?

Why Pay Full Price?

With Honey and all of the other valid money saving tools out there, there is just no reason to pay full price when you shop. And retailers know there are savvy customers out there searching for savings, so they’re happy to partner with money saving apps like Honey if it means they’ll get your business.

I would challenge you to take your money savings even one step further. Keep track of the money you save by using Honey and other savings tools, and put it aside in a separate savings account.

Use that separate savings account to help fund your financial goals. That might mean paying off all of your consumer debt (my wife and I paid off $52,000 in consumer debt in just seven months through various side hustle and money saving endeavors) and living a life free of the stress of debt.

Or you might have a goal of paying cash for an international vacation or a new car. Or maybe you’re tired of the rat race and want to save to be able to retire early or start a new business venture.

Summary

Whatever your savings goals, using little tricks like saving your Honey money to put toward those goals can help you reach them faster than ever.

Just one more reason to install Honey browser extension and begin saving today. You’ll be surprised at how combining all of your money saving techniques will add up over the long run.

And then there’s that high you get when you order pizza for your friends and save 30% at check out! You can’t beat that for a minute-of-fame moment.

What do you do with your loose change you get from the cashier after a purchase? If you’re like most people, you put your leftover pennies and quarters in a jar that you take to the bank when it fills up, right?

A better solution is Acorns.

2020 Acorns App Review

Product Name: Acorns

Product Description: Acorns is a micro-investing app that allows people to automatically invest their spare change by rounding up their purchases made with with a linked credit card, debit card, or ACH transfer.

Offer price: 0.00

Currency: USD

Overall

4.9

• Account Minimum ($5 to Invest)
• Management Fee ($1 per month)
• Account Fee (None)
• The App's Features

• Try Acorns Now

Acorns is an app that takes your spare change and doesn’t just set it aside for you, but rather invests it for you using a method called “micro-investing.”

Micro-Investing

Instead of spending it on a double latte or a drive-thru supper because “you found five bucks,” what if you could put your loose change into a digital money jar that earns interest?

Enter Acorns, a micro-investing app that invests your spare change each month, so it grows in size. While Acorns definitely isn’t intended to replace your 401k at work, it can help you pay for some of life’s smaller expenses like a vacation or buying a new phone with cash.

There are many micro-investing platforms to choose from, but this post is going to focus on one of our favorite and one of the most widely-known platforms; Acorns.

In this Acorns app review, you’ll find out everything you ever wanted to know about it and how you can build a small nest egg with minimal effort.

What is the Acorns App?

The best way to describe Acorns is it’s an online money jar that also invests your spare change.

Acorns is a micro-investing app that collects your spare change in three different ways:

• Rounding up your debit and credit card purchases,
• Recurring daily, weekly, or monthly investments (optional)
• Cash back rewards when you shop online at select retailers

First, you choose the funding methods of your choice. The most popular option is the spending round-ups, but you might also do a recurring deposit or shopping through Acorns to give your an account a boost too.

Acorns only withdraws small amounts of money–usually $5– unless you designate a larger amount from your bank account so you won’t notice any money is missing unless you monitor your account balance on a daily basis. To prevent charging an overdraft fee, Acorns only makes a withdrawal when there are sufficient funds in your bank account.

Your Acorns money is invested in a taxable, non-retirement investment account. Beginning in 2018, you’ll also have the opportunity to fund an Acorns Later tax-advantaged Traditional IRA investment account that’s similar to your employer 401k plan that you fund with pre-tax income.

How to Access Acorns

You can download the Acorns app from any Android or Apple mobile device. Acorns can also be accessed online via their desktop platform here.

Does Acorns Replace Your Savings Account?

No!!

Acorns invests your money which means it’s constantly fluctuating in value and is not guaranteed to earn a profit. While most investments appreciate when invested for several years, a 10% market dip can cause you to lose money if you sell now instead of waiting for it to recover.

Hedging against market volatility is why Acorns only invests small amounts of money every month. This is money you don’t need to pay your bills with and by investing your extra money for the long-haul, your nest egg will be larger than if you keep it in a savings account or spend it instead.

You still need to keep an emergency fund and other savings you can’t afford to lose inside an FDIC-insured bank account.

Before you begin investing with Acorns, make sure you set aside $1,000 into an emergency fund to cover life’s unexpected expenses.

Who Can Join Acorns?

You must meet the three requirements to join Acorns:

• At least 18 years old
• Be a resident of the USA
• Own an active checking account

You will also need to link your credit and debit cards to Acorns if you want to participate in the round-ups program. If not, you can still fund your account on a regular basis with scheduled deposits and shopping online through the Acorns Found Money shopping portal.

Why Join Acorns?

The #1 reason to join Acorns is that you save money on a regular basis and can earn more interest than your bank account.

You will benefit most from Acorns if you’re one of the following:

• Do not currently invest or save money for the future
• Want to save money every time you spend money
• Want a 100% “hands-off” investing app

All of the change in your spare change jar doesn’t earn any interest until you deposit it into your savings account. Even then, the average brick-and-mortar interest rate is maybe 0.10% or one-tenth of one percent. While it’s still better than keeping your money under the mattress, you won’t be able to retire and live off the interest anytime soon.

Get 20x Savings Rates: The national average for savings rates is 0.09%. Right now CIT Bank is offering one of the highest savings rates at 1.75% with their CIT Savings Builder Account. Why earn 20x less on your money if you don’t have to?

Using Acorns can be a win-win proposition to build wealth because:

• Develop the habit of saving and investing money each month
• Investments usually earn more interest than your checking account

Many people view the money in their checking account as spending money to pay their regular bills and life’s smaller expenses. If there’s a $1,000 balance, that’s $1,000 to spend for the month and any money left over can roll over to next month instead of tucking some of it away for a rainy day.

One reason why so many Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency without borrowing money is because they don’t put enough money in a savings account on a regular basis. Acorns automates the savings process so you at least have something to pull from if you’re in a financial bind instead of running a credit card balance.

Is Acorns Free?

Acorns is free for college students with a dot.edu email address for up to four years.

If you don’t have a .edu address, you’ll pay $1 per month until your account reaches $5,000. After your balance exceeds $5,000, you’ll pay 0.25% per year–0.02% per month–on your total account balance which comes to approximately $12.50 per year or $1.04 per month with a $5,000 balance.

Acorns doesn’t charge the $1 fee until you make your first $5 investment. You can begin earning round-ups and Acorns will collect the first fee after your first $5 round-up balance is invested or you schedule your first cash transfer from your checking account.

While you might initially balk at paying $12 a year to have an app invest your loose change, take a second to look at it from a different perspective.

You automatically pay the fee for the year by going out to eat one less time a year at a sit down restaurant where you easily pay $15-20 per person. If you’re a fast food junkie and spend $6 on average, you only have to pack your lunch twice to pay the $12 fee.

Even though you pay $1 a month, Acorns is helping you save more money than before you joined Acorns. In my opinion, if Acorns is the difference between saving more money each month instead of spending it on something you don’t need, it’s well worth the price.

Also, don’t forget your investments earn regular dividends that can offset or exceed the monthly fee as well.

As we mentioned earlier in the review, Acorns automates the saving process by withdrawing small amounts of money on a regular basis while still leaving enough money in your account to pay your monthly bills.

Paying one buck a month can be well worth the additional peace of mind you’ll receive by automating your savings process with minimal effort.

How to Fund Your Acorns Account

There are three different ways to fund your Acorns account:

• Round-ups
• Recurring investments
• Found Money shopping rewards

You can participate in one, two, or all three of these funding streams. So decide which ones work best for you and start saving.

Round-Up Investing

Round-up investing is the digital equivalent of throwing your loose change in your money jar at home. It’s also the “bread-and-butter” savings tool for most Acorns users. According to Acorns, the average user invests $32 per month by rounding up their purchases.

Here’s how Acorns’ round-up investing feature works:

• Link your credit or debit cards to your Acorns account
• Acorns monitors your card spending and “rounds-up” each purchase to the next dollar
• Your round-up balance is invested each time it reaches $5 and withdraws the balance from your checking account

When you spend $4.73, Acorns rounds up your purchase to $5 and invests the 27 cent difference. Acorns will round up a $9.36 to $10 and invests 64 cents once your round-up balance reaches $5. After these two purchases, your round-up balance is 91 cents so you have $4.09 to go before Acorns withdraws $5 from your checking account and makes an investment.

Assuming you’re like the average American and use your debit card 23 times a month, Acorns can easily invest $5 a month assuming the average round-up is 25 cents per transaction.

You can easily estimate what your average round-up amount will be every month by looking at your own transactions for the last two months by counting the number of transactions and keeping a tally of the average round-up per transaction.

Acorns Round-Up Multiplier

To speed up the investing frequency for your round-ups, activating the Acorns round-up multiplier boosts your round-up total up to 10x the normal contribution. With a 10x multiplier, your standard 25-cent round-up becomes $2.50. Ten of these multiplied round-ups each month means you contribute $25 instead of $2.50.

The round-up multiplier is an optional feature, but it can be a good idea if you’re eager to maximize your round-ups and accelerate your savings rate. By rounding up $25 a month, you’ll have a principal balance of $300 every year before factoring in any investment returns.

If you choose to use the round-up multiplier, you do have a total of three options:

• 2x multiplier
• 3x multiplier
• 10x multiplier

You can also turn off or turn on the multiplier any time you’d like. So, you might decide to use it when you go on vacation or go Christmas shopping to optimize your investments from two of the most expensive financial events each year for many families.

Acorns Won’t Withdraw Money Until Round-Ups Reach $5

Acorns tracks your card spending in real time but they won’t withdraw any round-ups from your checking account until your balance reaches $5. When Acorns withdraws the round-up from your account, the balance is immediately invested so you can begin earning passive income.

Even if it takes you two months to reach $5 in round-ups, Acorns won’t withdraw any money from your checking account until your current round-up balance reaches the $5 minimum.

If you schedule a recurring investment, that contribution will be separate from your round-ups balance and you will still have to reach the $5 round-ups minimum before they can be invested.

Recurring Investments

In addition to rounding up your purchases, you can also schedule recurring deposits or a one-time investment from your checking account to build your Acorns balance. You can link your savings account, but this isn’t recommended since federal law only allows six total withdrawals each month.

Automate Weekly and Monthly Investments

People don’t become wealthy overnight; it’s usually through regular contributions to their savings and investing accounts. Automating your savings with Acorns is an easy way to start a rich habit because Acorns does the heavy lifting of transferring the same amount of cash into your Acorns account on the scheduled day. Unlike humans, computers don’t forget!

You can designate weekly or monthly contributions and Acorns lets you pick the day and the transfer amount. Weekly investments always take place on the same day of the week–every Monday for instance– and monthly deposits occur on the same day each month, like the 1st of every month.

On the Acorns dashboard, you have the option of investing $5, $10, $15, or $20 per week, but you can choose a different amount as long as it’s at least $5. You might decide to invest $100 each month and it only takes a few seconds to type in your custom amount and Acorns takes care of the rest.

One-Time Investments

You might decide to make a one-time investment to fund your account during the signup process. Five dollars gets you started and the money will deposit within three business days.

Or, you can send a one-time investment after you receive your tax refund or your boss gives you a bonus. Either way, you’re investing your money instead of mindlessly spending it, which is always a good thing.

Found Money

The third and final way Acorns invests your spare change is with the “Found Money” portal where select online merchants give a portion of your purchase amount back into your Acorns account when you activate a shopping session through Acorns.

If you shop online with Ebates, you’re already familiar with this concept of getting paid to shop online; the only difference is your cash rewards can grow in size because they’re invested instead of being sent to your bank account as a “Big Fat Check.”

Get Business Partners to Invest in You

Any rewards you earn from Found Money are in addition to your spending round-ups. To get extra cash rewards to invest, you need to follow these steps:

• Click “Found Money” button in your Acorns account
• Choose the online merchant you want to shop at
• Click the “Shop Now” button to open a unique Acorns shopping session
• Pay for a purchase with your linked credit or debit card
• Retailer invests a designated portion of the purchase amount

Each merchant offers a different cash back rate but you can expect to have between 2% and 10% of the purchase amount invested in your Acorns account.

If you spend $100 and the merchant invests 5% of the purchase amount, you will see an extra $5 invested in your account on their behalf! Some merchants offer a fixed cash amount instead like $100 when you refinance your student loans or $200 if you become an Airbnb host.

Acorns is continually adding more partners to the Found Money portfolio so you have more opportunities to invest while shopping online. Some of the notable partners right now include:

• Airbnb
• American Eagle
• Lyft
• Jet.com
• Stitch Fixed
• Walmart

Before you shop online, head to the Found Money section on Acorns first to get extra cash back. If you make a purchase directly from the retailer without activating an Acorns shopping session, you won’t receive the extra investment. You will still receive the round-up credit if you pay with your linked credit or debit card however.

How Long Does It Take To Receive the Found Money Rewards?

Although Acorns usually sends a confirmation email within 24 hours of your purchase with your Found Money amount, the actual investment won’t be made until 60 to 120 days later.

This is the one downside to cash back apps because of the lag time to deliver the money from the merchant back into your hands. The 60-day waiting period protects the merchant in case you need to request a refund which alters your cash reward balance.

How Does Acorns Invest Your Money?

Investing your spare change is what sets Acorns apart from other micro-saving apps.

Acorns adheres to the Nobel Prize-winning Modern Portfolio Theory by investing in stock and bond index ETFs that try to match the overall market performance (passive investing) instead of trying to “beat” the market (active investing) with low fund expense fees so you can earn the highest return possible without betting the farm.

This is the same investing philosophy followed by other robo-advisors like Betterment. While positive gains aren’t a guarantee because investment performance hinges on the overall market performance, Acorns won’t recklessly invest your money.

Acorns is a great way to invest in the market if you’re a beginner investor or don’t have the time to be a DIY investor.

How Acorns Determines Your Investment Portfolio

During the signup process, Acorns will ask you a few questions to gauge your investing goals and risk tolerance. Based on your responses, Acorns will a recommend a portfolio with an investing strategy that ranges from aggressive to conservative.

You’ll see the different portfolio options below to give you an idea of how Acorns will invest your money. Remember that you’re not locked into your initial portfolio recommendation and you can change your portfolio allocation at anytime if you want to be more aggressive or conservative.

Acorns only invests in iShares and Vanguard ETFs (exchange traded funds) that own small positions in a diversified basket of stocks and bonds that gives you exposure to the overall market with minimal risk. If you’re new to investing, Blackrock and Vanguard are two highly-trusted fund families.

What Does Acorns Invest In?

Acorns currently invests in the following asset classes and ETFs:

• Corporate Bonds: iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond (LQD)
• Government Bonds: iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond (SHY)
• Small Company Stocks: Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund ETF (VB)
• Real Estate: Vanguard REIT Index Fund ETF (VNQ)
• Large Company Stocks: Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (VOO)
• Emerging Markets: Vanguard Emerging Markets Stocks ETF (VWO)
• International Large Company Stocks: Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA)

The minimum investment is $5 and Acorns buys fractional shares of each ETF listed above. If you were to buy each ETF directly from your brokerage, you would need the exact amount of cash that a single share is trading for.

When an ETF like the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VOO) trades for $250 per share, you need at least $250 to buy one share. If you only have $100 to invest, you’ll have to find another $150 before you can buy a share or invest in another fund that trades for $100 or less but might be too aggressive for your preference.

Even if you could only afford to buy one share of VOO–or any single ETF share–your portfolio is extremely risky because it’s not diversified. If the share price climbs 20%, you’ll consider yourself a genius. But, when your single share price drops sharply, you can potentially lose all your gains in a single day.

Because Acorns can buy a partial ETF shares, you get instant diversification with every investment that instantly gives you a partial position in over 7,000 different stocks and bonds. And, Acorns automatically rebalances your portfolio with every contribution to keep you on track with your investing goals.

The Five Different Acorns Investment Portfolios

During the signup process, Acorns will recommend one of five investment portfolios based on factors including your age, income, investing goals, and whether or not you’re an aggressive or passive investor.

As you will see, conservative portfolios hold more bonds than stocks. Aggressive portfolios hold incrementally more stocks, including emerging markets, and fewer bonds to earn a higher potential return.

Conservative

The most risk-averse portfolio is the Conservative portfolio with the following asset allocation.

• Large Company Stocks: 12%
• Small Company Stocks: 2%
• Real Estate Stocks: 2%
• Government Bonds: 40%
• Corporate Bonds: 40%
• International Large Company Stocks: 4%

Moderately Conservative

• Large Company Stocks: 24%
• Small Company Stocks: 4%
• Real Estate Stocks: 4%
• Government Bonds: 30%
• Corporate Bonds: 30%
• International Large Company Stocks: 8%

Moderate

• Large Company Stocks: 29%
• Small Company Stocks: 10%
• Emerging Market Stocks: 3%
• Real Estate Stocks: 6%
• Government Bonds: 20%
• Corporate Bonds: 20%
• International Large Company Stocks: 12%

Moderately Aggressive

• Large Company Stocks: 38%
• Small Company Stocks: 14%
• Emerging Market Stocks: 4%
• Real Estate Stocks: 8%
• Government Bonds: 10%
• Corporate Bonds: 10%
• International Large Company Stocks: 16%

Aggressive

• Large Company Stocks: 40%
• Small Company Stocks: 20%
• Emerging Market Stocks: 10%
• Real Estate Stocks: 10%
• International Large Company Stocks: 20%

Young investors will most likely be placed in this portfolio because stocks historically outperform bonds long-term. While owning stocks is more volatile than bonds, you have a longer time horizon to recover any short-term portfolio losses.

Can You Change Your Acorns Investment Allocation?

If you want to be more cautious or aggressive than your current Acorns portfolio choice, you can change your portfolio allocation at any time for free!

Let’s say you currently have the Aggressive portfolio but you’re planning on withdrawing your balance soon to pay for a large purchase. You don’t want to lose all your earnings in a sudden 10% market correction, similar to the February 2018 stock market correction, and then you don’t have enough money to cover your planned expense.

To hedge against this risk, you can switch to the Conservative or Moderately Conservative portfolio allocation that holds at least 60% bonds which are historically more stable than stocks.

Once you decide to invest more aggressively, you can select a more aggressive portfolio even if it’s two days from now.

To change your investment portfolio, click on the “Profile” tab then “Portfolio.” The different portfolio choices from left to right with an incrementally more aggressive investing strategy.

How Do You Withdraw Acorns Investments?

Eventually, you’ll need to withdraw some of your Acorns investments when you accomplish your investing goals.

Withdrawing your Acorns investments is as easy as contributing money.

When you’re ready to make a withdrawal, you tell Acorns how much money you want to withdraw and which bank account to send the money to via direct deposit. You can send the money to a new checking or savings account by providing the routing and account numbers.

Acorns doesn’t mail paper checks.

How Long Does it Take To Receive an Acorns Withdrawal?

It takes between three and six days to receive an Acorns withdrawal. This is due to federal regulations that require a two-day settlement period after you sell an investment. The same settlement rule applies to every investment brokerage and not exclusive to Acorns.

If you sell your investments on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are the two-day settlement period, and you can expect to receive your funds as soon as Thursday.

Are Acorns Investments Taxable?

Yes. Any dividend income you earn from Acorns is taxable and will need to be reported on your tax return just like you need to report your bank account interest and your other investment accounts. It’s a small price to pay for earning passive income, but you’re still richer than before.

Acorns will send you a Form 1099 before March 15th for the prior tax year. While you receive most of your tax forms in late January or early February, your Acorns 1099 might be delayed because they are waiting to report the investment income from your real estate investments.

What is Acorns Later?

Acorns Later is the newest account type from Acorns. It’s a Traditional IRA (Individual Retirement Account) funded with your pre-tax income. You might prefer an Acorns Later account to reduce your taxable income for the current tax year.

Your investments will grow tax-deferred meaning you won’t pay any tax now, but instead on the withdrawal value in retirement.

Do You Need to Be an Existing Acorns Member to Join Acorns Later?

At this moment, yes, you need to be an existing Acorns members with a taxable, non-retirement to fund an Acorns Later IRA.

Once you open an Acorns Later account, you must make a minimum investment of $5 to get started; just like your regular Acorns account.

Is Acorns or Acorns Later Better?

It depends on how soon you want to access your investments. If you don’t plan on touching your Acorns investments until retirement, the Acorns Later account is better because you won’t have to pay taxes on your dividend income until you retire. Plus, all contributions reduce your taxable income for this tax year.

If you’re not sure how soon you want to withdraw your Acorns investments, you should open a standard Acorns account. Having the extra flexibility is better than paying the early withdrawal penalties that can erase all of your cumulative dividend income.

Because Acorns is a micro-investing app, it probably isn’t going to be your primary investment account. Most of your investments need to be with your employer 401k plan or with a regular brokerage like Betterment or Vanguard. So don’t worry too much about the tax implications from your Acorns account because you’re only investing your loose change.

Other Things You Didn’t Know About Acorns

Here are a few other things you might not know about the Acorns app that help make saving and investing fun!

Track Your Past, Present, and Potential Investing Progress

Once you’re logged into your Acorns account, you can view your investing progress so far and your potential future progress based on your age and investing rate.

Every time you log into Acorns, the first thing you’ll see is your current account balance. Directly above your current balance, you’ll see three buttons: Past, Present, Potential.

These three buttons are the secret sauce to navigating the Acorns dashboard like a boss.

Past

The “Past” button shows your lifetime Acorns app performance. Some of the statistics you’ll see includes your total amount invested, total gain or loss, referral bonuses, Found Money shopping rewards, and total withdrawal amounts.

You can also track your itemized earning history for your round-ups, recurring investments, and referral bonuses.

Present

You will visit the Present screen the most because it’s the primary screen for your Acorns dashboard. Besides your account balance, you can adjust your round-ups multiplier, schedule recurring investments, and quickly spot the best Found Money rewards offers.

This screen also shows your recent earning history so you can easily see if the purchase you made yesterday has been credited to your Acorns round-ups balance yet.

Potential

Any investing app worth their salt includes a projected investment calculator. When you first click the “Potential” button, you will see your projected account balance based on your age.

By clicking the “Change My Future” button you can see how adding a recurring investment on either a daily, weekly, or monthly basis can give you more money in the future. The projection calculator will show two lines on the graph plotting your balance trajectory:

• The dotted line is the projected balance at your current investment rate
• The solid line is your total projected balance including interest

While an extra $5 a week doesn’t seem like much now, it can grow to an extra $10,000 in 20 years. Over the next two decades, you contribute $4,800 during that time frame and earn $5,000 in dividends; that’s better than any savings account.

Refer Your Friends and Get $5

Acorns pays you $5 for every friend and family member you refer to Acorns. They will get a $5 bonus too and they begin saving money on a regular basis just like you! And, it might be the easiest money you’ve ever earned.

Integrate Acorns with Your Mint.com Account

If you use the free online budgeting app Mint, you can link your Acorns account to track your investing progress with your monthly budget.

When you log into your Mint account, you can add your Acorns account by clicking “Settings” button followed by the “Accounts” and “Plus” buttons to enter your Acorns login information. It only takes a few seconds and you’re all set!

Acorns Pros

• It only takes $5 to get started
• Five different portfolios with instant diversification
• Three ways to automate your investing
• Round-ups let you invest each time you shop
• Automatic portfolio re-balancing
• Mobile app is easy-to-use

Acorns Cons

• Monthly feed erode cumulative investment returns
• Investments can lose value during stock market corrections
• Cannot invest in individual stocks or ETFs outside the Acorns portfolio
• No option to invest in REIT or Real Estate

Alternatives to Acorns

Maybe you don’t think Acorns is a good fit for you. No worries.

These three micro-investing apps might be a better fit for your saving and investing habits.

All three of these alternatives let you fund your account with one-time or recurring contributions from your checking account. What separates Acorns apart from these other apps is the round-ups and Found Money investment options because the other recommendations only support bank account transfers.

Only one of these alternatives features round-up investing and none of them offer online shopping cash back rewards.

M1 Finance

Another growing micro-investing app is M1 Finance, a completely free micro-investing app that lets you buy fractional shares of your favorite stocks and ETFs or you can pick an “expert pie” ranging from ultra-conservative holding 98% bonds to the ultra-aggressive pie that holds 99% stocks.

M1 Finance requires an initial $100 investment and you can only make one-time or recurring monthly investments. After your account is funded, the minimum investment is $1.

Robinhood

Robinhood started in 2013 and has grown in popularity among the micro-investing community. Unlike Acorns, you can invest inside stocks, options, and even cryptocurrency in addition to ETFs.

The one thing I really like about Robinhood is the simplicity of it. It’s definitely a micro-investing platform targeting newbies or the less-experienced investor. You won’t find a lot of bells and whistles, and even the investing language they use is simpler than most other micro-investing platforms.

Robinhood is also completely free to sign up and they don’t charge any commissions. They do make money from Robinhood Gold (an add-on service which is optional), any interest from customer cash accounts and rebates from trading venues.

Also, unlike Acorns, Robinhood will allow you to trade full stocks. This is perfect for the investor who may not be ready to open up a brokerage account and start trading stocks and instead is looking to tip-toe into stocks via micro-investing.

You can access Robinhood from their desktop or mobile apps on both iOs and Android. Robinhood is for U.S. customers only.

Stash

Stash also features round-ups and recurring investments on a weekly or monthly basis and has the same fee structure as Acorns–$1 per month until your account balance reaches $5,000 then 0.25% annually–and is the most similar alternative to Acorns.

The biggest difference between Stash and Acorns is how your money is invested as Stash gives you more flexibility that DIY investors might like. Acorns takes a more direct approach by investing in an ETF portfolio based on your risk tolerance.

You have 40 different investing options with Stash so you can invest in a conservative, moderate, or an aggressive ETF similar to Acorns, but you can also invest in themed ETFs too. For example, you can invest in missions and causes like clean technology or gender diversity. Or, you can invest in a specific sector like technology, cybersecurity, China, or U.S. Treasury bonds.

Whether you want to invest in one ETF or all 40, you can make your own portfolio with Stash. Bear in mind that your Stash investments can be more volatile if you invest your entire balance in one ETF, especially if it’s a particular sector like technology or Europe.

Betterment

Betterment doesn’t offer round-up investing, but you only need $1 to make your first investment. You can fund future investments with recurring or one-time withdrawals from your bank account. The management fee is 0.25% on your entire balance which is more affordable than Acorns for balances less than $5,000.

Betterment also adheres to the Modern Portfolio Theory and your money will be invested in a basket of iShares and Vanguard stock and bond ETFs based on your risk tolerance.

This can be your best Acorns alternative if you can live without round-up investing and still prefer to have the investing app handle the day-to-day portfolio management decisions.

And, Betterment can also double as your primary brokerage account too which means you can keep all of your investments with Betterment until retirement if you prefer automated, index investing.

Summary

Acorns is a fun way to maximize your saving potential every time you use your credit or debit card by forcing you to set aside some of your money. You won’t be able to retire from your Acorns investments, but it’s an excellent way to squirrel away cash you would spend on lattes and movie tickets if it remained in your checking account.

However, since you’re rounding up every purchase, make sure to account for those roundups in your monthly budget. Good luck!

Note: In 2014 Rakuten purchased Ebates. Since they took over Ebates, they have slowly changed the look, feel and even the name Ebates to Rakuten. However, until we are officially ready to stop calling them Ebates and adopt the name Rakuten, this is still an Ebates review. 

*My latest savings hack using Ebates, Honey browser extension, and Giftcard Granny has been added at the bottom of this post. Watch Now (Video)

2020 Ebates Review: What is Ebates?

Ebates is a company that is partners with over 2,000 online companies to form an affiliate relationship with each company. An affiliate relationship simply means Ebates and each online company have created a partnership where Ebates will refer you or I to buy something from them, and that company then sends Ebates a thank-you referral.

The good news: Ebates then splits the thank-you referral with you, and you earn Cash Back.

For example, at the time this post was published, Kohl’s has agreed to send Ebates a thank-you referral of 12% Cash Back for whoever shops online at Kohl’s via the Ebates website. Ebates then splits the referral commission with you or I (the online shopper) and we each earn 6% cash back.

It truly is a Win-Win-Win.

• #1 Win – The Online Retailer: The online store is getting more of us to shop online at their stores.
• #2 Win – Ebates: Ebates receives a thank-you commission for referring us to shop online.
• #3 Win – You and I: Ebates splits that commission with us in the form of CASH. 

Getting Started with Ebates

Creating an account with Ebates is FREE and simple.

To create an account with Ebates, all you need is an email address, Facebook account or a Google account to get started. Once you create your account, you can shop online just like you would normally do, however now you can earn between 1% – 40% CASH BACK at over 2,000 online stores!

The Cash Back is truly Cash Back, meaning you will either receive a check in the mail or your money will be deposited into your PayPal account. Remember, this is actual money, not a bunch of gift cards, points, or anything like that.

To get started, go to the Ebates website to create an account. You will see a pop up here that looks like this:

This $10 bonus you’re receiving is because I referred you to the Ebates site!

Just to be 100% transparent, Ebates will also send me a thank-you referral for referring you to their site.  However, you can also refer your friends and family to their website and earn the same thank-you referral as well!

I will explain more about this little side hustle later in this post.

How to Shop and Save with Ebates

Right now, the vast majority of cash back savings is online, however there are specific stores that offer in-store cash back as well.

Online

According to a recent study, millennials do 60% of their shopping online. The fact that you are here reading about Ebates shows you are also online, and chances are you regularly shop online.

This is why I see Ebates as an absolute no brainer – you’re going to get cash back for doing what you’re already doing.

Search Ebates First (Good Option)

Before you shop online, head on over to the Ebates website and you can search the 2,000+ online retailers to see if they have a partnership with Ebates. Once you find a store where you’re going to shop, simply click on the button of that store.

For example, let’s say you’re going to purchase something from Things Remembered and you go through Ebates to get 16% Cash Back. You would click on the Things Remembered icon below:

Once you click on it, you will be taken to the screen below to let you know your cash back is now activated:

You will then be automatically redirected to the Things Remembered website to shop. This extra step took a whole 10 seconds which in return offers you cash back for doing something you were going to do anyhow – shop online.

Get the Ebates Button (Best Option)

Guess who is the king of buying something, bringing it home, and then finding a coupon for it after the fact?

….This guy.

Ebates must know we sometimes do this so they created a button we can add to our Google Chrome Browser. Now instead of having to remember to go to Ebates first, we will get a little notification on our screen when we arrive at an online store that is an affiliate (partner) with Ebates.

Example:

Andrea and I are big fans of Groupon because we LOVE getting a deal! Now, when we go to Groupon, this little pop up let’s us know we will get an additional 6% back on anything we purchase via Groupon once we activate the Ebates Reward.

Note: You can get the button added by clicking here.

In Store

This is something that is newer to Ebates, but it’s really cool! 

What you will need to do is add your debit or credit card to your Ebates Account. Then, before you shop in-store, check Ebates.com or the Ebates app for both iOS and Android, and see if that store has an in-store cash back option.

All you will need to do next is click on “Link Offer”.

Now, just make sure you use the same credit/debit card you added to your account when you checkout, and you will receive the same cash back as you would if you shopped online.

You can also search where you live to find if any of the stores in your area are offering in-store cash back. This is an example of where I live in Phoenix, AZ. As you can see, Macy’s is offering 3% in-store cash back. However, Macy’s also is offering 6% cash back when you shop online. I would always recommend checking both online vs in-store to get the best deal.

Daily Deals, Coupons, and Promo Codes

In addition to cash back, you can also use Promo Codes to get an even further discount. For example, when I logged into Ebates today, I noticed a one-day promo for Macy’s and Kohl’s in addition to my 6% cash back. You can see exactly what it looks like below.

Now not only will I get my 6% cash back, but I will also receive an additional coupon/deal that is currently offered by Macy’s or Kohl’s. Plus, this saves me the time of looking around the web for coupon codes before I buy something online! Ebates makes it quick and simple.

When Do I Get My Cash Back?

Pay close attention here, because I want you to know exactly how it all works. Ebates is going to either send you a paper check in the mail or they are going to pay you via your PayPal account. They aren’t going to send you a check for each and every little transaction you make in the form of cash back. Instead they have a payment schedule set up in advance. You can see it below:

How to Earn More Money with Ebates

Ebates extends their referral program to any Ebates member who would like to share how to earn cash back while shopping online. Once you create an account with Ebates, you can invite your friends and family to join in on the cash back savings, and YOU will also receive a thank-you referral.

You can share Ebates with anyone via your Gmail contacts, by sending them an email, sharing on Facebook, or by copying your referral link and sending it out. If you have a website or blog, you can also add in the link and a small Ebates widget anywhere on your site.

As you can see, when someone shops via Ebates and spends $10 or more, you will get $25.

If you look in the top right, this shows you the amount I have personally made with Ebates including cash back!

Side Hustle Alert!

Here’s the really crazy part….this could be a great little way to try a side hustle. Remember how earlier I showed you how this was a win-win-win. Well, I would also go as far as to call it a win-win-win-WIN!

• #4 Win – Side Hustle: You can earn money fast by helping your friends and family save money while doing something they’re most likely already doing – shopping online.

Ebates Pro Tip

Here’s my BEST piece of advice for you: Try Ebates out for a few weeks first before you tell anyone else about it. I find a lot of value with Ebates because I know my friends, family, and you will save money by literally doing the exact same things you’re already doing – shopping online.

I am 99.9% positive you’re going to see the value in Ebates, but I would still highly recommend you actually try them out before you share this with a friend.

The One Problem with Ebates

Whenever I do a review like this, I always look for the good and bad. If you ever read a review that doesn’t point out the flaws, this should automatically be a red-flag alert!

However, finding the “bad” with Ebates was difficult. It’s free, there isn’t software you have to download or install, and the amount of effort to activate your cash back is effortless. I still dug into it and found a few things you could consider flaws:

• Deals will come and go. You may shop one day and see 6% cash back and then a few months later the partner is no longer found on Ebates.
• It’s your responsibility to make sure you’re getting your cash back. 99.9% of the time your account will be credited within 48 hours. If you don’t see it in your account, it’s your responsibility to notify them about it via a form on their site.
• You will only get your cash back payout once every 90 days.

Watch Video: The Triple Savings Hack

If you want to get a little crazy, you can do what I have been doing and I actually made this video to show you how to also.

I use Ebates, the Honey browser extension, and Giftcard Granny all at once to save the absolute most money possible. When I arrive at the online retailer I activate my Ebates to get my cash back activated. Then at checkout, I click on the Honey browser extension to apply any available coupon codes. Once I know my final checkout price, I search Gift Card Granny for an online gift card at a discount (someone may be selling a $50 gift card for $42 to get rid of it).

This means I am getting the cashback discount, the maximum discount using any and all coupon codes, and then the discount at the end with a bargain gift card.

Triple whammy my friend!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a Membership Fee?

No. Ebates is 100% free for anyone to use.

What if I return something?

Your cash back will then be reversed. However, it is important to note that if you are sending the item back only to exchange it, you must go back through the initial process of activating the cash back via Ebates.com or the Google Chrome Extension or Ebates may not be able to capture your rewards.

How long does the cash back take to show up in my account?

Cash back will show up in 48 hours or less. However, in very rare instances the retailer will not credit Ebates your cash back until their 30 day return period has expired.

What if the cash back doesn’t show up in my account?

Ebates has a “Help” Link which will ask you to fill out the store name, the date, and order number, so they can track down your Cash Back and get it resolved for you.

Is there an Ebates App?

Yes, for iPhone, Android, and iPad.

Does Ebates work outside the United States and Canada?

Yes. Just make sure the online retailer ships outside the U.S and Canada. Also, your Cash Back will come to you in whatever currency you set up as your initial payment method.

Summary

As you can see, Ebates is a great way to shop and save money without much effort. The days of making your latest hobby clipping coupons and storing them in your purse or wallet is gone. Thanks to places like Ebates, the effort of saving money is as easy as clicking one or two buttons on a computer screen or mobile app. 

In addition to saving while shopping, Ebates also has one of the most lucrative referral programs on the internet. By sharing the savings with your friends and family, you can earn hundreds of extra dollars. 

Sign up for free with Ebates right now so you are ready for the next time you shop online. Also, don’t forget about the Ebates Chrome Extension (desktop only) – it’s an automatic savings game changer!

In 2019, credit card debt hit an all-time high of $1.09 trillion. This exceeds the pre-recession record of $1.02 trillion reached in 2008. With that said, Americans spent over $100 billion….in interest. Yes, one hundred billion dollars in interest TO THE BANK. 

Ready for a wake-up call?

Here are the rest of the numbers:

The Bad:

Total credit card debt (2019): $1.09 Trillion – an all-time high

Interest paid to banks (2019): $100 Billion

The average credit card balance: $6,354

Number of credit cards per person: 3.1

Average interest rate: 16.97%

The Good News:

Credit Score Average (2019): 706 (highest average credit score since 2012)

What does this mean?

For starters, this means someone carrying a credit card with an average balance of $6,354 at an average interest rate of 16% will end up paying $150 minimum monthly payments.

If they continue to make the monthly payment and never use the card again, it will also take 24 years and 4 months to pay the balance. And, not to mention the total interest paid to the bank would be just under $8,000!!

If that wasn’t shocking enough, how about this?

The majority of people carrying credit card debt and paying insane levels of interest to the banks are also the same people with good to excellent credit scores!

So, the question now becomes why are banks charging outrageously high interest rates to those with good to excellent credit?

The answer is because the banks can.

Why would they change what is working so well for them?

Think about it: the higher the interest rate, the longer it keeps you a customer inside their plan. And, the longer you stay inside their plan, the better off they are.

The banks also make it complicated (and on purpose)

Have you ever wondered which card you should pay first?

Do I pay the one with the largest balance?

What about the highest interest rate?

Or how about the one with the highest minimum payment?

And how do I manage multiple cards with different due dates, different APRs, and different minimum payments each month?

This is where Tally comes in and shines.

Tally: A Smarter Way to Pay Down & Manage Your Credit Cards

Product Name: Tally

Product Description: A mobile app using technology to find the most efficient way to pay down your credit cards as quickly as possible, while simplifying the process of managing multiple credit cards.

Offer price: 0.0

Currency: USD

Availability: OnlineOnly

Overall

4

• Ease of Use
• Availability
• Cost

• Try Tally Now

What is Tally?

Tally is the first fully automated debt manager for both iOs and Android.

Tally uses their algorithm to pay off your credit card debt in the most strategic way possible. This in turn eliminates the need for a PhD in finance in order to figure the best way to pay them off. Instead of trying to calculate when to pay off which card or which card to pay first, Tally does this for you.

Tally will also monitor your APRs and will extend you a lower line of credit to pay off the higher interest debt if you qualify.

How Does Tally Actually Work?

The Tally app is a free download. Once you upload your card into Tally’s mobile app, it will continually monitor your balances, each of your card’s interest rates and each due date for every card you add into the app.

Next, their technology goes to work for you to determine which card to pay first, based on factors such as APRs and credit utilization. The result is you are now paying your cards in the smartest way possible, which saves you on interest across all your cards while also guaranteeing you never miss a payment again.

How Does Tally Make Money?

Tally makes money by charging interest on the amount you borrow from them. They only make money if they can save you money, and that’s it. There are never any hidden fees or any other sneaky ways for Tally to charge you anything else.

What is Tally’s Line of Credit?

Tally has raised a total of $92 million in venture capital since their launch in 2015. One of the biggest reasons why investors are so eager to jump on board is because of Tally’s line of credit.

How does the line of credit work?

Let’s say you have a credit card with an interest rate of 22%. Upon approval for the line of credit, the Tally line of credit will begin sending payments to your card with the 22% rate and you will then start paying back the Tally line of credit at it’s lower interest rate.

According to their website, Tally’s APR on their line of credit will range between 7.9% and 19.9%. This will depend on your credit history and similar to credit card APRs it will vary with the market based on Prime Rate (accurate as of June 2018).

The minimum FICO score required for Tally’s line of credit is currently 660.

Also, keep in mind that Tally is still working simultaneously with their algorithm to maximize your use of funds, thus helping you pay off your credit debt quicker and at a much lower rate.

One thing to note is Tally does still encourage you to use your credit cards while they work alongside you to pay them down quicker. They separate the benefits of using your cards from the burden of managing them monthly, helping you better understand how the amount and timing of your monthly payments and interest rate impact your balances. Or, pause on heavier card usage and simply use Tally as credit card debt management tool.

What is Tally Advisor?

You’re probably familiar with a robo-advisor for investments, but what about debt? In August 2018, Tally Advisor was launched to be just that; a robo-advisor for the 99% of Americans with debt.

How Does Tally Advisor Work?

Much like how a robo-advisor uses your age, retirement date, and goals to create a portfolio, Tally’s advisor does this with debt. Taking into consideration your income, your monthly spending, and when you want to be debt free, Tally creates a debt payoff strategy for you.

Their algorithm goes to work and determines the optimum amount to throw at debt each month. The optimization is based on your goals, your monthly cash flow and even those possible financial setbacks.

Who Benefits From Tally?

If you’re someone who has multiple credit cards with all different APRs, due dates, and minimum payment amounts – Tally may be a good fit for you.

First, let’s assume you obtained your credit cards at a time when you had a lower credit score and therefore you were only offered a higher APR.

However, today your credit score has jumped up to from 550 to 710, but the banks won’t budge when you ask them to lower your interest rate.

Why would they want to?

Aren’t they doing just fine with you paying a higher interest rate?

Now, let’s assume this is the scenario for 3-5 of the cards you have and you’re also feeling overwhelmed juggling due dates, minimum payment amounts, and which card to attack first.

In summary, if you have good-to-excellent credit and you’re overwhelmed with trying to figure out how, when and which card to pay off first, Tally is going to be a great choice for you.

Who is Tally NOT For?

If you have the cash on hand to pay off your credit cards or you qualify for a zero percent introductory rate with another card, Tally may not be your best option. However, keep in mind introductory rates can often go away if you ever miss a payment. If you think this is even a possibility, then Tally would take care of that worry and still pay down your credit cards faster and save you on interest.

Plus, you may still want to use Tally as a safety net for late fees and the convenience of managing all of your cards in one place.

What I Personally Love About Tally

What really impresses me about Tally is they are solving a pain point for many Americans – how to help those with good to excellent credit who are stuck paying high interest credit card rates.

Another perk with Tally is the guarantee you will never miss another credit card payment. Maybe you have incurred a late fee in the past simply because you forgot to pay a card on time – not because you didn’t have the money.

Tally takes care of this by paying your minimum balance for you and even guarantees it which frees up a ton of stress in our financial lives.

What I Don’t Like About Tally

They have the opportunity to meet the need for millions of Americans, but right now they are only  available in the following states:

Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington DC, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin..

However, Tally’s website does say they are adding new states on a regular basis.

Takeaway

At first glance, Tally seems to simply be a fancy way to refinance your credit card debt.

However, after diving into their platform and speaking with someone from Tally, it’s apparent Tally takes this much further. First, Tally utilizes technology to help you become more efficient with paying multiple cards. Secondly, Tally solves the problem of high interest rates for those with good-to-excellent credit.

And, instead of hiring a personal debt counselor to help with your debt, Tally automates this process for you at no charge.

In the end, Tally is making their money on their line of credit and you are saving money with their lower interest rate.

The real winners are you and Tally – the biggest loser is the bank.

What Do You Think About Tally?

I really would love to know…

How many credit cards do you currently have?

Do you think Tally would be a good option for you or not?

What else would you like to see Tally offer?

I would love to see what your thoughts are about it. Simply drop a comment below and I’ll get back with you.

CollegeBacker is an investment platform allowing you to save for college with tax advantages through a 529 plan. Collegebacker has simplified the college savings process while also making it easy for friends and family to make deposits into your child’s college savings.

Their mission is to make college affordable for every American family and to make it easy to start saving for college.

If you are ready to open an account with CollegeBacker today, you can get a $25 bonus when you fund fund your 529 plan through my link here.

What is CollegeBacker?

CollegeBacker is a robo-advisor specifically focused on 529 college savings plans. The company was founded in 2016 by current CEO Jordan Lee and is based out of San Francisco.

What Does CollegeBacker Offer?

Just like other 529 investment platforms, CollegeBacker is an investment platform which gives investors access to a diverse selection of 529 college savings plans. However, the thing that separates CollegeBacker from other investment platforms is they solely focus on college savings plans. In addition, they also have added the ability for multiple contributors to invest in a single 529 plan.

Why does this matter?

Allowing family and friends to invest into your college savings plan via a single shared link will help you save for your child’s college savings. Now friends and/or family members can click a link and make one-time or recurring investments on your child’s behalf. And to make it as simple as possible, CollegeBacker allows anyone to invest via a credit card, debit card, or bank transfer.

What are the Benefits of CollegeBacker?

What makes CollegeBacker stand out is:

• Simplified investing for 529 plans
• Access to a diverse range of 529 plans
• Recommendations based on low-cost funds
• Tax savings on college savings
• Risk analysis based on age of child
• Simplified process for having friends or family save

In addition to the college savings for your child, CollegeBacker also makes it easy to send a 529 savings gift to anyone – even if they don’t currently have a 529 plan. The next time your child is invited to a birthday party, you can actually send a 529 contribution in lieu of a traditional gift.

Pro Tip: Do you have currently have a student loan? Before you send off another payment, make sure you’re getting the best possible loan and rate.

Who Can Join CollegeBacker?

Any family member at least 18 years old can open an account for a child or future college student. This member also does not need to be a parent or legal guardian. However, since the person opening the account can withdraw funds, it’s a good idea if they are the child’s primary caretaker.

CollegeBacker doesn’t require you to attend a specific college, earn a certain income or live in a qualifying state.

Children of any age can have a CollegeBacker account. For each child you add, CollegeBacker will gauge your risk tolerance and recommend a state-specific 529 plan.

Note: You can live in one state and invest into a different state’s 529 plan, and the student can go to any college of their choice.

Can I Open an Account for a Future Child?

Yes, you can create an account for a future child when you have a due date.

Once the baby is born, you can edit their plan details. If you have enough diapers, wipes and baby clothing, your friends can shower you with 529 contributions instead.

The idea here is to get the ball rolling on college savings as soon as your child is born.

How Do I Open an Account

You can open an account for free here.

Opening an account only takes a few minutes. When enrolling, CollegeBacker recommends a 529 college savings plan with the best plan fees and tax treatment for your state of residence. Avoiding these hidden costs means your child can have more money to pay for school.

Listen here: You can hear more about CollegeBacker from one of their advisor’s Abby Chao on Money Peach Podcast Episode 67.

Who Can Contribute to a CollegeBacker 529 Plan?

Any family member or friend can contribute to a child’s plan. The 529 plan provider (not CollegeBacker) invests the cash in stocks, bonds and fixed-income assets. When your child needs to pay for college, the funds can be withdrawn tax-free for eligible education costs.

Note: CollegeBacker is an investment platform only – meaning they do not hold your money but rather act as the interface between the investor and the 529 plan.

What are the CollegeBacker Fees

CollegeBacker is free to join, however, the 529 plan administrator (not CollegeBacker) collects an annual fee. The fee amount depends on which state plan you choose and the fund expense ratios.

For example, the fees for a Utah my529 can be between 0.174% and 0.187%. For every $1,000, you pay $1.87 with a 0.187% fee.

A third-party payment processor also charges 3% for credit and debit transactions to make a contribution. All bank account ACH transfers are free.

Does CollegeBacker Have Other Savings Plans?

No, just 529 college savings plans.

There are several different tax-advantaged college savings plans you can open for your child. Perhaps you know of 529 plans, Coverdell accounts and even prepaid tuition plans.

However, CollegeBacker only recommends 529 college savings plans. The primary reason for choosing a 529 plan is for their flexibility. This plan type is easy to qualify for, has high annual contribution limits and all withdrawals are tax-free for qualified education expenses like tuition, room and board, books and computers.

How 529 Plans Work

529 plans can seem confusing at first glance. If you use a Roth IRA to save for retirement, the college savings equivalent is a 529 plan.

One reason for the complexity is that most states offer their own 529 plan. Yet each plan can have different costs and investment options. You can join any state’s 529 plan even if your child won’t attend college there.

CollegeBacker can recommend your home state’s 529 plan or a different state’s 529 plan. For example, you might live in Tennessee but you might join Utah’s my529 plan because of their low plan fees.

But your home state might be CollegeBacker’s recommendation for you. This can be the case when your state lets you deduct 529 contributions on your state income tax return.

Because they are a fiduciary financial advisory, CollegeBacker does not accept commissions for recommending a certain 529 plan. CollegeBacker does accept cash donations from CollegeBacker to cover its operating expenses.

CollegeBacker’s Investment Strategy

CollegeBacker doesn’t manage the investment portfolio. Each state 529 has its own investment team. For example, Utah’s my529 uses Vanguard.

Typically, 529 plans invest the plan funds into a stock and bond index funds. These funds have low fund expenses to keep your investment fees low. Fewer fees mean more of your contributions can earn passive income.

The plan administrator will invest more aggressively while your child is young. The Utah my529 plan, for instance, invests in stock and bond funds managed by Vanguard.

As your child approaches college age, the plan shifts to a more risk-averse allocation to preserve the fund balance. Before enrolling in a specific 529 plan, you can see the investment glide path. This plan lets you see the planned asset allocation based on your child’s age.

Because you can invest the contributions in the stock market, you can earn potentially higher returns than relying on a bank CD. Like any investment, 529 contributions do contain some risk and all investors should be aware your investment does not always increase in value over time.

Tax Benefits of CollegeBacker 529 Plan

One of the reasons so many people use 529 plans to save and pay for college is the tax advantages. Similar to a ROTH IRA, the money you invest into a 529 will grow tax-free – meaning you don’t pay capital gains tax.

Then when it comes time to withdraw the funds to use for qualified educational expenses, you won’t pay any tax either.

Your 529 plan contributions do not qualify as a federal tax deduction but they may qualify for your state tax deduction. Each state is a little different on their tax savings for 529 plans, and it’s important to know how each state’s rules on deductions.

How Can I Make Contributions

It’s easy to contribute to any CollegeBacker 529 plan. CollegeBacker only requires each contribution to be at least $5.

The family member opening the account can link a bank account or pay with credit and debit cards. Bank transfers can take several days to complete but you don’t pay a processing fee.

You can add other family members to help manage the account. However, CollegeBacker only allows the person opening the 529 plan to make withdrawals. Your friends and family don’t need to be a plan manager to make contributions.

The easiest way to invite others to contribute is by sharing your child’s personal link. Grandparents, family and friends can click the link and make one-time or recurring contributions.

As friends contribute, CollegeBacker includes their name as a backer on your child’s account page like a crowdfunding platform. Other visitors won’t see another’s person’s contribution amount but will see that someone did participate into the 529 plan.

The plan owner (whoever opens the 529) does have 90 days to accept a friend’s contribution. If they don’t, CollegeBacker refunds the gift amount.

Using CollegeBacker

You can access CollegeBacker online using a laptop or mobile device browser. A mobile app is available for Apple devices as well. An Android app is in development as of February 12, 2020.

The CollegeBacker platform is easy to navigate. The claim is true that you can open an account within five minutes. You start the enrollment process on CollegeBacker. After choosing a state’s 529 plan, you activate your account on the plan provider’s website.

Once you activate the 529 plan, everything else you do is within the CollegeBacker website. You can schedule contributions from your account. When you have multiple child accounts, first decide which account you want to fund.

Inside your account, you can schedule recurring contributions. It’s also possible to invite others to make a contribution.

A third really nice feature is the ability to send gifts to other families even if they currently don’t have a CollegeBacker account. This is a great way to nudge someone in the right direction for starting up a savings plan for their child’s future education expenses.

CollegeBacker Savings Calculator

Anticipating how much your child’s 529 plan may be worth when they enter college can be a tough guess.

However, you can use CollegeBacker’s savings calculator to estimate the fund balance when the child turns 18. The calculator has you enter your monthly contribution plus the gifts from your family and friends.

Then, CollegeBacker also displays the projected returns if you were to invest your same gift into a taxable investment account or a savings account. They do this as a way for you to visualize why 529 plans are a much better tool than anything else when it comes to college savings.

Customer Support

While CollegeBacker is easy to navigate and their FAQs cover most questions, you may still need additional help.

You can email CollegeBacker at any time and live chat is available from 9 am to 5 pm Pacific Standard Time.

Their support team can answer your general questions about using CollegeBacker, however, CollegeBacker doesn’t provide personal investing advice.

Is CollegeBacker Safe?

CollegeBacker uses bank-level security to protect your personal data. The 529 plan provider you choose stores your investment account information. It’s likely that their security protocol is on par with CollegeBacker.

Is CollegeBacker Reputable?

I had someone from CollegeBacker come on The Money Peach Podcast in 2017 just a year after they got started….imagine me puffing my chest out right now as I say this.

However, since then they have grown and have been featured in Yahoo Finance, People Magazine, The New York Times, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal.

What Happens if CollegeBacker Goes Out of Business?

Your child’s college savings are not stored in CollegeBacker’s vault. If CollegeBacker were to close, the account balance is with the plan provider.

Theoretically, you can access your child’s account directly from the state’s 529 plan website. This is the same website you visit to activate the 529 plan to start making contributions.

Who Should Join CollegeBacker?

CollegeBacker is a good fit for those who want a hassle-free way to open a 529 account with low expenses and potential state tax benefits. Any 529 plan can offset college costs with tax-free funds. But CollegeBacker helps you quickly find the best 529 plan for your family.

You may also appreciate how easy CollegeBacker makes it for friends and family to send a gift.

Young children can benefit the most from a CollegeBacker 529 plan. This is because they can have their entire childhood to earn passive income. Even if your child has already started attending grade school, it may not be too late to start.

What I Like About CollegeBacker

• It’s free to use
• Minimum $5 investment
• Can open a 529 plan in minutes
• Family and friends can easily make contributions
• Tax advantages
• Ability to send gifts to other students

What I Dislike About CollegeBacker

• Processing fees for debit and credit card transactions
• Customer service via email or chat only

My Recommendation

You can open a 529 plan anywhere — at any brokerage account or with any financial advisor. However, none of them will have the perks that CollegeBacker has.

By perks, I am talking about the ability to make it extremely easy for family and friends to contribute to your child’s 529 plan. Or the ability to send a gift to another friend or family member in the form a 529 savings account for their child.

You also won’t have the dashboard and the user-friendliness of CollegeBacker. If you have a current investment account at a brokerage, you know what I am talking about — it was built for people who simply just want to invest.

If you currently don’t have a 529 account, I would highly encourage you to simply get started. You can open an account for free and all it takes is $5 to fund your account. The best time to start saving for college was yesterday. The second best time is right now.

Everybody’s “favorite” time of year is here once again. It’s tax time.

If you’re looking for free tax filing this year, I am recommending to use H&R Block for 2020 tax filing.

While TurboTax has remained the “gold standard” among the DIY tax software giants, H&R Block has made some very impressive strides to compete with TurboTax. In fact, after taking a long look at both TurboTax and H&R Block for my 2020 tax software review, I am going to go with H&R Block for the win.

H&R Block 2020 Review

H&R Block is almost identical as to what TurboTax offers this year, however H&R Block’s free services are superior. As far as premium services, you will pay a lot less for H&R Block than you will with TurboTax. In addition, H&R Block partnered with Amazon and now offers a 4% tax refund bonus which TurboTax does not. I’ll explain more about how the bonus works further down in this 2020 H&R Block review.

2020 H&R Block Review

Name: H&R Block

Description: H&R Block has options for all tax filers in 2020. Whether you want to file for free, completely online, get help online, or file in person - H&R Block provides all services.

Overall

4.9

• Filing Options
• Cost
• Features
• Online Support

• H&R Block

5 Ways to File with H&R Block in 2020

This year H&R Block has 5 different ways to file your 2019 tax return. There are two options for the DIY filers and then you will also have three more options for having them do file your taxes for you.

1. Do It Yourself Online

• Federal Cost: $0
• State Cost: $0

If you pay rent and didn’t sell any investments in 2019, there’s a good chance you can file your federal and state income tax returns free.

It used to be that the only way to get free tax filing was making less than a certain annual income. Now, you can file for free regardless of your income if you only need to claim the following income and deductions:

• W-2 Income (not Form 1099 self-employment income)
• Retirement Plan Income
• Social Security Income
• Student Loan Interest
• Earned Income Credit
• Child Care Expenses
• Child Tax Credits

If you have home mortgage interest to deduct, sold investments, own rental property or earn freelancer or self-employed income, you will have to pay to file your return with H&R Block.

H&R Block Free

H&R Block calls their free filing option, “H&R Block Free.”

With this option, you can file basic federal and state returns free. Seriously, no strings attached.

If this isn’t your first tax season, you probably remember filing your federal return for free. But, having to pay to file your state return. This fee is usually around $40.

Who Can Use It?

H&R states their Free platform is best if you “have a W-2, have kids, and pay rent.”

But, you might fall into this category if you have itemized in the past because of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts is making it harder to itemize. For tax year 2019, experts estimate only 10% of people can itemize instead of the usual 30%.

Gen Z college students and young Millennials will most likely be able to file for free as well. Even homeowners who don’t have enough itemized deductions ($12,000 for single filers and $24,000 for joint filers) can also file completely free.

Easily Upload Your Tax Documents

H&R Block’s free tax filing 2019 perks are pretty good. In the past, you had to type all your tax information by hand. To upload your documents, you needed to upgrade to a paid option.

With your mobile device or webcam, you can now take a picture of your W-2. In seconds, the data uploads to H&R Block and spares you from accidentally typing the wrong information into the incorrect box.

You can also upload the forms you receive from your bank, brokerage, health insurance marketplaces, and student loan lenders too. Some of these forms include:

• 1095-A (Health Insurance)
• 1098-E (Student Loan Interest Paid)
• 1099-DIV (Stock Dividends)
• 1099-INT (Bank Account Interest)

And, H&R Block lets you import last year’s tax return that makes completing this year’s return faster.

Free Earned Income Tax Credit

The free version of H&R Block sees if you qualify for more than 350 credits and deductions. One of these is the Earned Income Tax Credit. If you qualify, you can boost your tax refund without paying a dime to file your return.

Free Chat Technical Support

Since you’re filing a “simple” return, you shouldn’t have any complex tax questions. For the tax questions you do have, you should be able to find an answer in the online self-help guide.

If you can’t figure out how to upload a form or need help navigating the platform, H&R Block offers free chat support. Keep in mind, this isn’t free tax advice like you get from an accountant or Block’s premium Tax Pro Review.

Refund Reveal Explains Refund Amount Changes

The various tax prep programs display your current tax refund amount in real-time. As you enter new income, deductions, and credits, that dollar amount fluctuates. If you’re a tax novice, you might not understand why the refund amount changes.

The Refund Reveal tool helps explain these changes so you understand why you are receiving the tax refund you are. Or, why you’re paying in this year if enough wasn’t withheld.

Up to 4% Amazon Gift Card Bonus

When you choose to receive any amount up to an including your full tax refund as an Amazon gift card, Amazon boosts your balance by 4%. Let’s say you choose to take your entire $3,000 tax refund in the form of an Amazon gift card. You would then get thirty $100 Amazon gift cards and then an additional 4% ($120) in free Amazon Gift cards.

But what if you only want to take a portion of your tax return in the form of Amazon gift card? 

You can do that as well. Let’s say you only want to take half of your return, $1,500 in the form of gift card from Amazon. H&R Block would issue you fifteen – $100 Amazon gift cards plus 4% ($60) as a free bonus in gift cards from Amazon.

Although the 4% bonus sounds great, a better use of your tax refund can be paying high-interest debt or putting your cash into a sinking fund to help save for those bigger purchases.

Free Tax Audit Support

If you’re audited, H&R Block provides free basic audit support. They will help explain the audit process and what follow-up actions you may need to complete.

This free benefit doesn’t include audit defense where an H&R Block provides in-person representation when meeting with the IRS agent. This deluxe coverage costs extra.

Tax Filing Options for Homeowners and Investors

If you deduct mortgage interest and property taxes or sell stock in 2019, you have to pay H&R Block to file your federal and state returns. The IRS requires you to report this information on a separate tax form that you include with the standard Tax Form 1040.

These are the three main reasons you have to fill out an extra schedule:

• Mortgage Interest or Property Taxes (Schedule A)
• Self-Employment Income (Schedule C-EZ or Schedule C)
• Investment Income by Selling Shares of Stock (Schedule D)

Our tax code is confusing. Don’t worry about the exact Schedules you must complete right now. H&R Block walks you through every tax situation and fills out these additional forms when you reach that part of the process. Even if you start with the free option, they will notify you when you need to upgrade to an advanced plan to continue filing.

If you can’t file for free, you will most likely either use the Deluxe or Premium plan. For an extra set of eyes on your return, you may also opt for the TaxProGo which lets you file online with the help of an H&R tax professional who offers personal tax advice.

Tip: Save money by filing your taxes ASAP. H&R Block raises prices as the April 15 tax filing deadline approaches. You can get up to 25% off your federal return by acting now.

Deluxe Plan

• Federal Cost: $29.99 for limited time (Full Price is $49.99)
• State Cost: $36.99

Want me to let you in on a little secret?

Downloading the Deluxe software to file your federal and state income tax (instead of filing online) can save you $12.

Who Can Use It?

Homeowners and itemizers with W-2 Income who didn’t sell any investments in 2019.

Itemize Mortgage Interest, Taxes, and Charity (Schedule A)

Mortgage interest deductions, state and local property taxes (up to $10,000), charitable contributions, and medical expenses are all itemizeable expenses.

Since you can claim more deductions, H&R Block uses a more extensive screener to find more deductions. Their DeductionPro tool that provides the value of any tangible items you donate. For instance, this tool assigns a cash value to your clothing and household items you donate to your local thrift store.

Free Tax Document Storage

It’s a good idea to keep a paper copy of your tax return in your personal files for up to six years. This way, you have a copy if you need to apply for a loan or apply to an IRS inquiry. If you’re audited, the IRS can request your tax documents for the most recent six years.

Having a digital copy on H&R Block means you never lose your documents. It’s also easier to send a copy to the loan officer. And if you move to a new house, you don’t have to worry about losing these important papers during a packing purge.

Phone Technical Support

If you don’t like live chat support, you get free phone technical support with H&R Block Deluxe.

Premium Plan

• Federal Cost: $49.99 for limited time (Full Price is $69.99)
• State Cost: $36.99

Who Can Use It?

When you sell investments or earn freelancing income in 2019, you must use Premium.

Even if you sell one share of stock, your broker will send you an extra tax form that requires a Schedule D. For instance, if a family member in 2019 sold stock and had $100 in taxable capital gains and didn’t itemize, they will get a Schedule D. Therefore, they will have to now use the Premium option to file their return to include a Schedule D.

However, had they not sold any shares and continued to collect the regular dividend payments, they could have avoided the Schedule D and filed for free.

Also, if you earned any freelancer or self-employment income and receive a Form 1099, you have to file a Schedule C-EZ. When filing a C-EZ, you can still claim basic self-employment deductions less than $5,000 total. For example, this may be something you would complete if you have an side hustle. 

Having employees or claiming asset depreciation means you have to upgrade to the Self-Employed plan. This also applies to rideshare drivers.

Import 1099-B Investment Income

So you don’t spend as much time completing the Schedule D as the rest of your tax return, you can import your broker’s investment income statement. On the Schedule D, you must report the cost basis (the original investment amount) and the final sales value for each investment sale you make.

This can be a monotonous task. It’s also easy to type the wrong information in the wrong field causing further delays

However, H&R Block helps you determine the accurate cost basis for stocks, home sales, inheritance, and other investment income.

Import Expenses from Expense-Tracking Apps

When you have freelancer income to report from a Form 1099, you probably have deductible expenses too. You can import your expenses from apps like Stride, Uber, and Lyft. These apps can track your mileage and other expenses so you don’t want to forget.

For example, as a self-employed person myself, I keep a running log for all my business-related expenses so I can quickly tally my expenses in January. And, tracking expenses in real-time ensures you don’t forget certain expenses.

Self-Employed

• Federal Cost: $79.99 for a limited time  (Full Price is $104.99)
• State Cost: $36.99

Who Can Use This?

If you’re a business owner, you will need to submit the full-scale Schedule C. Rideshare drivers hustling for Uber or Lyft will need to use H&R Block Self-Employed too.

To save you money, H&R Block will determine if you can file a Schedule C-EZ first. They will prompt you to upgrade if you have a complex self-employment tax situation.

Find Common Business Deductions

One benefit of being self-employed is that you can deduct certain expenses that W-2 employees can’t. To help you find every possible deduction, H&R Block helps you find eligible business deductions, asset depreciation, and startup costs to lower your taxable income.

2. Do It Yourself with Online Help

H&R Block also offers two virtual tax prep add-on services. The first service is their Basic Online Assist which is still for the DIYers, but also gives you access to online or phone support from a certified tax professional. 

Basic Online Assist

• Federal Cost Starting at $39.99
• State Cost Starting at $0

With Basic Online Assist, you complete your return yourself and a tax expert reviews it before sending it to Washington.

This isn’t a bad idea if you’re itemizing or you earn self-employment income as these two types of returns are more complex. And, you think there is a possibility you may miss a few of the many deductions the IRS allows you to deduct, then it may be a great idea to pay the small premium now for a bigger return.

3. File My Taxes For Me Online 

• Federal Cost Starting at $49
• State Cost Starting at $39

The other virtual tax prep option is Tax Pro Go. This is most similar to walking into your local H&R Block office to file your taxes. Since it takes place online, it can be cheaper and more convenient if you have a busy schedule.

With Tax Pro Go, the tax expert completes your tax return for you. This is ideal for complex returns where you deduct asset depreciation or payroll expenses.

How It Works

When you choose Tax Pro Go, you are matched with a tax professional who has expertise the state you are filing in and best suited for your particular situation. Then you simply drag and drop your tax documents via their online dashboard and you can also schedule a live call or chat with someone if you have any questions.

Once they are finished preparing your return, H&R Block will sign and file your return for you. This is perfect for those who are looking to maximize their return with the least amount of effort on their part.

4. File My Taxes For Me – Drop Off and Go

• Federal Cost Starting at $69
• State Cost will vary by state

With over 12,000 H&R Block locations across the United States, this is a great option if you feel more comfortable dropping off your taxes files in person.

Without even scheduling a time, you can pop in and drop off your tax documents and a tax professional will prepare, sign and file your taxes for you.

5. File My Taxes For Me In Office

• Federal Cost Starting at $69
• State Cost will vary by state

If you still prefer to meet in person with a tax professional, you can. H&R Block also offers in-person tax consulting with a tax pro in any of their 12,000 locations across the United States.

What I Like Most About H&R Block

• Most non-itemizers can file federal and state taxes free
• All plans can digitally import tax documents to quickly complete return
• Easy-to-Navigate Platform
• 4% Amazon gift card bonus
• Can have a tax expert review your return (Tax Pro Review or Tax Pro Go)

H&R is one of the best tax prep programs for free tax filing. Even if you have to pay, the user experience is better than discount filing programs.

What I Dislike About H&R Block

• Six years of storage only comes with paid plans
• Can file Self-Employed returns for less elsewhere online

If you want H&R Block to digitally save your tax documents, you must pay for a premium plan. Some people might wish to have free document storage in lieu of having H&R Block auto-fill your taxable income into your Form 1040 tax return.

What Else To Know About Filing 2019 Taxes

While you have to file income taxes every year, your tax return will be different this year. If your employer withholds part of your paycheck, you might already see a small difference in your take-home pay.

Below are a few important changes you should know about so you don’t think H&R Block is miscalculating your taxable income.

Fewer People Can Itemize

While we’re not going to talk about all the 2019-2020 tax law changes, one notable change is the increased standard deduction. Before, roughly 30% of taxpayers filed an itemized return with multiple tax-deductible expenses. That number is expected to shrink to 10% of all filers now.

This is partially because of several deduction removals like tax prep fees and unreimbursed work and travel expenses. Keep in mind, you can still deduct most of these expenses if you file a Schedule C to report self-employment income.

And, because the 2019 standard deduction increases to these new amounts:

• Single Filers: $12,200
• Head of Household: $18,350
• Married, Filing Jointly: $24,400

To “itemize,” you’re essentially limited to the three most commonly itemized expenses:

• Home Mortgage Interest
• State and Local Taxes
• Charitable Deductions

Change to Home Mortgage Interest Deduction

If you have a mortgage originating on or after December 15, 2017, you can only claim the interest paid on the first $750,000 loan balance.

This restriction primarily affects homebuyers in high-cost-of-living areas like San Francisco, Seattle and New York City.

State and Local Tax Deductions Capped at $10,000

You can now only deduct the first $10,000 in state and local income, sales, and property taxes each year. This deduction is more commonly known as SALT and will continue through 2025 per the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017.

Anybody Can Deduct Student Loan Interest

One deduction that isn’t changing is deducting student loan interest. Even if you file for free, you can deduct the first $2,500 of student loan interest. You will receive Form 1098-E from your lenders stating how much interest you paid.

This deduction instantly reduces your taxable income just like pre-tax, traditional 401k or IRA contributions.

Health Insurance Is No Longer Required

For the past few years, you were subject to a financial penalty if you didn’t have adequate health insurance coverage from your employer, healthcare marketplace, or a health sharing ministry. The IRS collected this fee when you filed your federal income tax return.

With tax year 2019, the individual mandate is no more! If you paid penalties in the past, you won’t pay one this year.

Compare Prices for Downloading Software and Filing Online

To save a few dollars, compare H&R Block’s file online price to downloading their software first. In either case, your tax return is digitally sent to the IRS and your state’s tax agency.

While you might think filing online is always cheaper, H&R Block software downloads might be the cheaper option. If you have a computer and time to download, it’s worth price shopping.

Is Free Online Tax Filing Legit?

I might be dating myself here, but free tax filing online is still relatively new. As a cash-strapped college student, I would scour the web looking for free tax prep software. If you didn’t click the correct link on just the right page you had to pay to file your “free” return. But, you didn’t find out until after you entered all your information. So, you either paid the prep fee or re-entered all the information with a different tax prep program.

While these programs accurately calculated my tax refund, the experience wasn’t always pleasant. The websites were clunky and sometimes hard to navigate.

That’s not the case when you file taxes for free today. You can easily file with your phone, tablet, or computer. And, you no longer have to hand-enter all your information by hand.

What’s the Best Way to File This Year?

In summary, H&R Block has 5 different options to make sure all filers have the best option for filing this year. If you are the DIY-type, then you have the two options:

• H&R Block Free
• H&R Block Online Assist

But, if you would rather have a tax professional file for you (and I don’t blame you), then there are three options to choose from:

• Tax Pro Go where you upload all docs on line and a tax professional prepares, signs and files for you
• Drop off in office
• In-person consultation

Now, with each of the online options, you have four different tiers to choose from based on your current situation.

The Four Tiers of H&R Block Online Filing

H&R Block offers four core products. The summary below helps you quickly see which option your tax situation lands in.

Free

• W-2 and dividend income only
• Not itemizing
• Didn’t sell any investments

Deluxe

• W-2 and dividend income only
• Can itemize
• Didn’t sell any investments

Premium

• W-2, dividend, or basic freelancer (Form 1099) income
• May or may not itemize
• Sold investments
• Own rental property

Self-Employed

• Self-employment income
• Advanced business deductions including ridesharing expenses

Survey Junkie Review 2020: Getting Paid to Take Surveys

Name: Survey Junkie

Description: Survey Junkie is one of the most trusted sites among all survey companies. They currently have over 10 million active users and a TrustPilot rating of 4.5/5.

Overall

4.4

• Quality of Surveys
• Earning Potential
• Mobile Optimized
• Amount of Time Required

Summary

The breakdown of Survey Junkie

Pros

• $10 minimum threshold to cashout
• Simple dashboard
• Get paid cash via PayPal gift cards
• Can choose the length of survey before taking
• High ratings among their over 10 million members

Cons

• Can only take surveys
• You may not qualify for many surveys based on demographics

• Try Survey Junkie

What is Survey Junkie?

Survey Junkie was founded in Glendale, California in 2011 and currently has over 10 million active members. They’re mission is “Share your voice. Influence change. Get paid.” 

This naturally makes sense for a company dedicated to partnering companies with people just like to share your honest opinion about different products or services. Your feedback helps them decide on what products and services should be offered and how to improve the ones that are lacking.

If something’s not selling, it’s nice to know why. What better way to get that information than from customer surveys?

And most people will not give a company their time for free, so it makes sense to offer payment. Survey Junkie isn’t alone in paying people for their opinion.

But out of all the survey companies I have seen, Survey Junkie has the highest Trustpilot rating of 4.5/5 with over 14,000 reviews. As someone who has done many reviews for different survey companies, no one else has the high ratings and reviews like Survey Junkie.

How Do I Sign up for Survey Junkie?

You can simply sign up for Survey Junkie here.

Signing up for Survey Junkie is easy. Just click the “Join Now” button on the home page. Next, you will create an account using either a Facebook or Google+ to sign up. If you don’t have either, you can use any email address.

After that they’ll ask you a few demographics questions. Questions about:

• Your household and its members
• Current income
• And your lifestyle

It might seem weird that they want to know this stuff, but it’s important for matching you up with surveys. Companies using Survey Junkie want to survey their target audience.

Survey Junkie uses the information you give them to match you with surveys based on your lifestyle. This process helps you influence brands you use the most.

After you answer the demographics questions you’ll get a list of available surveys. Survey Junkie will also email you available surveys going forward as well.

Bonus: You will earn points for completing your profile fully.

**You have to be at least 13 years old to join Survey Junkie. Also, you need to be a resident of the U.S., Canada or Australia.

What Are the Surveys Like?

The surveys you’ll receive vary in content and length. Some will be super-short, like 5 minutes, while others will take up to 30 minutes.

When you receive the surveys in your email, they’ll tell you how long the surveys take and how many points you’ll earn by taking them.

This is nice because you can choose to do the surveys you have time for. And you can do them in your spare time.

You don’t have to set aside an hour or two if you don’t want to. It’s easy to earn points while you’re watching TV or waiting at an appointment.

Another great thing about Survey Junkie is that there are plenty of surveys to choose from. Some companies will only send surveys once or twice a week.

However, Survey Junkie typically sends out several per day. That equates to more chances to earn points (i.e. money).

The content of the surveys they send you will vary as well. One survey they might ask you if you’ve tried a particular product. The next day you could receive a survey about your habits in a certain area. One survey I was sent asked “How many times a week do you go out to eat?”

The questions are pretty easy and you’ll be able to answer most off the top of your head.

Other Ways to Earn Points with Survey Junkie

Besides taking surveys, there are other ways to earn points with the company. Here are some of them.

Join a Focus Group

Survey Junkie might ask you to join a focus group. These groups typically pay more than surveys do. They are informal settings where people share their opinion.

Refer Friends

You can earn points by referring friends to Survey Junkie too. Survey Junkie will give you a referral code friends can use when they sign up. If they use your code, you get points.

Test Products

Occasionally – very occasionally – Survey Junkie will send you an opportunity to test a product. Sometimes you’ll get paid to test the product.

Other times your payment is just being able to keep the product itself.

Other Actionable Items

Survey Junkie will email you about other actions you can take to earn points too. You’ll see a number of points with a green button on the email if you can earn from it.

How Do I Get Paid from Survey Junkie?

This is the real question we all want answered, right?

It’s simple – you’ll earn points for every survey you complete with Survey Junkie. As I mentioned, the emails will tell you how many points you get for the survey before you start.

Or how many points you’ll get from taking other actions. After you’ve earned 1,000 points you can cash out. 1,000 points is equal to $10 in cash or gift cards.

You will get payment in 1 of 3 ways:

• By PayPal transfer (available in all countries)
• Via a store e-gift card (available only for U.S. members)
• A direct transfer to your bank account via Dwolla (U.S. members only)

They have a number of e-gift card choices available if you like that option. Walmart, Target and Amazon are some of the more popular options.

Note: If you choose the PayPal option you’ll have to cash out all of your points. Therefore, if you want some in a gift card and some in PayPal, choose the gift card option first. Then transfer the rest to PayPal. Keep in mind that you need 1,000 points minimum to make a transfer.

How Much Money Will I Make with Survey Junkie?

Let’s be honest; you’re not going to replace your full-time income with Survey Junkie. However, you can make a few extra bucks each week. When I say a few extra bucks, you’ll make up to $20 extra per month.

Note: I have read reviews of people making up to $200 per month taking surveys with Survey Junkie, but I would expect that at all. Yes, there may be a few, but it’s definitely not common.

The exact amount you earn depends on the types of surveys you take and on how many you take. Whether you take advantage of other opportunities like focus groups makes a difference too.

If you work regularly, you could make enough in a year to cover an extra expense like a vacation. Or your Christmas gifts. However, you won’t get rich with Survey Junkie.

What I Like About Survey Junkie

Out of all the different survey options out there, Survey Junkie is the simplest I have seen. Some of the other survey sites have way too many ways to try and figure out how to earn points and it can be overwhelming. With Survey Junkie, there is only one thing you can do — take surveys.

I also like how they offer a $10 minimum cashout threshold. Most other survey companies will make you get to a $25 threshold which means you spend a lot more time before you get paid.

 Lastly, I like how Survey Junkie has the option of PayPal gift cards because you can easily turn PayPal credit into cash in your bank account.

What I Don’t Like About Survey Junkie

As far as survey companies go, there isn’t much to dislike about Survey Junkie. I actually had to do some digging to find a reason to put something here I didn’t like (honest review), and I did notice they have a B rating with the BBB. Last year at this time they did have an A+ rating, so that was one red flag I did see.

Also, per some of the users we have spoken with, you may not qualify for some of the surveys based on your demographics

Is Survey Junkie Legit?

The verdict — Survey Junkie is a legitimate way to earn up to $20/month from your phone.

Survey Junkie remains to have one of the highest ratings among survey companies. In fact, Survey Junkie does have an TrustPilot rating of 4.5/5 with over 10 million active users.

Although, it isn’t a great ideas to use them as a primary source of income, it is a great way to utilize spare time to bring in some extra cash. If you like to shop, it’s also a great way to earn free Amazon gift cards.

However, if you’re really looking to replace your income, I’d suggest checking into some other options.

There are plenty of other side hustle options out there where you can earn real income to eventually replace your full-time job..

Final Recommendation

At the end of the day, yes, you can make money with Survey Junkie. It’s a legit site that can help you earn cash in your spare time.

The tasks you’ll do to earn are typically easy and often quick. However, as I mentioned, you won’t make life-changing, pay-off-your-debt, reach-financial-independence money.

If you’re looking for life-changing money, consider the other options mentioned here. Like they did for Peach and his family, they truly could change your world.

You probably have goals, dreams and plans for the extra money you want to make. It’s time to start achieving those dreams. Pick up a side hustle and use the money to reach your financial goals.

Swagbucks Review 2020: Many Ways to Make a Few Extra Bucks This Month

Name: Swagbucks

Description: Swagbucks is a website that pays people for sharing their opinion when they shop, answer surveys, watch shows, discover new products, search the internet, play games, and test out mobile sites. When you perform tasks, you are rewarded with "Swagbucks", which can be exchanged for gift cards (Amazon, Walmart, etc.) OR cash via PayPal gift card.

Overall

3.8

• Sign Up Bonus
• Getting Started
• Earning Potential
• Reputation

Summary

The Breakdown of Swagbucks

Pros

• 7 different ways to earn money
• Reputable – 40 million users
• Can get paid out in gift cards
• Can get paid out in cash via PayPal
• Sign up bonus

Cons

• $25 minimum to cashout
• Sometimes you will spend more money to make less money

• Try Swagbucks

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks was founded in 2008 by a company called Prodege. Prodege was founded in 2005 and has a Better Business Bureau rating of A and a Trust Pilot rating of 4.3 out of 5. 

Prodege as a separate business operates to help brands boost engagement with customers. They founded Swagbucks in 2008 with the goal of rewarding users for online activity.

Since its inception, the company has paid out over 407 million dollars to their over 40 million users. In fact, their website says they give out 7,000 free gift cards every single day.

When you complete certain activities on the site, you are able to earn rewards. You can read more about the specifics of earning in the next section.

How Do I Make Money on Swagbucks?

Swagbucks will give you rewards points for completing a number of various activities on the site. Here is some information regarding the various ways you can earn points using Swagbucks.

1. Earn by Referring Others to the Site

If you ask friends, family members and acquaintances to sign up for Swagbucks, and they do, you’ll get paid. For each signed up and active referral, you’ll get 500 points.

For the record, a “point” on Swagbucks is worth 1 cent. So, 300 points, for example, equals $3. Now, the $3 sign-up bonus only applies if the person you sign up earns 300 points before the first of the following month.

Note: Using this link from Money Peach, you will get a $5 sign-up bonus.

So, if you refer your best friend to Swagbucks and she signs up on the 15th of the month, she’s got to earn 300 Swagbucks (SB) points within 15 days if you want to get your bonus.

Additionally, you’ll get paid ten percent on all SB points that any referral you make earns. So if your BFF earns 1,000 SB points next month, you’ll earn 100 SB points because you referred her.

Referring others to sign up can be a good way to earn SB points. It can result in some true passive income. If you are great at selling stuff, you could end up with a lot of referral revenue from Swagbucks

2. Earn Points by Taking Surveys

One of the main ways Swagbucks pays members is by having them participate in surveys. The surveys you find on the site can take anywhere from a minute to several minutes.

The surveys seem to pay relatively handsomely compared to other activities on the site. One of the things I like about Swagbucks’ survey section is that they tell you up front how long you should expect the survey to take. They also tell you how many SB points you’ll earn for taking each survey.

Note that regarding the surveys you do need to qualify to get full pay. Most surveys are searching for opinions from certain demographic groups.

So, you might get part way through a survey and find out you don’t qualify or fit their demographic.

3. Earn Points Playing Games 

Swagbucks has three games you can play for free that will earn you SB points:

• Swag Jump
• Swag Memory
• Swagasaurus Run

You can also play other games on Swagbucks and earn SBs, but those games are accessed through the GSN (Game Show Network). Note that you might have to purchase online coins to play some of those games. Read the fine print carefully.

4. Earn by Watching Videos

Yes, they will pay you SBs for watching videos. When you browse through the videos, you’ll get thumbnails showing you how long they are and what they pay.

The videos usually consist of a series of short videos, but they’ll let you know the total watch time before you start.

If you like watching videos anyway, this could be a good alternative to YouTube and other channels. At least with Swagbucks you earn some money.

5. Earn When You to Shop

On the homepage you’ll find thumbnails for shopping deals as well. They might offer to pay you $5 for purchasing a $50 item, for instance.

This option for earning, however, can be risky. If you’re continually buying stuff you don’t need you could put a big hole in your pocket.

Don’t be tempted to spend on something you really don’t need or want just so you can earn some SBs.

6. Earn for Taking Advantage of Deals or Trying New Products

Swagbucks will also pay you points for trying new products or services. For instance, you might get 100 SBs for trying a service like Personal Capital for 30 days.

Or, you might earn SBs for trying a product they send to your home.

Note that many of these services and products may cost you money if you don’t cancel within the specified time period. Read the fine print and keep track of the products and services you try.

Cancel within the trial period if you’re not interested in continuing with the product or service.

7. Earn by Searching the Web

Swagbucks will also reward you with points when you search the Web. Note that you have install the Swagbucks search bar to earn while searching. Note that not all searches will pay you points.

If you’re on the Web a lot and do a lot of research, this could be a good way to earn. If you’re just searching for the purpose of earning points, you can probably find better ways to earn.

So, what happens after you earn your points doing one or more of the above activities? How do you get your cash? What else can you get besides cash? I’ll talk about that next.

How Do I Get Paid from Swagbucks?

So, after you get a certain number of points on Swagbucks, you have the ability to cash the points out. When you cash them out you can choose four different options for your points:

• You can get a deposit into your PayPal account
• They have a number of gift cards you can choose from
• You can use your SBs to enter into sweepstakes they hold
• They have a number of charitable organizations you can donate your earnings to

So, the options for getting paid are attractive. Everyone likes cash, don’t they? And if you’d rather have a gift card, you’ve got a number of store options to choose from, including:

• Walmart or Target
• Amazon
• Starbucks
• PayPal or Visa
• eBay
• Lowe’s or Home Depot
• Sam’s Club
• Macy’s
• Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse and Texas Roadhouse

And more. If you make the gift card choice, there’s pretty much an option for everyone.

Choosing to enter sweepstakes (they’re called “Swagstakes” on the site) can be profitable too. You could win a variety of prizes including more SBs, gift cards and other items such as electronic items.

And lastly, you can choose to have the monetary value of your SBs given to your favorite charity. All good options for the points you earn.

Who Can Join Swagbucks?

Anyone 13 years or older can join Swagbucks. The rewards program is currently available in the following countries:

• The United States and its territories
• Germany
• Ireland
• France
• Australia
• Canada
• Spain
• Portugal
• UK
• New Zealand
• India

If you live in one of the above-mentioned countries and are at least 13 years old, you’re eligible to join. Note that if you’re considered a minor you may have to have parental permission to join.

Does it Cost Money to Join?

It’s totally free to join Swagbucks. And it’s free to earn points in most cases as well. Note that where you’re required to spend money to earn (i.e. the shopping activities) you will have to spend money in the form of buying something.

Is it Worth it to Join Swagbucks?

Well, that’s the gist of the program. So, what do you think? Is it worth joining? I won’t make that decision for you, but I will summarize the pros and cons of the site.

What I Like About Swagbucks

One of the things I like about Swagbucks is that it’s an organized site that makes it easy to find ways to earn. For instance, on the left sidebar of the home page, you’ll find your “to do” list. The “to do” list lets you know of easy ways to earn points.

Also on the homepage, you’ll find dozens of activities, along with the points you can earn by completing them. The site does make it easy to find ways to earn.

Because it’s so easy to earn, you can easily work the site in your spare time. You can earn SBs while you’re watching TV, waiting for an appointment or just have a half hour with nothing to do.

And, the rewards are good. Who doesn’t like PayPal money? The gift card selection is pleasing as well.

I also like that you can start earning Swagbucks as young as 13. This could be a great way for teens to get some extra cash. That being said, there are some downsides to the site, in my humble opinion.

What I Don’t Like About Swagbucks

The fact of the matter is that you just don’t get paid very much for the activities you complete on the site. With one exception: the rewards can be handsome IF you’re buying something.

That, at least in my mind, kind of defeats the purpose. When I’m searching for online income, I want to MAKE money, not spend money. So yeah, I may have earned $3 on that $30 item I purchased, but I had to spend $27 to get it!

Unless you’re committed to being disciplined about not buying things you don’t need, it can be tempting to take advantage of the shopping deals they have on Swagbucks.

Also, the end of the day the hourly wage you get paid for completing activities on Swagbucks may not be worth it for you. Earning money with Swagbucks cannot be your full-time job -it’s much better to utilize Swagbucks for extra spending money throughout the month versus making rent.

I would estimate you can make an extra $20 – $50 per month with Swagbucks depending on what activities you choose to do.

My Recommendation

I like Swagbucks for what it is — a platform where you can earn a few extra bucks each month by participating in some of the activities they offer. However, I have read too many reviews out there that claim you can make a lot of money with Swabucks, and that is just not the case.

Just do the math — if they have paid out over $400 million to 40 million users, then on average each user has only made $10. 

But, that means you can also spend time on your phone making money versus the alternative of browsing social media for free. Also, Swagbucks does offer more than just taking surveys which is why it attracts so many users. However, if you’re looking for the best site for just surveys, then I would recommend Survey Junkie. 

The verdict: Swagbucks is a great way to earn $10 – $50 per month from your phone or desktop.

If you’re into environmental causes – and even if you’re not – you’ve probably heard at least a little bit about renewable energy. Energy sources like solar, wind and water power can sometimes be better for the environment than typical coal, nuclear and other energy sources.

However, renewable energy sources aren’t always readily available in all areas. Solar energy involves the purchase and installation of expensive solar panels. Wind energy needs turbines to harness the wind.

However, you may have an option for contributing to renewable energy no matter what your living situation or financial situation: Arcadia Power.

2020 Arcadia Power Review

Name: Arcadia Power

Description: Arcadia Power helps you lower your current electric bill while using clean energy at the same time. It's free to join the over 300,000 current members who are using Arcadia Power while still using their current utility provider.

Overall

4.3

• Ease of Use
• Cost
• Customer Rating

• Learn More

2020 Arcadia Power Review

Arcadia Power started in 2014 as a way to help provide you with a simple, free option to choose renewable energy. It helps you be able to contribute to an increased use in renewable energy resources. In addition, Arcadia can help you save money on your own personal energy bills.

In my 2020 Arcadia power review, I will show you exactly how Arcadia can help you lower your electric bill.

For starters, Arcadia is an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau. They’ve been accredited since their inception of 2014 and currently have a B rating with the BBB. The reason for their B rating per the BBB website is they do have complaints against them. Most of the complaints I found were related to issues with connecting customer’s current utility bill to Arcadia.

In addition, Arcadia Power is a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Community Solar Partnership. This partnership exists for the purpose of helping expand solar energy opportunities.

Today Arcadia has over 300,000 members across all 50 U.S. states. When you sign up to be a member, you get instant access to renewable energy sources to help power your home.

And it only takes a few clicks of your mouse. No need to install expensive equipment or change utility companies. Also, Arcadia Energy works for both homeowners and renters. And you can use it with all of your homes if you’re a multi-homeowner.

Arcadia gives you control over energy sources by piggybacking onto your utility company. When you give them access to your utility bill information, they help you take a part in increasing renewable energy.

How Does Arcadia Power Work?

You might be wondering how Arcadia allows you to contribute to renewable energy just by you giving them access to your utility company. In order to answer that question, we’ll start by explaining a bit about how energy supply works.

So, in the U.S. we get our energy power from many different sources. Some examples include:

• Coal
• Natural gas
• Nuclear
• Wind
• Solar

And other sources as well. After they generate the electricity through the various sources, it gets sent to the national power grid.

From there, the energy is sent to homes via power lines. Once the energy enters the power grid, there’s no way to differentiate the source of the energy.

Coal energy, nuclear energy, solar energy and the rest are all thrown into one big pot, so to speak. This means unless you’re creating the energy you use yourself – such as via a solar-powered home – you don’t know what the source of your energy truly is.

Renewable Energy Certificates

Enter, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).  RECs are kind of like a currency. An REC is created each time 1 megawatt hour of renewable energy, like wind energy, is created. To put that into perspective, 1 megawatt of energy will power the average home for roughly 1 month.

So, as renewable energy sources are created and put into the power grid, RECs follow. Each time the renewable energy that’s sent to the grid reaches 1 megawatt hour of energy, an REC is issued. The REC is proof that the hour of renewable energy was created.

If a company owns an REC, it has one megawatt hour of renewable energy. It can then sell that REC to power companies. The RECs help government and energy providers get an idea of how much renewable energy is being created. They also help track demand for renewable energy sources.

So, when you buy electricity from a renewable energy source, you’re buying the power and the REC that comes with it.

Note: RECs are different than offsets. While RECs represent the generation of renewable energy, offsets represent a metric ton of emissions avoided or reduced. Conversely, if you had your own solar panel on your property, you could sell what’s called an SREC (Solar Renewable Energy Certificate). Therefore, you’d get an SREC for every 1 megawatt hour your solar panel farm created, and you could sell that SREC to energy companies, etc. SRECs, depending on the region, sell from under $50 each to as much as $300 each.

But obviously, it costs a lot of money to install to install solar panels on your property. It would take years to make up what you spent on the project by selling SRECs.

However, you can still be a part of the renewable energy movement. Here’s how.

How Can Arcadia Power Help Me Save Energy?

When you sign up to be a member of Arcadia Power (it’s free), you’re simply connecting your local utility account to Arcadia Power’s renewable energy resources. Arcadia buys power from renewable sources. Think wind and solar farms.

Then they sell that renewable power to big utility companies.

When you sign up with Arcadia, you’re ensured that at least half of your energy usage will attributed to renewable resources.

What this means is that the energy you use personally will still be the same. It will still come from the same sources your power company uses. However, the equivalent of the energy you use will be added to the power grid via renewable resources.

The goal? To drive demand for and usage of renewable energy sources instead of non-renewable energy sources.

And sign up is easy: It takes less than one minute to sign up. All you have to do to see if Arcadia is available in your area is to go to their website and enter your location information.

Although Arcadia does operate in all 50 states, not all areas of each state can use Arcadia. It depends on whether or not your power company itself is partnered with Arcadia.

After you’ve signed up, Arcadia does all of the work of ensuring the equivalent of the energy you use is added to the national power grid from renewable sources.

The Arcadia Power dashboard helps put energy usage and numbers into a clear format for you.

When you visit your Arcadia Power dashboard, you can see how much energy you’re using and how much of that is clean energy usage. Knowing how much energy you’re using can help you be more efficient with your energy usage.

Arcadia also helps you save energy in other ways. Here are some other ways Arcadia can help you save energy – and money.

Price Alerts

Once you sign up with Arcadia, they’ll send you price alerts when available. The price alerts notify you that Arcadia has found a lower-cost electricity rate than what you are currently paying. And they put you on the lower rate automatically – no work on your part.

Note that the price alert feature only works if your state or area offers multiple utility company choices. If you only have one company to choose from, the Price Alerts feature won’t apply.

Community Solar

In addition, Arcadia enables you to subscribe to remote or local community solar projects. When you do that, you can save money on your power bill from the production of the project share.

Home Efficiency

Arcadia Power also notifies you of deals on energy-saving products such as thermostats. In addition, they offer $0 down payment plans on those products if you choose to buy.

Also, Arcadia shares money-saving tips on their site as well, such as how to run appliances more efficiently and save on heating bills.

For instance, did you know that if you turn your heat down (or air up) by 7-10 degrees for 8 hours a day, you can save up to 10% per year on your utility bill? Who doesn’t want to save money on your air conditioning bill or heating bill?

Bill Pay

Most utility companies charge a fee for bill pay services. However, Arcadia Power will let you pay your bill online for free. Since you pay Arcadia and Arcadia pays your bill, you can avoid any bill pay fee your power company charges.

Note that some users have reported that their energy bill gets paid earlier than usual. If you are a meticulous budgeter or keep the bare minimum in your checking account, this is important to note.

Energy Dashboard

Arcadia’s energy dashboard is a great way to help you save money too. The energy dashboard lets you see your own hour-by-hour energy usage so that you can make money-saving changes in energy usage where need be.

If you’ve ever looked at your energy provider’s dashboard, you’ve probably seen that there’s some useful information on there.

Arcadia takes it one step further with a more detailed energy dashboard. Their dashboard shares information such as:

• Past power usage
• Your energy usage impact
• Your personal energy power sources

The energy dashboard can help you to better understand your own energy usage and how it impacts the planet.

What Does Arcadia Power Cost?

You’re probably wondering what will you pay to be able to help increase renewable energy resources.

Arcadia Power has two plans: the Free Plan and the Premium Plan. Here’s a little big about how each of the available plans works.

Arcadia’s Free Plan

The Free Plan costs you nothing. Zero dollars and zero cents. When you sign up for the Free Plan, you get:

• 50% of your energy usage equivalent in renewable energy to the power grid
• Price alerts
• Discounts on energy products
• A personalized energy dashboard

So, basically you get access to renewable energy contributions and more for free.

Arcadia’s Premium Plan

The Premium Plan with Arcadia works a bit differently. With the Premium Plan you’ll pay 1.5 cents for each kilowatt (kWh) your home uses. In exchange for that fee, you’ll get:

• 100% of your energy usage equivalent in renewable energy to the power grid
• Price alerts
• Discounts on energy products
• A personalized energy dashboard.

So, basically, your options are to get the equivalent of up to half your energy in renewable sources for free, or to get the equivalent of all of your energy in renewable sources for a small fee.

The 1.5 cents per kilowatt Arcadia charges to put 100% of your energy usage into renewable sources should have a minimal impact on your power bill. To put it into perspective cost-wise, the average home in the U.S. pays 12 cents per kilowatt of power.

And each month you’ll receive an REC for the renewable energy you contributed to during the month prior.

What Else Should I Know?

There are a few other things you should know about Arcadia Power. First, there are no startup or cancellation costs. And you can start or stop using the service any time, as there are no contracts to sign.

Second, Arcadia Power’s site is secure. They use bank-level security for your payments, using PCI-DSS compliance for your payments. This is the most stringent level of certification available in the industry.

They even take over bill pay for you. You pay Arcadia directly, and they send your payment to your utility company. And there’s no surcharge for them to do this. It’s simply offered as a convenience for Arcadia customers.

In addition, Arcadia has a dedicated customer service team available Monday through Friday. They can answer any questions you have or help you with any issues.

I feel like I should reiterate that when you sign up with Arcadia, you are not getting to choose the energy source that comes directly to your home. The only way you could do that is by installing solar or other renewable resources yourself and getting your renewable energy directly.

Instead, when you sign up with Arcadia, you are helping them provide renewable energy to the national power grid as a whole. This helps the environment on a big picture level.

If Arcadia can help increase the demand for renewable energy sources, utility companies and other sources will work harder to provide those sources as opposed to the current, primarily used non-renewable sources.

By signing up with Arcadia Power, you help them help renewable energy production gain more momentum.

Is Arcadia Power for Me?

Arcadia Power might be a good match for you if you care about one or more of two things:

• Contributing to renewable energy resources
• Potentially saving money on your utility bills

By teaming up with Arcadia, you can help them get more renewable energy resources on the power grid. This means you’re helping the environment as a whole. And that helps you too.

Also, since Arcadia has so many resources for energy savings, they could help you save money on your own power bill. If you take advantage of the money saving tips they share, you could lower your monthly utility bill.

If you don’t care much about the renewable energy issue, or if you’re not interested in trying to save on your energy bill, you could do without Arcadia. However, given that it has the free plan available, you may want to consider trying it for a month or two.

Summary

The earth and its well-being is everyone’s responsibility. We each need to do what we feel is best to help it become a better place. “Best” is defined by us as individuals. For me that might mean being intentional about recycling. For you that might mean biking to work.

Supporting renewable energy generation is another way to help the world become a better place. Arcadia Power offers you a way to contribute to clean energy sources and find ways to save money. No commitment or cancellation fees.

If you want more power (no pun intended) over the nation’s energy usage, take control of your energy by connecting your power bill to Arcadia Power.

It won’t cost you a dime to help contribute to the country’s renewable energy resources. And at the same time, you can learn to avoid costly homeowner mistakes when it comes to your house’s energy usage and bills.

Have you ever used Arcadia Power as a way to help the environment and your own energy usage? What do you think of the idea?

In what ways are you passionate about helping the environment be healthier and greener? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Of course, if you go on the InboxDollars website they’ll tell you it’s fabulous. But is it really a legit way to earn money? Or is InboxDollars a scam?

In this review, we’ll discuss the true pros and cons of using their platform. By the end of the post, you’ll know whether it’s worth your time or not.

Some GPT sites can earn you some decent cash. Others, not so much. Where does InboxDollars fall? Let’s find out.

Note: Before starting this post, I made sure to test out the site. This way, you can get actual feedback from someone who actually has tried it.

Inbox Dollars Review 2020: Get Paid for Sharing Your Opinion

Name: Inbox Dollars

Description: InboxDollars is an online rewards club that pays members cash for taking surveys, watching videos, reading emails, shopping online and more. Since 2000, they have paid out over $59 million to their members.

Overall

3.8

• Getting Started
• Earning Potential
• Sign Up Bonus
• Quality of Tasks Assigned by Inbox Dollars

Summary

Breakdown of Inbox Dollars

Pros

• $5 bonus signup incentive
• Multiple ways to earn
• Reputable (since 2000)
• Free to sign up

Cons

• Payment threshold is $30
• Up to 2 weeks to get paid

• Try Inbox Dollars

How Can You Make Money with InboxDollars?

As I mentioned, InboxDollars is a GPT site. This simply means they will pay you to complete certain tasks. Let me transparent; it’s tough to make a serious amount of cash with this or any GPT site. Instead, you should look at Inbox Dollars as a way to make extra cash.

However, you do also get paid for a lot of different tasks and the amount you get paid varies. Some activities pay a decent amount. Some pay so little they’re really not worth doing.

On the other hand, some activities take only a few seconds, which then justifies the low pay. As you review sites like these, it’s always a smart idea to determine how payment translates to a per-hour wage.

For instance, let’s say you get paid $3 to take a survey and it takes you 15 minutes to complete the survey. Therefore, your per-hour wage is $12.

That’s not bad money for working from home on your phone or device. However, let’s say that 15 minute survey paid you $1. Your per-hour wage is only $4.

Is that worth your time? You’ll have to answer that question for yourself. However, I know of other side hustles that pay a lot more than $4 an hour.

Keep the per-hour wage in mind as we discuss which activities you can get paid for with InboxDollars. These are some of the activities they’ll pay you to do.

1. Get Money for Signing On

One thing you’ll notice about InboxDollars is that it’s free to join. In addition to that, they’ll pay you a $5 sign-on bonus!

Not a bad deal just for signing up for a free program, right?

2. Make Money Taking Surveys

Most GPT sites will pay you to take surveys. InboxDollars is no exception.

Companies love getting the opinions of consumers. It helps them modify their products and services in a way that’s more enticing to consumers.

InboxDollars also states they pay between between $0.25 and up to $4 – $5 for each survey. In my experiences I found that most of the surveys paid under $1.

And they took a long time to complete. My per-hour wage wasn’t very good on the surveys. This may be because I’m very slow at completing surveys, and you may be much faster. The faster you are at taking surveys, the higher your per-hour wage.

Another thing I noticed with the surveys is that I wouldn’t qualify for all of them. Oftentimes, I’d get a few questions in and then learn I didn’t qualify.

3. Make Money Watching Videos

InboxDollars will pay you to watch videos too. These videos range, but I was able to watch a cooking segment and a small clip of a new show.

One thing I remember is the pay is a little low for watching videos. You’ll only get a few cents for each video you watch till the end.

However, if you like watching TV a lot you might not mind that. Just know that the videos you watch aren’t typically mainstream shows.

4. Make Money Opening Emails

So, the main way you make money with InboxDollars is by taking advantage of deals. Those deals come to you a lot of times via your email.

Every time you open an email from InboxDollars they’ll pay you a few cents. They’ll pay you even if you don’t take advantage of the deal.

It may or may not be worth it to you to clog up your email inbox. If it’s not, you have the option to unsubscribe from the emails.

Your account settings page has an option to unsubscribe from notifications. Another trick is to create a separate email address just for We’ll talk more about the pay you get when you do take advantage of deals later.

5. Make Money When You Search the Web

InboxDollars will pay you to search the Web. Kind of. They’ll pay you 1 cent for each random search – up to 4 per day. Oh, and you’ll earn 3 Sweeps points too.

Note that you have to search through the InboxDollars search engine to get paid.

As you can see, the activities listed above aren’t the big money makers. But you can earn more by shopping and taking advantage of deals. Read on.

6. Make Money by Shopping

If you shop through the InboxDollars portal you can get cash back on purchases. For instance, they’ll give you 2 percent cash back at Walmart and Kohl’s.

Note: This equates to $2 for every $100 you spend.

InboxDollars will pay you for signing up for products and services too, and the money can be tempting. For example, you can get $3 just for signing up for a Target REDCard.

However, it’s vital to understand that shopping for the sole purpose of earning InboxDollars is a loss. You will always spend more than you save going down this road.

In other words, don’t take advantage of a deal just to get your cash reward from InboxDollars. Only sign up for a deal if it’s a real benefit to you.

Don’t shop online unless it’s something you were going to buy anyway. There’s no point in earning $50 in InboxDollars cash and spending $1,000 to do it. But on the flip side, if you’re going to spend $1,000, why not get $50 in Inbox Dollars?

7. Get Paid for Referring Others

InboxDollars will pay you for referring others who sign on too. This could be a true source of passive income.

You get a 10% commission on all earnings of those you refer who sign up. Depending on how your referrals use the site, this might be a good deal.

If they use the site to make a few dollars a week, you won’t earn much. However, if your referrals do a lot of shopping you could earn more.

Note: There are activities in which you won’t get paid for. For instance, InboxDollars won’t pay you a commission on your referrals’ sign up bonus.

How Does InboxDollars Pay?

So, one nice thing with InboxDollars is that they pay you in cold, hard cash. The threshold to get paid out in cash is a minimum $30 in earnings.

Also, they don’t use PayPal. You’ll be paid via a check in the mail or you can choose to get gift cards from various merchants as well.

Or you can choose a prepaid Visa card or to donate the money to a charity of your choice.

My Recommendation

Yes, Inbox Dollars is worth a try.

At the end of the day, you can make money with Inbox Dollars but just keep in mind you won’t make a ton. Also, keep in mind when compared to other survey sites, they do not have a higher rating. They currently have a Trustpilot rating of 4.1 out of 5, which is lower than their competitors.

Also, there are definitely other (better-paying) survey sites out there which you could couple with Inbox Dollars. This may be your best bet and something most survey-takers will do.

Other Higher Paying Survey/Rewards Sites.

Here are a few other survey and reward cash-earning sites that may earn more cash than InboxDollars.

1. Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie is the favorite when it comes to making money via online surveys. With over 10 million active users and a Trustpilot score of 4.5 out of 10, this site is a great choice. Unlike Inbox Dollars, the only thing you can do with Survey Junkie is take online surveys. However, you will definitely earn more with them than Inbox Dollars and your minimum cashout is $10. 

You can read my full review of Survey Junkie here.

2. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is one of the most popular GPT site. They’ve paid out over $400 million to members so far. Swagbucks will pay you do to certain activities, including:

• Shopping online
• Watching videos
• Searching the Web
• Playing games
• Completing surveys
• Finding deals

And more. You still won’t get rich using Swagbucks. However, it does seem to be more lucrative than InboxDollars. At least in my experience. I’ve tried them both and the pennies added up faster for me with Swagbucks.

Swagbucks will let you cash your points out for a PayPal deposit. Or you can choose to get an e-gift card sent to your email inbox.

You can visit my full review on Swagbucks here.

3. Ibotta

Ibotta is another way you can make money online. It’s kind of like a coupon site, only easier. After you install the Ibotta app, you can search the site for cash back offers.

You can search by store or by category, such as groceries, pet, kids, etc. Or, you can search by store. Ibotta partners with hundreds of store names all over the United States.

Some stores they partner with include Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club and Whole Foods Market.

When you find a cash back offer for something you want to buy, just add it to your account.

After you’ve added your offers, just shop like normal. Buy the things you need. Check your offers to make sure you’ve bought the offered products.

Once you get home you can scan the barcode from your receipt into your phone. If the receipt doesn’t have a barcode, just take a picture of the receipt.

Ibotta does the rest. They’ll credit your account as soon as they verify your purchases.

Once your account balance reaches $30 you can transfer your money to your PayPal account. I like Ibotta because it takes so little work to earn money.

And you don’t have to clip coupons, which is nice.