Name: Betterment Invest & Save Money
Rating: 4.73815 (42851 reviews)

User Reviews for Betterment Invest & Save Money

4.74 out of 5

42.9K Ratings

3 years ago, kelseyrosewaldron

Beautiful update!

I love the update and the new logo so much I had to write a review 😍 I’ve been using Betterment for over 4 years for all my investing. I chose Betterment because of its ease of use, it’s automated guidance, and it’s low fees. I don’t know a ton about picking investments myself, and honestly I don’t want to spend my time researching or worrying about my investments. Betterment takes care of all of that for me! I just set up automatic deposits on the date of each paycheck, forget about it for a while, and watch my money grow over time 🤩 The sunrise update made me smile because the new logo is a representation of exactly how I feel about Betterment—the app truly is a part of guiding my life to a brighter future. After all, I am using Betterment to plan for retirement, so I could be using this app for the next 30-40 years! Thanks, Betterment, for the update and for helping make my life easier and brighter ☀️

10 months ago, Andrew Ulm

Enjoy Betterment service. Could improve on capabilities though.

I really enjoy being a Betterment customer, lots of easy ways to manage money and transfer. Great services. Where I think they fall short is in two places: 1) There is no way to get physical cash into your account. Would love to close my other bank account but still need it to deposit cash then transfer to Betterment. Annoying. 2) When you get a check to deposit there is a very high chance your deposit will fail. This is a development problem on the app. 3 of my checks within the last 6m have simply failed because the app cannot consistently pick up the “For Mobile Deposit Only” text. No matter how clear you write it, spacing, etc, there’s a high probability that the deposit will fail cause the detection is subpar. Developers need to improve this. Annoying. Otherwise, keep making me money. I love the high interest rate savings account and easy ways to save for my kids’ college, but these minor annoyances are what keep me from giving Betterment a higher rating here. The inconveniences simply just get in the way, and I need a banking service that just works, and offers high self service opportunities. When I use them, I want them to work. Cheers!

2 years ago, PirateofPanjshir

Lost their way

I’m supremely disappointed that I chose Betterment as my investing platform. I chose Betterment because it seemed they were true to their core mission of helping regular people make smart and risk conscious decisions about their finances and preparing responsibly for their retirement. The tortoise method of winning the race. Their acquisition of Makara and partnership with Gemini are a defection of those core values that initially attracted me. There are plenty of existing places where people can speculate (gamble) with their own money. Betterment should have been better than that. It’s especially disappointing given their change to their fee scheme (which disproportionately impacts younger, smaller, earlier investors. This change adds insult to injury as Betterment is basically charging people more money to lose their money. To date I’ve seen a ~15% unrealized loss across my various buckets. While true that the loss is unrealized, the fees are not. I can lose money all on my own without Betterment’s help. Moreover, there’s no ‘advice’ to speak of, and I’m ineligible for their tax loss harvesting feature. Once the market recovers and I am at a place where I can liquidate my buckets without a 15% haircut, I’m out. Until then I’ll keep investing, but not a moment longer.

2 months ago, Cole Gramling

Issues

It’s not clear which account you’re using when you initiate a deposit. It shows the last 4 digits, but my savings and checking accounts share those digits. On a desktop, they’re labeled with checking and savings so I know. Why is this not possible on the app? I just set up a biweekly recurring deposit on Thursdays to coincide with my paycheck. It does not offer a start date option, and informs me that the recurring deposit will begin on the Thursday that’s 15 days away. That’s the wrong Thursday, I need it to start either 8 days away or 22 days, to coincide with my paydate. Why is this impossible to control? I guess I’ll try again next week and maybe it’ll line up right. I feel like I constantly run into things like this. Work harder on the UI guys. Updating to one star since they responded “if you’re still having the this problem please contact support.” Yes I’m still having both problems, I just double checked and nothing has changed. And yes, I already had a long chat with support about both issues and they basically said sorry, use a computer instead of the app. Why would you even respond if you haven’t changed anything?

5 years ago, Ursokj

Great Product

Betterment makes it easy to save for retirement or any other goal. The individual goals you can create are really nice to see how much you have saved towards each one instead of just having one large pot of money. The iOS app is super simple to use and makes depositing money or seeing performance easy. I have not had an account long enough to really compare the returns to other investments. They recently added a much simpler view to see your annualized returns vs benchmarks on the website which should make comparisons easier moving forward. With Betterment you are using their robo advisor so don’t expect to pick your own funds. I believe that Betterment leans a little heavier on foreign fund than other similar robo advisors. But that doesn’t really matter as you set your stock/bond percentage that matches your desired risk level and Betterment does the rest. Betterment posts many helpful/interesting articles, but do take everything with a little grain of salt as many things are geared towards why they are right or how you can’t compare directly to other benchmarks. All in all I have loved this investing/savings tool. I have seen good returns and low fees. The app and web interface are clean and easy to use. Recommend for anyone looking to start investing/saving. If you are a more hands on investor, Betterment might not be for you, and you might want to look else where.

6 years ago, hotcrossfitdad

Great for New Investors or Those with Little Time

If I had the time, or the money, I would love to do all the trading myself. However, i simply don’t have the time. With the extremely low account management fees and the simple portfolio selection process, I’ve been able to place small weekly sums of money into my betterment account and I haven’t had to worry about investing it myself. This has definitely made saving/planning much easier and convenient and I am excited about the future. I’d definitely recommend this to any young individual (high school or college especially) who wants to start saving for retirement but hasn’t yet because they don’t have the time. It took 20 minutes to set up and the application is extremely user friendly.

6 months ago, AmeletAmelia

Very Disappointed and Shocked

I’ve had Betterment for about a year. I honestly have no idea how it works but I found it strange that there was no way to contact anyone should I have a problem. I planned to invest a substantial amount of money and I was actually just about to transfer money then thank God I had this question pop in my head: “ What if I needed to withdraw money? How do I do it?” I looked everywhere in the app. I found nothing. I realized that Betterment was a scam. No matter what Forbes says about it. Like all scammers, they make it so easy to deposit money but absolutely impossible to withdraw money. In addition, they take an advisory fee without offering any advice. So basically, they take your money, invest it and reap the benefits, and not only they charge you a fee, they don’t allow you to withdraw your own money. How is this legal? And who wrote those 5 star reviews? Shame on whoever got paid to recommend these scammers including Forbes. Now I know they stole my money and I can never retrieve it. I should have never trusted the reviews😡😡😡😡

5 years ago, mg4369

Good

My work 401k account doesn’t connect to Betterment so I added it manually. I’d love to be able to make manual updates to my 401k (and add other accounts) from the app instead of logging into my account from the web on my phone, making the updates, and then switching back to the app. Just feels clunky switching from the app to the web and back to my app again. It would also be nice to better understand why the minimum investment amount is $10. I like to do small increment actions everyday ($5 to savings account, $5 to credit card debt, etc). I wanted to do a $5 deposit to my betterment account, but then realized I couldn’t add less than 10 bucks. Maybe just a short blurb on the deposit page about why $10 is the minimum would be helpful. Or if possible, taking away the minimum deposit amount all together. Thank you for considering this feedback and for the great app. :)

5 years ago, hjn7076

Change is not always good

I have been using betterment for a while now and was sort of happy. Funds performed decent with some gains- thank you for that. What is beyond annoying is how bad the app experience has become. It went from easy to use and clear info to the worst interface I have seen in a long while. Intuitive handling is down the drain - it takes WAY TOO MANY steps to drill down to the info that is important. And even then you can’t find useful information, intuitive tools, advice tidbit. And even than it’s not clear what actually is going on. The graphs are ridiculous - useless. I’m using betterment 90% of the time on my iPhone - and even when going to the actual website it’s terrible what has become out of this “cool” app. It’s disgusting to see yet another corporate “adjustment” taking away the user experience. I’m ready to move on and transfer all my funds to sites that give you an experience and entice you to “observe” your fund. It’s important to feel the love from your app - or you become as exciting as it is to read a phonebook. I know I’m a small fish and nobody cares about my tiny account- but mind you where your roots were when you cared about the end user! Writing a review is a very rare thing of me to do - and it must be really bad if I do so. I have the patience to see one more “upgrade” on the App Store- and if not changing I will be ready to put my money somewhere else- even if it might not grow noticeable. Fix this thing!

6 years ago, Longdistance45

Really like the company, app needs help

I am a huge fan of the company and how they operate. An automated ETF solution that allows me to get broad exposure and control my allocation to stocks and bonds if I feel comfortable is wonderful. However, as others have stated, the app is generally frustrating. They should take some lessons from Vanguard and try to incorporate some of their functionality and summaries such as: tables that lay out how much each account as made, principal infested for each account, cost basis, dividends received, etc... Then, on a performance tab, show a graph that breaks out principal and returns so people can see what they have actually made. Then have a table that shows investment returns vs income returns for each month. I love Vanguard’s app if you can’t tell and think they are phenomenal, but I like Betterment’s investment platform for consistent investing over time. Hopefully the app gets better and they focus on facts and functionality.

3 months ago, Stratsta

Horrible account support, beware!

I recently ported all my checking and cash savings to Betterment. I have direct deposit set up as well. However, they locked movement from my cash savings account and all investment accounts without warning. The message states additional verification needed and to call the company. I did and was told it had to be escalated to their operations department and I would get an email in 25-72 hours?! I had pending transactions and urgently needed my money freed up but they would not get me to someone immediately even after explaining I had pending drafts from other financial institutions. This is unacceptable customer service. I still do not have resolution on the issue 24 hours later, no emails or call back, not even a notice that my issue is being tracked with a tracking ticket. If you want to dump your money and forget it then maybe this is the place for you. If you need to actively trade or move finances, do not use this platform!

6 months ago, vat4lyf

Non existent customer support and extra slow transfers

Wealthfront… that’s where you should go. Betterment is so terrible on customer support and satisfaction which is only compounded by their super slow setup and transfer that it’s not worth the headache. It’s almost fraudulent with its practice taking a ridiculously long time for money transfer where the money is kept in holding for days with no access to it in either your bank of betterment. It would be faster to go to a physical bank, take your suitcase of cash and deposit it than this “digital” service from betterment. Firms like these need to fail to give room to more customer focused enterprises like Wealthfront so we the customer is always winning. Wealthfront literally offers the same product with a much better support and service experience that doesn’t leave you wondering where your hard earned money might be. Same day transfers without a fee. That’s the century we live in and Wealthfront knows it!

6 years ago, marcus1341

Betterment Good, App Bad

I’m a huge fan of betterment and the concept behind it, although I have negative opinions on the over the phones customer experience. Just simple questions but for some reason the lady on the other end seemed to not really care for her job or the customer, no personality and just kind of rude over all not a great experience. As well as how big the company is, you think the app would be just as good? The app is terrible and have many complaints, most likely would have better like on there website but the app has no special features, hard to get around and figure out what does what, the app almost seems fake, which is disappointing because the company is actually a great company. Please create a better app !!!!

2 years ago, Mikey7140

Good product, subpar UX

Betterment’s app and online presentation has some major shortfalls when compared to a Wealthfront. Betterment’s design makes it hard for users to understand the value of their different investments. It inexplicably combines various accounts under one goal (for example all of your retirement accounts are combined under one number). Doing this makes it hard to track returns, contributions, or other activities on individual accounts. Finally, their projections only update properly when you have recurring investments, essentially forcing you to make recurring contributions to get functionality. This doesn’t support non-traditional income streams and is a huge miss. Overall just not as user friendly as Wealthfront. Unrelated to the app, I’m pretty disappointed with my investment performance and believe the Tax-Loss Harvesting feature is far inferior to Wealthfront as well.

3 weeks ago, Daily user 12

Gotta have, easy to access

I read about Betterment about 2 years ago and I opened an account for me and my wife as well as our 2 kids and both of our parents. Super easy to link accounts and transfer funds and the funds move very quickly. I’ve had to contact customer service a few times and a human was quickly on the other end to assist. The best part is that currently Betterment’s high yield savings account is earning 5% and has for about 10 months, but I recently got boosted to 5.5% for referring a friend. Gotta open one! One small down side is that I tried the robot investor, but the results were dismal compared to my investment company.

11 months ago, johnmcsorley85

Thieves.

Things seemed to be going well for a few months and then one morning I went to see my positions and found out that my account had been closed and none of the money I had in the account was anywhere I could get to it. I have been trying to get them to just return my money but they told me that they put it back in my account. Though why I would trust a company that had already closed an stolen my mon on one occasion, why would I wait for a second?!? However, I got a message from their “Customer Service” telling me that my funds were back in my account but I can't find it or even see an open account in my name. It has now been 3 months and I can't get anyone to return my calls or emails. It was only around $250 but it's just the fact that they have gone to amazing lengths to not have to speak with me or return my money. Just be careful. This is a shady brokerage run by idiots.

8 months ago, Dana Saari

LOVE betterment

i genuinely love this app … i started using it in college when i was becoming financially independent and had very little to invest, and i’m so grateful i did! i didn’t know what i was doing with my money, but betterment did, and using the platform helped me learn a lot about investment and managing my finances. i have personally always had reliable returns as well, and there are minimal fees. AND i happen to know some people who work here and it makes me feel good knowing my money is going towards a company that treats their employees really well. highly recommend for people just learning about investment or people who just appreciate a clean user interface!

6 years ago, Tellyourmomisayhi

Great service for a great price

I'm an avid investor and I love the idea of having a robo-advisor in addition to my other accounts. I just hate how some features aren't as practical as they should be for a web/app based program. I can only link one bank account at a time for auto transfers?! That's crazy to me. I have like 4 different bank/brokerage accounts on rotation. Another thing is I can't see the account number for the bank account that I have linked. That's also annoying considering I have two accounts with that bank, so I always forget which account is linked because I have to change it every time I want to switch accounts. I'm thinking of moving all my money from my betterment account and just buying ETFs in my taxable brokerage account with someone else to save myself the hassle and inconvenience. :/

3 years ago, Nick17486382

Holding onto my money

I created a checking and savings account so i could evaluate their interface. I transferred 25k into savings and tried to fund some of that into their checking. I decided i wasn’t a huge fan of their interface so I would transfer my money back out and close my accounts. It’s been 8 days and my money still hasn’t gone from my savings into my external account, but it *still* also hasn’t transferred into my betterment checking. How could it take 8 days to transfer from a savings account to a checking account within the same company? That means they’re either incompetent or holding onto my money inappropriately. My balance shows as 0 yet there’s no money in my betterment checking, betterment savings, or the external account that i tried to transfer money back into. Stay away from their banking if you want to have access to your money

3 years ago, Abcbcd

App is too limited

I don’t understand why after so many years of using this app it’s still impossible to do basic things, like linking an account, without going to either the awful mobile website or using a desktop. I never use anything other than the app, and have no desire to, but i keep being forced to dig through the menus of the awful mobile site when accounts stop updating. Stop moving everything around every month and add the basic features the app needs. I do 99% of my baking and finance stuff on my phone, and compared to other finance apps this one is the worst. The platform itself is also quite limited at tracking external assets. You can’t track individual stocks, like in personal capital, so if you own stocks and you’re trying to use Betterment for a net worth dashboard, give up and use personal capital instead.

5 years ago, Javsa 007

Regressing

I have been with betterment for a few years and it feels that the APP keeps getting worse and lacks information. Used to be able to see the allocation of the money within the different funds and now i cannot see that. Another feature that i like was the daily change in the history (they removed this a while back). Another thing is that i am not sure how good their allocation algorithm is because i have been beating their returns year after year by double digits. *edit after developer response* i added a star because i was able to follow the instructions from the staff to be able to find the fund allocations. I was going to close my account if that information was not available but i will keep it because that information is critical to me. Thanks for your response.

2 years ago, maustin89

Why can’t banks be consistent

Why can’t you morons reflect an overdrawn balance for longer than three seconds before returning a payment? SO, SO inconvenient. I have never used a major bank that won’t give you some amount of time to top off the account before returning a payment that has overdrawn it. Now I have to remake multiple payments because they were all rejected because the account was barely overdrawn by one of them — no good reason for this whatsoever. Accept the payment, hold it for X amount of time (in my experience this is usually until end of business for the day), then return it the next day if funds are unavailable. This is how it has always been in my experience & this is what makes sense to do. Why can’t this crap just be standardized? Ditching betterment right this freaking minute & looking for something that actually does the basic stuff I need.

1 year ago, Derek737

Great app!

Great app! Great investment company! Great high yield savings bank! I use it for my Roth IRA and high yield savings bank(cash reserve) as it’s one of the highest rates you can find and they always try to stay ahead of the competition, including by offering FDIC up to 2 mil now. Overall I highly recommend. Also love the ability to track my other accounts at other banks within it as well to see an overall picture of my finances. The interface is great and they seem to do a good job of improving it every so often. Only thing I would like to have them change/add is to allow the purchase of individual stocks or at least more ETF selection.

6 years ago, Destivel

Great service, App Lacks information

I’ve used Betterment for years now and I love the service. What I don’t get is that the app keeps removing information. We used to be able to see our dollar and % gains for tax coordinated accounts, and now that information is gone. As far as I can tell, there has been no communication on why they changed this and it’s pretty clear that a lot of people want this. Just wish we knew why your making this information harder to find by making it website only. Update: Coordinated returns are now viewable in app. This was my only complaint and I have updated my rating to reflect this. Thank you.

6 years ago, Ang9418

App is okay, support is rude and useless

Updated 10/24: They are now adding smart saver accounts to “existing personal accounts,” which is apparently not legally a separate account but regardless pretty invasive if you ask me. I have lost 5.7% with betterment over the last year. Would not recommend to anybody. ————- I think it’s a great concept and the app functions fairly well, however they do market themselves as investing for everyone and the customer service does not reflect that at all. I sent in my feedback that maybe the time weighted returns should not be a positive percentage/limited to zero if an account has lost money overall. (So far, I have negative returns using Betterment.) I understand the math, but you know, if your service is stated as something for all people and not only investing experts, your service reps shouldn’t admonish a user for suggesting a change to this return thing that might make people like myself feel a little less like a gullible idiot for investing in your “friendly” service. I’m just saying, investing for everyone should not involve being low grade mocked for thinking a modification to an algorithm might help people like me, who are the non-expert part of “everyone” these hooligans claim to care about. I’d give them a triple fart minus if I could. I wish I got that jerk’s name.

3 years ago, PitPerfect

Update Causes FaceID Loop

Logging in with FaceID it says session expired with Dismiss as the only option. When the user selects dismiss the app attempts FaceID again with the same results (session has expired). The user cannot log out of the app. So now the user must uninstall/reinstall the app. For any company, accident or not, to cause a user to uninstall and reinstall an app because of a lazy deployment team is completely unacceptable especially when that business is either a financial or security company. If this can slip through Betterment’s engineering checks what else is? The only reason I use the app is because my account is still empty-open. And your fees, really? I’m no Einstein but my non-robo-advised account perform better during the year I had your service. I will say though, if you just want to “set it and forget it” with automatic deposits purchasing a limited number of ETFs (might be more now) and paying a small fee every 6-months (I believe) then this is your investment service. All other fin products (mmsa, etc) are pointless right now with the Feds sitting on such low rates. Beware. There are better options out there for active investors.

3 years ago, darthbiggs18

I love Betterment but not having access to cashiers checks is a huge headache!

I love the simplicity of banking with Betterment and being able to invest my savings in a number of ways. But when it comes to making those big purchases that I’ve been saving and investing towards, Betterment falls short. I’m currently saving to put a down payment on a house. But when time comes to place that down payment I’ll most likely have to transfer those funds to another bank so I can get a cashiers check from them to make the payment. Huge headache! I want to be able to get a cashiers check straight from betterment so I don’t have to go through another bank! If cashiers checks ever become available this will change to 5 stars.

3 years ago, Kylej7

Great passive investment tool, annoying app

This is a rating for the app, not betterment as an investment tool. The combination of password requirements and frequent clearing of saved passwords for n this app is extremely frustrating. The required password complexity is so extreme that I can never remember whatever I had to come up with to access my account. This isn’t a problem in an actual computer and a browser to save these passwords. However, the Betterment app consistently clears the saved password in the app on an almost monthly basis. This means that almost every time I go to my app to check how things are going I am forced to reset my password...again. This only further compounds the “have to come up with a really non-rememberable combination of characters for this password” problem. I love Betterment, but I HATE trying to use this app to monitor my account.

3 years ago, Shaneee_Lewis

Betterment ROCKS

I’ve hopped back and forth between different personal finance applications for checking, savings, and investments in the past few years and Betterment has just come out top-tier when it comes navigation, resources, usability, and overall user experience. Their app is simple and easy to use, showing you everything you need-to-know in a single screen. At a glance I can check how my paychecks are being directly deposited into my checking account, some of my money being auto-deposited into my savings, and how my 401(k), Roth IRA, and General Investing accounts are generating revenue without me touching a button!

1 year ago, done w Betterment

Withdrawing funds can be a nightmare!

I’ve had weekly automatic deposits into my ‘goal account’ for the past two years. When i tried to make a withdrawal which happened to be on the same day as one of my regular deposits it triggers an automatic five day hold. It has been 6 days and i have not received my funds. I literally spent 63 minutes on hold for customer service only to be told I won’t see a deposit until four days from now - 10 days to get my funds! Furthermore, the help desk was less than helpful. First guy could not figure out the issue and put me back into the queue for 15 minutes ‘for a specialist’ - not. And this second guy was condescending and snarky and no help at all except to say ‘this is our policy and there’s nothing that can be done. Do you have any further questions.’ Im done w ‘better’ment.

2 years ago, Jrock2745

Lacking customer service

Been with betterment for almost a decade and I’m officially pulling all my money out and never doing business with them again. 1st reason is when you transfer money from cash reserve or any other account to the checking account the transfer takes months. They then send you a message saying they can’t verify the transaction when it’s an internal account. 2nd reason is when you make a withdrawal they say the same thing even though I verified the external account with two small deposits. They then ask you to verify who you are with ID and statements for your external after I’ve already verified the account. Like guys get your stuff straight. Betterment doesn’t seem to know who their customers are or what accounts are theirs. Going with fidelity who is way better.

6 years ago, KRN77

Used to be Good

The Betterment app used to be pretty good. The app would update on a fairly real time basis - you could check every few minutes and see how your portfolio was doing. They made a couple of changes that have made it worse. 1. The updates portfolio performance on a very irregular basis - it’s not even worth logging in during the day. 2. The old app would direct to your portfolio amount where you left off before - you could see what your balance was last time you checked and then it would refresh to the new number. The combination of these 2 changes make the app a subpar experience. I’ve set up a wealthfront account to see if their app is better.

3 years ago, Privacy Advocate Todd

Shady disregard for basic privacy expectations

You’d think that a financial services company would provide a basic level of privacy for its paying customers, but Betterment uses its iPhone app to spy on its users activity across other apps and the internet. Free apps can claim that they do so in order to “personalize” the advertising which supports them. For those companies, the users are the product getting bought and sold. What excuse Betterment could have for this exploitation of paying customers is a mystery so I was shocked to learn they engage in such activity. Gone unanswered were my repeated requests to find out why Betterment does this tracking and what they do with the information they glean from spying on their customers’ iPhone usage. If you seek privacy and security in your personal financial dealings, look elsewhere.

7 years ago, ggiaquin16

Simple and clean

A simple and clean app that allows you to do everything you need on a phone. I noticed a lot of bad reviews due to not being able to see portfolio break down. This is not an issue as you can look this up on a PC. During my lunch at work, I open the site to check on features not available on the phone. I think the app provides just enough to not overload you with numbers. It provides the important details and if you need more, visit the site! Started with a $500 deposit and already up over 1% in 2 weeks. Overall a great service so far.

4 years ago, Elmiraguy

App needs some Organization

I just started with your bank using the app on an iPhone, however It could use a little re-organization and a little less content unless you want to look at it for example just a simple thing of logging out you have to search for it it should be right up on the main screen or under account thank you When I went to find my card I was surprised it said it could take a week to have funds on my card, this is way to long, I am in the process in closing one account and wanted to move money to this new card, however I can not wait that long, now I need to find a way to cancel that transfer because funds will no longer be on the account I’m closing as of midnight Friday so so much for a new reliable card never heard of such a long time to transfer money! Not Happy At All

5 years ago, Mstrdiver

Love the platform; Hate the iPad app

Other have written about the benefits: ease of use, clean and simple design, automation, etc. My primary frustration and the reason for even leaving a review is that there is no real iPad support. (-1 star) For a finance company built on technology, one would expect a proper application for iPads. I hate opening an app that “Supports iPads” only to find that the app is the iPhone version simply ported to the iPad. I don’t want an iPhone size window to open on my iPad. I want the app to take advantage of the screen real estate the iPad provides. In 2019, this is something for which users should not have to ask. Personal Capital and Wealthfront are looking better and better.

5 years ago, jjlaw1968

LOVE my Betterment

To say I LOVE Betterment is a tremendous understatement. The only thing I like more are the returns being driven by the Trump economy. Fast & Easy Investing perfected by a team that truly has put together the perfect offering. I have been with Betterment for over 5 years and I’m just thankful you guys are there continuing to develop the platform. BRAVO ..... Now don’t you go selling this to some big bank who will only screw it up. Now for the disclaimer..... I was NOT paid for this review. I know NO ONE working at or even distantly related to this company. I am also not someone who writes reviews..... EVER! But Betterment deserves this review so they get the review.

1 year ago, sacredrainbow

DO NOT TRUST WITH YOUR MONEY

I posted a review on BBB just go on there everything you read is true these people try to do everything they can AFTER you deposit money not to let you withdrawal it. All my account that were used to deposit and withdraw are owned by me and they verify you when you open an account and they lock my account have asked me to verify three more times. It is insane! It’s been months of me trying to get my money out of this hellish system. They say it’s for security but it’s really just greed to hold my money as long as they can. Save the few dollars you would earn with their slightly higher interest and bank with Ally they have better 24/7 customer service and I know so many people that use them that are so happy. Learn from my mistake!!

2 years ago, ATPie415

Transferring funds process is horrendous

Investing within the app is fine and easy to do. The issue I’ve run into is attempting to transfer it to TD Ameritrade with a real financial advisor. I have two accounts within betterment and one took about a month to finally get transferred while the other I am still waiting on to get transferred out almost two months later. Millennium Trust is the parent company for betterment and they have made this process as difficult as possible by requesting paper request forms in a time of all electronic requests and then sitting on the request for weeks on end for no apparent reason. If there ever is the potential that you will transfer your money to a different company, DON’T invest on Betterment, find a different company to do it with that will not make transferring a nightmare.

5 years ago, bfribeiro

Not User Friendly

The problem with this app is that it is not user friendly. The graph that presents your earnings from your initial investment is terrible and misleading. As for removing your investment, it will cost you money to do that, so be careful. It also isn’t as straight forward as you would imagine. I was having hard time removing my money by the app itself. Also the app basically just invests your money into the S&P 500, so you could basically do that in any other platform while not getting charged to remove your money and it is more accessible in removing your money. They might have the appearance that you can personalize your investment portfolio, but that portfolio is more limited then you would imagine.

10 months ago, Erin R Jones

Sketchy

I have used Betterment for several years. Recently their fees went way up, so I tried to withdraw my money and close my account. After over a week had passed and the month’s exorbitant fee had been pulled, the withdrawal still hadn’t come through. So I contacted customer support. They said I had canceled my withdrawal and I could resubmit a withdrawal request at my convenience. I hadn’t canceled the request—this had happened without my knowledge or consent. So I have re-submitted a withdrawal request, let them know exactly what happened, and requested a reversal of the fee. We’ll see what happens. This feels sketchy and frustrating. You want to trust the institution you put your money in for safeguarding, and I no longer trust Betterment. Plus, with the insane fees, they’re no longer competitive.

3 years ago, NatheyWilliams

Great first-time investment account

I’ve been using Betterment for over seven years. I started in college putting $100 every month to get the lowest fee offered then. In those seven years, I’ve paid less than $50 in fees. You really can’t beat that! I recently had to call customer service as I got married (5 years ago, don’t ask me why I waited to call this long lol) and my information changed. The customer support was very helpful and quick. I haven’t had any issues with the app, I hardly use it though- like any investment account, I don’t check it very often. Note that you can’t use the app to download tax forms. (I do wish they stayed that more clearly in the app.) I mostly have the app to remember my login information, haha. Rating: Betterment: five stars App: 4 stars- not much functionality other than being able to deposit from your phone. Attractive UI. Easy to use.

2 years ago, ObjectiveSubject

Misrepresenting and incorrectly calculating performance

Betterment now only shows time-weighted return on the main “performance” screen. Hiding true annual and all-time dollar-return is a really pathetic move to pull wool over people’s eyes about the recent market downturn. Also, the annualized return that is calculated for my portfolio seems flat-out wrong. I’m going to move my money out since transparency and correctness are literally the two most important qualities in money management. Also notice how the pinned review is about the pretty sunrise logo and the design of the app. It says nothing about calculations or performance. Stay away from this one. Buy SPY, a bond ETF, and an emerging markets ETF yourself and you’ll avoid paying 20bps in fees for a bad product.

1 year ago, Gor805

Do not use— use fidelity or vanguard

Betterment has completely changed their business model since it started. I told everyone about betterment years ago. It was an easy way to access vanguard etfs, while putting as little as down as $10 with .25% advisor fee (very fair) However, they’ve changed their model to a “thieving” scheme. How? Let’s say you receive $5 of dividends on any given month, the fee before was maybe 50cents. Now, it would be something along the lines of $4.12…. So you only receive 88 cents of dividends. This was a cowardly attempt to make investors move their money (I believe it’s a balance of $25,000 to receive the .25% advisor fee) to betterment or pay ridiculous fees (wealth stealing). Steer clear of betterment. They truly are disgusting. I’ve since moved to fidelity and haven’t paid ANYTHING like that, and I have access to ALL VANGUARD etfs, not just ones betterment allows. It’s your financial future… I can only warn you. Would give zero stars if possible.

7 years ago, RussellQuinn

Make main data configurable

I know us Bettermenteers are in it for the long haul and checking stock fluctuations daily or hourly is not wise, but it doesn’t stop it from being fun and addictive. I used to check the app and found it useful to briefly see my old earnings replaced with the new balance. A previous update hid the update “glitch” so it’s no longer possible to peep the before/after values. Now, this latest update buries the Earnings total completely in favor of graphs. The new things are nice, but for those of us that want to track rises and falls in real-time, please add an option to customize the primary data the app shows on launch. Thanks.

2 months ago, Armitt

Bad Charts & Subscription Fees

They changed the way you can view your account performance, it no longer shows percent gained/lost it just shows dollars. This is terrible. Who approved this change? Obviously no one with any care for finances. I understand it’s more tangible to see the exact dollar, but I can’t compare it to any of my other accounts without manually doing the math. You can list both dollars and percentages without cluttering the UI. They used to not charge a subscription fee, only an account fee, but they decided to get greedy and do a subscription if you don’t have a minimum account balance. It’s just greedy. The reason I started with them is the I could start saving with no minimum. They clearly don’t understand their own consumer base.

6 years ago, BeeGee92

So easy, anyone can do it!

I set this account up almost 2 years ago and scheduled a small monthly deposit, then just went about my business. Fast forward to now, I love that I’ve been able to grow my money in a spot where I can easily access it but it’s far enough away from my bank account so I don’t go dipping in to it. Really appreciate the updates on how my funds are reallocated to adjust for stock performance. I recommend this to all my friends who are like me and don’t know the first thing about investing; a great start for an emergency or rainy day fund

6 years ago, Liamrk

Awesome way to save money

This app is great, as someone who struggles to keep a balance in my savings account the ability to auto deposit money every time I get paid is awesome. Set it and forget it, money comes out and since it’s not in your primary bank anymore I just forget about it. Check back and see your savings and what you’ve earned through the market. The app can be a little limited in functionality but the website will have everything you can think of. Almost everything can be done through the app though.

6 years ago, Thorne22

Been with them since the beginning

I’ve been a Betterment customer since their beginnings. I have been steadily increasing my savings over that time. I find it to be a fast, convenient, and affordable option for someone just getting into investing. It is also great for someone that has many years of experience as you will be able to understand what’s going on behind the scenes with their automation. There are many great features and they continue to add new products that I actually value and use. I would recommend giving them a shot!

4 years ago, omaryak

Looks good, works terribly

I set up their new checking account feature hoping for a smooth ride. But whoa: my first attempt to transfer money into the account led me to use their cash reserve feature since I couldn’t find the checking account and routing number. Big mistake. It’s been a week since I initiated the transfer to checking from my cash reserve account, and the transfer still hasn’t cleared, even though I just got an email saying it has. During that time I attempted another transaction that didn’t clear: I got an email saying the other side had reversed the transaction, but in reality it just bounced. It’s a good thing I don’t have to rely on this for any time-sensitive transactions. I don’t plan on banking here in the future.

Description

Invest and save better with Betterment. Investing apps are a dime a dozen, right? So, you might be wondering why you should download this investing app. It’s simple: Betterment is a robo advisor built with technology that optimizes for you, creating a tailored experience that fits your needs whether you’re an investor-in-training or a stock market guru. Join the 800,000+ people who entrust us with over $36 billion. As an independent digital investment advisor and fiduciary, Betterment’s mission is to help you do what’s best for your money so you can live better. Get started in minutes with just $10 and no minimum balance. Keep track of your financial life across your short- and long-term savings goals with our easy-to-use app. NEW CUSTOMERS EARN 5.50% VARIABLE APY* (as of 7/31/23) ON CASH Get an extra 0.75% APY* with qualifying deposit and over 13x** the national average. Protect your earnings with up to $2 million† in FDIC insurance at our program banks. Learn more at betterment.com WEATHER ANY MARKET WITH EXPERT-BUILT PORTFOLIOS Customize your stock-and-bond risk level with recommendations from the pros. Choose one of our optimized, curated portfolios of ETFs, like Innovative Tech, Goldman Sachs Smart Beta, or socially responsible investing options: Broad, Social, or Climate Impact portfolios INVEST WITH TECH THAT OPTIMIZES FOR YOU, RAIN AND SHINE Rebalance your portfolio and reinvest dividends automatically Limit your tax impact with automated tools, like tax-loss harvesting and tax coordination between accounts Set up recurring deposits on your preferred schedule Questions? We’ve got resources galore or ask our financial advisors! KEEP MORE OF YOUR MONEY Invest with us for just $4/month, or pay an annual fee of 0.25% on your investing account balance when you: Have a total Betterment balance of $20,000 or more across any accounts you hold at Betterment, or Set up a recurring deposit(s) of $250/month or more into any account Upgrade to Premium for unlimited access to advisors at just .4% of your invested assets, a fraction of the cost compared with traditional advisors These are CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals, salaried never commissioned, for a significantly lower management fee TURN LIFE GOALS INTO MONEY GOALS Save for that exercise bike, your next vacation, and more Go beyond your 401(k) with an IRA Use our projection tools to create a plan Calculate how to reach your target with our goal forecaster SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE Get our all-in-one financial dashboard Connect outside accounts, see your net worth, and view your investment performance, all in one place GET MORE WITH BETTERMENT Crypto Investing with diversified expert-built portfolios and in-depth resources Manage money for everyday spending with Checking Retirement planning with a 401(k) plan for your business --- 1Standard insurance amount of $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, is provided by the FDIC and subject to FDIC requirements. **National average savings account interest rate is reported by the FDIC (as of 7/17/23) as the average annual percentage yield (APY) for savings accounts with deposits under $100,000. Checking accounts and the Betterment Visa Debit Card provided and issued by nbkc bank, Member FDIC. Checking made available through Betterment Financial LLC. Neither Betterment Financial LLC, nor any of their affiliates, is a bank.