Rocket Money Review 2024
Updated January 17, 2024
Rocket Money is a financial-management and budgeting platform available on web browsers and through both Android and iOS mobile apps. Although its best-advertised feature is its ability to find—and help users cancel—monthly subscriptions, the platform is powerful and comprehensive enough for most private consumers, offering users the option to track their credit score as well as their expenses, budget by category, see upcoming bills ahead of time, and more.
Rocket Money does keep several of its most valuable features—including the oft-touted subscription-cancellation concierge—behind a paywall. Fortunately, its fee is on a sliding scale starting as low as $4 per month.
Rocket Money
View Offer
Rocket Money
FeesFreeFeaturesBuild a budget through individual expense categorization and create savings goals both individually and with a partnerLinks to accountsYes
TIME’s Take
An inclusive, intuitive, and well-designed expense tracker and budgeting platform, RocketMoney can meet the financial-management needs of most everyday consumers (though it lacks the accounting functionalities and features built specifically for small business owners that programs like Quicken offer). Its free version is powerful enough to benefit a variety of users, and its paid subscription is affordable enough to be worthwhile for many, too.
Who is Rocket Money best for?
- Budgeters looking for a replacement as Mint shutters.
- Beginning budgeters hoping to get a handle on their finances.
- Those looking to trim their many recurring monthly subscriptions.
- People who would like to negotiate their bills, but don’t want to go to the time or hassle themselves.
How does Rocket Money lower bills?
Rocket Money can help you lower your bills in a few different ways—though two of its most popular bill-lowering services come at a cost.
Rocket Money is well known for its cancellation concierge service, which allows you to automatically unsubscribe from monthly subscriptions at the touch of a few buttons—and get any refunds you’re eligible for, too. However, cancellation concierge is only available at the Premium level, which starts at $4 per month.
Rocket Money also offers a bill-negotiation service in which live representatives call and negotiate your bills for you. This feature comes at an additional cost, but only if the bills are successfully lowered. If so, you’ll choose how much to pay on a sliding scale between 30% and 60% of the resulting savings.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Free version available
- Money-saving features like cancellation concierge, smart savings account, and bill negotiation available
- Premium tier offered on sliding scale
Cons:
- Some favorite features, including cancellation concierge, only available for Premium subscribers
- Live customer support only available to Premium members
- Account linking through Plaid can be slow
Benefits
Free version
Beginning budgeters and those simply trying hard to make ends meet will benefit from the fact that Rocket Money’s free service functions well as a budgeting and expense-tracking platform. Although money-saving features like cancellation concierge and bill negotiation are paywalled, free users can still enjoy a robust and valuable personal finance management experience.
Money-saving features
Although they must be paid for, Rocket Money’s money-saving features set it apart from competitors. As far as TIME is aware, it is the only financial-management app that offers live bill-negotiation services and automatic subscription cancellation. And, of course, the simple act of creating a budget and seeing where your money is actually going—both of which are available at the free tier—can be helpful money-saving techniques for many.
Pay what you want
Even Rocket Money’s paid products offer users flexibility. Both its Premium subscription and its bill-negotiation services are priced on a sliding scale, starting at just $4 per month for Premium and 30% of the money saved as a result of negotiation.
What can be improved?
Best features paywalled
We can’t really fault Rocket Money too hard on this front—after all, every for-profit company’s first goal is to make money. But from the user’s perspective, having to pay for some of Rocket Money’s best and most well-advertised features, including its automatic-savings option and subscription-cancellation concierge, can be a bummer. Fortunately, the sliding scale mitigates this effect to some extent.
Live customer support is paywalled
While Rocket Money is already outperforming some of its competitors by having live customer support at all—and well-rated live customer support, at that—it’s true that live support (via in-app chat) is only guaranteed to paying Premium members.
App can be slow
Although functional, Rocket Money’s mobile app can be a bit laggy and slow compared to some competitors’ apps. However, overall, the apps both rank well among users, with both the Google Play and Apple Store version boasting ratings of 4.3 stars at the time of this writing.
How does Rocket Money compare?
Rocket Money offers all the must-have features that most financial-management platforms do, along with valuable extras to those who are willing to upgrade to its Premium subscription. For example, Premium members get access to automatic-savings options built to work with your budget, subscription-cancellation concierge services that make dialing down your monthly bills a breeze, and net-worth tracking to see how your financial standing changes over time.
| Feature | Rocket Money | YNAB | Empower | Simplifi |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free trial or product | Yes—seven-day free trial for Premium membership, and free version is available | Yes—34-day free trial before $14.99 per month (or $8.25 per month billed annually) | Yes—14-day free trial before $8 per month | No ($3.99 per month) |
| Automatic savings option | Yes, at Premium level | No | No | No |
| Expense tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic payment (subscription) tracking | Yes, with cancellation concierge at Premium level | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customer support | 4.5 / 5 stars | 4.5 / 5 stars | 2 / 5 stars | 3.5 / 5 stars |
Rocket Money vs. Mint
With Mint slated to shut down in early 2024, many of its users are on the hunt for a replacement platform. Rocket Moneyoffers many of Mint’s core features, including budgeting by category and expense tracking, as well as additional features like bill negotiation and cancellation concierge (though both of these latter are paid services).
Like Mint, a functional free version is available for those looking to manage their money at a low cost. You won’t be subjected to advertisements in order to use the free product (though many product-upgrade screens appear as you navigate the app). Rocket Money also offers live customer support for its Premium members, which is unavailable at any tier of Mint.
Rocket Money: In-depth review
Let’s take a closer look at Rocket Money’s features and tools.
Usability
Rocket Money’s app and web platforms are both intuitive and easy to navigate—though the interface may arguably feel a bit crowded and overwhelming at first. TIME appreciates that Rocket Money doesn’t require any software downloads to work on a desktop, and its mobile applications for both Android and Apple are well-rated by users.
Budgeting-tool options
Rocket Money’s budgeting tools make it simple to see how much you’re spending every month. The app analyzes your actual transactions to determine which expenses are likely to be bills (and, of course, you can also add your own). Everything is customizable so you can tailor your budget to your specific needs. The app also offers a forecast of upcoming bills and warnings when you spend more than you’ve budgeted for.
Technology
Rocket Money partners with Plaid—a firm whose services are used by well-respected fintech companies the world over, including the likes of Venmo—to enable seamless and safe data transfer from your external checking, savings, investment, loan, and credit card accounts. Its smart software allows you to easily see at a glance which bills and automatic payments are coming up as well as all your recurring expenses, making it far easier to find cut-worthy line items in your budget.
On the security side, Rocket Money utilizes bank-level technology to ensure your sensitive data remains private, including 256-bit encryption.
Customer service
Rocket Money is highly regarded on customer satisfaction forums like TrustPilot, where it enjoys a rating of more than 4.5 out of 5 stars via almost 4,000 reviews at the time of this writing. The company is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, where it scores a B rating and maintains about 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Social features
While Rocket Money doesn’t have any built-in social-media integration, it does offer Premium members the opportunity to share their financial profile with a partner, family member, or financial advisor. Because it utilizes fintech giant Plaid to enable connections to external accounts, it seamlessly integrates with the vast majority of banks and credit card issuers.
Company reputation
As mentioned above, Rocket Money is highly regarded among customers, maintaining favorable customer-service ratings on multiple forums. While relatively young with a founding date in 2015, over the near decade since its inception as Truebill, the company has maintained a solid track history of safety, security, and service.
Other services offered
Rocket Companies, which now owns Rocket Money, also owns Rocket Mortgage, Rocket Loans, and is the issuer of the Rocket Visa Signature® Card.
More on Rocket Money
How safe is Rocket Money?
Rocket Money utilizes the same security technology as banks do including 256-bit encryption. Its partner, Plaid, is trusted by many prominent fintech companies including Venmo. In short, Rocket Money is about as safe as any online financial service can be.
Who owns Rocket Money?
Rocket Money was founded as Truebill back in 2015 by Yahya Mokhtarzada. The company was acquired by Rocket Companies in 2021 and its name changed in August of the following year.
How much is Rocket Money?
Rocket Money offers a free version of its product that retains many of its most valuable features, including budgeting, credit-score access, subscription tracking, and more. However, its subscription-cancellation concierge service is available only to Premium members. The Premium tier also comes with bonus goodies like unlimited budgeting, automated savings options, real-time synching, and more.
The Premium subscription is available on a sliding scale from $4 to $12 per month. Subscriptions are billed annually at the $4 and $5 level.
What is Rocket Money Premium?
Rocket Money Premium is the company’s paid subscription service, which is similar to its free version but with added extras. Additionally, members will need to upgrade to Premium to enjoy some of Rocket Money’s most prized tools, including a subscription cancellation concierge service and automated savings. Premium members also get priority support, account-sharing access, unlimited budgeting, net-worth tracking and more.
How does Rocket Money make money?
Rocket Money’s financial-management app utilizes the software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model. The product earns money when members sign up for Premium memberships, which cost between $4 and $12 per month. Additionally, Rocket Money also offers a bill-negotiation service separately from its Premium memberships, and users with successfully lowered bills can choose to pay between 30% and 60% of the resulting savings for the service.
As mentioned above, Rocket Money’s parent company also offers a variety of other financial services and products, including mortgage loans, personal loans, and credit cards, which add to the firm’s overall revenues.
How do I cancel Rocket Money?
To cancel a Premium Rocket Money subscription, open the app and tap on the Settings icon in the upper left corner of the Dashboard (it looks like a little gear.) From this screen, tap on Premium Membership, and then Manage Membership.
You’ll see a slider corresponding to how much you pay each month for the service. Drag the slider down to $0, and the Update Subscription button will change to Cancel Subscription. The app will guide you through a few more screens to finalize and confirm your cancellation.
To cancel a bill negotiation before it’s begun, you’ll need to send an email to negotiations@rocketmoney.com. You can also toggle the bill-negotiation feature to “off” in the Ways to Save section of the app to keep further negotiations from beginning.
Bottom line
With a robust suite of functions available on the free platform and affordable upgrades available, Rocket Money can be a workable budgeting solution for a wide variety of everyday consumers. While its primary money-saving functions are paywalled, for users with many monthly subscriptions or who wish to implement the platform’s automatic savings option, the upgrade may be worthwhile.
Rocket Money
View Offer
Rocket Money
FeesFreeFeaturesBuild a budget through individual expense categorization and create savings goals both individually and with a partnerLinks to accountsYes
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What was Rocket Money called before?
Rocket Money was originally known as Truebill when it was founded in 2015. The company was acquired in 2021 by Rocket Companies—which also owns Rocket Mortgage, Rocket Loans, and is the issuer of the Rocket Visa Signature® Card. Its name changed in late August, 2022.
Why did Truebill change to Rocket Money?
Truebill changed to Rocket Money following its acquisition by Rocket Companies. The product was renamed to fit alongside the rest of the acquiring company’s products.
How to add your Apple Card to Rocket Money
After many user requests, Rocket Money has achieved functionality with Apple Card—though Apple Savings accounts still cannot be synced to the platform. To add your Apple Card to Rocket Money, simply select the Settings icon, tap on Linked Accounts, Tap on Link a new institution, and search for Apple Card. Keep in mind this will only work on the iOS app, not on web or Android devices.
** Empower Personal Wealth, LLC (“EPW”) compensates Time Stamped for new leads. Time Stamped is not an investment client of Empower Advisory Group, LLC.