Update: 12/8/2018: These are now shipping for those that got in on the Beta. Subject line is ‘Your Acorns Visa debit card is on the way!’. Hat tip to reader Jeff L
Acorns has announced that they will be launching a debit card called Acorns spend. For those not familiar Acorns is an investment app that aims to help consumers ‘micro invest’ by rounding up purchases to the nearest $1 (for example if you make a purchase of $0.50 then it will be rounded up to $1 and $0.50 will be transferred to your investment account). Previously you’ve only been able to link other debit & credit cards to Acorns, whereas Acorns Spend will be a debit card managed by Acorns.
Acorn Spend will cost $3 a month and that includes the fees for Acorns & Acorns later as well (normally $1 each). It includes free ATM withdrawals (and reimbursements when ATM fees are charged). It looks to be mostly targeted towards unbanked customers, touting the benefits of digital direct deposit and mobile check deposits. Most readers will be primarily interested in that local places you visit every day offering up to 10% cash back. Unfortunately Acorns doesn’t provide a lot of detail about how that benefit will work, but I’m guessing it’ll be similar to the Square cash debit card that recently launched.
Acorns Spend will launch on November 1st, 2018 and they are accepting 100,000 cardholders to begin with. It looks like 35,000+ cards have already been claimed, so it might make sense to sign up now if you want to secure a card. It’s interesting that debit card rewards programs seem to be making a bit of a come back, with Discover also offering a 1% cash back alternative as well. It’s hard to say how useful the Acorns spend card will actually be, if the rewards program sucks then I wouldn’t give it a second look with other alternatives such as Charles Schwab & Denizen offering more useful accounts without any monthly fee.
Everything went through on my back account without an issue. I deposited my first couple hundred dollars onto my new spend card and everything went through and was good to go. I decided to use my card a few days later and EVERY transaction was denied. I called customer service and they said they weren’t sure why, but my account was frozen. They also have a separate bank that deals with the card and they didn’t help me as that bank doesn’t have 24/7 support. (SO IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR DEBIT CARD YOU ARE SOL UNTIL THEY GET INTO THE OFFICE DURING REGULAR BUSINESS HOURS). I complained that if I haven’t spent anything on my card yet, my money is just sitting there, and they can’t do anything, they should’ve
had 24/7 support for a debit card and should’ve
been more transparent about this card. I had to call my bank and explain the issue. The funds that were successfully sent to my Acorns Spend Card were now reversed. I get an email a few days later from Acorns Support. They accused me of never having the funds in my account! They went intui immediately asking me why I would put money I don’t have onto the card! Lol As shocking and offended as I was to their lack of professionalism, I would like to point out again that I spoke to my bank and they couldn’t
Reverse the funds if the funds were never given. They were upset I took the money off the card after they froze my account, admitted they didn’t know why, and literally told me there was nothing they could do to help me until they get back after the holidays. I also have been investing without a card into my Acorns account abd was excited to hold their Spend card. Both CHASE bank and myself were disappointed with not only how unprofessional Acorns Spend Card was set up, but their unprofessionalism. I no longer trust this company which is a huge let down because i’ve been such a huge fan in the past. How could I possibly trust this company with my money now?
Just received and activated my debit card today. While the card itself is metal and surprisingly heavier and sturdier than the CSR, that’s about as exciting as it gets…because the local offers (at least, the ones near me so far) are absolutely terrible.
At first glance, they seem to be a subset of Empyr’s offers (e.g. Dosh, Yelp, SB Local etc.), but without any of the nice ones like Sam’s Club and Walmart. Most offers are for 5% CB.
Unfortunately I could not find any official confirmation of what this affiliate network is. Section G3 of the Program Agreement describes this offers program, which is officially called “Found Money Plus” (https://www.acorns.com/program-agreement/), but it simply says “third-party service provider”.
Yawn. Finally got the card, like others said it’s very heavy, but that with the color might be the most exciting things about it. None of the features they tout are all that interesting or unique. Best I can see is 5% off for a bunch of out-of-the-way restaurants I have no intention of ever visiting when browsing the app. A few of the banking features mentioned in the promo material aren’t functional yet and ‘are being worked on’. The app and website are so confusing, I may be missing 3/4 of the features I may never be able to find. If it’s like this on arrival, I’d put a fork in it. They better offer something very compelling ASAP or just pull the plug.
Got my debit card today…it’s HEAVY. Apparently its made from Tungsten, so that’s…unique.
Here’s hoping that this is a useful card once Spend gets up and running in a few days
Man. That alone may be why I get one…
No way in hell its made of tungsten as tungsten is very expensive. It COULD be made of stainless steel or some other relatively cheap heavy metal that doesnt rust, but tungsten seems unrealistic if acorns wants to keep their costs down.
Preordered mine. Will only activate if they have nice discounts.
+1
My little credit union does not offer Apple pay nor does it support acorn.
I’m an excited to see Acorn expanding.
When I get my card I will direct deposit my second job check into it.
They are still fine tuning the program.
They have a former Apple worker designing this program.
As it stands now it’s free ATM withdrawal and no overdraft fees. It’s FDIC insured.
I can’t wait to get it.
It would be nice if they told us what the discounts would be before sign up.
Fortunately, it seems that the $3/month fee doesn’t kick in until you activate the card. So I’ve reserved mine, and if it turns out that the discounts aren’t worth $2/month — I already pay $1 for Acorns — then I simply won’t activate the card (assuming there’s no way to cancel the reservation).
Ironically, I’m intimidated by the investment end of finances. So not a card for me. But I will look into different investment options that are not too difficult, time consuming, and high intial deposit, and maybe I may soon try investments.
I think a debit card rewards program is better for people who don’t like credit cards or prefer to know that purchases they make are paid for. After all, credit cards generally cause us to spend far more than cash (debit cards increase a smaller amount).
You might like Robinhood for investing. Stay away from the individual stock frenzy, and buy a nice index fund ETF to hold onto for at least a year. Robinhood has basically no fees for this type of usage, and no minimum deposit/purchase amount.
Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab are also fine options. Merrill Edge if you have >$50,000 and a Bank of America credit card.
I still dont understand why some of my friends refuse to get credit cards because they are scared of debt.
What these same people dont realize is because they are scared, they are also the least likely to go into debt to begin with.
I used to be like them, now I have 8 credit cards and have earned thousands in cash back and travel, not including the occcasional manufactured spending I do on my cards in their respective categories like groceries.
I guess some people have been burned in the past, and we really cant blame them.
Attempted to go ahead and reserve a card for the heck of it, but it appears you’ve got to set up an Acorns account (including link to bank) to reserve a card, and I’m not particularly interested in jumping through that hoop right now. Here’s to me not regretting this decision.
Square cash debit card actually has some amazing discounts, i use the coffee shop discount along with chik fil a 10% off constantly on it and it is free. This seems like a rip off for $3 but what the heck, i preordered it because you won’t pay until you activate it. It’ll probably start off with some great deals and then become garbage as they nerf it.