Rocket Money Review [2023]: Can It Actually Save You Money?

Rocket Money (formerly known as Truebill) is a legit financial management app owned by Rocket Companies. Rocket Money could help you save money through budgeting, lowering your bills, canceling subscriptions, and more. It’s one of the best apps available for helping people save money in different ways, so its cost (starting at $3 per month) could be well worth it.

There’s also a free version available, but you miss out on Premium features such as automatic savings accounts and automated subscription cancellation. Dig into the details of our Rocket Money review to see a breakdown of the app’s features and user experience.

How to use Rocket Money

Rocket Money has six primary features available to its users. Here’s how they work:

1. Manage your subscriptions

Rocket Money makes it easier to track your subscriptions by bringing them together for you on one screen. This could help you recognize subscriptions you’re no longer using but still being charged for.

Rocket Money can even cancel unwanted subscriptions for you if you subscribe to the Premium plan. This could save you time and hassle from having to do it yourself.

2. Track your spending

You can see a full breakdown of your finances in the Rocket Money app. This includes seeing how much money you’ve earned and how much you’ve spent each month in a side-by-side comparison.

You can also see your top spending categories and receive insights about how to adjust your spending habits and increase your savings. Rocket Money can also notify you with real-time alerts about upcoming charges and if your account balance gets low. These alerts about your account balance could help you avoid overdrafts and late fees.

3. Negotiate your bills

The bill negotiation feature automatically scans your bills to help find you opportunities to save money. This could include negotiating your cell phone or cable bill so you could possibly save money, save time, and avoid the hassle of negotiating with customer service or sales representatives yourself.

Rocket Money can also walk you through how to get refunds on overdraft and late fees, as well as show you the best options for affordable car insurance.

Keep in mind that bill negotiation doesn’t cost any money unless the negotiation is successful. If it’s successful, Rocket Money takes a 40% cut of your savings.

4. Automate your savings

Rocket Money offers “smart savings” accounts insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. These accounts can automatically take money from your linked bank account to put toward your savings goals. This feature is helpful for automating your savings process, and it’s an efficient way to build up savings without really thinking about it.

You have full control over editing, pausing, withdrawing from, or closing your account whenever you want. Rocket Money can help you analyze your accounts and let you know when might be the best time to save money, which can take some of the guesswork out of the process.

5. Track and understand your credit score

Rocket Money offers complete access to your credit report and history and can alert you to changes that impact your credit score. The app can also offer insights about potential changes to help you learn more about credit score calculations and how credit history works.

6. Set a budget

Rocket Money analyzes your transactions and lets you know how much money you have available to spend each month. The app can also provide a spending breakdown with historical spending patterns to give you insight into areas where you might want to set budgeting goals.

You can set “budget categories” for how much money you want to spend each month on certain expenses such as “entertainment,” “dining & drinks,” or “auto & transport.” You can also create custom categories, but you’re limited to a maximum of two budgeting categories without the Premium plan.

To help stay on top of your budget, set real-time alerts with Rocket Money to be notified so that you don’t overspend on a budgeting goal.

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Who is Rocket Money best for?

Rocket Money is best for people who want to save money. The app can be helpful if you’re not sure how to get started and want to learn how to budget effectively. Rocket Money is also a good choice if you want to make your existing financial plan more efficient with the app’s auto features, such as automatic savings and automated subscription cancellation.

The free version of Rocket Money is best if you don’t want to pay a monthly fee and only want access to these features:

• Financial monitoring
• Credit score
• Account alerts
• Two budgeting categories
• Bill negotiation

The free version might be fine on its own if you just need a simplified budgeting app for tracking your spending or learning how to set up a budget.

The Premium plan — which costs between $3 to $12 per month (you choose how much you want to pay within this range) — offers several additional features:

• Automated cancellations
• Unlimited budgeting categories
• Smart savings
• Net worth
• Overdraft and late fee refunds
• Access to chat with experts
• Credit reports
• Real-time account sync

You’ll likely save more time and money with the Premium version than with the free version. This is because Rocket Money experts can handle subscription cancellations for you and get overdraft and late fees refunded. The Premium plan can also automate your savings goals and create as many budgeting categories as you’d like, which gives you more control over your budget.

Keep in mind that it could make sense to combine existing financial strategies within the Rocket Money app. For example, if you use a credit card for budgeting, simply connect your credit card online account with Rocket Money to see all your expenses in one place.

How much can you save with Rocket Money?

Rocket Money could save you hundreds of dollars per year, but it depends on your situation. Let’s dig into the details of a few example scenarios that highlight Rocket Money features.

1. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions

Let’s say you spend $78 per month on various subscriptions:

• Streaming apps: $50 per month
• Fitness app: $10 per month
• Meditation app: $6 per month
• Some plant identification app you forgot you signed up for: $12 per month

Rocket Money lists all your subscriptions, including the plant identification app you didn’t realize you were still paying for. Now you can cancel that subscription and save $144 per year. That’s enough for a new pair of AirPods, or a significant boost to a vacation fund.

2. Automate your savings

Let’s say you want to visit Costa Rica next year. To prepare for this dream trip, you plan to put some money into savings to help cover travel expenses. You think saving $1,200 in a year is a reasonable goal that will at least cover your flights and probably more.

You can use a Rocket Money smart savings account to automatically put money toward savings goals in two simple steps:

1. Choose your savings goal.
2. Set your savings frequency.

In this scenario, $1,200 would be your savings goal. Your frequency is up to you, but you know you have a year to hit your goal, so putting $100 per month into your savings could work. But you might prefer $50 every two weeks, or $25 each week.

Money is automatically transferred according to your preferences from a linked checking account into a smart savings account. Because everything is automatic, it’s easier for you to focus on everyday expenses while you progress toward your savings goals over time.

3. Get real-time alerts

Let’s say you watch streaming content from several different streaming services. You typically cancel a service after you’ve watched the latest content that’s been released.

It’s a smart plan that makes sense. After all, why continue paying money for a subscription you aren’t using anymore? But the more you juggle streaming services, the harder it is to keep track of what you’re paying for.

You can use Rocket Money to cancel subscriptions you no longer want. As added security to help track your spending, including subscriptions, you can also take advantage of real-time alerts to know about upcoming charges.

If you know you canceled Netflix recently, but you get an alert about a $19.99 (the Netflix Premium plan is $19.99 at the time of writing) Netflix charge, you’ll know something is wrong. Maybe the plan wasn’t actually canceled or you happened to be paying for two plans at the same time.

Either way, that’s around $240 per year you could be saving in this scenario.

How to get started with Rocket Money

1. Download the Rocket Money app on the App Store or Google Play for iOS and Android devices

2. Create a Rocket account by selecting “Get Started” and providing your full name, email address, and a password

3. Tell Rocket Money more about yourself and your financial goals

4. Link at least one checking account to continue

5. Use Plaid to connect to your financial institution(s)

6. Select how much you want to pay per month for Rocket Money from $0 or $3 to $12. (Note that selecting $0 prevents access to Premium plan features.)

7. Start using Rocket Money

Other money apps to consider

Rocket Money isn’t the only personal finance app out there. Check out some of its competitors.

Trim

Trim is likely the most similar finance app to Rocket Money if you compare their available features. Trim has bill negotiation, can cancel your unwanted subscriptions, and can lower certain bills.

Trim users are estimated to save an average of $620. But Trim doesn’t have a mobile app.

Read our Trim review to learn more.

Simplifi

Simplifi is a finance app that focuses on keeping your spending, budgeting, and savings goals on track. This includes being able to see all your finances in one place and receive insights and alerts to help you achieve your goals.

Check out our Simplifi review for more details.

Digit

Digit is a finance app that focuses on taking the stress out of your budgeting, saving, and investing goals. It does this by letting you know how much money you have left to spend in real time and automating some of your finances. This includes calculating how much money you need for bills and putting aside money for savings.

Read our Digit review for more information.

Rocket Money vs. other money management apps

Service	Rocket Money	Trim	Simplifi	Digit
Visit site	Learn more	Learn more	Learn more	Learn more
Price per month	$0 or $3 to $12	$0	$3.99 to $5.99	$5
App or desktop	App and desktop	Desktop	App and desktop	App and desktop
Free features	Financial monitoring Credit score Account alerts Two budgeting categories Bill negotiation	Financial monitoring Account alerts Bank negotiation Medical bill negotiation Subscription cancelation Automatic savings Car insurance comparison Liabilities calculator	None	None
Premium features	Automated cancellations Unlimited budgeting categories Smart savings Net worth Overdraft and late fee refunds Chat with experts Credit reports Real-time account sync	Bill negotiation	Financial monitoring Account alerts Savings goals Budgeting plans Investment tracking	Budgeting Saving Investing

FAQs

Bottom line

Rocket Money (formerly known as Truebill) is one of the best apps out there for organizing your finances and tracking your spending. Rocket Money can help you:

• Manage your subscriptions
• Automatically save money
• Learn about your spending habits
• Track and understand your credit score
• Negotiate your bills
• Learn how to budget

Rocket Money is technically free, but features such as smart savings and late fee refunds require a Premium subscription that costs between $3 to $12 per month. If Rocket Money doesn’t seem like the right fit for you, check out our list of recommended budgeting apps.