Qapital Personal Finance Tools Review

Breadth of Services

When you join Qapital and link a funding checking account, Qapital provides three primary functions: automated savings, spending through your Qapital debit card, and investing in the market through Qapital-managed investment accounts. The app also helps you set up and track your spending against a personalized weekly budget and find your “sweet spot”—the spending point that allows you to have fun now while also moving toward your larger future goals. 

Screenshot from qapital.com, August 2020

Customers who have struggled in the past to save money will find a number of solutions through Qapital’s automated savings. Qapital encourages you to set up individual goals, like saving for a vacation home or buying a new car. The app then directs your savings into separate investment accounts for each goal you set. Breaking problems down into smaller, manageable pieces is a time-tested strategy for overcoming obstacles. It may also benefit users psychologically by helping them envision the rewards of financial responsibility more vividly. 

Qapital invests whatever you decide to save in diversified ETF portfolios. Portfolios are built based on your timeline, goals, and risk tolerance. The company performs periodic reviews and portfolio rebalancing to keep you on track. For people who don’t know much—or want to know much—about the stock market, Qapital offers a terrific solution. More sophisticated investors or people who want more control over their portfolios, on the other hand, may not be so keen on this approach.

You can set up direct savings and investing by simply setting a monthly amount. You can save money by rounding up the purchases you make with your Qapital debit card and depositing the round-up amount in one of investment accounts. You can also set up “triggering events” that result in savings and investment. The more you want to save and invest, the more triggers or “rules” you can set up for yourself. Rules are adjustable so as your circumstances change, so can your approach to managing your finances. 

Unlike some personal finance apps, Qapital does not offer or require you to sign up for a proprietary savings account. It also doesn’t allow you to link any retirement, college savings, or brokerage accounts you already hold to your account. Some people might prefer this arrangement but others might prefer to do all of their banking through one app in one place, which some personal finance apps make possible.

The Qapital spending account has some attractive features. There are no fees to set up the account, no overdraft fees, and no monthly maintenance fees. You can also set up direct deposit so your paycheck immediately lands in your Qapital account. Like most checking accounts, the Qapital spending account earns a low interest rate—in this case, 0.1% compounded monthly. That rate is higher than the national average for checking accounts but you can still find checking accounts that earn more.  

Pricing

Qapital offers new customers a free 30-day trial. They then offer three levels of membership: $3 per month for their Basic plan, $6 per month for their Complete plan, and $12 per month for their Master Plan. The primary difference among these plans is the amount of money Qapital predicts you will save by using them.

Educational Materials

Qapital publishes a modest blog on its website. Articles are organized into about a dozen topics, though we did notice quite a few articles that showed up in multiple sections. Many of Qapital’s blog articles pertain to using the app more effectively, which many users will no doubt find helpful. But you won’t find any deep dives into individual market segments or lengthy dissertations on specialized investment strategies. Nor does the blog act as a daily finance and economics news site. Content on the site is well-written, though, and tailored to an audience with beginning-to-moderate financial awareness. 

Customer Experience

The Qapital app takes considerable time and hassle out of saving and investing. You don’t have to make a large financial commitment to begin using and benefitting from the app, either. The minimum deposit you must make to open a Qapital goal account is a modest ten dollars. That makes working with Qapital accessible to a wide range of customers, including beginning investors who may want to take just a low-risk first step into a new financial realm.

Qapital also succeeds in making saving an easy—and even fun—habit to get into. You have a great deal of flexibility in setting your own saving triggers, which the app calls ITTT rules. ITTT stands for “If this, then that.”  Rules can be as simple as, “If I get a paycheck, take $50 dollars out of it and invest it.” Or you might choose to employ a round-up strategy and round every purchase you make with your Qapital debit card up to the next dollar. The money that doesn’t go to the merchant is then applied to one of your goals. 

But you can also set up rules that align with your unique spending and social habits. Are you a coffee drinker? You can tell Qapital to save a dollar every time you buy a latte at Starbucks.  One unique, delightful feature of the app is its ability to connect to your social media accounts. You can set up a rule to save a little money each time you watch a YouTube video, for example. The app also enables shared saving. Multiple users can set up their own rules to save towards the same goal/investment account.

Qapital offers a strong privacy policy to users. The company doesn’t sell your information to other companies so you won’t be bombarded with unsolicited sales and marketing pitches. Qapital uses SSL and TLS to encrypt data exchanged during your transactions with the app. Access to your account is protected by password and fingerprint. 

Reputation

iOS users give Qapital 4.8 out of 5 stars at the Apple App store. Users praise how painless the app makes savings and credit it with helping them outgrow poor spending habits. Others mention that their Qapital investment accounts are provide greater ROI than their outside brokerage and retirement accounts. Android users give the app 4.1 out of 5 stars at the Google Play store.

Qapital earns a B rating from the BBB with 81 complaints filed over the past three years. Common consumer issues included being locked out of their accounts and lengthy deposit processing times. The company is diligent about responding to complaints. Qapital is not rated on Trust Pilot.

Qapital Summed Up

Qapital is an easy-to-use app that offers the virtue of making saving money fun. It’s designed for small investors who prefer to take a hands-off approach and leave portfolio management to the experts.