Acorns Investing is a modern robo advisor that allows anyone to invest in the stock market by rounding up their daily purchases and investing the spare change. Acorns also has a unique debit card account, known as Acorns Spend.
When it was first launched, they reserved 100,000 cards for their current clientele of the Acorns Investment accounts on a first come first serve basis.
All 100,000 debit cards sold out within just 4 days time! I was lucky enough to be one of the new Spend debit card holders, and i'm happy to share with you my firsthand look and experience with the Acorns debit card.
What Is Acorns Spend And How Does It Work?
First off, if you're not familiar with the Acorns Investing app and how it works, you should probably first read our detailed review of how Acorns works first. Once you've done that, come on back here for details on Acorns Spend.
Acorns Spend is a feature that allows you to participate in Round-Ups and Found Money in real time with your checking account. By getting an Acorns Spend card, your able to have a checking account that does Round Ups in real time, rather than waiting for your round ups balance to equal at least $5 before investing.
This makes it even easier and more convenient for customers to automatically invest their spare change.
How does Acorns Spend work?
Acorns allows you to invest in the stock market with as little as just $5 at a time. They allow their customers to link a bank account to their Acorns account, which then automatically rounds up all your everyday purchases to the next whole dollar and invests the spare change.
These are called “Round-Ups”. Each round up is held for deposit until it reaches at least $5, which at that point it is then invested automatically for you.
Acorns Found Money allows you to shop online at major retailers who then offer you cashback into your Acorns account for shopping with them.
Acorns Spend is Acorns basic checking account and simplifies the process of round-ups and found money. Acorns Spend comes with a debit card and checking account that allows you to save, invest and earn with Acorns automatically.
The round-ups for Acorns Spend customers are done in real time rather than waiting to reach $5, and the found money is now extended to in store purchases when you use your Acorns Spend debit card.
Long story short, Acorns Spend is simply “a checking account and debit card with Acorns built in” as described by Acorns.
A video explanation of Acorns Spend
⇒ How Acorns is changing the future of saving and investing: A detailed report ⇐
Does Acorns Spend cost money?
The Acorns Spend comes with their “Lite” package which costs $3 and comes with an investing account, a Spend account and an Acorns Later account to save for retirement.
Other unique benefits of Acorns Spend
There are multiple unique benefits offered by Acorns Spend that are also worth noting:
- No overdraft or minimum balance fees
- Unlimited free or fee-reimbursed ATM's nationwide
- Automatically earns found money when shopping at partner retailers
- Automates your round-ups in real time
When it comes to the design of their debit card, Acorns Spend isn't messing around. The debit card is “Designed to look and feel as good as it works.” Their debit card is made with a matte film, colored PVC core with tungsten metal, spot UV glass and laser engraved.
See the video below for a detailed visual on the Acorns Spend debit card.
The Acorns Spend debit card technology and design
Should you open an Acorns Spend account?
Acorns has made it easier for everyday consumers to invest their money in the stock market, at a fraction of the cost that other banks charge. They have implemented their retirement accounts with Acorns Later, and now they've made it even easier to save, earn and invest automatically with the Acorns Spend account.
Your Acorns Spend account literally saves money for you with Found Money offers, and automatically invests your money with Round Ups. If that's not enough reason to start your Acorns account, then I don't know what is!
==> Learn more about opening your Acorns Spend account here.
**A Firsthand Look At The Acorns Spend Debit Card
Below is a brief video opening the package received in the mail from Acorns, along with photos of the new debit card. More details of how the the card works, along with features and benefits are described further below for those wanting to learn more about the Spend account.
⇒ Reserve your Acorns Spend debit card ASAP!
What Is The Acorns Spend Debit Card?
To understand what Acorns Spend is, a brief explanation of a unique feature Acorns offers called “Found Money” is necessary. Acorns “Found Money” is a benefit that allows Acorns Investment account holders to make purchases at hundreds of partner retailers with Acorns, who then deposit a percentage or dollar amount of your purchase back into your Acorns Investment account.
Found Money is similar to cashback websites such as Swagbucks, TopCashback, or the Spent Money App. Account holders of these cashback websites simply get access to special discounts when shopping at partnered retailers. For example, if you are a member of a cashback website, you may shop on Amazon regularly.
By logging into your cashback website account, and clicking through to Amazon to begin your shopping, the Cashback website is able to track your purchases by clicking through to Amazon from their website. Amazon pays these cashback websites for referring customers to their store, and these cashback websites simply pass on some of the earnings to their members.
This is exactly how Acorns Found Money works, but rather than getting cashback, the partner retailers deposit a percentage of your purchase, or a fixed dollar amount back into your Acorns Investment account.
These offers are mostly online offers, until the Spend debit card. The card takes the concept described above, and allows you to also take advantage of Acorns Found Money with in store purchases.
By using your Acorns Spend debit card, Acorns can now track your purchases made in person at partnered retailers, allowing you to take advantage of the Found Money offers in store and online.
What Can You Do With The Acorns Spend Card?
Acorns Spend is a checking account with Acorns, that gives you a unique debit card that will deposit cashback offers into your Acorns Core account or your Acorns Later account.
Before the Acorns came out with a checking account, cashback offers were only able to be tracked online through unique hyperlinks to verify transactions and purchases for cashback offers.
Not only do you get to track Found Money offers for purchases made in person, but you can also round up your daily purchases on your Acorns Spend account and invest the spare change in real time.
Whereas with just a regular Acorns Core investment account, you have to link your debit card to your investment account and your daily purchases are rounded up to the next whole dollar and the spare change is set aside for investments. The investments aren't made until your spare change reaches at least $5.
With the Acorns Spend account, round ups and investments are made in real time, eliminating the need to reach a balance of at least $5 to be invested.
Now, with the Acorns Spend debit card, you can make in store purchases at any of the hundreds of partner retailers with Acorns, and your purchases will be tracked for cashback offers that will be deposited into your choice of your Acorns Core investment account or your Acorns Later IRA account.
