Cash App Review 2023: Pros and Cons

The way in which individuals financial institution, make investments and handle cash has modified quickly over the previous few years and Money App is certainly one of few platforms that has been nimble sufficient to adapt to the digital monetary world and proceed to serve clients’ wants.

The app by Block, Inc. (previously Sq., Inc.) — beforehand known as Sq. Money — began as a cash switch app. The app had a selected enchantment to communities who’re historically unbanked or underbanked due to its ease of use, lack of charges and virtually solely cellular design.

Money App has continued to develop since its inception in 2013 to incorporate extra methods to uniquely serve this buyer base and broaden the app’s enchantment. Now the app helps cash transfers, banking, inventory and ETF investing, Bitcoin buying and selling and tax submitting.

In our Money App evaluation, we’ll cowl every part you might want to know to determine whether or not Money App is the best place in your cash — together with its banking options, charges, perks and customer support.

Different Options of the Money App Account

The next options can assist you resolve if the Money App Account is best for you.

Money App Funds

As quickly as you join a Money App account you may obtain cash. You may ship cash so long as you could have a stability within the app — you aren’t required to attach a checking account to make use of Money App.

Earlier than you may switch cash to mates, you should enter your title, birthdate and final 4 digits of your Social Safety quantity to confirm your id, which is a standard follow with any monetary establishment.

To “money out” (i.e. switch your Money App cash to a checking account) or ship extra money than you could have in your Money App in-app stability, you may join a checking account utilizing your debit card data or your financial institution’s on-line login particulars. Money outs immediately ship cash to the checking account you related to Money App.

Ship Money, Shares or Bitcoin

With Money App, you may ship funds as money, inventory, or Bitcoin. You do not want to personal inventory, Bitcoin, or have an investing account for both to ship them as funds by means of Money App app. As a substitute, Money App pulls the USD (or GBP should you’re within the UK) out of your account stability and offers the recipient the choice to make use of it to purchase the inventory or Bitcoin you “ship.”

Others can ship you cash as inventory or Bitcoin, too, and you’ve got the choice to simply accept or decline it.

To simply accept inventory, you must have or open a brokerage account within the app. To simply accept Bitcoin, you must confirm your id within the app, however you don’t want a separate crypto pockets. When you decline inventory or Bitcoin funds, you’ll get the despatched cash as money as an alternative.

Money App Pay

You should utilize your Money App account on to pay retailers who use Sq. for funds — for instance, at markets, small companies and on-line shops. This characteristic is named Money App Pay. To take action, scan the seller’s QR code along with your telephone and observe the prompts to finish the fee out of your stability. It’s also possible to use Money App Pay at collaborating distributors’ web sites. Choose “Money App Pay” at checkout, both scan the Money App QR code if on desktop (or in case you are on cellular, you’ll mechanically be redirected to the app itself), and observe the prompts to finish your on-line transaction.

A Money App account by itself doesn’t work with different on-line or cellular fee programs; you want a Money Card to try this.

Different Options of the Money Card

The next options can assist you resolve if the Money Card is best for you.

Funding the Account

You should utilize your routing and account quantity to arrange direct deposit in your paycheck and different funds. You may get paid as much as two days forward of the scheduled payday relying on when the payer initiates a direct deposit.

The Money App account can solely be funded by means of digital funds: direct deposit, transfers from a linked checking account or funds from different Money App customers. As of 2022, Money App customers can deposit checks by means of the app. To take action, faucet the “$” icon to see your Money App stability. Then, faucet on the “Deposit a Verify” possibility, enter the quantity of the verify you might be depositing, then observe the prompts to take photographs of the back and front of the verify. You can’t use Money App for wire transfers, although.

You may deposit money into your account by means of retailers together with Walmart Buyer Service Desk/ Cash Facilities, Walgreens, 7-Eleven, Household Greenback, Sheetz, KwikTrip, Speedway, StopNGo and Greenback Common.

Withdrawing Money

You may withdraw money from ATMs along with your debit card, and Money App will reimburse as much as three ATM  charges every month so long as you obtain at the very least $300 in direct deposits every month. In any other case, you’re accountable for a $2 ATM payment charged by Money App, plus any charges the ATM operator costs.

It’s also possible to use your checking account to pay payments and bank card funds by giving the payee your Money App routing and account quantity to schedule a fee or arrange auto pay.

You should utilize your Money Card for purchases anyplace Visa is accepted. The enjoyable half? Once you order a Money Card, you may add a customized doodle or emojis to the cardboard’s design from proper within the app; you’ll be the one one to personal that distinctive Money Card.

Debit Card Rewards

Once you pay along with your Money Card, you could have entry to particular offers from retailers with Money Enhance reductions.

Discover Boosts from the Money Card part within the app, and choose a Enhance you need to use. The Enhance will likely be added to your account and utilized while you purchase from that retailer.

A Bitcoin Enhance is a suggestion that rewards you in Bitcoin for a purchase order along with your Money Card. These rewards go straight to your Bitcoin stability.

Investing and Cryptocurrency

Money App seamlessly integrates investing and Bitcoin accumulating into the app alongside banking and funds.

Inventory Investing With Money App

You should utilize Money App to open a brokerage account and commerce shares and mutual funds. The app shares inventory market information and allows you to see the current efficiency of shares before you purchase.

The app is ready up for lively, self-directed inventory buying and selling, so it’s not a superb match should you want a robo-advisor to create a portfolio for you. You may arrange day by day, weekly or bi-weekly auto-invest on explicit securities. You should buy fractional shares of any inventory or ETF with as little as $1 ($10 for auto-invest).

Money App doesn’t make each inventory or fund out there, although it’s always increasing what you may entry by means of the app.

For now, you should buy or promote shares or ETFs listed on the New York Inventory Trade (NYSE) or Nasdaq which have greater than $1 billion in market capitalization or greater than $5 million common day by day commerce quantity, so long as they’re supported by DriveWealth, the dealer behind Money App Investing.

Purchase and Promote Bitcoin on Money App

You should utilize your Money App funds to purchase Bitcoin by means of the app with out establishing a separate crypto pockets or an account on a crypto alternate.

You may all the time deposit Bitcoin into your Money App Bitcoin account (a crypto pockets inside your account) by sharing your pockets handle with an exterior pockets. Don’t ship every other cryptocurrencies to Money App — the app solely helps Bitcoin and all different currencies will merely be misplaced within the transaction.

Withdraw Bitcoin to an exterior pockets by getting into the pockets’s handle in Money App to make the switch.

Pay With Bitcoin

You may make funds in Bitcoin to mates, household or retailers utilizing the choice to pay with Bitcoin through the transaction. These transactions come out of your Money App account stability, not your Bitcoin pockets stability. Technically, you ship the recipient money they’ll use to purchase Bitcoin.

To ship and obtain Bitcoin straight between your pockets and one other, you must enter the opposite pockets handle or scan their QR code within the Bitcoin part of the app. That method you may make an precise decentralized transaction on the blockchain. (This characteristic is offered in all places within the U.S. besides New York state.)

Money App Taxes

Beginning in 2022 (for the 2021 tax yr), Money App has taken over Credit score Karma Tax to allow you to file your taxes without spending a dime from the app or on-line.

Money App Taxes helps commonest tax conditions, together with some for extra advanced filers, like enterprise revenue and itemizing deductions. You may file a federal and state tax return without spending a dime and have the choice to get your refund deposited straight into your Money App account.

Like different tax software program, Money App Taxes comes with an accuracy and most refund assure.

Money for Enterprise

If you wish to use Money App to receives a commission for services or products you promote in your small business, you want a enterprise account within the app. It’s simple to alter your account kind through your in-app profile.

A Money for Enterprise account offers you limitless day by day transfers, whereas a private account limits them, so you may accommodate the upper quantity of transactions you’re prone to have as a enterprise. Money for Enterprise accounts allow you to obtain funds from clients utilizing credit score or debit playing cards by sending them a fee hyperlink.

Money for Enterprise is an efficient possibility for brand new and really small companies, however its options are restricted to sending and receiving money. As your small business grows, you may swap to Sq. or one other fee processor to entry extra options.

Enterprise homeowners accrue a 2.75% transaction payment to obtain cash by means of Money for Enterprise. This payment is mechanically deducted from every sale. Sending cash is all the time free.

Money App Charges

Charges in Money App are minimal. The app does away with widespread monetary providers prices, together with:

• There’s no minimal deposit to open an account and no minimal stability.
• Money App has no month-to-month charges
• There aren’t any overdraft charges — if in case you have inadequate funds, transactions will likely be declined.
• Money App doesn’t cost commissions for investing.
• Money App doesn’t cost overseas transaction charges for utilizing your Money Card for purchases in or from different international locations.
• As much as three ATM charges per 30 days are reimbursed as long as you could have at the very least $300 per 30 days in direct deposits.

You may anticipate to pay these charges:

• ATM withdrawal: Money App costs $2, and you should pay any payment charged by the ATM operator outdoors of the Visa community. Money App reimburses as much as three ATM charges per 30 days as long as you could have at the very least $300 per 30 days in direct deposits.
• Investing charges: Money App will warn you earlier than a purchase in case your funding comes with any regulatory or authorities charges.
• ETF expense ratios: ETFs and mutual funds normally include charges of round 0.5% to 2%, which come out of your funding account stability (i.e. no upfront charges). These charges go to the fund managers, not Money App or its dealer.
• Bitcoin charges: Money App might cost a payment while you purchase or promote Bitcoin, which varies with the market value of the cryptocurrency. You have to additionally pay a payment for an expedited Bitcoin withdrawal, however standard-speed withdrawals are free.

Money App Buyer Expertise

Money App has a pared-down, intuitive and user-friendly design with an interface that makes it simple to arrange in seconds and easy for anybody to determine the way to use it. You may simply move between banking, sending and receiving cash, inventory investing and Bitcoin accumulating from one display.

The app is very rated: 4.7 stars within the Google Play Retailer and 4.8 stars within the iOS App Retailer.

You may contact buyer assist for Money App primarily by means of the app, and you too can attain them:

• On-line at money.app/assist.
• Over the telephone at 800-969-1940.
• On social media @CashApp on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Twitch; u//CashAppAndi on Reddit; and SquareCash on Fb.

Keep away from Money App Scams

The largest shopper criticism about Money App is much less in regards to the app or firm itself and extra about how scammers have used the app to steal customers’ data or cash.

To keep away from scams, Money App recommends:

• Solely ship funds to individuals you recognize and belief. Don’t reply to switch requests from accounts you don’t acknowledge.
• Double-check recipient data like their e mail handle, telephone quantity or $Cashtag earlier than sending cash to verify the funds are going to the best particular person.
• Verify the recipient’s profile to verify it’s the particular person you’re on the lookout for. Don’t make a guess or assumption based mostly on a $Cashtag.
• Don’t ship cash to anybody who sends a request and guarantees one thing sooner or later (like free cash in return).
• Don’t give your Money App password, PIN or different delicate data to somebody who asks for it, even when they declare to be from Money App. The corporate says it’s going to by no means ask you to share delicate data, even for Money App sweepstakes and giveaways.
• Don’t ever ship a “take a look at” transaction to somebody claiming to be from Money App. The corporate says it’s going to by no means ask for this.

When you get scammed by means of the app, you may report a problem with the fee by means of the app and report or block the account. Money App notes most transfers can’t be canceled, although you may file a dispute for a fraudulent Money Card transaction.

Is Money App Proper for You?

Money App is a simple banking, funds and investing app for people with uncomplicated monetary circumstances.

Some individuals surprise how secure Money App is. Hottest cash switch apps preserve your cash secure by encrypting your knowledge, requiring safety measures and providing bank-backed safety in your account balances. To be taught extra about Money App’s main opponents, try our comparability of Venmo versus PayPal.

Money App is perhaps best for you should you:

• Reside within the U.S. or UK.
• Have bother opening conventional financial institution accounts due to unhealthy historical past on ChexSystems.
• Use a checking account for your self and don’t want a joint account.
• Steadily alternate cash with mates or household.
• Need to dip your toe into inventory or crypto buying and selling with no main funding.
• Receives a commission primarily by means of direct deposit.
• Personal a small enterprise that wants a easy, inexpensive and cellular POS.

Money App most likely isn’t a match for you should you:

• Reside outdoors of the U.S. or UK.
• Want a joint checking account with a accomplice.
• Want a enterprise checking account.
• Need different monetary merchandise, together with financial savings, loans, bank cards and different providers in a single place.
• Need a robo-advisor for passive investing.
• Are eager about cryptocurrency aside from Bitcoin.

Professionals and Cons of Money App

This checklist will assist you to perceive the good and not-so-great attributes of Money App.

Steadily Requested Questions (FAQs) About Money App

Listed here are our solutions to widespread questions on Money App.

Contributor Dana Miranda is a Licensed Educator in Private Finance® who has written about work and cash for publications together with Forbes, The New York Instances, CNBC, Insider, NextAdvisor and Inc. Journal. Freelancer Kristin Jenny contributed to this report.