Rocket Money Review 2023: Budgeting Made Easy
Updated: Jan 10
Affiliate Marketing Disclosure
Most of the time, I don't even manually pay my bills anymore, with the exception of my mortgage. Everything else just auto-debits out of my account, and I'll see the notification of it the next time I log into my account.
In all honesty, not monitoring this more closely probably is not the best practice. It's harder to monitor my cash balances and to even know how much money I have left for my bills until I get paid again. Thankfully, there are many budgeting apps out there to monitor this for me.
Truebill was always my favorite budgeting app out there. Thanks to a 2022 rebrand, this honor now belongs to Rocket Money.
What is Rocket Money?
Rocket Money is a budgeting service offered to Americans and others to help make personal money management earlier in life. The company was originally branded as Truebill (an app I loved at the time) before it was sold to Rocket Companies back in 2022.
Today, Rocket Money offers a variety of services, including:
Budgeting and spending analysis
Bill negotiation
Subscription management
Monthly bill management
Spending insights
They do all the heavy lifting for you.
Rocket Money services
Next, I'll go into more detail regarding the various services that Rocket Money offers through its platform.
Subscription management
Truebill first gained popularity for the ability to monitor your subscriptions and recurring monthly charges right from the app. Within the app, you'll see these expenses, along with their upcoming charge dates, so that you have the transparency that you need to make progress.
This remains the case after the acquisition by Rocket Money. You can sync your financial accounts through Plaid, an encryption service that will protect your sensitive financial information.
This service gets taken one step further if you purchase a premium membership. Those users will actually be able to prompt the app to cancel the subscriptions for them. For $4.99 per month - or $35.99 per year - Rocket Money will also cancel the subscription service for you! Plus - they will also request refunds for you if you overdraft or were hit with a late fee as a result.
Rocket Money "Lower My Bills"
In a feature known as "Lower My Bills," Rocket Money actually can negotiate and lower your bills with nearly thirty different cell phone, cable, Internet, and other telecom service providers. Among the many eligible companies include:
T-Mobile
AT&T
Verizon
Cox Cable
Boost Mobile
To get started lowering your bills, you'll just upload a copy of a recent monthly statement or bill. You may also be asked some clarifying questions regarding the services you receive for what you pay each month.
Then, Rocket Money will take over from here, handling the negotiation in its entirety for you. There are a few potential outcomes from here.
First, Rocket Money is able to get you on a promotional type of plan, which can lower your payments for a period of time.
Next, you are able to cut your bills on an ongoing/permanent basis.
Finally, your payments are not lowered.
The best part of these potential outcomes, though, is that you will only pay if Rocket Money is successful in lowering your bills. Under these circumstances, you will pay 40% of your estimated first-year savings.
This fee will be assessed upfront, rather than on a monthly basis, so it is possible that you'll actually pay more than your bill that first month your lower bills take effect.
Here is a step to step guide to using Rocket Money (Truebill) to lower your bills.
1. Give Rocket Money access to your billing statement
After you find a participating company with which you do business, you can either upload an image of a bill or decide to log in through the service provider's online portal. Either will provide the data that Truebill needs to act on your behalf.
2. Provide your contact information
You'll next need to make sure that Truebill has the information they need to operate on your behalf. You may be asked for your cell phone number, account pins, or other information.
Step 3: Provide a payment method
Remember - you will automatically be charged should the company be successful in lowering your monthly bill. Keep in mind that this fee is likely to be 40% of your projected first year's savings.
So, again, if Rocket Money is able to cut your cell phone bill by $50 a month ($600 per year), you will be charged $240 upfront before you see those savings in the form of lower monthly bills.
Rocket Money pros and cons
There is no shortage of benefits to budgeting with Rocket Money. Among the most enticing benefits are the app's abilities to:
Sync your financial accounts
Monitor your credit
Potentially lower your monthly bills
However, these also come with a couple of negatives, mainly having to do with price and fees. The 40% of savings fee currently being assessed to negotiate your bills successfully is steep and may only be worth it for those really expensive monthly bills.
Likewise, some of the other premium features, especially as it pertains to budgeting and credit, can be found for free elsewhere on the internet. Regardless, it is nice to have all of this information in one place.
Keep reading to learn whether the premium version of the app may be for you.
Is Rocket Money Premium worth it?
As a premium member, you'll have access to a number of special perks, including:
The concierge subscription services I've already mentioned
Premium live chat and customer service features
Customized budgeting solutions where you can create your own categories to bucket your expenses in a way that makes sense for you
Credit score monitoring and reporting
Live time account syncing
These features, which can add an enormous amount of value, can be all yours for $3-$12 per month. That's right - you can choose your own price and what you can afford to pay. If you pay $4 or less per month, you will be billed once annually.
My wife and I have our own biweekly budgeting process that we complete, along with our own financial checks and balances, but without it, I would feel comfortable with the depth of premium services offered for the price.
I used to be notoriously bad at canceling free trials of subscriptions I had signed up for, so the premium service would have been worth $5 or so just for having those monitored.
Rocket Money FAQ
1. Is Rocket Money safe to use?
The service uses 256-bit encryption to ensure that all data that you transmit via the app is secure. Since you'll be asked to pair your financial accounts, as well as online access to any bills you'd like negotiated, it is important that you feel comfortable in doing so.
2. Does Rocket Money have competitors?
They do, and depending on exactly what services you are looking for, they may be worth checking out.
BillShark also is in the bill reduction space, while Trim also offers some pretty premium budgeting services for free.
Other budgeting apps to consider
There is no shortage of other budgeting apps out there for you to consider. Among my other favorite budgeting apps are Trim, Billshark, YNAB, and Mint.
You may be wondering which of these is my favorite. In my mind, there is no clear-cut winner, largely because of the effectiveness of other sites and apps on the market. Therefore, it becomes a game of gauging:
What features do you need? Subscription management, for example.
Who offers these services?
Does any site offer these services for free? If not, who has the cheapest prices?
One thing is clear, however: Rocket Money definitely has a place as a budgeting industry leader.
Conclusions
Rocket Money is one of the best budgeting services in a crowded and confusing industry. With a deep product suite and real solutions that can save Americans hundreds of dollars per year, Rocket Money is certainly worth a try.
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