Rocket Money Review [2024]: Money Well-Spent on Feature-Packed Budgeting App

What is Rocket Money?

Rocket Money is a budgeting app designed to simplify everyday finances. It basically puts your accounts, subscriptions, and bills in one neatly organized place. The app also helps you identify areas where you might be overspending, negotiates better rates on your bills, and automates your savings.

Rocket Money, formerly Truebill, was acquired by Rocket Companies in 2021 and rebranded under its current name in 2022. However, I didn’t begin using Rocket Money until November 2023, when Intuit, the company behind my then-favorite and free budgeting app, Mint, decided to shut it down.

This forced me to migrate all my accounts and data to a different app. After subscribing to the free version of Rocket Money, I enjoyed how simple and speedy it was, so I decided to pay $6 a month to use its premium features, and I was hooked.

Pricing	Free version Name your price from $6 to $12 per month for monthly premium plans Name your price from $4 to $12 per month for annual premium plans
Free features	Banking, credit card, and investment linking and tracking Subscription management Credit score tracking Low balance alerts Bill negotiation
Premium features	Automated value tracking of real estate Manual value tracking of vehicles, collectibles, jewelry, and more Net worth tracking Assisted subscription cancellations Unlimited customizable budgeting categories Automated goals and deposits into a savings account Transaction splitting
Ratings	4.2/5 on the App Store 4.2/5 on Google Play 4.4/5 on Trustpilot

Who is Rocket Money best for?

As someone who has used both the free and premium versions of Rocket Money, I can say it really shines for anyone looking to streamline their finances and develop better money habits.

Should you go free or premium?

The free version is a great starting point if you just need a basic budgeting app to track spending and set up categories. It lets you link accounts, monitor subscriptions, check your credit score, and set up low balance alerts — not bad for $0.

That said, Rocket Money's full potential offers a ton of additional value for someone who wants a more comprehensive financial picture. The monthly fee that starts at $4 or $6 per month (based on whether you pay annually or monthly) gives you access to features that are well worth the fee. This includes net worth tracking, assisted subscription cancellations, automated real estate value tracking, and more.

As someone juggling multiple income streams, credit cards, and investment accounts, having this all consolidated into one dashboard saved me hours of manually reviewing my finances every month. All for the price of a single coffee.

Who should skip?

But Rocket Money isn’t perfect. I wish it offered automated vehicle value tracking in conjunction with its automated real estate value tracking feature. If you’re someone who wants to avoid paying a fee but would like to get a comprehensive financial picture, SoFi Relay is one alternative that offers automated vehicle and real estate value tracking for free for all SoFi account holders.

My experience with Rocket Money’s features

When I first downloaded Rocket Money, I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. The app was offering its premium subscription at a time when I was used to paying $0 to use the now-defunct Intuit Mint. But from the moment I launched it up, Rocket Money just worked.

The effortless setup

Linking my accounts was a breeze thanks to Rocket Money's integration with bank-level encryption through Plaid. Despite the complexity of my financial landscape — multiple bank accounts across various institutions, several credit cards, a small business with distinct accounts, retirement funds, and two loans — Rocket Money handled most of it pretty well.

It took me about 30 minutes to add almost everything in except my Raisin account, which gives me access to high-yield savings and CDs. This meant that I needed to add my Raisin balance manually, a functionality that I could only access after I subscribed to Rocket Money’s premium version.

As I added my accounts, I could see their data already populating the slick interface. The app automatically categorized my transactions, too, and it did a great job doing so. There were a few transactions that were in the wrong categories, but it was easy to fix them. Later on, when I subscribed to the premium version, I was able to set up automated categorization rules for these stray transactions.

Uncovering hidden expenses

I’m not typically one to forget about subscriptions, so I was surprised when Rocket Money surfaced an Uber One subscription I didn’t remember having.

Rocket Money showed me more information about the subscription, including which account it was charged to. The information reminded me that I subscribed to Uber One to use a credit card promotion, but I no longer wanted this subscription.

Rocket Money offered to cancel the subscription for me with the premium version. Alternatively, I could cancel it myself, and it provided the phone number and instructions.

A Simple financial picture at a glance

One of my favorite aspects of Rocket Money is how it paints a comprehensive picture of my overall financial situation. The app's clean interface beautifully visualizes all my income sources, recurring bills, and spending habits.

With just a few taps, I can quickly view my income against my spending. Once I subscribed to the premium version, I gained access to net worth monitoring, along with monthly and annual spending and net worth trends.

Having all this information in one place made it easy to see upcoming credit card payments, insurance premiums, and other recurring expenses without logging into various accounts spread across several websites.

Bill negotiation on my behalf

After loading my transactions and categorizing them, Rocket Money highlighted that my T-Mobile internet bill could be lower and offered to negotiate a lower rate on my behalf. This service didn’t require me to have a premium account, but Rocket Money would charge 35% of the money it saved me.

While I didn’t take the offer, I found this fee to be pretty reasonable considering that Rocket Money’s team would do the work on my behalf, which saves me time and effort.

Ways Rocket Money can help you save

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 $22.99 (the Netflix Premium plan is $22.99 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 $275 per year you could be saving in this scenario.

What Rocket Money can improve

While I'm genuinely a Rocket Money fan, there are a few nitpicks worth mentioning.

Monthly fee

For starters, not everyone will like to pay at least $6 for a monthly plan to access the premium features when other apps like SoFi Relay offer similar budgeting functionality for free. The option to pay $4 monthly by subscribing annually does help, though.

Negotiation fee

Additionally, Rocket Money's fee of 35% or more of any negotiated bill savings doesn’t sit quite right with me since I’m paying a fee for a premium service. This is the same percentage that the free version charges, so it would make more sense to have a reduced fee for the premium version.

Automated asset value tracking

Finally, while the app excels at automatically tracking real estate values, I wish it applied that same auto-magic to vehicles and other non-liquid assets that count toward the net worth calculation.

Other money apps to consider

SoFi Relay

If Rocket Money's premium pricing gives you pause, it's worth checking out SoFi Relay as a potential alternative. SoFi's all-in-one money app offers many similar features like financial tracking, automated categorization, and automated asset value tracking — all completely free for SoFi account holders.

While it may lack some of Rocket Money's premium tools, like bill negotiation and assisted subscription cancellation, SoFi Relay could be a solid no-cost option for those looking to get their finances organized without monthly fees.

Visit SoFi Relay.

Quicken Simplifi

Another app to consider as an alternative to Rocket Money is Quicken Simplifi. It provides many comparable features like account linking, bill tracking, budgeting tools, and savings goals.

A key difference is that Simplifi has a flat $3.99 per month fee, billed annually, rather than Rocket Money's $4 to $12 premium pricing range. Plus, quite often a discount promotion is available for the first year. So for those looking to sock away cash on subscriptions, Simplifi could provide similar money management capabilities at a slightly lower cost. The interface may not be quite as modern as Rocket Money's, but Simplifi gets the core personal finance job done.

Visit Quicken Simplifi or learn more in our Quicken Simplifi review or our Rocket Money vs. Quicken Simplifi comparison.

Rocket Money FAQ

Rocket Money review: bottom line

In my experience, Rocket Money is one of the best all-in-one apps for taking control of your finances. Whether you need to rein in subscriptions, cut costs through bill negotiations, or simply understand your spending patterns, Rocket Money has the tools.

The credit monitoring and budgeting features are hugely valuable too. While there is a free version, I'd recommend the paid premium plan to unlock powerful automations like savings transfers and net worth tracking.

That said, Rocket Money isn't perfect for everyone. Be sure to explore our list of the best budgeting app if the pricing or features don't quite fit your needs.