My Year+ With Digit Savings

Early in 2015, I signed up for a Digit.co savings account, but it wasn't until last fall that I really paid it any attention.  It was then that I configured/turned back on/confirmed and linked all the right account pipes to actually make the thing work properly.  I'm 102 transactions in at this point and the app has saved over $800.

If you're not familiar with Digit Savings, here's a bit more that explains how things work:


I won't go into the minutia of how Nat and I work our banking/checking/savings accounts, but for the purpose of Digit, I isolated the app away from certain accounts and had it focus on a checking account that has just one debit card that I carry in my wallet.  Isn't always the card I use nor is it the account that has the most action in it.  So...just stating that because if you watched the video above, you now know that the Digit Savings App is *supposed* to be 'smart' and monitor your account and studies spending history.  Thus, since this particular account may not behave like your accounts.

Anyway....after about a year, you can see the totals above.  Digit 'saved' more than $800 for me in a pretty painless way.  By basically stealing little bits of money from the account every few days.  The average withdrawal to savings was eight bucks.  Not bad.  That's like what I spend on soda, right?

There's an app, but it really is an app-less experience.  It all happens via text message.  Which was weird at first.  There's some technical details behind how you grant Digit access to your bank accounts (They call it kind of a 'valet key' kind of arrangement vs the 'full keys' to the account), but it is painless and the texts show up everyday telling you what your checking balance is, what your Digit balance is and what the transactions were both ways.  Kinda nice.    They also claim to have a no-overdraft guarantee.  They won't take dough from you if it sends you to a negative balance.

Now, I'm not nuts, right?  Eight hundred bucks isn't big dollars here.  But, it isn't peanuts, either.  It is *real* money.  As in...buying Christmas presents without thinking about it money.  Or this could pay for part of our Disney trip coming up.  And it accumulated there painlessly.  Without me even thinking about it.  Saving is hard.  This was easy.

And to be clear here, this shouldn't be the primary way you go about saving your money.  I'm no expert and aren't here trying to give financial advice, but trust me...if you're relying on Digit to accumulate all of your savings in life, you're doing it wrong.

What's the downside?  Welp, you can go out and read plenty of reviews and find out that your money isn't going to be earning interest at Digit.  Nope.  It is FDIC insured, but no interest.  The account is free, so it seems that Digit is using the interest you're making them to run the operation.  There are, however, something called savings bonuses.  They give you 5 cents per 100 dollars saved each month.  What banks are giving in your savings account ain't great either, right?

Bottom line: I like the app (or app-less experience) of Digit Savings.  If you don't have an account, you can sign up for one using this link.  Full disclosure:  if a few of you click that link and create your own Digit Savings account, they give me a $5 bonus.