Aspiration Spend, Save, Invest

Let me start off by saying that I’ve been a happy customer of Aspiration since 2015. Sure, there have been a few bumps along the way but I’ll gladly take errors made in earnest than monthly fees taken by greed from a typical U.S. bank. Having been with them for so long it’s clear that their mission extends from Andrew (CEO) down to those who are in the trenches every day, either in development, customer service, or other critical roles to keep a small but valuable set of products conveniently available for Aspiration’s customers. All of that being said, let’s not forget that these reviews on iTunes are meant to be indicative of the APP, not the bank. The app has only improved since launch and I like how it’s simple yet has all of the info needed readily accessible. The AIM feature is fun for me to use so I can check in on which merchants are doing better for the greater good than others - it helps me vote more consciously with my dollars. To summarize, both the APP and the bank are of exceptional quality.

ask user to change the rating

I just signed up for the Spend/Save account. What I didn’t realize is that I had a pending application for the Redwood fund from 4 years ago. What this means is that every time I open the app, the first thing I see is my pending application. What I really want to get to is my Spend and Save accounts but I have to scroll down below the giant “complete your application” part every time. This just won’t do for an app I plan to use multiple times a day. I wrote support to see if they could cancel my pending application. They told me “sorry, no.” Completely unacceptable in this day and age when you can open an account anywhere and customer service is king. I wrote them saying that if it couldn’t be cancelled, I would like to close my aspiration accounts entirely since it’s so annoying to use the app. A different customer service rep then assured me that my pending application could be cancelled. 3 days went by and it was still there. When I wrote them to check in on status, yet another, different customer service rep replies, saying she’d be happy to close my aspiration account completely. What the heck? The amount of time and energy I have already spent to try and get this resolved is too much. So frustrating! And what a shame, seems like good products but I am unable to use them. Taking my business elsewhere.

ask user to change the rating

First off, they will send a debit card, and it will work like a debit card should. There are no fees unless you want to pay some amount. The rest, however, is a shady bait-and-switch operation. You want to feel good thinking that Aspiration doesn’t invest with unsavory entities like big oil, provided Aspiration is even telling the truth. Aspiration claims to give a rating for places you shop, but these aren’t readily available (I understand small businesses can’t easily be rated from afar, however). Aspiration claims to give cash back on all purchases, but that’s not true – it’s cash back on *some* purchases. When I opened my accounts, it was with the promise of interest to be earned with no minimum balance, as long as a deposit of any amount is made. After a few months, I’d earned no interest on my small deposits and balance. I checked the FAQ to find that Aspiration changed its requirement for earning interest to be a deposit of $1000 (I no longer recall if that’s the minimum balance required or if Aspiration requires $1000 in deposits monthly), and Aspiration never communicated this. Internet banks offer higher interest, so it’s not worth placing your money with Aspiration for better interest, either. It’s been disappointing, and it’s certainly not the transparent, ethical operation it claims to be. I fail to see any benefit.

ask user to change the rating

So they sent out a promotional email offering a $100 bonus if I complete my account setup. The email was received on April 25th. I complete my account set up and fund it with my main checking account in this same day. The conditions were to complete and find by April 30th. Have a direct deposit made and by July 15th an extra $100 would be deposited. Well come the 15th of July. Nothing. I’ve reached out to customer support several times before this and asked about the promotional bonus. These previous reps all mentioned that I’d be good to go and it should be by the 15th of July. Come the 15th I reach out once more and same answer to give it until the end of business day. Well the 16th came and I contact support agin only to have them tell me that the funds weren’t deposited to the account until the 1st of May. The money left my account the same day I processed the transfer. This means Aspiration did not deposit the funds into the account until 1 day after their promotion ended. If there would not of been enough time to qualify for the promotion why would you send the darn email. I’m glad I didn’t switch everything over to this bank. I was skeptical and I’m glad I was. This bank is a total scam. Can’t even find a way to cancel my account. I don’t want to be doing business with liars and scammers.

ask user to change the rating

Aspiration is one of the most worthless and quite frankly, utterly useless “banks” I have ever encountered. Thankfully my unfortunate mistake of signing up with Aspiration; will be other people’s gain. I will have no problem describing what a pathetic joke the feeble attempt at providing customer service Aspiration and its intellectually deficient staff provide. I can only imagine how it would be nothing less than a total embarrassment if I had to admit to people; that I worked at, or was in any way associated, with such a disheveled, and unbelievably pathetic wreck of a company, that Aspiration truly is. Seriously. I would say that perhaps Aspiration can bilk their investors out of more money so that their totally incompetent and worthless robot customer service staff could be trained on what “customer service” actually means. Alas, I believe that would just be an exercise in futility. I simply cannot wait to be the first person in line to attend the party that will be held upon the news of this company’s inevitable, and 100% deserved, abject failure. I can hardly contain my glee because the thoughts of Aspiration being dissolved into total non-existence is a delight of which I will always be ready to enjoy. Always. TL;DR - ASPIRATION AND ITS USELESS ROBOT CUSTOMER SERVICE STAFF ARE GARBAGE - JUST LIKE THEIR “PRODUCT”. STAY AWAY FROM THIS FRAUD!