Acorns Review 2024: Monthly Fees, But Plenty of Perks - NerdWallet (2024)

Table of contents:

Where Acorns shines

IRA match: Personal Plus and Premium members receive a percentage match (1% and 3% respectively) on contributions to IRA accounts.

Roundups: In addition to adding lump sums to your investments, Acorns lets you round up your purchases on linked credit or debit cards, then sweep the change into a computer-managed investment portfolio.

Cash back: Acorns offers cash back at over 450 retailers.

Where Acorns falls short

No tax strategy: Unlike many of its competitors, Acorns does not offer a tax strategy.

High fees on small balances: Because of its pricing structure, Acorns can have high fees on small account balances.

More details about Acorns' ratings

Editor’s note: On July 1, 2024 Acorns increased its pricing from $3, $5 and $9 per month to $3, $6 and $12 per month. Your account fee depends on the tier of service you choose.

Account minimum: 5 out of 5 stars

There’s no minimum to open an account, but the service requires a $5 balance to start investing.

Account management fee: 5 out of 5 stars

Acorns has three tiers, $3, $6 and $12. Here’s what you get with each tier:

Whether Acorns' fee is a pro or a con depends entirely on your account balance. Flat fees like this are less common among robo-advisors, which typically charge a percentage of your assets under management per year.

A fee of only $3, $6 or $12 a month might sound cheap, but it can be a high percentage of assets for investors with small balances. If you only contribute by rounding up your spare change, one of Acorns’ signature features, your fee relative to your account balance will be fairly high.

For context, Acorns’ competitors such as Wealthfront and Betterment charge 0.25% per year, and generally offer a higher level of service including tax assistance and more diversified portfolios. In order to achieve an equivalent fee of 0.25% at each tier, you'd have to have account balances of $14,400 at the Personal tier, $28,800 at the Personal Plus tier and $57,600 at the Premium tier.

The good news is that if you invest at the Personal Plus or Premium tiers, you may be able to wipe out that account fee entirely. Granted, it requires a significant investment in your retirement account. Acorns offers what they call Later Match, an IRA contribution match of 1% for Personal Plus members or 3% for Premium members.

A Personal Plus subscription costs $72 a year. If you contribute $7,000 to your IRA — 2024's annual contribution limit for those under 50 — you would get a $70 investment match. That would essentially wipe out your account fee. Premium subscriptions cost $144 per year. With Premium's 3% match, you'd earn $210, completely erasing the annual fee, and putting an extra $66 in your pocket.

Investment expense ratios: 4 out of 5 stars

An expense ratio is an annual fee charged by mutual funds, index funds and exchange-traded funds, as a percentage of your investment in the fund. If you invest in a mutual fund with a 1% expense ratio, for example, you’ll pay the fund $10 per year for every $1,000 invested. If high, these fees can significantly drag down your portfolio returns. The expense ratios of the funds used in Acorns’ portfolios range from 0.04% and 0.22%. Expense ratios are paid in addition to your Acorns account management fee.

Account fees: 2 out of 5 stars

If you decide to move your investments out of Acorns to another provider, you'll pay a steep fee for that convenience. Acorns charges $35 per ETF to transfer investments. Acorns isn't alone in charging this type of fee, but theirs is on the high side. If you have, say, five ETFs, you're looking at a $175 fee. A more common scenario among providers is to charge $75 to transfer all investments out, and some don’t charge a fee at all.

Still, you can always choose instead to sell your investments and transfer your cash to a bank account. There's no charge for that.

Portfolio mix: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Like other robo-advisors, Acorns takes the investing reins from the user. The app considers your data — including age, goals, income and time horizon — and then recommends one of five portfolios that range from conservative to aggressive. You can accept the recommendation or choose a different portfolio that takes more or less risk.

The portfolios themselves are mostly made up of low-cost iShares exchange-traded funds that cover large, medium and small company stocks, international company stocks and a variety of bonds.

Acorns also allows investors to allocate up to 5% of their investments toward a Bitcoin-linked ETF.

Socially responsible portfolio options: 4 out of 5 stars

Acorns offers a sustainable portfolio made up of ETFs graded using ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria. The platform makes it easy for existing customers to switch their portfolios over from the core portfolio to the sustainable one, but also recognizes that clients may experience tax complications if they do so.

Accounts supported: 4 out of 5 stars

The Personal Plus tier includes Acorns Early, which makes it easy to create UTMA/UGMA accounts for your kids. These custodial accounts allow parents to invest on behalf of a minor child, and use the money for expenses that benefit the child. Once the child reaches the age of transfer (this will depend on where they live), they gain ownership of the account and can use the money for any reason.

Custodial accounts are not the same as 529 college savings accounts. A 529 account is are less flexible, as it is designed for education expenses, but 529s also offer more tax advantages and are generally considered a better way to save for college. Be sure to do your research or consult a financial advisor to determine the best account for you.

Tax strategy: 1 out of 5 stars

Acorns does not offer any form of tax strategy. Many other robo-advisors offer tax-loss harvesting, which is an investment strategy that can reduce the amount of tax you may have to pay after you sell your investments.

Automatic rebalancing: 5 out of 5 stars

Your portfolio allocation, or how much of your portfolio is in stocks versus bonds or other investments, depends on factors such as your age and investing timeline. Acorns will automatically adjust your portfolio in response to market fluctuations or other factors that shift your portfolio out of its intended investment allocation.

Human advisor option: 1 out of 5 stars

Some robo-advisors offer access to a financial advisor, either for free or for an added fee. Unfortunately, Acorns does not offer its clients access to financial advisors.

Savings account/cash management options: 5 out of 5 stars

Acorns offers impressive high-yield checking and savings accounts. The checking account earns 3% APY and the savings account earns 5% APY, with no minimum balance to receive the interest rate. The checking account offers real-time roundups to your investment account, mobile check deposits and access to more than 55,000 fee-free ATMs around the world.

Customer support options: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Customer support is available seven days a week from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT by live chat, phone and email. Some robo-advisors provide more comprehensive customer service, such as 24/7 phone support.

Other Acorns features you should know

One feature Acorns is known for is its automated savings tool. Acorns sweeps excess change from every purchase using a linked account into an investment portfolio. You can connect as many cards as you want, though all roundups are taken from the same linked checking account. With each purchase, Acorns rounds up to the nearest $1 and gives you the option to transfer that change into an investment portfolio.

You can do that either automatically, so every purchase is rounded up and the change transferred, or manually, by going through recent purchases on the app and selecting which roundups to transfer.

You can also invest lump sums manually or set up recurring deposits on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Lump-sum transfers may be as small as $5.

To help flesh out your accounts, Acorns has partnered with more than 450 companies through its app — including Apple and Walmart — to give you cash back when you use a linked payment method at one of the partners. If you use the Acorns Google Chrome and iOS Safari browser extension, you can earn rewards when you shop online. In most cases, you get the cash automatically, without any additional steps. You simply use a card linked to an active Acorns account to make the purchase, and the rewards will usually land in your account in 60 to 120 days.

Acorns also has a Job Finder feature powered by ZipRecruiter. The tool gives clients access to career development content and lets them set up job alerts for new opportunities.

Is Acorns right for you?

If you want to make the most of your spare change and get the occasional retailer kickback, there’s really no better place to do that than Acorns. The automatic roundups at Acorns make saving and investing easy, and most investors will be surprised by how quickly those pennies accumulate.

The downside? At small balances, Acorns fees can cut into or completely wipe away investment returns. Plus, the various higher-priced tiers don’t add that much more value than the base tier.