Aspiration

I’m starting to feel like I really need to start a financial blog to save others some PAIN.
The «Aspiration Summit Checking» account looks like the best checking account ever, on paper:
1.00% interest rate! (for a CHECKING account!)
Unlimited ATM reimbursals
No fees (you just «tip» them what you think is fair)
EMPHASIS: On paper.
Once you start using it, it’s amateur-​hour.
First: their website.
It’s pretty. It has that «web 3.0″-squarespacey-big-image-banner-parrallax-scrolling-and-big-clicky-buttons look that just about every hip website has these days (see:
, REI, Leesa/Casper/Tuft&Needle mattresses, Poler Stuff, Wealthfront, Betterment, etc.)
It is also: HIGLHY IMPRACTICAL. This is textbook form-​at-​the-​expense-​of-​function. The website is slow and certain features are difficult, if impossible, to find.
The best protip I can give you about Aspiration, I learned from some random guy’s financial blog. Use RADIUS BANK instead. That’s right. Aspiration is, more-​or-​less, a cool-​looking-​but-​impractical front-​end for your account, which actually resides with Radius Bank. Radius Bank has a much better-​designed site. AND, if you want to add your «Aspiration Summit» checking account to
, you can! You just need to use your Radius login information rather than your Aspiration log-​in. It’s almost like some web designers got the idea to start a «kewl bank» by just building a new interface on top of an existing bank.
Also: it takes money a LONG time to clear in and out of the Aspiration Summit (known from here on out as «AS») account. I have direct deposit with my employer; I have allotments set to go to 4 different banks. Every bank gets my paycheck Thursday night. Not AS though! Money doesn’t seem to pop in there till at least Sunday!
Also: I have since been UNABLE to move ANY money OUT of my AS account! Every time I try I get an error akin to «something is wrong but we don’t know what, please try again later and maybe it will be fixed.»
Think I’m exaggerating? Here is the exact error from Aspiration’s site, verbatim:
«Sorry, something has gone wrong. We’re working on fixing the issue and will have things back to normal soon. If you need help, you can send us an email
or visit our Support Center.»
I got this error for a solid week, thinking it was going to be fixed. It never was. I kept getting this same message over and over.
I went to call and it turns out support is only available 8am-​5pm. Which just so happens to be the exact hours I, and I imagine most Americans, have to go to work… to make money… to stick up our AS. (Oddly enough, you can call Radius Bank from 8:30am-9pm. Not only do you get a slick and slow interface with your AS, you also get inferior support compared to the underlying account which actually lies with Radius!)
With rent due in a couple days, I got desperate, and sent an email.
I received a message back.
Do you know what the issue was?
The cutoff time for transfers to/​from an external account is 11am ET. Most banks would, you know, tell you this. They might even suggest to you that schedule it for the following day, and the interface would ask you if you want to do this. You know, to make it easy for you.
Not AS! Just a generic error that makes it look like their pretty-​yet-​ditzy website is busted.
They have a LOT of work to do.
I wanted to use this as my primary checking account but it is just NOT ready for that. I just can’t be confident that money can be moved in and out quickly and isn’t that the main point of a checking account? No liquidity, no deal.
Some other quirks/​fees that AS has chosen to bury in deep their gorgeous-​yet-​vapid website:
— You can only get actual checks (for your checking account) if you dive deep in their website. After reading a rather patronizing response, you learn that you have to pay for checks.
— You only get that 1.00% if you have $ 2,500 or more in your checking account. I guess this «checking account for the middle class» assumes folks will have thousands of dollars just parked in a checking account. If you have less than $ 2,500, you will only get 0.25%.
— They have a $ 33 overdraft fee. Most online banks have eliminated this. If you incur this fee once per year, there goes any savings from that 1% interest rate.
This company is big on talk. Their press releases frequently mention buzzwords like: «millennials», «organic milk», and «middle class». But they fail to deliver. I want them to be different than «all the other banks» (like those mattress companies I mentioned earlier, they are legitimately way different/​better than the traditional way of buying mattresses), but in the end, they are even worse. They are less transparent (I would’ve never known I actually had an account at Radius Bank had I not googled «problems with aspiration summit account»), less helpful, and slower than traditional banks.
Don’t even get me started on their investment options…