Oportun App Review [2023]: Can it Really Help You Save Money?

Saving money can be tricky when you’re trying to keep up with everyday expenses. And if you don’t yet have a savings account or an emergency fund, you’re not alone. 

According to a recent report from the Federal Reserve, 27% of Americans said they couldn’t cover a $400 emergency expense without borrowing money or selling something, and 12% said that they wouldn’t be able to pay for it at all.

Whether you’re trying to prepare yourself for sudden costs, put money away for retirement, or reach a fun financial goal such as taking a vacation, putting money aside is key to staying in control of your personal finances. But changes in monthly income and expenses can make it difficult to know how much to save. 

Enter Oportun (formerly known as Digit). This savings app that helps you save the right amount of money each day. Oportun calculates your income, upcoming bills, and expected expenses to determine exactly how much to withdraw from your checking account, saving you time as well as money.

This Oportun review will help you figure out if it's the right option to help you work toward your savings goals.

What is Oportun?

Founded in 2013 by Ethan Bloch, San Francisco-based Oportun is a finance app that helps people effortlessly save money without cutting into their expenses. It’s a legitimate way to save money in an FDIC-insured account without having to keep track of a monthly transfer amount or worry about overdraft fees.

Because Oportun analyzes your spending habits to decide how much to save for you, it saves you time and energy and helps you avoid mistakes. In addition to stashing customers' money in FDIC-insured bank accounts, Oportun also has security features that can offer peace of mind, like military-level 256-bit encryption and touch or face ID on its iOS app.

If you're interested in saving for retirement, Oportun can help with that, too. It offers multiple individual retirement account (IRA) options for retirement contributions and lets you invest in exchange-traded funds based on your preferred risk tolerance. 

How to use Oportun

When you sign up for Oportun, it takes the guesswork out of how to save money fast. It offers a 30-day free trial, and after that, you'll pay $5 for a monthly subscription. 

Once you're signed up, Oportun will regularly analyze your spending and upcoming bills against the money you make. It will then move extra money from your checking account to your Oportun account each day if you can afford it. 

For added protection, Oportun also lets you set custom savings controls to limit how much it saves and help protect you from overdrafting your account. 

To determine how much to save for you, Oportun looks at the following four factors:

• Your bank account balance
• Your upcoming bills
• Your upcoming income
• Your recent spending

Based on these figures, Oportun calculates a safe amount of money to save and deposits that amount into your Oportun account. 

Unlike automatic transfers at a traditional bank, Oportun adapts your automated savings to your spending habits, bills, and cash flow. 

You won’t need to pick an amount to transfer, you don’t need to worry about maintaining a minimum balance, and you can withdraw from your Oportun account whenever you want without restrictions.

Oportun also lets you set automatic savings goals, and shows you how far you’ve come towards achieving those goals. There’s no limit to the number of goals you can set. 

For instance, you might set a rainy day fund goal, a student loan debt goal, a credit card debt goal, and a down payment goal, and Oportun could help you save towards all of those objectives. 

And if your goal is to save for retirement, Oportun's investment tool could help. It offers multiple IRA accounts and you can create a portfolio of ETFs based on your risk tolerance. The investment option is included as part of your monthly Oportun monthly subscription. 

How much can you save with Oportun?

There are no limits to how much you can save with Oportun, and your account is FDIC-insured up to $250,000. According to Oportun, the average customer saves $2,200 per year. Oportun users have collectively saved more than $1 billion securely.

The more you budget and the less you spend, the more you save. Oportun will even reward you with a 0.10% (as of Aug. 14, 2023) annualized savings bonus after you save money for three consecutive months. You don't need to meet an account minimum to get the bonus, and the amount of your bonus is calculated based on your average daily balance.

For instance, if your average daily balance for a particular quarter was $5000, your savings bonus for that quarter would be $1.25. Here's how the math works out: $5,000 x (0.10% ÷ 4) = $1.25.

Since the amount you save with Oportun is also partially determined by your recent spending, it’s important to develop healthy spending habits. To maximize your savings, it's a good idea to:

• Create a budget for your monthly expenses and stick to it.
• Cut unnecessary expenses. An app like Trim can help you identify areas where you could save, and will even cancel unwanted subscriptions for you. (Read our Trim review.)
• Consider using apps to save money while you shop.
• Generate more income by finding legitimate ways to make money on the side.
• Consider earning some extra income by finding the best side hustle for you.

Common questions about Oportun

How to sign up for Oportun

To start your free trial of Oportun, you’ll need to create an account. First, head to digit.co, click Get Started, and enter your mobile phone number and a password.

You’ll need to link your checking account, so you have your account and routing numbers handy before getting started. You’ll also need to confirm your account via text message, after which you can use texts to give Oportun commands rather than logging in online.

And if you prefer to use Oportun on your phone, the Oportun app is available to download for Android and iPhone. 

Alternatives to Oportun

If Oportun doesn’t seem like the best fit for you, there are other ways you can learn how to manage your money with the right financial tools. 

If you don’t need the support of Oportun's analysis and can afford to make a recurring monthly deposit, you might be better served by a high-yield savings account like the Aspiration Spend & Save, which offers a better-than-average interest rate.

If you like the automated features of Oportun, Acorns is another alternative to consider. When you opt into its Round-Ups feature, it lets you automatically round up your purchases to the nearest dollar and invest your spare change into a diversified portfolio. 

By comparing Oportun vs. Acorns, you can see which better suits your financial goals. And remember, investments are inherently risky, so there is no guarantee you will earn a return on money invested, and you may incur losses on your principal.