- The Finance Gourmet

Digit Review Scam Legit or Necessary?

September 27, 2025February 9, 2025 by Finance Gourmet

Digit is an automated savings service. As always, my first question in a Digit review is, Is Digit a Scam? Then, if Digit is legitimate, the question is what exactly this online financial service does and is Digit worth it for the average person’s personal financial situation. Is Digit safe? I checked out some Digit app reviews and then dug into the details myself. If you are looking for something similar, but that invests the money and doesn’t calculate its own savings (it’s a roundup savings app) check out my Acorns reviews. Is Digit A Scam? The burden of proof for calling something a scam differs based on what exactly it does, and what can be shown from available sources. Digit is a venture capital-backed internet start-up, raising money from, among othe rs, Google’s own venture capital arm. That in itself doesn’t mean it is not a scam, but it does mean that it isn’t some fly-by-night hacker operation looking to steal a few credit card numbers and email addresses. Is Digit Legitimate? Since Digit is a legitimate business and not just a scam to steal your banking information, the question becomes whether Digit is necessary. The idea is that …

Ibotta Review Cash Back for Buying Stuff

August 23, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

A friend of mine keeps going on about Ibotta. For those of you who don’t know, Ibotta is a shopping app that gives you cash back rebates for various items you buy. It’s kind of like coupons, only instead of saving on your grocery bill, you build up a cash back account. What makes it such a huge deal for my friend is that those offers often include beer and wine, and often for a few bucks at a time, so that can add up. But does that make Ibotta a legit deal for others, or is Ibotta a scam that takes more than it gives? Let’s dig into is Ibotta legit. What Is Ibotta? Ibotta is an app for either Android or Apple. You can also use it online via the webpage. It works a lot like many grocery store apps where you go through a list of coupons and select which ones you want to use. However, unlike my King Soopers app, or Safeway app, the offers on Ibotta are rebates, not coupons. In other words, while the coupons take 50 cents off of my grocery bill, the Ibotta rebates have no effect on the cost of my …

Is Zelle Scam or Legit? A Zelle Review

February 28, 2024January 26, 2024 by Finance Gourmet

You may have seen the commercials for Zelle, the payment app. They aren’t very specific about what Zelle does, or how it does it. Questions that may pop into your mind are things like, how does Zelle work? Is Zelle legit, or a scam? Why would I bother to use Zelle? Is Zelle safe? You might even have Zelle through your bank without even asking for it. Time to check out some Zelle reviews. If you already use a payment app, your questions are probably more like, is Zelle better than Venmo, or is Square Cash better than Zelle? It’s time for our Zelle review. Soon we’ll have a look at Zelle vs Venmo. Zelle Reviews Zelle is actually two products from the same company. One version of Zelle is the behind-the-scenes payment system backed by, and used by, several American banks inside of their own banking apps. This is the part that the commercials claim is “already on your phone,” or “already in your banking app.” Since Zelle works directly with various banks, they play nicer with Zelle than with others including transferring money with no fees and allowing “instant” transfers and withdrawals. Check out my Acorns app review …

Rakuten Review Scam or Legit Money Saver

January 7, 2024November 11, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

What is Rakuten? Is Rakuten legit, or is Rakuten a scam? Can you really earn hundreds of dollars using Rakuten to shop online? How does Rakuten work? Ebates is now Rakuten. Rakuten bought out eBates and renamed it, just like it did with buy.com. Rakuten is legit and Rakuten is not a scam. I’m updating my Ebates review and turning it into one of the rakuten.com reviews. Let’s check out my Rakuten review below for answers. Holiday shopping bonuses make Rakuten a better deal than it usually is throughout the year. On Veteran’s Day, for example, there is 11% cash back at several retailers. Combine that with already available Black Friday sales or hit those bigger purchases you are waiting for. Rakuten Reviews The Ebates Rakuten commercials promise cashback for shopping. Does this online website deliver, or is this just a Rakuten scam? I took my own look after a cousin of mine (an extreme couponer) asked, “Is Rakuten safe?” So, without further ado, here is my review of Rakuten. Update: This Rakuten review is still completely accurate, however, it turns out that Rakuten is an especially good deal around holiday time. The reason is that many retailers have a …

Venmo For Teens!

May 22, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

No, you are not dreaming. Now you can get Venmo for teens. Officially speaking, you were required to be 18 years old to use Venmo before. However, lots and lots of teens and parents got around that restriction by having the parent sign up as the official user and then handing the username and password over to their kids. This worked particularly well when paired with a bank account containing nothing but the child’s money. What Is Venmo? Venmo is another cash app similar to Zelle or any of the others that let you move funds around to friends, acquaintances, or PTO boards. Banking for Teens A lot of banks will play ball with you and your teenager when the teen turns 16. No, they can’t open a bank account all by themselves, and no, a bank that has never heard of you probably won’t open an account with your teen either. That said, a bank that you have a relationship with will likely open a bank account for your teenager, with your name on it as well. It’s not like banks and other financial institutions are being mean or short sighted, it’s just that you cannot sign contracts until …

Will ChatGPT Hurt Finacial Advisors

May 13, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

ChatGPT AI for Financial Advisors The hot topic in many industries is ChatGPT and artificial intelligence (AI). Will ChatGPT hurt financial advisors or will ChatGPT help financial advisors? And, what about Google’s Bard and other AI platforms? Are they helpful or harmful? Are Index Funds and ETFs AI? An interesting argument can be made that the personal finance and investing world has been using AI for decades. It was crude, rudimentary AI for sure, but an ETF is nothing more than a computer investing your money without further input. This is the most basic of AI. You input $100, and a computer records, invests, and tracks your money autonomously making adjustments where necessary, all without human intervention. As these products got more complex, they resembled AI more and more. RoboAdvisors and AI Unlike many industries, financial planners have seen attempts to replace them before. First came the online trading and the discount brokerage invasion, pushing back on the paradigm that required a broker or financial advisor. Just as important, the financial world made room for the self-advised with lower available investment dollars by discarding the extra cost of buying less than a round lot, or 100 shares. This change may …

Acorns Investment Portfolio Review

July 4, 2023March 15, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

Recently, I did a review of the Acorns app. If you are not already familiar with the Acorns savings and investing app, you should read that for an introduction how to use Acorns first. It also covers questions like Is Acorns safe, What are Acorns fees, and If Acorns is legit. Essentially everything you would expect in an honest Acorns review. Now, let’s take a look at Acorns funds and how they invest your change. Are Acorns Investments Good Portfolios? The idea of the Acorns automatic money savings app is that it rounds up all of your transactions and automatically invests that money for you. There are some nuances about how Acorns works you should understand first. Money is only transferred once the minimum round-up amount is $5, and it only happens once per day, unless you use the Acorns debit card or Acorns checking account. Before we get too in-depth here, it is important to remember a few things. First, when you get started with Acorns, we are talking about a very small amount of money. That means that as far as real dollar amounts go, the difference in percentages won’t be big. For example, if you have $100 in …

Acorns Review Automated Investing Made Easy?

September 7, 2024January 8, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

Note: This Acorns review article has been updated with the latest information as published on the acorns.com website. No sooner than I finished my Digit review, than I saw an ad for another automated savings app on Facebook that takes a different tack for building up your savings automatically with the help of an app and online financial service. This one is called Acorns. Let’s check it out. Is Acorn legit? Is Acorns a scam? Read on while I do my Acorns app review. Acorns Review – Legit, Scam, Worthwhile? Acorns vs Digit Whereas Digit monitors your bank balance and transfers money its algorithm determines is “extra” into a savings account for you, Acorns rounds up the change on every purchase you make to the next whole dollar amount and automatically saves that money for you. Another version of this type of automatic investing and savings app is Grifin. Grifin does away the clever sounding “round up to the next dollar.” Grifin is a user-controlled automatic app investing. Instead of gathering up a few dollars’ worth of transfers and sending them down into mutual fund land, Grifin take every transaction you make and invests $1 in the stock you just bought something …