NOTE: As of July 2017, Digit is free for the first 100 days and then costs $2.99 per month. I no longer use the app, but it’s a great way to easily save money without having to think about it!
A while back, I came across an app called Digit that claims to help you save money “without even thinking about it.”
I was immediately interested. Although I’ve been a saver since I was 7, I still always believed saving money had to be a deliberate thing that I had to do manually. The busier I get, too, the more it feels like a chore instead of a gift to my future self.
So I signed up for Digit and I was all set up in 3 minutes — no kidding! The first 100 days are free, and after that it’s just a low fee of $2.99/month. So worth it!
How Digit Works
At its core, Digit is similar to PayPal.
You know how you use PayPal to make payments to merchants when you buy something online? Digit securely hooks up to your checking account, just like PayPal, except it withdraws money to make payments to you. You get a small payment every 2-3 days deposited into your Digit savings account.
With Digit, you pay yourself! When you save today, you’re financing the future version of you — who will be happy you saved 🙂
It puts the money into an FDIC-insured, bank-level secure account that you can withdraw from instantly anytime you want. It’s basically a trusted friend or virtual assistant who’s helping you save money!
Why I’m Using Digit
I’m big on saving for “treats,” like getting a manicure, a nice lunch with a friend, or a new outfit from ThredUp, and I thought if I intentionally set aside money just so I could treat myself, I’d feel way less guilty about doing it. I also don’t always have time to sit down and calculate a good amount to save every week, and because I’m a freelancer, the amount is always changing. It’s just too cumbersome to recalculate my savings amount all the time.
Plus, I thought it would be fun to see my Digit balance grow and grow, and I knew it would feel amazing to be able to spend my Digit balance on whatever I wanted — or needed! — guilt free.
How Much Does Digit Save for You?
When I first signed up with Digit, I was a little nervous it would save too much money and that I’d find myself in a pickle. But Digit is smart! It learns your account by watching it for a while before making any debits — that way there is little chance you’ll miss those dollars n’ cents when they move to your Digit account. If it determines it wouldn’t be wise to take out any savings, Digit leaves your account alone. Pretty nifty!
They also offer a no-overdraft guarantee!
I really appreciate how Digit texts you an update on your checking account balance every day. Talk about holding you accountable!
The best part, though, is getting the texts about your account balance growing effortlessly.
Here’s a screenshot from my phone where you can see the text messages I get from Digit every day:
So I’ve got $56.82 in my Digit account at the time of this post, and I didn’t even have to do anything except sign up for Digit! It has truly made saving easier than ever — especially for super-busy people.
How Do You Get Your Savings Out?
Whenever you want to spend the balance in your Digit savings account, just send Digit a text. It will transfer the money from your Digit savings back into your checking account — the next business day!
Digit includes unlimited transfers with no minimums and no fees. Yay!
So… What Will YOU Save For?
You don’t have to save for a rainy day or to “treat yo’self” — you can save for that online course you’ve had your eye on.
You can save for your kids’ Christmas gifts all year long.
You can save for your dream vacation.
You can save for a special dinner for your family.
You can save to pay off debt — student loan or credit card.
It could be your own personal book fund where you use it to add a great new book to your library every month or so.
You can save for whatever you want!! The beauty of Digit is that it makes saving money possible for anyone — and it makes it effortless. I never thought I’d say saving money was easy… but now it is. I’m hooked!
RELATED: 7+ Ways to Save Money… When You Think You Can’t!
Your Turn!
What are you saving for right now? Do you have any tips to easily save money that work for you? Do you like to “treat yo’self” from time to time like I do? Share below!
Acorns.com is another app that is very similar to this.
I have heard of Acorns!! I am looking into using them both in conjunction.
Cool app! Can you use it with Paypal instead of a checking account?
I don’t think it’s quite that advanced 🙂
How is it POSSIBLE for that to be safe, to allow an outside source complete access to your account? I really can’t imagine that.
It’s a lot safer than writing checks, actually! Every time you hand someone a check, you hand them the routing number and full account number for your checking account. Encrypted access online doesn’t give the app that information.
Seems unsafe to me. Especially since there are a lot of new apps that are scams lately.
Hi, Kristy! If you see Caitlin’s response to Ethna above, she points out that it’s actually safer than writing a check. The access is encrypted so that they cannot get vital account information.
I love Digit. I signed up last summer, and I wish I’d discovered it sooner. I’m not a saver by nature, sadly, but Digit makes it totally painless–I got almost to a thousand in about six months (then I needed a car repair and had to take some out). I thought I was saving toward a vacation when I signed up, but then I found out I needed some expensive dental work not covered by my insurance, so now I’m saving toward that. 🙁
Such a bummer! But on the flip side, it’s nice that money was there for the unexpected emergency. I’m glad you like using it. 🙂
I heard about digit from a guy on my morning radio show. He was talking about it one day. I downloaded it, and then I completely forgot to set it up, haha. I’ll have to check into that. I’m curious though if it will work for us. We pay our bills every two weeks (every payday). So when we get paid, we pay all of our bills that will need to be paid for the next two weeks, that way we don’t forget something needs paid, and accidentally spend it on something we should have waited for. Sometimes we have a good cushion in our bank account until the next payday, and sometimes, we don’t have a very good cushion at all, and are scraping by. And sometimes we have a big cushion because of one reason or another, such as, income tax time, or a bonus check from work, that we are holding in our account until we decide what we want to do with it… I wonder if Digit will see that as an opportunity to move a higher amount than would be typical into our digit savings account.
Digit will review your spending and move amounts applicable to your spending habits. But you also have the option to save more for other goals too! I have a rainy day fund and a Christmas one. 🙂