Mint Review: A Free, Feature-Packed App That Simplifies Budgeting

Bottom line: If you want a free budgeting app to organize your finances in one place, Mint is a good choice. It's a particularly great pick for beginning savers and budgeters.

At a glance

What is Mint and how does it work?

Mint is a free personal finance app that makes managing and saving money easy. Developed by Intuit, Inc, the creators of TurboTax, this mobile app is a budgeting tool that lets users manage and keep track of their spending. You can also set category-specific budgets and savings goals.

The Mint budgeting app connects with your financial accounts, so that users can get a clear picture of their personal finance health and total debt within the app. It's useful because it can teach you to save money more effectively while also helping to improve your financial literacy.

You'll need to download the app and sign up for an account to use Mint. You can then set a monthly budget, categorize expenses, track your spending habits by category, and monitor your credit score.

With Mint, you can set up bill reminders and get alerts when you spend beyond your set budget, get charged a late fee, or when an upcoming bill is almost due. This budget app also includes goal-setting tools to set financial goals and track your progress.

All the features in this version of Mint are free to use.

Top perks

Free to use

It's free to use the standard Mint app, and it's loaded with useful features. Students and others new to saving and budgeting, or trying to spend less while improving their budgeting skills will find this free app a good fit.

A paid app version, Mint Premium, is available for $4.99 a month. This app version includes additional features like advanced spending graphs and subscription cancellation tools. Mint Premium also has no ads. This paid upgrade is only available to iOS users at this time.

It's secure

You should feel comfortable using Mint. Intuit uses VeriSign to securely transfer data and multi-factor authentication to protect your account.

Free credit monitoring

With Mint, it's easier to monitor your credit. Users can view their credit score at any time and track changes. And your score won't be negatively impacted by this feature because Mint performs a soft credit check.

Supports different financial accounts

Mint supports various financial accounts, giving you a clear picture of your total debt without using other budgeting apps. With this app, you'll be able to see all of your accounts in one place, including:

• Bank accounts
• Credit cards
• Mortgage accounts
• Investment accounts
• Personal loans

Easily monitor your spending

Mint is one of the best budgeting apps to use if you have a financial goal and want to monitor your spending regularly. It shows your account balance and recent transactions. It also lets you know about upcoming bills.

Alerts and reminders

With the Mint app, you can easily set up account alerts to avoid missing payments or overspending. Choose how you receive account alerts for the following:

• Late fees
• Low balance
• Bill reminders
• Over budget within a category
• Rate changes
• Unusual account activity

Set financial goals within the app

You can also use the Mint budgeting app to set and track your financial goals, including paying off debt, saving more money, or improving your credit score.

See your net worth

If you've been wondering about your net worth, the Mint budgeting app provides a simple way to see how much you're worth.

What could be improved

It takes time to set up

It will take you some time to put all your information in and set up your Mint account. Be aware that you may also need to set aside time to learn how to use the app and all that Mint offers.

Automatic category assignments

Sometimes Mint will automatically assign expenses to the wrong category. If an expense is miscategorized, you can edit it, but this takes extra effort.

Account connection issues

Mint will occasionally have issues connecting to a financial account. In particular, users have had a hard time successfully adding accounts from smaller institutions.

Recommended financial products may feel intrusive

Mint partners with financial companies to cover its costs. This means you'll get recommended financial products when using the app. These recommendations are based on your financial situation and may be useful. But some app users may find this to be intrusive.

If you want an app that has more features: YNAB (You Need a Budget) is an alternative budgeting app worth considering. It helps you give every dollar a job, allows you to budget for future months, and provides education to help you budget and spend your money smarter. The company provides daily, free educational workshops. Unfortunately, YNAB is a paid app, so you may want to stick with Mint if you need a free budgeting app.

If you want an app that works better for couples: Zeta is an alternative you should try. It includes tools that make it easier to manage and split budgets. You can see total income and expenses, review transactions, and see when bills are due. Zeta also allows couples and families to categorize expenses as individual or shared expenses. But you may want to stick with Mint if you need an app focused on individual budgeting

Mint is free to use. If you are an iOS user, want to access more features, and want an ad-free experience, Mint Premium is available for $4.99 monthly.

If you're new to budgeting or need an easy-to-use budgeting method, Mint is a free budgeting solution with many features that might be right for you.