Qoins Review: Automated Savings to Pay Down Debt More Quickly

Bottom line: Qoins does the heavy lifting to help you eliminate debt or work toward a savings goal. You choose a savings method and connect your funding account, and then it sets aside money for an extra monthly debt payment or savings contribution.

At a glance

What is Qoins and how does it work?

Qoins is an app that helps you save money. It automatically sets aside funds for you and puts it toward your debt or savings. It's especially helpful if you've been feeling stuck in neutral with financial obligations. Since it works automatically, you're guaranteed extra debt payments while you use it. That allows you to pay off what you owe more quickly and save on interest.

Qoins offers four different savings methods:

• Round up: Qoins users can take all their daily transactions and round them up to the nearest dollar. The amount it rounds up is added to your Qoins balance. If you buy a movie ticket for $13.50, Qoins will round it up to $14 and add $0.50 to your Qoins balance.
• Smart Savings: Every day, Qoins deducts money from your funding source and adds it to your Qoins balance. There are three options for how aggressively Qoins saves for you: Least Aggressive (between $0.50 and $1 per day), Moderately Aggressive (between $1.50 and $3 per day), and Very Aggressive (between $3 and $5 per day). The exact amount is decided by a Qoins algorithm, but it will always be within the range Qoins users chose.
• When I Get Paid: Qoins users pick a percentage or amount for Qoins to set aside every time you get a deposit of $100 or more to your funding source. For example, you could decide to have Qoins set aside 10% or $30 of every deposit over $100.
• Recurring Weekly Withdrawals: Users choose an amount for Qoins to set aside every week.

Once per month, Qoins sends your balance to your lender as an extra debt payment or deposits it toward your savings goal.

Top perks

Here are some of our favorite features of Qoins spelled out in more detail.

Automatic savings and debt payments

The reason Qoins can help so much with paying off debt or saving money is because it runs automatically. You just set it up, and after that, it does the rest. Qoins will set aside money for you based on the savings method you picked. Every month, it will either send another payment toward your debt or make a deposit to your savings account.

When you're trying to make bigger debt payments or save more, the hard part is often finding the money to do so on a consistent basis. Many consumers struggle to break the habit of spending every penny. By automating everything, Qoins makes it much easier. The app handles the hard part for you. That's a big advantage over other budgeting and debt payoff apps.

Multiple savings methods

The Qoins app has four different savings methods to choose from. You can have it round up your transactions and save the spare change. With Smart Savings, Qoins will save every day, and you decide how aggressively it saves for you. There's also an option called "When I Get Paid," which lets you set aside a percentage or amount of every deposit of at least $100. Recurring Weekly Withdrawals saves an amount of your choosing.

No method will be right for everyone, so it's nice that Qoins gives you options. If you make lots of purchases per month, the round up option could work perfectly. On the other hand, if you keep your spending to a minimum, you're probably better off with one of the other savings methods. You can also change your savings method at any time if you'd like to try out a new one.

Quick, easy setup process

The only thing you need to do with the Qoins app is set it up. Fortunately, that's not difficult. After you download the app, you'll create an account. From there, Qoins walks you through the process of setting up your goal. That can be paying off a debt or saving for something important, such as an emergency fund or a down payment on a home. It doesn't take long to get Qoins up and running.

What could be improved

No personal finance app is perfect, and thus here are the aspects of Qoins that we feel have some room for improvement.

Monthly fee

Qoins costs $2.99 per month for one goal or $4.99 per month if you select Qoins Bundle, which allows for multiple goals. That fee is deducted from your Qoins balance, not your bank account.

Whether the monthly fee is a good deal depends entirely on how much you save with Qoins. If you select the round up savings method but it only sets aside $30 per month, then you're paying almost 10% in fees. If it sets aside $100 per month, then you're paying a more reasonable 3%. It's important to watch how much you're saving with Qoins to determine if it's worth the cost.

No debt payoff planning

If you're looking for information on how to pay off debt, Qoins won't be of much help. It gives you some basic guidance. For example, if you have multiple types of debt, it will recommend tackling credit card debt first since that typically has the highest interest rate. But it won't show you different debt-payoff strategies you could use, such as debt consolidation.

Qoins focuses on helping you save money by setting aside extra cash, which is great if that's what you want. However, consumers who want to take a more active approach to paying off debt will likely find Qoins too limited.

If you want a free debt-management app: Debt Payoff Planner helps you come up with a detailed plan to eliminate debt, and it's completely free. It also lets you compare different debt-payoff methods to see which one is the better choice. While this app helps you come up with a plan, you need to make payments and follow that debt-payoff plan yourself. If you'd prefer an app that works automatically, Qoins is still the way to go.

If you want an app that will improve your budget: Mint lets you connect all your financial accounts to monitor your income and expenses. It's one of the best budgeting apps that can help you free up more money to pay off debt. But you may want to stick with Qoins if you're looking for a spare-change app that rounds up your transactions.

A standard subscription to Qoins costs $2.99 per month per goal. If you have multiple goals, you can opt for Qoins Bundle. That costs $4.99 per month and offers unlimited goals.

Your monthly fee is taken from your Qoins balance. If you have a standard subscription and Qoins saves $70 for you, then it would deduct $2.99. It would send the remaining $67.01 to your lender or your savings.

Consumers who want an app that pays more toward debt or saves them more money automatically.

Qoins is made for those who prefer a hands-off approach with their personal finances. You could do everything Qoins does on your own without paying a monthly fee. But as we all know, establishing new financial habits is much easier said than done. If you don't want to set aside money yourself, or you've already tried without much success, then Qoins could be the solution. All you need to do is choose a goal, connect your funding account, and pick a savings method. From there, Qoins will start putting money away for you.