SoFi Insights Review – Track Spending
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"Track your money like a champion," reads a SoFi Insights website banner. And that's exactly what the app delivers.
9/10
Cost
9/10
Ease of use
9/10
Services
8/10
Features
9/10
If you've dabbled in personal finance, chances are you've heard of SoFi. It was founded in 2011 as a private student loan lender. While that's still a part of its current offering, the company has since branched out into offering a full suite of financial products, such as loans (called SoFi Loan), credit cards, student loans, auto loan refinancing, insurance, and banking (called SoFi Bank and includes cash management). SoFi credit card also lets you earn up to 3% in cash back.
One product by SoFi is SoFi Insights, previously known as SoFi Relay.
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What is SoFi Insights
SoFi Insights is a credit score monitoring and budgeting tool. Think of it as an all-in-one shop for all the information about your assets, liabilities, and financial goals. This is an oversimplification, but you can track how much you're making and where all that money is going.
But the SoFi app provides various services, such as tracking spending by budgeting categories (like groceries and utility bills), monthly savings analysis, tips, and tricks on remaining within your budget, and reminders about upcoming expenses. As a SoFi member, you can even get expert financial advice from a financial planner at no additional cost.
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How does SoFi Insights work?
To use SoFi Insights, you only have to link your SoFi account, which can be an account for any of SoFi's products. These include a deposit account like a checking or a savings account (aka SoFi Money), an investment account (formally called SoFi Invest), retirement accounts, credit cards, student loans, and mortgages.
But you still can if you don't have a SoFi account and want to use Insights. In a service provided by Plaid, you can link external financial accounts with Insights and enjoy its benefits. You can track your expenses and how much you save each month, just like you would if you had an existing SoFi account. Data transmissions between SoFi and Plaid are encrypted so that you can rest easy about data security.
SoFi Insights features
Credit score monitoring
Looking at your credit report should at least be a quarterly ritual, but most people only glance over their reports before applying for credit. Keeping track of your credit report ensures there's no erroneous information on there, and if there is, you can quickly work to get it fixed before it snowballs into an even bigger problem.
With SoFi Insights, you can stay on top of your VantageScore 3.0 credit score and drill down into what's affecting your score. And you don't have to worry about hurting your score because SoFi does a so-called "soft" credit pull. But that's not even the best part. Most free credit score monitoring services only let you check your credit report a handful of times yearly. SoFi Insights does away with the ceiling, allowing you to check your score as often as you'd like.
Holistic financial picture
Knowing how much you're earning and, more importantly, where you're spending all that money is the first step to becoming financially savvy. Once you see your expenses in the form of charts and bars, it puts the dollar value in perspective, and you can chart out a path to lower or eliminate unnecessary expenses.
Because you can connect your SoFi accounts with Insights, it gives you a bird's eye view of your finances. You can look into credit card and debit card transactions by budgeting categories, and the app can also illustrate how your daily spending is progressing compared to your monthly target.
Analysis and financial insights
In addition to displaying your expenses, Insights can also show you inflows and outflows of money so you can better understand how much you earned, spent, and saved over a certain period of time. In addition, the app also provides useful tips if your monthly spending starts to go over the target you've set. You can also track upcoming recurring expenses to plan for them accordingly.
Depending on the data collected by SoFi, Insights may also offer you products for either SoFi itself or one of its partners, including various lenders.
Free financial advice
After you've created an account with Sofi, you get access to a 30-minute consultation with a SoFi financial planning professional. You can use this time to dig into financial goals, your general financial well-being, how to manage any debts, and even your long-term goals like financial independence. You can also inquire about increasing your net worth and estate planning. Because you're talking to a financial planner, you'll get sound, actionable financial advice.
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How much does SoFi Insights cost?
Pricing shouldn't worry you because SoFi Insights is entirely free to use.
Who should or shouldn't use SoFi Insights?
Money management isn't fun, but it has become a must-do for the modern, tech-savvy person who likes to know where all the money is going. SoFi Insights provides a holistic picture of your finances and tips on improving or cutting down on unnecessary expenses. In addition, your account information is refreshed each time you log in to SoFi.com. And if you've linked an external account, your information should be refreshed within 48 hours. On top of that, SoFi Insights has a free credit monitoring tool that lets you pull your report whenever you feel like it.
That said, maybe you already have a water-tight budget working for you, or you're already using a budgeting app serving its purpose. If so, you can probably live without SoFi Insights.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free to use.
- You can link external accounts.
- Doesn't affect your credit score when you pull your report.
Cons
- Doesn't support FICO Score.
- Shows you targeted offers/products depending on the data collected, which may make some people uncomfortable.
- You can't link to Relay if you have a SoFi Home Loans account.
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SoFi Insights vs. its competitors
App | Cost | Credit monitoring |
SoFi Insights | Free | Yes |
Credit Karma | Free | Yes |
YNAB | $14.99 per month, $99 per year | No |
Credit Karma
Like SoFi Insights, the financial services app Credit Karma can be used to dig deeper into your finances, allowing you to identify areas where you can cut back and save some money. In addition, the Credit Karma app also notifies you about upcoming bills, you can also set custom budgets, and the app will alert you if it detects unusual spending from your account. Like SoFi Insights, Credit Karma also allows you to check your credit score. The app, available for iOS and Android phones, is free. Credit Karma makes money by showing you offers from partner services like credit cards and loans.
YNAB
You Need a Budget, or YNAB, is a personal finance tool that helps you keep track of money. It suits anyone struggling to manage their finances or people who take personal finance seriously. But while many such apps are free, YNAB isn't. The app follows a subscription model where you pay monthly instead of a one-and-done deal. You can choose from two plans: A monthly tier that costs $14.99 and an annual plan that's $99.
FAQs
How can I sign up for SoFi Insights?
In order to sign up, you can navigate to SoFi.com from your browser, and you can also sign up in the SoFi mobile app.
How does SoFi ensure data security?
Data transferred between SoFi and Plaid (the service it uses to link external accounts with Relay) is encrypted using industry best practices. Your data is stored using services provided by Amazon Web Services, and SoFi does not have any access to personal log-in credentials.
Is SoFi Insights legit?
Yes. SoFi has been around since 2011, and as a public company, it is a highly regulated as well.
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The bottom line
"Track your money like a champion," reads a SoFi Insights website banner. And that's exactly what the app delivers. From savings analysis, targeted insights, and reminders about upcoming expenses, SoFi Insights' perks go above and beyond a budget-tracking app. Did I mention the free credit monitoring tool? Using Insights for current SoFi members is a no-brainer - it's free to use, and you'll be able to see the big picture. And if you're not on the SoFi network, you can still use Insights by connecting an external account with the app.
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Writer
Jasir Jawaid is Joy Wallet's Assistant Editor. He has more than 13 years of experience as a journalist covering Wall Street, equities, financial policy and regulation, and cryptocurrency and blockchain.
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