Qapital Review 2022: Pros, Cons, and How It Compares

Qapital at a glance

About Qapital

Qapital is a banking app that makes saving and investing money fun. 

Through the use of automation and gamification, Qapital motivates you to improve your spending habits and put more money toward investing in pre-built investment portfolios.

In this way, Qapital is a lot like Acorns.

Qapital was founded in 2013 and was originally only available in the Sweden market. At the time, the Qapital was a personal finance app similar to Mint.com and had limited features. Since then, it has evolved into a full-service banking app that helps you save and invest money.

Qapital has over 50,000 reviews on the App Store, with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5. On the Google Play store, it has a 4.6 out of 5 with 15,000+ reviews.

How Qapital works

On the surface, Qapital is a very straightforward service. It’s a complete financial solution that allows you to achieve your money goals, save and invest for your future, and spend smart in the present.

There are three different accounts within Qapital:

• Qapital Goals
• Qapital Spending
• Qapital Invest

Each account serves a specific purpose. For example, the Qapital Invest account is specifically to help you reach your long-term goals by investing in stocks, bonds, and other securities.

The Qapital Spending account is an FDIC insured bank account that allows you to spend right from your Qapital account with the Qapital Visa® Debit Card.

And the Qapital Goals account is used to save toward money goals with the use of rules (more on that shortly).

These three accounts are the foundation of Qapital. However, the features and benefits that come with Qapital are what makes it unique from its competitors.

For example, Qapital allows you to set specific saving rules to help automate your savings.

Let’s go over all of the rules to help give you a better understanding of Qapital’s approach to savings automation.

Set & Forget

The Set & Forget rule is simple. It allows you to set a recurring deposit from your bank account to your Qapital Goals account.

The deposit can be made daily, weekly, or monthly. You set the amount you want to save and the frequency of the deposit and then forget about it.

Qapital does the rest. You no longer have to stress about manually saving your money.

Payday

The Payday rule will automatically save money from your paycheck every time you get paid.

You can specify the amount that you want to be taken from your paycheck. This rule is helpful because the money is being taken out of your paycheck before you can even see it.

It’s more difficult to save your money when you know what you’re “losing”. But if you never see the money in the first place, you won’t have an emotional attachment to it, making it easier to save.

Round up

You may recognize this rule because it’s the foundation of the Acorns app.

The Round up rule will automatically round up all your purchases to the nearest dollar and save the difference.

For example, if you purchase lunch for $5.68. Qapital will automatically round that purchase up to $6 and add the difference of $0.32 to your savings.

Guilty Pleasure

This is a fun rule that will have you saving more money than any other rule.

The Guilty Pleasure rule automatically saves money when you buy what you’re trying to resist. 

For example, let’s say you are trying to resist buying coffee from Starbucks. You set up a Guilty Pleasure rule around that, so anytime you buy Starbucks, Qapital will automatically save a specified amount of money.

Spend Less

The Spend Less rule allows you to buy things you want, but with limits.

First, you set a budget for a specific merchant. It could be a restaurant like Starbucks or Chipotle or a retailer such as Best Buy or Target.

You then set a spending limit. The spending limit is how much you can spend every week or month on that specific merchant.

For example, say you set a spending limit of $10 at Starbucks every week. This means you can only spend $10 at Starbucks each week.

However, here’s the twist. The less you spend at Starbucks, the more you save.

Say you only spend $5 at Starbucks that week, even though your limit was $10. That means you have $5 remaining, which will be automatically saved.

Freelancer

The Freelancer rule was designed specifically for freelancers who don’t receive a regular W-2 paycheck.

With a typical W-2 job, taxes are automatically deducted from your paycheck. That is not the case with freelancing. Freelancers are fully responsible for setting money aside every year for taxes. 

With Qapital, you can automatically save money every time you are paid by a client. When tax season comes, you’ll be prepared.

52 Week

The 52 Week rule is clever, and by the end of the year, you’ll have saved $1,378.

Here’s how it works: every week of the year, you save a dollar amount equivalent to the week number. For example, $1 is saved for week 1 of the year, $2 for week 2, $3 for week 3, and so on.

By the time you hit week 52, your total yearly savings is $1,378.

Apple Health

The Apple Health rule will automatically save money when you meet Apple Health goals.

For example, you can set a rule to save $5 every day you hit your daily step goal. Or, set a rule to save $10 every time you hit your stand goal.

You can also set goals for walk or run distance and workouts.

More fun rules

In addition to the above rules, you can also create rules based on specific actions taken on social media and other apps.

• Fitbit — Reward yourself for reaching your daily goals.
• Strava — Save money when you workout.
• Amazon Alexa — Say “Alexa, trigger…” and your phrase to save.
• Google Assistant — Say “Ok Google…” and your phrase to save.
• Uber — Save when you take an Uber.
• YouTube — Save each time you like a video on YouTube.
• Facebook — Save when you post on Facebook.
• Finance — Save when the S&P 500 index drops a percentage.
• Square — Put money aside when you make a sale.

Qapital fees and pricing

Qapital has three different plans to choose from—Basic, Complete, and Master.

Each plan will cost you a small monthly fee and starts with a 30-day free trial. After the free trial, you’ll be billed monthly.

Each plan comes with a set of features and benefits that are designed to help you save and invest more of your money. The higher the plan, the more benefits you’ll receive.

Let’s go over each plan in detail.

Basic plan

Price: $3 per month

The Basic plan saves members an average of $1,500 per year. If you are just trying to save for short-term goals and don’t need fancy investing options, the Basic plan is a good fit for you.

The Basic plan comes with these features:

• Create unlimited, personalized savings goals
• Make fun rules to trigger automatic saving
• Transfer money between goals easily
• FDIC-insured up to $250,000

Complete plan

Price: $6 per month

If you want to save your money and invest it, the Complete plan is a good start for you, 

This plan saves members an average of $4,300 per year and comes with more features and benefits.

For example, with the Complete plan, you can invest your savings into stocks, bonds, REITs, and more. Choose from several of Qapital’s pre-built investment portfolios that make investing your money easy.

The Complete plan comes with these features:

• Everything from the Basic plan
• Swipe and save with a Visa® debit card
• Pay yourself first with Payday Divvy
• Track cash weekly with Spending Sweet Spot
• Invest your savings based on your risk tolerance
• Stay diversified with low-cost funds

Master plan

Price: $12 per month

You should choose the Master plan if you want to go all out with Qapital’s features and benefits.

This plan saves members an average of $5,000 per year and gives you early access to new features and Money Missions.

Money Missions is a tool in Qapital that helps turn saving money into a game. It works by giving you new challenges designed to help you spend and save in ways optimized for your happiness.

The Master plan comes with these features:

• Everything from the Basic plan
• Everything from the Complete plan
• Join Money Missions designed to get the most happiness out of every dollar
• First look at new features
• Access to exclusive webinars

Qapital features

Here are some of Qapital’s top features that help it stand out from the rest.

Qapital Goals

Qapital Goals is one of the backbone features of the app. It allows you to set specific money goals for your life, and create rules around them.

Rules are actions that you can create to have to automatically save money for your goals. For example, you might set a rule to round up all your purchases and save the difference.

You can also set rules based on activities. For example, you can have Qapital automatically save money every time you like a video on YouTube, or make a comment on Facebook.

Qapital Goals helps make saving money fun.

Qapital Spending

Qapital Spending is an FDIC insured checking account designed with your goals in mind.

When you open a Qapital Spending account, you also receive a Qapital Visa® debit card that you can use for your day-to-day purchases.

All purchases made with your Qapital Visa® debit card are tracked in the app to pace yourself. See your spending habits and balance them accordingly so you can be in control of your finances.

Qapital Invest

Have you ever wanted to invest in the stock market, or simply be able to call yourself an investor? Qapital Invest allows you to become an investor and invest your money with ease.

Choose from five different pre-built investment portfolios:

• Very Conservative
• Conservative
• Balanced
• Aggressive
• Very Aggressive

Each portfolio follows the market as a whole, giving you instant diversification so that all your eggs aren’t in one basket.

Qapital Invest can be used for long-term goals such as a downpayment on a home or retirement, or to make more money on your savings.

You can start using Qapital Invest with the Complete plan.

Payday Divvy

Payday Divvy is a tool in Qapital that helps you pay yourself first after each paycheck.

Qapital looks at your assets and goals and determines how to allocate your paycheck. For example, if you have a monthly rent payment, Qapital will prompt you to set money aside to pay this bill.

If you have a savings goal set, Qapital will recognize this and prompt you to set money aside.

From there, you can decide how much is left to spend freely or invest in long-term goals. It’s sort of like having a personal budgeter.

Spending Sweet Spot

The Spending Sweet Spot is a budgeting tool in Qapital that allows you to customize a budget that fits your spending habits and income.

The problem with traditional budgeting is that it’s not flexible enough. Life changes constantly, and you need a budget that adjusts with your life.

Spending Sweet Spot will send you notifications throughout the week to keep you updated with your budgeting goals. You can make adjustments to your budget at any time to learn and grow with your spending habits.

The idea behind this feature is to give you the flexibility to adjust your budget until you find your “sweet spot”. It is a place where you are saving enough money to reach your goals but are still enjoying life.

Qapital alternatives

Perhaps you’re considering using Qapital, but you still want to see what your other options are. For that, here’s a list of Qapital alternatives that you can look into.

Acorns

See our full Acorns review here.

Sign Up

Stash

See our full Stash review here.

Sign Up

Wealthsimple

See our full Wealthsimple review here.

Sign Up

M1 Finance

See our full M1 Finance review here.

Sign Up

How to sign up for Qapital

Qapital is available on both Apple iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

When you download the app and create your account, you’ll be asked to link it to your bank.

Linking your bank account to Qapital can sometimes take a few days if a penny deposit is required for extra verification. These deposits appear in your account in 1–3 business days as two small deposits under $0.50. These deposits have to be verified.

Signing up for Qapital is easy. Here are the steps you need to take to get started.

Create your Qapital account

Creating your Qapital account is easy and shouldn’t take you more than 5 minutes to complete. Here are the exact steps you need to take.

Step 1: Download the Qapital app from the App Store or Google Play.

Step 2: When you open the app and tap the Sign up button, you’ll see a few different signup options. You can sign up with your Facebook, Google, or Apple account. Alternatively, you can just use your email address to sign up.

Step 3: You’ll be asked to enter your phone number for verification. When you enter it, you’ll receive a confirmation code that needs to be confirmed.

Step 4: Then, you’ll set a 4-digit passcode. This passcode will be used as an extra layer of security when opening the app.

Step 5: That’s it! Your Qapital account has been successfully created. At this point, you’ll be taken through a few prompts to get your account setup and working—more on that next.

Choosing a Qapital membership

Now that your account has been created, it’s time to set up your membership. As you learned earlier, there are three different membership levels:

• Basic at $3/mo
• Complete at $6/mo
• Master at $12/mo

Each membership comes with increasing benefits. And depending on your money goals, one membership will be a better fit for you than the others.

You’ll first need to decide what you want to accomplish and how you can use Qapital to do it.

For example, are you interested in building wealth over the long-term for retirement? Or do you just want to save money for a vacation?

Your answer to that question will determine which Qapital membership is best for you.

If you are only saving up enough money for next year’s vacation to Hawaii, then the Basic membership will work fine.

You wouldn’t need to spend the extra money on the Master membership because you won’t be investing your money.

However, if you want to save money for a couple of years for a downpayment on a new home, it might make sense to invest your savings to earn even more money.

Starting at the Complete membership level, you can begin investing your savings into pre-built investment portfolios. This is a huge benefit that is absolutely worth the membership fee (a tiny $6/mo).

These portfolios can be used to earn more interest on your savings, which will allow you to reach your money goals faster. You’ll have the option to choose from several investment portfolios ranging from very conservative to very aggressive.

The very aggressive portfolio will invest the majority of your savings into US and foreign stocks. This means your savings could see a potential 10% gain every year based on the average stock market returns.

This is a massive return on investment for your savings. It’s much better than what you would get in a traditional savings account at your local bank.

A traditional savings account will yield you between 0.01% and 0.06% annually. To give you some context, a 0.01% interest rate on $100 would be $0.01. That’s right, one shiny copper penny.

Could you meet your money goals, earning 1-cent worth of interest per year? I doubt it.

Qapital allows you to easily invest your savings to earn substantially higher returns.

Of course, if you are not interested in investing your money, you can still use Qapital to automate your savings using the Basic membership plan.

With the Basic membership plan, you can set up savings goals and make fun rules to trigger automatic saving. For example, you might create a rule to round up each purchase and save the spare change.

You could also create a guilty pleasure rule to save money every time you buy what you’re trying to resist, such as fast food. You can even set up rules to save money when you post on Facebook, like a YouTube video, or reach your daily goals on your Fitbit.

There are dozens of ways to automate your savings using Qapital.

To learn more about Qapital’s memberships, go to the Qapital fees and pricing section of this review.

Who is Qapital best for?

Bad savers

Most of us know we should be saving money for one reason or another. However, removing money from your wallet and adding it to a distant savings account can be challenging.

Saving money is hard because it goes against our desire for instant gratification. If you can spend your money now on things that give you pleasure now, then you’ll be happy. At least that’s the belief.

The problem with this belief is that it’s only temporary. And you pay the price long-term when you don’t have sufficient savings for retirement, to buy a new home, or make other big purchases.

So, you know you should be saving money, but you have a hard time doing it. What’s the solution?

You need to automate your savings. And that’s exactly what Qapital can help you do. With Qapital, you can set up saving rules and turn the process of saving money into a fun game.

Freelancers

Freelancing is becoming increasingly common in the United States. More people are leaving corporate America to work in the comfort of their homes.

This is great. However, it does present a challenge—taxes. You see, when you work a W-2 job, your taxes are automatically deducted from your paycheck.

When it comes time to file your taxes every year, you don’t have to worry about paying anything to the IRS. In fact, in most cases, they owe you money back.

This is not the case with freelancing. As a freelancer, you are fully responsible for setting money aside for taxes every year. If you fail to save money for taxes, you’ll be hit with a surprise tax bill that will leave you scrambling.

Qapital has a solution for this. You can use Qapital to automatically save money every time you are paid by a client. When tax season arrives, you’ll be prepared to pay the IRS what you owe them.

New investors

If you want to begin investing your money, but don’t know where to start, Qapital is perfect for you.

Qapital allows you to save your money and automatically invest it into one of several pre-built investment portfolios.

You don’t have to worry about picking stocks, knowing the difference between a bond and an ETF, and diversifying your portfolio. Qapital creates and manages your portfolio for you based on your goals and risk tolerance.

All you have to do is sit back and let your money grow.

Who should not use Qapital?

Experienced investors

If you are an experienced investor and have already been managing your own portfolio for some time, Qapital is not for you.

Qapital is ideal for new investors who don’t know or don’t care about investing, but still want to benefit from it.

As an experienced investor, you already know how to diversify your portfolio, rebalance it every year, and manage it properly. There’s no reason to pay Qapital to do it—that would be a waste of money.

Experienced savers

If you’re already good at saving your money, it wouldn’t make sense to use Qapital. Qapital was designed specifically to make saving money less painful for bad savers.

As an experienced saver, it wouldn’t make sense to pay between $6–$12 per month to use Qapital. That would be equivalent to having a cable subscription with no TV. How would you use your cable subscription? You wouldn’t. It would be a waste of money.

Since you are already saving your money perfectly fine without any software, you should continue to avoid any fees associated with automated savings apps like Qapital.

Is Qapital worth it?

Yes, Qapital is absolutely worth it.

For such a small monthly fee, you get a ton of benefits and features that could save you thousands of dollars per year and earn you potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars over the long-term.

Why wait for tomorrow what you can do today? If you’ve been trying to save and invest for a while, but still aren’t doing it, start using Qapital today.

Creating your account is quick, easy, and comes with a 30-day free trial. If you don’t like it, stop using it and move on. You have nothing to lose and a better future to gain.