Reviews

Mint Review – Can This App Really Help Manage Your Money?

There are many money management apps out there, but one that stands out from the rest is Mint. In terms of keeping your personal finances in check, this app has become the go-to option for many.

Mint is not only useful for individuals, but employees working in the same company also find it to be an amazing budgeting app for managing their business’s financial data. The app is easy to use and free for all, so you can save more without having to pay a dime.

If you’re looking to get organized with some real, well-monitored budgeting and savings, Mint might be the app you’ve been searching for. The question is, does Mint truly measure up to all the hype? We’ll find out in this complete and thorough Mint review. Let’s get started!

Mint Dashboard

About Mint

Mint is the fresh way to experience money management; at least, that what the website says. But how credible is this information? Is Mint truly what it claims to be?

Mint is a budget-friendly app that you can access at no cost and still enjoy the maximum benefits it has to offer. Mint personal finance app has a couple of goals it’s looking to meet with the unique features and packaging it offers users.

Signing up for Mint allows you to connect your data from every financial institution you’re associated with, including your credit card accounts, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, and any other accounts you may own. With all accounts connected to the Mint budgeting app, you have access to all your financial information from one app.

Mint About

Taking it a step further, Mint helps you track your accounts easily with top budgeting tools. You no longer have to keep tabs on your credit cards once you connect them to Mint because it does that for you. Every cash transaction that takes place through your credit card accounts is reflected in your Mint app, so you can know where all your money is going and decide what you need to cut off.

What’s more, unlike other personal finance apps, you even get notified when your bills or subscriptions are due, so you can decide what to pay for per month. You also get a notification to let you know what subscription bills have gone up, so you’re always up to date on your cash spending.

Mint allows you to create custom budgets and assign transactions to the various budget categories. With these categories, managing money to improve your savings and meet upcoming bills becomes a breeze.   Even more, than other budgeting apps offer, you’d be pleased to know that Mint automates all your transactions for more efficiency and accuracy.

If you’re ready to make more confident transactions with this free budgeting tool,  continue reading to find the initial setup to help you get started on using Mint.

How to Use Mint

To use Mint free service, you need to set up a Mint account. The app is pretty straightforward to use, and users have admired its unique user interface.

Mint Features

When you create a Mint account, it offers you a tour of the app so that you can better understand its features and how to use it. Once you are signed in, you need to connect all your financial accounts to the app to begin.

It will request a username and password, then ask to connect to your credit card, savings accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, your main bank account, and other financial accounts through which you spend and receive money.

Without setting up this financial information, it’s almost useless to do anything on the free budgeting tool.

To put it simply, you can set up a Mint account and start to use it in three easy steps:

  • Download the personal finance app to your mobile or PC
  • Securely link your financial accounts. Whether it’s cash, credit cards, personal loans, investment accounts, whatever it is, can be linked to the budgeting app.
  • Once you’re all set up, you get your free credit score with access to it anytime you need it.

Mint Pricing

To own a Mint account is free. It’s a free budgeting tool that offers you free service for as long as you use the app. There are no pricing charges either on the mobile app or the web version. However, you can be sure that the app usage features online ads from third-party sites.

One possible downside to this is that you don’t have the option to upgrade to an ad-free package. So, to enjoy money management for free and all the other benefits that come with managing your personal finance with Mint, you have to endure the frequent ads that pop up.

Mint Features

Mint has exciting features that help to improve their budgeting and savings experience. Here are some of the key features for your use.

Free Credit Score

The free credit score feature is one of the newest features on Mint, and many users have found it quite useful too. The free credit score tracking option helps you keep track of your entire financial information in one easy step. All you need to do is open the app and visit the Show Details tab, and you can see your credit score, debt payment history, credit card accounts, and others.

The free credit score feature is great for users looking to improve their financial situation, such as paying off credit card debt or monitoring credit card usage.

Budgeting and Expense Tracking

This is another main feature of the app. By linking the budgeting app to your savings account, you can stay on top of your personal capital and any cash spending that goes on in your account. It categorizes your transactions automatically and takes note of how much money you have left so that you can budget for upcoming bills accordingly.

The app links to major banks, so you have no problem keeping an eye on your account balances all from one space. The app allows you to modify the subcategories you create, but you can’t modify the auto-generated ones. Once Mint gets the hang of your frequent transactions, it categorizes them in the appropriate budget categories afterward.

Goal Tracking

Mint allows you to create financial goals and keep track of them via the app. Whether you want to build your credit score, save for upcoming bills, or create a budget for the grocery store, you can do all that on the app.

If you are low on personal capital, using the budgeting tools available to you on the app, you can easily keep track of your financial data so that you can know what to cut off and help your financial health come up.

Investment Monitor

Mint offers an investment monitoring feature for those who manage investment accounts or would like to save by investing. You can link your brokerage accounts and IRA to the app to be able to compare your investment portfolio to the market and access all you have invested in one place.

Mint Main Uses

Mint is one of those very practical personal finance tools that helps you build your net worth in real-life use cases.

  • Simple credit score tracking: The free credit score page on the app is a lot easier to monitor than a credit report, and this makes it suitable for use. It eliminates the challenges of missing credit card debts and shows you your credit card balances, thus, keeping you updated on your financial health.
  • All-in-one tracker: By giving you access to your spending data all in one place, you can use Mint to manage your resources easily. It’s easily accessible from your mobile app so that you can track steadily on the go.
  • Financial health manager: If you have taken student loans, personal loans, or loans from credit unions, as a Mint user, you get frequent updates and notifications reminding you about the status of these loans. Unlike other budgeting tools, these notifications are quite essential to ensure you don’t build a poor credit score.

Mint Alternatives

If you’re looking to compare Mint to other budgeting and money management apps, check out these alternatives:

1. Personal Capital

Personal Capital

Personal Capital is a good budgeting app that is also free but comes with a plan to upgrade if you wish to use the wealth management services. They also allow you to link your bank accounts for seamless monitoring of your transactions. Personal Capital keeps track of your net worth and offers budgeting tools as well as an investment manager.

2. MoneyPatrol

MoneyPatrol

MoneyPatrol isn’t free, but it offers a 15-day free trial period. After this, you pay $59 yearly. This personal finance app only offers budgeting tools, a goal tracker, and finance reports; way less than Mint offers for free. You can also link to your bank account or any other financial institution you use.

Is Mint Worth Using?

Mint takes the cake when it comes to choosing a great budgeting app. Its easy-to-use user interface, free credit score feature, ability to link all financial accounts make it a top contender. Never mind if you’re new to budgeting apps, or you’re an experienced budgeted, this app will meet your needs.

Pros

  • You get enough data from your transactions to easily manage your spending
  • It sports an easy to use interface that makes navigation seamless
  • The app is free to use for as long as you like

Cons

  • You need to link to your personal financial data to use the app
  • Users are not too pleased with mint’s customer service. The poor customer service doesn’t help when users are in a hurry or need help with the app.
  • Mint users complain about the frequency of the ads on the app.

Mint FAQs

Many people have a lot of questions about Mint, especially since it is a free budgeting app. If you plan on becoming a Mint user, here is our independent financial advice and the answers to your questions.

Is the Mint app safe?

Yes, the app is safe. All online accounts linked to the service are secure and adequately protected using various security protocols and software encryption. It offers features like security scanning, multi-factor authentication, and others to ensure your data remains safe. It also ensures its third-party partners are credible and trustworthy, so your data is safe, even if you link your bank accounts.

How does Mint make money?

Mint makes its money by working with the data you input in the app to provide you recommendations from third-party sites that will help you save more money.

Here’s how it works. To receive compensation for offering you their services for free, they partner with third-party sites that can be necessary for managing your personal finance. For example, if you use a credit card on which you pay 15% interest, based on the data you have fed the app while using Mint, it detects this and refers you to a new credit card from their third-party partners. This new card offers you more benefits and lesser interest rates, which means you get to save some more money while Mint gets paid for their referral.

This is how Mint makes money.

Can Mint build your credit score?

Mint budgeting app can help you take charge of your debt and help you budget wisely or save adequately until you are able to pay back your debts. This, in turn, helps you build your credit score as you progress.

Does Mint sell your data?

Mint does not sell your data to third parties. Unlike some budgeting apps that share your data to make money, Mint doesn’t do this. They have a transparent means of generating money which we have explained earlier.

Does Mint link to your bank account?

You can link Mint to almost any financial institution you can think of. Any major bank can connect to the app, and Mint can read your financial data from there. Whether it is a cash account doesn’t matter. However, you can’t transfer money via the app because Mint only reads your financial data in your bank accounts so you can view it from the app.

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Kevin Martin

Kevin is an ambitious entrepreneur that is obsessed with all things related to finance. From a young age, Kevin has always been involved with side hustles ranging from online selling to freelance work. Over the years, Kevin graduated from side hustles and started launching multiple online and offline businesses. Kevin is a serial entrepreneur who loves starting new businesses and exploring all things related to business and finance. He is constantly looking for new ways to save money, invest money, and create income streams.