Oportun App Review 2024: Pros and Cons
- Safe-to-spend budgeting
- Automated savings
- Affordable personal loans
In the span of two and a half years, self-described “bad saver” Matt Wiley managed to save $4,300 without thinking about it.
“It feels weird saying ‘I saved,’ because I really didn’t do anything,” he said.
Despite being an editor at The Penny Hoarder at the time, Wiley admitted he’d never been good at putting money away.
“I don’t have a good reason for why it has been difficult, other than I’ve never been good at forcing myself to put money aside to not touch.”
In early 2015, Wiley heard about a money app called Oportun (formerly Digit) from one of his wife’s friends, who was already using it to build savings. Since its early days as the automated savings app that turned Wiley into a bonafide saver, Oportun has expanded significantly to cover more than just savings needs.
How did Oportun help this bad saver stash away more than $4,000? And, can it do the same for you?
In our Oportun app review, we’ll cover everything the app has to offer to help you save and manage your money all in one place — with, let’s be honest, the least amount of work possible.
Oportun App Review: Accounts
In this 2024 review, we’re looking at the app’s full suite of features, including savings accounts, credit cards and personal loan offerings.
When you sign up for Oportun, you can choose just its saving feature, open an Oportun credit card account or apply for a personal loan.
Oportun Credit Card
- Credit lines up to $1,000
- Accepted everywhere Visa is accepted
- Credit history not required to apply
This credit card offers APR rates of 24.90% to 29.90%, and lines of credit range from $330 to $1,000. Because the card is a Visa credit card, account holders can use it almost anywhere.
How Oportun Budgets for Savings
To make sure you only save money when it fits your budget, you can create as many (or as few) savings goals as you wish. When you create a savings goal, Oportun will let you know how much money it plans on withdrawing each day to meet your goal by the predetermined date.
You can fund an Oportun savings account with a connected checking account, but you can’t deposit cash.
You can use an Oportun account for free for 30 days, then it’s $5 per month.
Oportun Set & Save™
- AI-driven savings you can afford
- Open-ended or targeted goal amounts
- No withdrawal limits or balance requirements
Saving is Oportun’s bread and butter. The app originated as an automatic savings app before bringing personal loans onto the same platform.
Unlike many savings apps, Oportun also doesn’t force you to set an end target for your savings goals. You can add a target amount and end date for every goal, each optional; or you can leave them open-ended, like Wiley did, and save what you can.
When you link your bank account, the low balance protection feature is automatically enabled to make sure Oportun doesn’t get more zealous with saving than you’re comfortable with. The threshold is automatically set to $25, but you can create a custom threshold as well.
What’s Different about Oportun App
What’s special about how Oportun helps you save money is that it doesn’t rely on you to budget and commit to a strict savings schedule that might not always work for you. Instead, it looks at the income and spending habits in your account and adjusts your savings amount every day.
“I was intrigued by the idea of an algorithm pulling money out of my account in ways I wouldn’t notice,” Wiley said. “I was working my first job out of college and basically living paycheck to paycheck, so I definitely hadn’t been putting anything aside. It seemed worth a try.”
Oportun Personal Loans
- APRs do not exceed 35.99%
- Applications are encrypted and protected
- Car’s title is collateral for a higher loan
Applicants also have the potential to secure more — from $2,525 to $18,500 — by using a fully paid-off car title as collateral.
Oportun’s personal loans are intended to help people cover unexpected costs like home repairs and medical bills. They also highlight big events like weddings and vacations as reasons
One perk of securing a personal loan with Oportun is that you can use that money for debt consolidation. Taking on large amounts of personal debt can be a slippery slope — we always recommend considering other options (such as saving and budgeting) before jumping headfirst into a new loan.
That being said, Oportun prides itself on offering reasonable loan interest rates, personal loan education and a path toward building your credit score while making payments.
Digit Becomes Oportun
Oportun started as Digit, a savings app and added personal loans and credit cards in December 2021 after being acquired by Oportun.
It doesn’t currently offer other financial products, such as checking accounts or debit cards, but it wouldn’t surprise us to see those added in the future.
Oportun Fees
In a blatant deviation from competitors, Oportun charges a flat $5 monthly service fee to use the app. Your first 30 days are free.
For Wiley, the amount he paid to use the app was worth the $4,300 he saved without thinking about it and the peace of mind of never panicking about his bank balance.
“Way less than Netflix,” he said.
Oportun doesn’t charge any other fees associated with some bank accounts, like overdraft or minimum balance fees.
When personal loans are approved, Oportun charges an Administrative Fee, which is 8% of the principal loan amount.
Oportun Customer Experience
When you link your online bank account, the quality of the third-party app is key. It needs to be intuitive and easy to use. Oportun checks both of those boxes.
The app is rated 4.7 out of 5 in the App Store and 4.5 out of 5 on Google Play, with hundreds of thousands of reviews.
Like any app linked to your bank account, Oportun doesn’t come with physical locations where you can connect with a teller or customer service rep in person. But its online customer service is there for you. An online help center answers any general question you could have about using the app, and you can send an email if you have a question about your own account for a quick response.
Worried about turning your finances over to AI? Don’t be. The app gives you plenty of control to set boundaries around where and when it can move your money — and, anyway, letting it do its thing works.
“I’m definitely a fan of passive saving,” he said. “For people like me [he’s talking about all the ‘Bad Savers’ out there], not having to think about it is the best way to save.”
Is Oportun Right for You?
Oportun is for folks who want a money management solution that means they don’t have to think about managing their money.
If you’ve struggled to set aside money, stay on top of your bills, start saving money for retirement or find success with a typical budget, this automated account could be for you.
Oportun doesn’t offer joint accounts, so this isn’t a good option if you want to share an account with another user. It also doesn’t offer a way to deposit cash, so it’s not the best account for you if you’re mostly paid in cash.
Pros and Cons About Oportun
Here are the biggest benefits and drawbacks of using Oportun for savings, personal loans, credit cards and money management.
Pros
- Automated savings based on what you can afford
- Personal loans with high acceptance rates
- Visa credit card available up to $1,000
- Flexible savings goal-setting features
- Fee-free low-balance protection while saving toward your goals
- 30 day free trial
Cons
- No free version. Pay $5 per month
- No cash deposits
- No joint accounts
- No longer offers investing
- No longer offers banking
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Oportun
Here are our answers to some commonly asked questions to help you decide whether Oportun is the right place to manage your savings.
Oportun is a deposit account backed by Pathward that you can use for savings, personal loans and credit cards. You manage your finances all from one account in the Oportun app, though your money is split on the back end among accounts for loans, credit card payments and savings. Oportun is not a bank; it’s a financial technology company.
Yep! Oportun started out as Digit — a San Francisco-based company founded in 2013 by business and finance expert Ethan Bloch. It raised more than $60 million from venture capital firms over the years and was acquired by loan company Oportun in late 2021.
Only you can decide whether the value of the app is worth your $5 a month. In exchange for that fee, you get a lot of peace of mind about your finances: knowing your savings is growing, your personal loan payments are on time and your credit score is building. Plenty of online savings accounts come with no monthly fee, if you don’t need Oportun’s automated support.
The main benefit of using Oportun for saving money is automation. The app uses intelligent tech most budgeting apps don’t have to safely set aside money and build your nest egg. Its main drawback for most users is the monthly fee, though competitor budgeting apps also charge.
Absolutely not! When you use the savings feature, you can pull your balance from the Oportun account back into your linked bank account anytime. An Oportun account is a virtual piggy bank in your name that you have total access to and control over. All of your money in Oportun is secure.
Dana Miranda is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance® and founder of Healthy Rich, a platform for inclusive, budget-free financial education. She’s written about work and money for publications including Forbes, The New York Times, CNBC, NextAdvisor, Insider and Inc. Magazine. Former The Penny Hoarder staffer Carson Kohler contributed reporting to this story.
