Oportun: Savings & Loans

I’ve used this app since 2017 before it was called Opportun, and it used to work exactly as advertised: it would quietly move small amounts of money that I barely noticed, and over time I’d end up with a meaningful amount saved. One of the best features was being able to tell the app to “save less” or “save more,” and it would adjust future withdrawals accordingly. That gave me some control while still keeping the automated savings working in the background. That option now seems to be gone. Instead of being able to reduce the withdrawal amounts, the only option is to pause saving altogether. I’m a single dad of two and I live paycheck to paycheck, and the cost of living is astronomical right now. So when this app withdraws around $40–$50 every day, I frequently find myself transferring money back. I believe the $0.99 “instant transfer” fee is a reasonable convenience cost, but only if I have some sort of control over how much this app withdraws each transaction. The most frustrating part has been trying to cancel. I went through the cancellation process in the app, made an instant withdrawal, and arranged for the remaining balance to return to my bank within the stated several-day timeframe. Despite that, the app continues withdrawing money. It now says my subscription will not end until October 15, 2026, and I’m apparently expected to continue paying $5.99 per month until then. There is also no longer an option in the app for me to end the subscription the way I previously did, so I’ve had to email customer support to try to resolve it. This used to be a genuinely useful and flexible savings tool. When things were tighter financially, I could fine tune it all the way down to take $1-2 per day. Now this app disregards and effectively penalizes people like me who aren’t financially secure. What makes this even harder to justify is that banking used to work the other way around: customers deposited their money, banks used those deposits to make loans and investments, and customers earned interest in return. Now so many financial services charge people for the privilege of holding and using their money. I’m giving you access to my money, along with millions of other customers, so you can earn money from it—and then I’m paying you too. That makes no logical sense to me but that’s what we’ve come to accept as normal apparently.

I am over 50 years old I have never been able to save a penny, I literally live paycheque to pay check, with Digit I actually have a savings account! I am so happy and I don’t even notice because I don’t see the balance all the time so I don’t think of it as a place I need to go to to take the money out to pay bills! Thank you digit!