You’ve probably seen the ads. They’re everywhere — YouTube pre-rolls, Instagram stories, podcast reads. Rocket Money claims to save you hundreds of dollars a year by finding forgotten subscriptions, negotiating your bills down, and managing your budget from one clean dashboard.
With over 2.7 million users and a claimed $2.5 billion in total user savings, the numbers sound impressive. But behind the polished marketing, there are real questions worth answering before you hand over access to your bank accounts. Does the free version actually do anything useful? Is the premium plan worth $6 to $12 per month? Does bill negotiation work, and are the fees reasonable?
I’ve dug through every feature, tested the free and premium tiers, analysed user reviews across Trustpilot, the BBB, and app stores, and compared Rocket Money head-to-head against YNAB, Simplifi, and other budgeting apps. Here’s the full, unfiltered picture.
Before We Get Into the Review
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Now — the complete review.
What Is Rocket Money?
Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) is a personal finance app owned by Rocket Companies — the same publicly traded parent company behind Rocket Mortgage, Rocket Loans, and Rocket Homes. It launched as Truebill in 2015 with a narrow focus on subscription cancellation, then rebranded to Rocket Money in August 2022 and expanded into a full-service personal finance dashboard.
Today, Rocket Money connects to your bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts through Plaid (the same secure linking service used by most major fintech apps) and provides a unified view of your financial life. The core features include subscription tracking and cancellation, bill negotiation, spending categorisation, budgeting tools, automated savings, net worth tracking, and credit score monitoring.
The app is available on iOS, Android, and web — though web access requires a Premium subscription.
How Much Does Rocket Money Cost?
This is where things get interesting, and also where some confusion creeps in.
Rocket Money operates on two tiers: Free and Premium. The Premium plan uses a “pay what you want” model, letting you choose your monthly price within a set range. That sounds generous, but the features you unlock are the same regardless of what you pay — so there’s no reason to pay more than the minimum.
Free Plan
The free plan gives you a basic subscription detection scan, a simplified spending overview, two custom budget categories, and credit score viewing. You can also request bill negotiations (more on the fees for that below). However, the free tier strips out most of the features that make Rocket Money useful — no web dashboard, no concierge cancellation, no net worth tracker, no smart savings.
Premium Plan ($6 to $12 per month)
Premium unlocks everything: unlimited budget categories, concierge subscription cancellation (Rocket Money handles the cancellation calls for you), net worth tracking, automated “smart savings” transfers, credit report breakdown, category-specific spending alerts, and web browser access. There’s a 7-day free trial.
Bill Negotiation Fees (Both Plans)
Bill negotiation is available on both free and premium plans, but it carries a separate fee: Rocket Money charges 35% to 60% of the annual savings from any successful negotiation. You choose your fee percentage when requesting the negotiation. If the negotiation fails, you pay nothing. If it succeeds, the fee is charged immediately — not spread across the year of savings.
This is the part that catches people off guard. If Rocket Money negotiates your internet bill down by $10 per month (a $120 annual savings), your one-time fee at the 40% rate would be $48 — charged right away. You’re still saving $72 over the year, but the upfront hit feels steep.
Pricing Comparison Table
| Feature | Free | Premium ($6-$12/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription detection | ✅ | ✅ |
| Subscription cancellation | Manual (you do it) | Concierge (they do it) |
| Bill negotiation | ✅ (35-60% fee) | ✅ (35-60% fee) |
| Custom budget categories | 2 | Unlimited |
| Spending alerts | Basic | Category-specific |
| Net worth tracking | ❌ | ✅ |
| Smart savings automation | ❌ | ✅ |
| Credit report details | ❌ | ✅ |
| Web dashboard access | ❌ | ✅ |
| Account sharing | ❌ | ✅ |
Feature Breakdown: What Actually Works
Subscription Tracking and Cancellation
This is Rocket Money’s flagship feature and it genuinely delivers. When you connect your accounts, the app scans your transaction history and identifies recurring charges. In most user reports, it correctly identifies 8 to 15 active subscriptions — and nearly always catches a few that users had completely forgotten about.
The average user reportedly saves $180 to $400 per year just by cancelling subscriptions they weren’t using. That number is plausible. Most Americans carry 6 to 12 active subscriptions, and it’s common to forget about trial periods that converted to paid, old streaming services you stopped watching, or gym memberships you haven’t used in months.
On the free plan, Rocket Money identifies your subscriptions but you have to cancel them yourself. On Premium, their concierge team handles the cancellation process for you — calling the company, navigating retention offers, and confirming the cancellation. For subscriptions that are notoriously difficult to cancel (gyms, cable companies, certain SaaS tools), the concierge service is genuinely valuable.
Bill Negotiation
Rocket Money’s bill negotiation team contacts your service providers — internet, cable, phone, insurance, and similar — and negotiates lower rates on your behalf. You authorise the negotiation through the app, and their team handles the calls.
The company reports an average 20% reduction on telecom bills. Real-world results vary. Some users report significant savings: $15 to $25 per month off internet bills, $10 to $20 off cell phone plans, and occasional wins on insurance premiums. Others report more modest results or one-time credits rather than ongoing rate reductions.
This is where the user reviews diverge most sharply. On the positive side, many users confirm that Rocket Money successfully lowered their bills without any effort required on the user’s part. On the negative side, some Trustpilot and BBB complaints describe situations where Rocket Money claimed a monthly savings that turned out to be a one-time credit, or where the claimed savings didn’t appear on the next bill.
My take: The bill negotiation service works and is legitimate. But verify the results on your next actual bill. Don’t just trust the in-app notification — confirm the savings showed up with your service provider before counting the money as saved.
Budgeting Tools
Rocket Money’s budgeting interface is clean, modern, and easy to navigate. It automatically categorises transactions, shows spending trends across months, and lets you set category-specific limits with alerts when you’re approaching them.
On the free plan, you’re limited to two custom budget categories. Everything else gets lumped into a generic “Everything Else” bucket — which is barely functional for real budgeting. On Premium, you get unlimited categories and much more useful granularity.
The honest assessment: Rocket Money is a competent budgeter but not a great one. It’s fine for people who want a general overview of where their money goes. It’s not sufficient for people who want zero-based budgeting, envelope-style allocation, or deep customisation. If serious budgeting is your primary goal, YNAB is the better tool. Rocket Money is a money manager that includes budgeting, not a budgeting app that also manages money.
Smart Savings
The automated savings feature analyses your spending patterns, determines when you have surplus cash, and automatically transfers small amounts to a separate FDIC-insured savings account. You set a savings goal and preferred transfer frequency, and Rocket Money handles the timing and amounts.
This works well for people who struggle to save consistently. The transfers are typically small ($5 to $50 at a time) and timed to avoid overdrafts. You can pause, adjust, or withdraw at any time.
Net Worth Tracking
Link your checking, savings, investment, loan, and credit accounts, and Rocket Money calculates your net worth automatically. The dashboard updates as your account balances change, giving you a real-time snapshot of your overall financial position.
This feature is genuinely useful for people who have financial accounts spread across multiple institutions. Seeing everything aggregated in one place — what you own minus what you owe — is clarifying in a way that checking individual account balances isn’t.
Credit Score Monitoring
Free users can view their credit score. Premium users get a breakdown of what’s affecting the score — payment history, utilisation, age of accounts, and so on — plus alerts for changes.
The credit monitoring is basic compared to dedicated services like Credit Karma or IdentityIQ. It’s a nice-to-have, not a reason to subscribe.
Is Rocket Money Legit?
Yes. Unambiguously yes.
Rocket Money is owned by Rocket Companies, a publicly traded corporation (NYSE: RKT). The app uses bank-level 256-bit encryption and connects to your financial accounts through Plaid using read-only access — meaning the app can see your transactions but cannot move money or make changes to your accounts.
Over 2.7 million people use Rocket Money. The app carries a 4.6 rating on Google Play (117,000+ reviews) and 4.5 on the Apple App Store (285,000+ reviews).
It is not a scam. The negative reviews you’ll find on Trustpilot and the BBB are real complaints from real users, but they’re about specific feature issues (bill negotiation results not matching claims, account syncing problems, difficulty cancelling Premium) — not about the company being fraudulent.
Is Rocket Money Safe?
As safe as any fintech app that connects to your bank accounts. Rocket Money uses Plaid for account linking, the same service used by Venmo, Chime, Coinbase, and thousands of other financial apps. Plaid maintains SOC 2 compliance and encrypts all data in transit and at rest.
The read-only access model means Rocket Money sees your account information but can’t initiate transfers to itself or anyone else (the smart savings feature uses a separate, explicitly authorised transfer mechanism).
No fintech app can guarantee zero risk — security breaches happen across the industry — but Rocket Money’s security practices are standard for the space and backed by a major public company’s reputation.
The Pros
Subscription detection is excellent. This remains the app’s strongest feature. It catches forgotten subscriptions that many users didn’t even know they were paying for, and the Premium concierge cancellation saves genuine time and hassle.
Bill negotiation is a real service. Having someone else call your internet company, sit on hold for 45 minutes, and negotiate your bill down is worth something — especially for people who hate those calls or never get around to making them.
The dashboard is clean and modern. Compared to the old Mint interface or clunky Excel spreadsheets, Rocket Money’s visual design is polished and intuitive. The spending breakdowns, upcoming bill calendar, and net worth tracker provide useful daily snapshots.
Smart savings builds the habit. For people who intend to save but never do, the automated transfers are effective at building savings gradually without requiring willpower.
Flexible pricing. The “pay what you want” Premium model means you can access all features for as little as $6 per month.
The Cons
Bill negotiation fees are steep and front-loaded. Paying 35% to 60% of annual savings as an immediate one-time fee feels punishing, even when the maths works out in your favour over the year. If you’re comfortable calling your service providers yourself, you can achieve the same savings for free.
The free plan is aggressively limited. Two budget categories, no web access, no net worth tracking, no concierge cancellation. The free tier is essentially a demo designed to push you toward Premium. This is a legitimate business strategy, but it makes the “free” app feel incomplete.
Mixed reliability on bill negotiation claims. A consistent pattern in user complaints involves negotiated “savings” that don’t materialise as described — monthly discounts that were actually one-time credits, or savings that expired after a promotional period without clear communication.
Account linking issues. Like all Plaid-based apps, some users experience sync problems with smaller credit unions, certain credit cards, and international accounts. This isn’t unique to Rocket Money, but it can be frustrating when transactions don’t import correctly.
Premium upsells are persistent. The app pushes Premium subscription throughout the interface. If you’re using the free version, you’ll encounter prompts to upgrade regularly.
Who Should Use Rocket Money?
It’s a great fit for: People who have multiple forgotten subscriptions and want someone to find and cancel them. People who genuinely will not call their internet or phone company to negotiate bills. People who want an automated, low-effort overview of their finances without building spreadsheets. People looking for a Mint replacement after Mint’s shutdown in March 2024.
It’s probably not right for: People who want granular, zero-based budgeting (YNAB is better). People who are already disciplined about reviewing bank statements monthly. People who are comfortable making negotiation calls themselves. People who are uneasy about giving a third-party app read-only access to their bank accounts. People who want advanced investment tracking (Personal Capital / Empower is better).
Rocket Money vs the Competition
| Feature | Rocket Money | YNAB | Simplifi | EveryDollar | Credit Karma |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Subscriptions + bill negotiation | Zero-based budgeting | Clean dashboards | Dave Ramsey method | Credit monitoring |
| Monthly cost | Free / $6-$12 | $14.99 | $5.99 | Free / $17.99 | Free |
| Bill negotiation | ✅ (fee on savings) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Subscription cancellation | ✅ (Premium) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Budget depth | Basic to moderate | Deep (best in class) | Moderate | Moderate | Basic |
| Net worth tracking | ✅ (Premium) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Credit monitoring | Basic | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | Comprehensive |
| Savings automation | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
The bottom line on alternatives. If your primary need is budgeting, YNAB wins. If your primary need is subscription management and bill negotiation, Rocket Money wins. If you want a clean all-in-one financial dashboard, Simplifi is worth considering. There’s no single app that does everything perfectly.
For more on apps and tools that help you make and manage money, see my guides on best reward apps that actually pay, apps that pay you real money, and best chrome extensions that save money.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Rocket Money a scam?
No. Rocket Money is a legitimate personal finance app owned by Rocket Companies (NYSE: RKT). It uses bank-level encryption and read-only access through Plaid. Over 2.7 million users trust it with their financial data, and it holds strong ratings on both major app stores.
How much does Rocket Money cost?
The free plan costs nothing but is heavily limited. Premium costs $6 to $12 per month (you choose). Bill negotiation carries an additional fee of 35% to 60% of annual savings achieved, charged as a one-time payment.
Does Rocket Money bill negotiation really work?
Yes, the negotiation service is real. Their team contacts your providers and negotiates lower rates. The average claimed savings is around 20% on telecom bills. However, verify any claimed savings on your next actual statement — some users report discrepancies between what Rocket Money claims to have saved and what shows up on the bill.
Can I use Rocket Money for free?
Yes, but the free plan is very limited: two budget categories, no web access, no concierge cancellation, no net worth tracking, no smart savings. The free plan is more of a trial than a fully functional tool.
Is the Premium plan worth it?
At $6 per month, Premium is worth it if you have multiple active subscriptions and bills that could be negotiated. The concierge cancellation feature alone can save significant hassle. If you’re already disciplined about managing your finances manually, you probably don’t need it.
Is Rocket Money safe to link my bank account to?
As safe as Venmo, Chime, or any other Plaid-based financial app. Rocket Money uses read-only access and 256-bit encryption. The risk is comparable to any fintech app that connects to your bank — not zero, but industry-standard.
Final Verdict
Rocket Money is a solid personal finance app that genuinely helps people save money — primarily through subscription detection and bill negotiation. The Premium plan is worth considering at $6 per month if you carry multiple subscriptions and have bills that could be negotiated. The bill negotiation fees are steep, but you’re still coming out ahead if the savings materialise.
It’s not a budgeting powerhouse. It’s not a replacement for financial discipline. It’s a convenience tool that automates the tedious parts of money management — finding forgotten charges, making negotiation calls, tracking your net worth — and does so with a clean interface.
Use the free version for a few weeks to find forgotten subscriptions. If the subscription scan alone saves you $20 per month (which it very often does), consider whether Premium’s concierge features are worth $6 on top of that. For most people with disorganised finances, the answer is yes.
But if saving $200 to $500 per year is your ceiling — and you want to build real, recurring income that changes your financial trajectory — go here to see how I generate $500 to $1,500 per month from simple websites.
Mark is the founder of MarksInsights and has spent 15+ years testing online business programs and tools. He focuses on honest, experience-based reviews that help people avoid scams and find real, sustainable ways to make money online.