Digit To Start Charging Users To Save For Financial Goals

Digit, the service that enables people to save, announced Wednesday (April 12) it will be ending its free service and will start charging $2.99 a month in the next 100 days.

According to a report in Venture Beat, existing accounts will stay free for 100 more days, and after that anyone who hasn’t canceled their Digit account will be charged automatically. Digit relies on algorithms to track spending habits of its users and withdraws money over time and places it into savings accounts.

“Users who accept the new Terms of Service will be charged the $2.99 monthly fee after their 100-day free trial is over. However, if it’s past 100 days and a customer chooses to close their account and was unaware of the fee, Digit will gladly provide a refund,” a Digit spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email.

The move on the part of Digit comes as it is facing a lot of competition in the personal finance bot market from the likes of Kasisto KAI, Varo Money and Trim, who have announced or started to provide similar savings services. Bank of America and Mastercard are also gearing up to roll out personal finance bots this year, noted the report.

In addition to charging a subscription fee each month, Digit announced that its savings bonuses will increase to 1 from 0.2 percent. The report noted Digit bypassed the $230 million mark in September and the $500 million mark in March. The service launched in 2015. In late February Digit unveiled its Goalmoji service, which is a savings plan that provides users with updates as they save. The plan can be customized for specific goals or set for saving for rent, vacation or a smartphone bill.