Aspiration Review: Eco-Friendly Online Banking & Investing (2024)

What Is Aspiration?

Aspiration is a financial services company that's dedicated to fighting climate change. Deposits never go towards funding oil companies. And through the "Plant Your Change" program, customers can opt to have a tree planted every time their debit card is swiped.

For Plus customers, Aspiration will also buy carbon offsets to counter the climate impact of your gas purchases. The company also offers fantastic APYs on savings and pays cash back of up to 10% at companies that are part of the Conscience Coalition.

Related: What is Socially Responsible Investing?

• Deposits won't fund fossil fuel exploration or production
• 55,000 free in-network ATMs
• 3-5% cash back on Conscience Coalition purchases
• Personal impact score to help you shop to match your values
• Option to plant a tree with every swipe

• Deposits won't fund fossil fuel exploration or production
• 55,000 free in-network ATMs
• 3.00% APY on the first $10,000 of savings
• 10% cash back on Conscience Coalition purchases
• Personal impact score to help you shop to match your values
• Option to plant a tree with every swipe
• One out-of-network ATM reimbursem*nt monthly

Speaking from a purely financial point of view, if you're able to spend a lot from the group of Conscience Coalition companies, the 10% cash back may make the Plus plan worth it. Eligible companies include:

• Warby Parker
• Feed
• Blue Apron
• Cloud Paper
• Dropps
• Lola
• Alltrue
• Girlfriend Collective
• And many more

Only the Plus plan includes carbon offset on purchases. That alone might be enough of a personal difference to push you into the paid plan.

To earn the top APY for your plan on up $10,000 in deposits, you'll need to spend $1,000 or more during the month with your Aspiration debit card. If you don't meet that minimum spending requirement, you'll earn 0.00% APY on the free plan and either 0.25% (on balances up to $10,000) or 0.10% (on balances above $10,000) on the Plus plan.

• $5,000 per day external transfer limit
• $500 cash limit
• $2,000 PIN limit
• $2,000 signature-based limit

Aspiration is not currently offering any welcome bonus.

You can also check outother bank bonus offers here.

You can open an Aspiration Spend and Save Account here >>

Investing And Retirement

Aspiration also offers sustainable investing products for both a regular brokerage account and Traditional or Roth IRA accounts. They currently only offer one investment product for socially responsible investing. This is a sustainable investment portfolio that you can invest in for as little as $10.

The product looks at multiple environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors to find companies whose management understands that smart, long-term thinking is not only the right thing to do, but right for their bottom line.

Check out Aspiration's Investments here >>

Are There Any Additional Fees?

There are some transaction fees to be aware of, however:

• Returned item fee (check or debit): $4.50
• Stop payment: $1.19
• Domestic wire in: $2.06
• Domestic wire out: $4.50

Aspiration's cash back rates are fantastic, but they're only available on eligible Conscience Coalition companies. If you don't spend a lot of money with those companies, you might want to look for a bank that pays cash back on every purchase instead.

You might have also noticed above that there are some limits on how much interest your account actually earns. If you have over $10,000 in your account, your APY drops significantly. If you have more cash than that, you're better off using another high-yield savings account that doesn't have limits on its top APY.

How Do I Open An Account?

The Spend and Save account has a $0 minimum balance, but you need $10 to open the account. You must be at least 18 years old and a US citizen or permanent resident to open the account.

You can open an Aspiration Spend and Save Account here >>

Open The Spend and Save Account Here >>