What Is Truebill (Now Rocket Money) & How Does It Work?

Rocket Money, formerly Truebill, is a personal finance management application designed to help individuals organize and optimize their financial lives. It provides a clear, consolidated view of one’s finances, enabling users to gain better control over income and expenses. The platform serves as a tool for understanding spending habits and identifying opportunities for financial improvement.

Understanding Rocket Money’s Core Function

Rocket Money operates as a financial aggregation platform. It securely connects to a user’s various financial institutions, including bank accounts and credit cards. This integration allows the application to gather and centralize diverse financial data, offering a comprehensive overview of a user’s financial landscape.

The application uses this aggregated data to provide detailed insights into spending patterns and recurring transactions. By automatically categorizing transactions, Rocket Money helps users understand where their money is going without manual input. This mechanism of data collection and categorization powers its broader suite of financial management services.

Key Financial Management Tools

Rocket Money offers various tools to assist users in managing their finances. One prominent feature is subscription management, which automatically identifies recurring charges across linked accounts. Users can view these subscriptions in a single list, making it easier to track and cancel unwanted services.

Another tool is bill negotiation, where the service attempts to lower recurring bills for services like cable, internet, or phone. If a negotiation is successful, Rocket Money typically charges a fee, ranging from 30% to 60% of the first year’s savings, collected as an upfront lump-sum payment. This service can potentially save users money on their monthly expenditures.

The application also provides budgeting capabilities, allowing users to track income and expenses. It automatically categorizes transactions and helps users set spending limits, providing alerts when they approach or exceed goals. This feature helps users gain a clearer understanding of their cash flow and stay on track with financial plans.

Credit score monitoring is an integrated feature, offering users access to their credit score. The service provides insights into factors affecting the score and alerts users to significant changes. This helps individuals stay informed about their credit health without impacting their score through hard inquiries.

Rocket Money also includes automated savings plans. The “Smart Save” function analyzes spending habits and income to determine optimal times and amounts to transfer funds into a savings account, which is typically FDIC-insured. This helps users build savings effortlessly and can assist in avoiding overdraft fees.

Data Security and Privacy Measures

Rocket Money implements robust security protocols to protect user data. The application employs AES 256-bit encryption, a high standard for data protection, to secure data both in transit and at rest on its servers. This measure helps ensure that personal and financial details remain confidential.

User financial accounts are linked through Plaid, a third-party service widely used by many financial applications. Plaid facilitates secure connections without Rocket Money storing users’ banking login credentials directly. Instead, Plaid provides an encrypted token that allows Rocket Money read-only access to transaction data, preventing unauthorized modifications.

The company hosts its servers on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Rocket Money also supports multi-factor authentication, adding an extra layer of security to user accounts by requiring a second form of verification during login.

Regarding privacy, Rocket Money states it does not sell users’ personal information to third parties. While it collects data to personalize services and provide recommendations, the company emphasizes its commitment to user privacy through anonymization practices where appropriate. Users have control over their data and can delete their accounts at any time to revoke access.

Accessing and Utilizing Rocket Money

Getting started with Rocket Money involves a straightforward process. Users can download the application from their device’s app store or access its web platform. Initial setup requires creating an account, typically with an email address and password.

After account creation, securely link financial accounts by selecting your bank or credit union from a list and entering online banking credentials. This process, facilitated by secure third-party services, enables Rocket Money to import transaction data.

Once accounts are linked, users can navigate the application’s interface to access its various tools. The dashboard provides an overview of financial activity, and dedicated sections allow users to review subscriptions, monitor spending, and check their credit score. The interface is designed to present financial information clearly, enabling users to interact with the features discussed previously.