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Rocket Money (Truebill) vs. Mint: Which Budgeting App Is Best?

Need money management help? Here’s what you should know about Truebill vs. Mint.

September 29, 2022

When managing your personal finances, few things are more important than proper budgeting. Creating and sticking to a budget can help control your spending habits, save money and reduce credit card debt.

Of course, accurately tracking your financial accounts can be tricky. This is where budgeting apps like Truebill (now Rocket Money) and Mint can help. 

These free mobile apps offer a variety of useful budgeting features to help meet your financial goals. That said, they aren't the same.

Here’s a breakdown of Truebill vs. Mint, so you can decide which of these financial apps best fits your needs.

Rocket Money (Truebill) vs. Mint

While Rocket Money and Mint offer several similar services, there are a few differentiating features that you should be aware of. Here are some key features that each app has to offer.

Rocket Money (formerly Truebill)

Truebill was recently rebranded to Rocket Money. Rocket Money starts with a free version that includes:

  • Financial tracking, the ability to create a 

  • Monthly budgeting 

  • Balance alerts

  • Access to credit score 

The app is available for iOS and Android — but doesn’t offer desktop functionality.

The paid version of Rocket Money (formerly known as Truebill Premium) is available for a monthly fee that ranges from $3 to $12 per month, depending on which features you use. The paid version unlocks:

  • Access to a full credit report

  • Real-time chat support

  • Data exporting and more

Here is a breakdown of some key features of Rocket Money.

After connecting accounts to Rocket Money, the app analyzes spending patterns to help set goals and budgets. The app can also keep track of monthly bills and send alerts when a bill is higher than usual or when you have a payment coming up soon. These alerts can help ensure you have enough money to cover the bill payment so you don’t incur overdraft charges.

Subscription management

Rocket Money’s subscription management and cancellation services have long been one of its defining features. Rocket Money brings all your subscription services together in a single list so you can see how much you’re spending — including on the subscriptions you may have forgotten about.

As part of its premium version, Rocket Money even offers a concierge service to help cancel unwanted subscriptions. Considering 42% of Americans are still paying for a forgotten subscription, this may help improve your budget.

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Bill negotiations

Another unique feature of Rocket Money is its bill negotiation service. Part of the premium version, this concierge service can help users:

  • Find cheaper phone and cable bills 

  • Negotiate refunds when charged an overdraft or late fee by their bank 

  • Find cheaper car insurance rates 

Rocket Money does all this through current account information, so you don’t have to search through options yourself. Rocket Money charges a mission based on achieved savings.

Smart Savings

In addition to setting your budget where you track savings and expenses, Rocket Money allows users to set up an Autopilot Savings (or Smart Savings) account. 

Users select a savings goal and how often they would like to make deposits into the savings account. Rocket Money provides an FDIC-insured account that automatically makes withdrawals from other selected accounts, taking a “set it and forget it” approach to saving toward a financial goal.

Mint

Mint is a free budgeting app created by Intuit (the company that owns TurboTax). The Mint app is available for iOS and Android, and desktop. 

Mint’s budgeting tools are available for free, though it extends partner offers for paid services. If you just want to stick with managing your budget, you can take care of just about everything in this free app.

In-depth budgeting features

What helps Mint stand apart is letting users create robust custom budgets. After syncing bank accounts (including savings and checking accounts) with Mint, each transaction is assigned automatically to a spending category, like food or entertainment. 

You can take this further by creating custom categories based on preferences and needs. You can even categorize your bank transactions to track your budget better. The app breaks down monthly budget by spending category and how much money you have left.

You can also set goals and assign them to each account. So, you could create a goal of eliminating credit card debt for your credit card account or a goal of taking a dream vacation for your savings account. Whatever your goals, you can manage them in Mint with the ability to create unlimited budgets.

Budget alerts

By syncing with your accounts, Mint provides alerts for key situations that could mess with your monthly budget. This includes informing you when recurring bills are due, so you don’t miss a payment, when an account balance is low, or if you’re over your budget. Mint also sends alerts when it detects larger than normal or suspicious transactions so you can quickly address potential fraud.

Mint also offers bill negotiations through a third-party partner called Billshark, helping you lower your monthly payments when possible. Billshark takes a share of the savings from any bills it successfully lowers for Mint users.

Track your net worth

One unique aspect of Mint is letting you calculate net worth. After connecting accounts (such as investment accounts and crypto account balances) to Mint, it tracks assets and liabilities. This gives you a quick glimpse into your net worth and explains what you can do to better your available financial assets.

Since Mint includes portfolio tracking for your investments and can help you catch hidden fees, it lets you get the full picture of your finances.

Alternatives to using a budgeting app

While the Truebill vs. Mint debate is worth looking into, remember that you don’t necessarily need a budgeting app to manage your expenses and savings goals. After all, some people are concerned about the security issues of linking their financial accounts to an app. 

One alternative is using a budget calculator. Start by determining monthly take-home income. Then, calculate monthly needs, such as rent, groceries, insurance and debt payments. These should account for roughly 50% of your income. 

Then allocate 30% of your income to “wants,” such as buying gifts, dining out or going to events. Ideally, you should be left with 20% of your take-home income that can go toward savings or paying down debt. 

Consistently tracking your income and expenses can help you identify if you are overspending on needs or wants. Finding ways to cut costs in these categories will allow you to put more toward savings and debt repayment.

Rather than using an app, you can manually record your spending and income in a Google Sheet or pen and paper.

Find the right budgeting app for your needs

When deciding between Truebill vs. Mint, there’s not necessarily a “best” budgeting app, and both apps can help you track your finances and save money. While Mint offers more free budgeting services, Rocket Money has additional money management tools that could prove useful in helping you cut costs.

Of course, whether you use Rocket Money, Mint or neither, finding ways to pay down your debt so you can save more should be a top priority in your personal finance journey. If you’re struggling with excessive credit card debt, check out the Tally†credit card payoff app. The app combines your credit cards into a single, convenient payment. Tally also offers a lower-interest line of credit to help you pay down your higher-interest credit cards quickly and efficiently.

To get the benefits of a Tally line of credit, you must qualify for and accept a Tally line of credit. The APR (which is the same as your interest rate) will be between 7.90% and 29.99% per year and will be based on your credit history. The APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate. Annual fees range from $0 - $300.