Empower
reviews and complaints

False advertising - They claim to offer up to $250 for cash advances. They watch your account activity and act like they know what's going on. They assume they know where your money comes from and offer you one amount one weeks and a lower amount the following week after paying them back the full amount early. Then they lowered it by half. Nope you have no idea about my finances, stop acting like you do. I've added my regular income for the time being shown in green. It damn sure isn't you guys giving me a regular check. WTF

So I’ve had empower for maybe almost a year before they started switching to a different bank recently which I didn’t mind because I was happy to keep using them and using the tools to budget my money. I went ahead and switched over my direct deposit information to my new account since the old one is closing this May 1st of 2020. So I usually every single time got paid on Thursday’s instead of my actual pay date which is Friday which I loved because I can get slot of things done instead of waiting Friday that’s mainly why I switched to empower to get early and budget my money. This morning I woke up with a notification saying this amount of $xx.xx money was deposited into your account. Ok cool not thinking anything of it everything is still the same until... I check my account it says $0.00. I’m thinking to myself what in the world I’ve never had a problem with these people until now so I call the new bank they go through and they tell me oh well this bank doing allow you to get paid early. What? Then why did I received a notification. Long story short the lady said it will be in my account tomorrow which is Friday my actual pay day and she will still escalate the situation in regards to why I would of received that notification and she will follow up with me today. Well guess what? Never got a follow up call or nothing. So these people better hope my money is in my account tomorrow or there will be issues you don’t play with peoples money and tell me you don’t have a explanation for it! I will be switching ASAP.

My favorite transaction-keeping app Penny was being closed down. Before then, Penny suggested a few apps we could try that were similar and this was one of them.

I do really like the layout of everything. It’s very simple and easy to process. Penny actually was inferior in this regard.

However, one MAJOR thing I looooved about Penny was that we could change the dates/names of transactions, and add notes (what exactly did I buy: milk, eggs, new planner, Target gift card, etc).

This is great for when you have a million receipts and no time to sift through each one, but you still want to know exactly what you bought and when. Also helpful when your transactions post a lot later than the actual transaction date. (Target Debit Card!)

I was able to SEARCH for specific transactions! I could type in the amount charged (1.71) and it would show all of the transactions that cost $1.71. I could type in any part of the description to find specific transactions (planner) and it would show me all the transactions that I bought planners in! It was so very convenient, and I am DEVASTATED that Penny had to go.

Penny was almost perfect, and I’m hoping so much that Empower implements this same system.

Another small gripe I have is the fact I was supposed to get 6 months of free premium if I signed up for Empower through Penny. I did sign up through Penny, and was charged after 1 month. Not cool, especially when I messaged the team about it when I signed up and they reassured me that they would switch the free premium on for me!

I should’ve just minded my business I set up for this app and logged in from my job website so I could so I get cash advance they took it upon their selves to change my direct deposit from my other bank to theirs they also took a $200 allotment from my check I which had no idea of and I would have to do my myself.. I closed my account with them when I had direct deposit and didn’t know I had direct deposit with them I wasn’t aware I thought my direct deposit was set up with my other bank and my rent is literally due in a few days I called and they said they will send the $200 allotment they took from my check and send it back to my employer I called my job HR to see if I had a paper check and they said a paper hasn’t been issued.. it still says net to bank I called empower and they said since my account is closed they don’t see a direct deposit but since my account is closed they rejected my direct deposit and sent it back to my job.. they couldn’t tell me if anything tried to come through because according to them it just bounce back to my employer cause my account is closed and you can’t send money to a closed account which makes sense but I feel like they should know if something was tryna come through .. now I have to wait till Monday to call my job HR to see if my check has gotten sent back to them when my rent is literally due on the 1st they were shady about taking 200 out my check and changing my direct deposit please do not sign up with them.. this company gives me scam vibes they’re always so quick to get off the phone also.

I’ve been using Empower for several months now and am happy with the wide range of accounts that you can link to the app.

The landing page is informative and exactly what I’m looking for every time I open the app. Directly underneath that, the accounts snapshot and lists is useful to corroborate with the snapshot above. Essentially, all the information they show you in the way that they do is practical and ranked in order of priority that aligns with mine (of course, this is subjective). I’m very happy with this and is the reason I’ve continued to use this over Mint, Clarity, and other personal finance apps.

Unfortunately it has a major drawback. Every now and then the app will brick. This is happening at the moment for me (and is the reason I am writing this review). How the app normally works is that you open the app, it loads the intro screen and then opens to the snapshot graph. From time to time, my app will only load the intro screen and never move past it. Deleting and reinstalling fixes the problem, but this is hardly a sustainable solution. It has happened about 5 times since I’ve had the app and each time it is incredible frustrating.

Another small negative is that it doesn’t update transactions in real time. It takes a long time for new/pending transactions to show up in the app.

For me, this is a major bug worthy of losing 2 stars over. A personal finance app (or any app, for that matter), shouldn’t have an issue that renders it useless. 4 stars for a practical and well designed app. -2 stars for bugs and shortcomings.

This bank is pretty good. Better than any big bank or local bank in my option. The only real problem is that the bank is constantly changing and trying to be different. Like from when I started using this bank to now the only way you recognize it’s the same is the name. Everything is changing like the percentage of interest for savings accounts ( downward trend) and they made me open another card and another account because they are changing something else (I didn’t really understand exactly what was going on at first. I thought they were just shutting down the bank completely. But apparently that isn’t the case) they also changed it to where you had to pay monthly to use the bank but since I was an early adopter they didn’t charge me (I’m not sure if they changed it back to not being a subscription ) but yeah a lot of changes. Even the colors fonts and the card are completely different. They have some cool features now like live coaches. but there are some big downsides like once I was trying to buy a car with cash but the limit was 500 withdrawn a day and they don’t have a number support line they only have ticket support so I had a stressful time trying to get the money for this car the same day. Also the budgeting feature isn’t that easy to use but I haven’t even tried. For some reason it says I spend like 5k a month when I’m not even spending or making that much but I think it’s because I’m moving it from checking to savings and it counts it as a transaction and a purchase. Anyways I’ve had some issues but what bank doesn’t have issues.

I have used empower/had the app for a few months. It’s been ok(not great—not exactly accurate as a budgeting tool —but to monitor accounts it does work well). Due to some problem in their system, it runs into an error when processing a cash advance suddenly. Fine. I sent them the error message about 3.5 weeks ago. They say they are aware of the error and are working on it. Fast forward 12 emails and a couple weeks later. Same response. Then someone asks me to send a screenshot again. I already HAD, but did it again. No resolution. No communication on issue. No updates. Phone call yielded “We are working on it.” Crickets since now nearly a week ago. My thing is this: You don’t bother to be sure that a customer that has a card and an account with you is taken care of, don’t bother to reach out with progress or updates, don’t prioritize the issue after nearly a month—you don’t deserve my ongoing business or ANYONES business. I actually wouldn’t care/mind so much if I at least got once a week updates, someone reached out to me, made me feel valued as a customer. Like a “Hey—just reaching out—we haven’t forgotten about you. Just letting you know we are still working on this …etc.” It’s not the problem itself that I am having that bothers me so much—technical glitches do happen—its the attitude and lack of customer centered service. I COMPLETELY understand if you are working on something and it’s taking longer than expected or more complicated than you thought. That’s cool—just reach out and say so—but to ignore me? My opinion? Do not use/use with caution.

I’ve had this bank for several months now and it could be great but there are several major flaws.

Since I know no one is even going to read this review I’m just going to put my one compliment up here at the top.

1) If you can convince someone to use this crappy app then you can make a pretty good interest rate on your savings account for a month.

Long list of Cons:

1) The app is ALWAYS slow and buggy. I have the newest iPhone and a pretty decent WiFi so I know it’s not on my side of things. It’s worse than the Wells Fargo app (that app is terrible). Other “bank apps” like Chime, Wealthfront, Capital One, and Chase for example have much smoother, less annoying user interfaces.

2) Sometimes the app just doesn’t work for me. I go to login and it just sits there loading indefinitely. I’m not sure if I’m the only one that has this issue but like the UI issues it is just super frustrating.

3) I think all banks should be accessible from a desktop computer. When planning my finances I use google sheets and open tabs up with all my accounts to balance everything. With the app only system it just makes it really annoying.

4) The accounts tracking system they have is nice. You can set limits for certain budgets and all that Jazz. The only problem is that some accounts take several days to update in the Empower app itself which basically makes it halfway useless.

I could keep going on but I really don’t think there’s a point. There are better banks out there that aren’t so sketchy and inconstant. Empower is just using the boost to have you recruit more people into their crappy app.

As a graphic designer myself, my favorite part about Empower was being able to see my finances in a more visual way - it was clean, organized, and my favorite part, it was colorful! I could finally look at my finances and really, clearly understand them. Then, the update came.

Now, it looks nothing how it used to - they changed the organization and taken away graphs and pie charts - but the font they’ve decided to use throughout EVERYWHERE has to be the worst part of it. It has distracting serifs hanging off the font, it’s so thin it makes it hard to read, and the numbers look weird (specifically the 1). The second worst part of this new brand identity is that they’ve taken the color away. They’ve made it completely greyscale with only a hint of dull grey-salmon here or there. It’s not bold or bright like it used to be, the visual pie charts and colors are gone. The organization is completely gone off the rails. I’ve recommended so many people to this app but no more - moved on to their competitor Mint to get back what Empower once gave me. They’ve lost a lot of customers with this update and they know it - I don’t know if they’re trying to make the app more “feminine” with this update and the salmon color but coming from a 23 year old girl, it’s not working. Go back to the previous organization and especially the COLORS, fire your graphic designer and leave this grey salmon aesthetic in the design graveyard of bad ideas where it belongs, it ruined this app for me and many others.

(Additionally, was never able to connect my BMO Harris account with Empower, but no problem with Mint!)

I do not recommend this app the headache they gave me to give me MY money - I cashed app 157$ to my empower account and it never showed up I called for days and every day I got different excuses a few days after I noticed my account went up in funds but I was still missing 95$ so after 10 days of excuses today I speak to someone who told me the amount in my account was the correct amount and that the money was in fact transferred but I couldn’t see it on my app there was no transaction so they try to get me for my 95$ without really investigating in it I wanted to speak to the manger and never got to but was told the manger looked into my account and said that the 76$ in my account was the correct amount that I had pending transaction that cleared which is why there was only 76$ but I knew they were wrong because I barley used the card so I did my own calculations and found that I was charged twice in 4 transactions so I call back and again speak to someone different and I explained yet everything again and that I was charged twice so the transaction that said pending added up to 95$ and those were the ones that I was already charged and those were duplicates so again I’m put on hold for a while and he comes on to tell me how sorry they are that I am correct and that I was in fact missing 95$ and the transaction did get charge twice then made a whole lie about how it takes 10 days for a credit to get in the account and guess who’s 95$ was out back in there account ME so the whole time they were just holding my money and making lies up have I not really payed attention I would of been played a fool smh ! Shame on this company !

I have been a member of empower since the beginning and the decision to partner with NBKC bank was the worst decision empower could have ever made. The wonderful experience I once had with this bank has been transformed into the most atrociously absurd banking experience I have had to date.

My experience, you ask? My account had been randomly frozen for the purpose of verifying my identity. Ok, that makes sense, it’s a security measure. However, I had provided MULTIPLE documents; my ID, most current bank statements, bills etc..,; only to have them deny the bank statement I had provided and ask me to resend the same statement because the second time around would somehow be more acceptable than the first (can they not see statements THEY issue or)... Sound like a nightmare? Consider this to be the worst you could have.

Though one support member was nice enough to finally contact me, their fraud department cannot provide you with a live customer service rep. Ask anything, the answer will always be “go to the app you’ll find your answer there” you might as well ask a slice of bread your question because at least a slice of bread can be present where as this bank cannot.

My direct deposit hit on payday, except it was only reflected in my transactions. My account was negative and frozen. They returned my direct deposit to my employer in the afternoon, diminishing any chance of receiving my direct deposit in any form other than a paper check. And guess what, my account is still frozen.

Do NOT, do NOTTTT get this bank. Empower was such a wonderful bank prior to the switch and they should really consider dropping NBKC if they have any hopes for future survival.

1. You cannot unlink your bank account from the app. You can delete your whole account and cancel your subscription, but you don’t know if they can still see your bank information since they refuse to let you remove it.
2. The way they organize your expenses is STUPID. I spent probably 10-15 minutes reorganizing the entire deal because they put my bills in expenses, charity donations in bills, subscriptions in entertainment. EVERYTHING was wrong. And they don’t have a great representation to your income. So if you get a bonus, tax refund, lower/higher paycheck, you have to pull teeth to find it and fix what the app put in.
3. If you want an APY on a checking or savings account, look up banks with $0 fees and $0 minimums and 90% of them have anywhere from 1.70% to even 4.3% which work a lot better, feel a lot safer and are easily organized.
4. The “smart” savings is a joke. It asks for a weekly amount to save. That’s not smart... if I wanted that, I would just transfer it into my current savings account. If you need an app that you want to save money freely for you, give you bonuses, correctly organizes your expenses, and is easy to manage. Try Albert for $5 a month. It’s REALLY a smart savings app that find little odds and ends of money that you won’t miss or need (Ex: you go to a restaurant and spend $17.20, it’ll take $2.80 and put it in your savings. Making it feel like an equal $20 and you don’t miss the $2.80 you put in).
5. The helping texting dude is a robot 90% of the time. So sometimes the answers make no sense and due to the ill organization, they often aren’t very helpful. Albert has real people who talk to you and work with you to find a solution.

There is a growing trend evolving in the world of apps and personal finance. New startups, like Empower, are springing up to fill this emerging market. The easy “bank account”. Before I continue I want to say that there are good entities out there (like Chime): however, Empower is not one of them. They are a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I signed up initially because of their high interest savings account offering. I was very happy for the first 3 to 4 months. Card sent quickly. Well designed app. Then one day I woke up to find my card frozen and my account shut down. This was after my card was stolen and used fraudulently. This was where the nightmare began. Right off the bat I quickly discovered that it is impossible to get a customer service agent on the phone. Why? Because they don’t exist. I then found out that the in app CS people are bots until you really push the matter and threaten legal action. I was met with a litany of accusations disguised in questions in regards to the fraudulent purchases on my account after the card was stolen. They did end up reimbursing me and then closes my account the next day. They would not give me an answer as to why they closed my account. Read their terms of service. They do not have to give you a reason. When they closed my account they also froze transfers. I still had $600+ in it. It took almost a month to get my money transferred to another account of my choosing. Empower would not do it. I had to track down their banking partner and call them. That was the only human I spoke to the entire time. The individual I spoke to via the app was beyond rude and dismissive. I cannot warn you enough to stay away from Empower. I am filing a complaint with the FTC.

I love the app but there are other things that really need work let’s go from the good to the bad customer service once they respond do typically seem to understand your problem and WANT to help you. The card works well and there are plenty of fee free ATM option which is a plus when looking at app based banking changing the app pin or updating personal information is a huge hassle a simple two step verification system could bypass the app pin all together with an option to not be challenged more than once a week.

Where things went wrong.. I lost my card I reported it to support the same night it happened and my card was shut off the next day GREAT this is what should happen. Then in order to dispute they sent me forms to fill out which is technically unnecessary but a common practice in the banking industry.. I waited the 10 days as outlined in FTC regulation for bank error resolution I even sent support a direct link to the regulation since they are newer and may not have been aware of REG E compliance. I keep getting the response that the “investigation” takes times as a former compliance auditor I know that the investigation was completed the second I sent in written verification it’s a lost card claim there isn’t a lot to be investigated and not much can be done other than refunding the money to the consumer and issuing a chargeback to the merchant.

Before this issue support was always quick to respond and could generally help with anything I needed because of this issue I am considering going back to my traditional bank I never had to deal with them for a lost or stolen card but I know they would at the very least comply with federal banking regulations.

Now at 21 days. Emails and chats go completely ignored I found a phone number for them. No one answers that either. Fairly sure this is at least partially a scam.

UPDATE- based on the developer response i am updating my review back to 4 stars since the capital one issue is unrelated to empower and i appreciate the developer response.

UPDATE- october - although im still not a fan of the rebrand, i was happy with the app services until it stopped downloading my Capital One data. I loved the app because it did a wonderful job aggregating my account data in one place. (Although new UI kinda ruined it).. However after contacting useless support which continued to tell me “delete the account and re add it. If that doesnt work, sorry.” And consistently for weeks seeing a red “!” By my account —Ive lost hope on the feature being fixed. Who can let a feature like integrating a popular credit card system be down for so long and not look into it? Where is Products priorities right now? Do they care about the consumer?

Either way i am sad and unimpressed. It is likely i will close my accounts and return to Mint.

UPDATE- app is now less buggy but rebrand is not very intuitive. Nice color scheme tho.

The app is great, except that its super buggy. Transactions from the empower checking card get removed from my overall balance but sometimes dont show and therefore arent added to my budgets. I cant seem to connect my card to venmo, and operators say theyre working on resolving it but have to time period estimated. I also cant link my account to other budgeting tools like mint, forcing me to try to guess on my goals ive created there. Its also frustrating creating new labels for the budgets, as i make one, close the app and reopen it to see my label has disappeared and its just a labeless purple square—and why cant i add lyft and uber as one budget?

Lots of potential here but i feel this was released with a really unstable code base, which when its the only platform u provide to users, is a real bummer.

I think the services as a bank however — 5 stars.

I used this app for months for cash advances with no issues. Then about a month and a half ago I repaid my advance and noticed it suddenly said I didn’t qualify for anything, despite the fact that nothing of my circumstances had changed. I emailed customer service and was volleyed around multiple people where each one stated repeatedly that they “had no idea what the issue was” and that they were looking into it, because they acknowledged that I my all the qualifications. I was even told that they would comp my monthly subscription fee for the inconvenience. Finally after about a month, I received an email stating the issue had been fixed and that I may need to reset the app to see this reflected in my account. I did this and still nothing was resolved. I emailed them again and was AGAIN volleyed around multiple people saying they weren’t sure of the issue, until suddenly the story changed and they said I no longer qualified. I emailed them stating that I would no longer be using their services because this was ridiculous. The next day I saw that I was charged $100 for “insufficient funds” for a purchase that was placed two days prior, which also happened to be the same day that my final direct deposit had processed into that account. Then, the same day, I received ANOTHER email telling me I no longer qualify because my account was negative.

At this point, I consider this theft. Do not use this app. Do not download this app. And do not trust this app with your money, because clearly they add an “insufficient funds” charge when you say you’re going to close you’re account. The most ridiculous experience I’ve ever had, especially after being a regular and loyal customer for MONTHS. And obviously, the most ridiculous part is the joke that is their customer service. No one communicates with each other and you end up receiving the same email from 5 different people, none of which actually know how to resolve your problem.

To preface, the only reason I’m only leaving negative reviews and not taking this farther is thankfully I had already moved my money out of this horrible service. THEY PUT ON A SECURITY CODE ON MY ACCOUNT I DIDNT AUTHORIZE THEN WOULDNT GRANT ME ACCESS.

Horrible customer service when my card info was stolen. Would not look into refunding me or sending me a new card until I printed out, filled out, and re scanned in documents. I SIGNED UP FOR AN ONLINE ONLY BANK THAT DOESNT LET YOU DO PAPERWORK ONLINE. I would have had to pay to print and do all that. No way. I removed my money.

Even after all this I was still referring people based on the saving account and debit rewards-cannot believe I was so stupid as to keep referring.

I deleted the app, someone wanted a referral code from me so I re downloaded it. Now I had never logged out or deleted it completely from my device so then it doesn’t ask for a login at all just my phone number. Ok whatever did that.

Then it gave me a security question.
I NEVER SET UP A SECURITY QUESTION, I WAS NOT INFORMED THERE WOULD EVER BE ONE AND I DID NOT CONSENT FOR ONE. It asked for part of an account number...that did not exist. It hadn’t existed for months prior to this using empower. So empower DUG THROUGH ALL OF MY CONNECTED ACCOUNTS AND USED OLD INFORMATION I DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO TO PREVENT ME ACCESS TO EMPOWER. The company the account is through, chase, even says that I do not have any accounts open with them so it’s not valid.

After spending two days with customer service asking why they would try to access accounts that don’t exist and pull information from it they told me that’s just how it works. They will not remove the security question, they will not change it, and they will not grant me access in any other way. So all they will do is delete my account. And unlike any other legitimate company, they will not allow me to ever open a new one even though it is their error that locked me out.

Just get a real bank and credit card THAT WILL ACTUALLY BACK UP AND SUPPORT ITS CUSTOMERS.

I got approved for a cash advance of $50. I was fine for two months and then I missed one payment because I just for some reason forgot that it was due. So I paid it like two days late. At that point they are deemed me an ineligible for advances. Contacted them about it and basically they were like there’s nothing we can do. Keep in mind they have been charging me every month for the monthly subscription and I was very much unaware of this. Because it’s a very small charge of eight dollars and I will admit I’m very bad with keeping up with my subscriptions. But I noticed they charged me for the month of March and I haven’t been able to use the payday advance in the month of March because I was ineligible for it. That is when I contacted customer service. She told me she was going to review my account proceeded to take about six minutes to respond and then asked me what I needed help with. I told her that I wanted my account closed and to be refunded for the month of March. Then she asked to review my account again. To which I took her about another five minutes. I thought you already reviewed my account at the beginning of the chat? But OK. She gets back and says you didn’t contact us before hand so we aren’t going to refund you basically. Is there anything else I can help you with? I then responded by saying so you mean to tell me that I have to pay for a month that I didn’t use at all? She immediately ended the chat and closed my account. Literally! No response, nothing. Customer service is horrible. You can honestly find better customer service and better service with other apps. Don’t do it it’s not worth it. So thank you cause you showed me how terrible your company is Update: oh sorry! Let me give you an update. They just sent me an email with a transcript of the conversation we just had. And right after I said so basically I have to pay for something that I didn’t get to use? She did respond and let me know that she was ending the chat and ended the chat all within about 13 seconds of my question.Does that make what happened any better? So it takes you 5 to 6 minutes to look over my account. And then it Hass to be done twice. But it takes you 13 seconds to basically answer my question and then in the chat? Interesting

Update (12/17) Since last review (below) the app has gotten worse with each update. However, the app isn’t the worst part. Evolve bank outsourced its customer service to a call center which has all of your information at hand but isn’t able to answer the simplest of questions. If using the app bot to reach customer service don’t bother, you’ll never receive a reply. Also, when calling the call center prepare to overhear background conversations from other agents very clearly discussing other customers, swearing, and talking about the drunken party from the night prior...no wonder the hold time is so long. Ask to speak to a supervisor...don’t bother, they are always in a “meeting for a while” no matter what time you call and they never return calls.
Furthermore, the bank will lock your account without providing a reason then state it is an error in a follow-up email only to lock it again for 5 months while you go back and fourth with the party-going foul mouthed customer service center which offers no information as to the bank protocols but rather gives glimpses into the poor management, borderline fraudulent banking practices, and lack of any quality assurance or actual care of customers. Used Empower for over two years and saw no benefit from being a customer, only trouble. There are countless better banks and banking apps that actually treat customers well. Swipe left.

Everything looks great with Empower, cash back for transactions on your debit card and a great interest rate for savings. However, take notice:
1) No Bill Pay or Check Payment
2) No Check Deposits-only direct deposit
3) Customer service absolutely takes much, much, much, longer than 2 hours to respond even during typical banking hours.
4) The worst of the worst for me: 7/10 times trying to link another account via the Empower app it doesn’t link and customer service says to link via your other account. Annoying but manageable except for the fact that unless your other bank app allows your to enter routing and account info manually, Empower does not exist in the lists of all the other banks able to link via entering your login information. Out of all the bank apps and finance apps I have and have tried, Empower is the least link-able, therefore making 90% of the other cool features Empower boasts about obsolete.
Then it’s just a barely functional app dressed all fancy. Like lipstick on a pig.

Below is my first review ; and I absolutely had no negative things to say about this service UNTIL THIS PAST WEEK / and update from the App Store :

I get paid weekly : take advance weekly and pay back on time weekly . Finally up to being offered a larger Amt for the first time in months . Never had any problems . This past weekend ( oct 30, 2022) updated all my apps from the App Store , and boy do I wish I hadn’t . All the sudden it stated I am being offered 150 dollars , HOWEVER - it says : offer can be accepted on nov7 th? Not before ? What? Usually I can accept immediately that day ? Ok so here is it Nov 4 , just like every Friday I have my DD IN MY bank , and I check to see what empower says : Now it says : we offer you 150 dollars Money can be accepted by you on or after - November 14 th , 2022 , WHAT? First it was nov 4 now it’s nov 14 , and nothing has changed with my pay amount , dates of pay , or bank information. Why did It go from months off of being offered advances every Friday , To last week I had to wait over 8 days to accept advance with no information as to why , to now, a week later being told I now have to wait to accept even further out ( 15 days ) and extended that from the nov 7 with no reason as to why ? Does anyone else have this issue or know what changed with the service requirements? Nothing on my end changed, other then I simply updated the app in the App Store , and that day is when all this started . I have sent numerous emails with no responses other then automated pre typed response everyone gets , I also chatted with bots Finally got a live agent named RONA : they clearly also respond with pre rehearsed responses everyone gets , nothing actually showing they are taking my issues serious or giving me any information pertaining to my personal acct or issues . She said sorry you having issues I can't manually change you eligibility but it goes by your pay, then sent a link on eligibility for their service I already read all this numerous times andNothing changed on my end I asked her , I’m not asking you to change my eligibility I’m asking WHAT CHANGED ABOUT MY PERSONAL ACCOUNT ,that all the sudden you keep extending my availability when I have never had this issue before nor have I had a change in my pay , pay dates or bank. She the replied WITH EXACT SAME LINK and statement of I can’t change your eligibility manually here are requirements to our service link .. I once again said do you understand what I’m asking ?I don’t want you to change anything I want to know exactly what it is about MY PERSONAL InFORMATION that I can’t accept your service like I have been for weeks now . She says You are eligible now have a good day AND DISCONNECTED HERSELF FROMBTHE CHAT AND HUNG UP ON ME BASICALLY . I checked the app and I am still not able to accept the offered advance until nov 14 with no info as to what happened suddenly. No email responses , no help offered through their support chat . And I guess now I only have one option ,to cancel service and continue on with EARNEN AND DAVE , and their alike services who have no issue with their customer service and are happy to accept my hard earned money in return for their service . Shame bc empower was one of the apps I always recommend to friends and family and never had bad experiences with them . Hopefully it’s a fluke and no one else starts to experience the issues I am , I have used them for many months now with excellent service , now a full week of headache and run around and just like that my opinion has changed negatively in a big way . Only had app for about a week , I was given instantly 100 dollars within five mins of downloading app. There is a five dollar fee to be paid back with loan for instant access. I have a pay check that hits the acct every week bc my spouse and I get paid on opposite Fridays , so unfortunately I had to pay it back within a few days , and off my spouse check and not mine . So an option to pay back in certain amount of time would benefit , bc I got the loan on we’d had to pay back that Friday , instead of the following Friday when I actually got paid. However , no major deal bc I’m just happy I was given financial help when needed, gas prices are ridiculous and affecting us recently more than I thought it would . So I was able to make it to work/ home that rest of week. Friday morning they took the money out , ( as expected )and the best part, ( and surprising) They offered me another $100 advance immediately after payment ! So that was pretty cool. I don’t want to depend on these services , however I am so thankful these apps exist for times like these when gas is double to get to work. I hope these companies stay the same, and easily obtainable the more popular they get, and as they grow financially. *Quick note I used a friends acct link to sign up , both apparently get twenty dollars after I complete sign up and become a active user . My friend received the free twenty dollars from the reference , I have not yet . I did chat with a agent , they were quickly attentive I must say. I was informed they will email me after looking into the circumstances. So we shall see Overall it’s a great app so far with helpful funds when needed for the average Joe .I never got the twenty dollar advance

On 9/23/23 Empower placed a hold on my debit hard because of an alleged fraud alert for a $35.00 transaction to Amazon. After many attempts and contacts with customer service and fraud prevention the hold was never released. I closed my account over a week ago and was told my money would be refunded to my connected acct Citi. As of this date my money has not been refunded. This has caused me undue stress and strain, financial hardship, loss of wages because I could not get to work

Please do not use this bank!

Card never works, declined and frozen constantly. Doesn’t have a support team to call that’ll answer when you need them. Unfreezing card in app does nothing. Chat helper used to be okay it would just take hours to days for a response. Now they’ve put a new company who is all automated and they don’t respond to your requests, just send you an email with a link to your initial question and say someone will reach out. Been waiting over a week now. Called them after twenty minutes got an answer, person was rude, they have no complaints team, was told to leave my complaints as a review. So, here I am.

Paid early doesn’t work, you’ll be lucky if you get your money on the right day. Not that your card will work for you to spend your own money.

Save yourself the trouble, go to a more established bank and come back in a year or two. Hopefully by then it’ll be fixed.

Sorry Syd, I really liked your support and what you stood for but there are too many major issues for me to continue to try to use this bank.

Maybe in the future.

Update (02/20) - I have been trying to get my money back from them for a month now but now they just happen to remove the messaging area in their app so I can’t even continue talking with the person who was ”helping” me.

Update 1 - Please read my previous review below! I have been trying to get REAL answers from these people but they just keep telling me if my money was actually transferred to Empower it will be refunded within 5 days...okay? So I’m just supposed to sit here waiting to see what happens? It has been THREE weeks and I have not heard back from them even though I’m trying to contact them! They never tell me anything that will help me! I’m getting zero REAL answers from them!

Previous Review - I transferred hundreds of dollars from my normal bank to my Empower savings account only for my Empower account to not show any money transferred despite the fact my bank says the transfer was completed.

Their customer service has responded (albeit once a day) but they have not offered me ANY solutions.

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME GET MY MONEY BACK!

I have used this app repeatedly with no problems until I switched to their Thrive program. I withdrew $200, I incurred some late fees and my total came to $213.54. I paid the balance completely. I checked my bank account and noticed Empower debited my account twice (totaling $427.08) for the same amount. I have tried contacting them to find out when they will refund the overpayment and am getting a different customer service agent each time. The last message I received yesterday the agent told me the double charge was “probably interest.” I explained the interest and any late fees should and would’ve been in the total balance and they are simply trying to justify stealing my money. The agent prior to this one said to just “withdraw the money from the app and call it even.” I explained the max to withdraw is $200 and the company owes me $213.54; no further response from that agent either. I currently have this in dispute with my bank and will be reporting this app to every entity I can find. Please use Dave, Brigit, Earnin. Empower has poor business ethics and morals.

Got the app and set everything up. I got a cash advance and it worked fine. Empower auto save was taking money out as I set it up. After several weeks I could not get a cash advance. Customer service tells me it’s issues with plaid connecting to my account and it will be fixed within 48 hours.That was 6 weeks ago. Funny no other app using plaid and my bank account has any issue. Customer service states oh well just connect another account. During this time though. Empower had no issues debiting my account for auto save account or charging me the subscription fee. I then try and get my money that was in the auto save account back. No it has issues now and does not work. Customer service zero help. They just spout out prefabricated script. I cannot get my money back from Empower. I would not use this app they take with no problems but cannot seem to go give me my money back that I deposited. I Want Amy Money Back now without all of the excuses. This company is just out to take your money. I just canceled my subscription and will probably never see the money I deposited. Be aware!

this app goes so far as to make you think you’ll really get your emergency money in the knick of time. but it’s just phishing to get your info i’m quite sure. they can’t get my advance to me for an emergency that i have, but we’re able to charge me for the free trial (which i wouldn’t need the advance had i not been charged for the free trial. it’s actually what brought me to the app) edit: after reading more reviews (some from over a year ago) that are the exact same situation as mine, i can definitely say don’t download this app. it is clearly a scam.

edit: i’ve contacted support and they clearly don’t know what’s going on at their company. they claimed that i hadn’t granted all permissions when my account was created (which is a lie), and there is nothing they can do about it. but if that was the reasoning then the solution would be a very quick fix on my end, which is just granting permissions (which i already did when they initially asked for them. i just double checked in my settings to verify as well). the woman on the other end of support sounds just like one of my coworkers who was fired for telling false information to customer
whenever she didn’t have an answer or didn’t know what was going on.

I’ve been using empower exclusively for nearly a year now and in the past few months things have severely changed for the worse. In addition to the design changes, which In my opinion only made the app less useful than ever , I’ve had some serious issues with customer service. The biggest being they seem to have lost $329.

In the past, all issues were handled with a chat in app, and responses were always helpful and quick. Apparently they have handed customer service over to another company (Synapse) and, surprise, it’s not great. I had to send three separate messages, one to the CEO, in order to get someone to address a missing refund. I had to message them multiple times, over three weeks, to get information.
When the issue was “resolved” they offered no explanation as to why over $300 had just gone missing. Additionally, the money never actually made it to my account. The refunds were posted in the app, but I haven’t received the money. And after two attempts at continuing contact with Synapse customer service, I’m still waiting on an explanation.

Additionally, I have noticed a lot of glitches in the app recently. I had 20 transactions pop up at once, the incorrect balance shown, double and triple notifications on a single transactions. The list goes on.

The worst app I have ever used! I do not ever take a min to write a review about apps but this one I must! First off, the criteria for a cash advance is written specifically for people that wouldn’t even need a cash advance in the first place. You have to maintain a $50 balance for so many days for 4 pay periods. So, why would I borrow $50 if I could keep $50 in my account? Also this app charges monthly fees for what I don’t even know. What they charge you for, other apps have been doing for a while now. The customer service is terrible. They read scripts and will just disconnect the chat whenever you as the customer are right. This place is a scam! They cold-heartedly trap people into paying $11 or so a month in hopes they might qualify for advances in the future. I receive over 2k a month through the account connected to this app and told I don’t qualify for not maintaining a $50 balance. When I explained I move money to my savings account every pay period they said there wasn’t anything they could do. Thankfully, there is one thing I can do...cancel, never use again and share my experience. THIS PLACE IS A STRAIGHT SCAM!

Update: they apologized and explained there auto save feature costs $8 monthly. I can auto save from any account for nothing and my bank already advances me $200 every payday. This app is completely worthless!

So Empower recently made a transfer to NBKC bank every since then I’ve had nothing but issues, the last time I had an issue I transfer money to cashapp but the money never made it to my cash app account I contacted Empower they provided a credit in the amount of the money that was lost a few days later I was able to contact Cash App and they return my Funds. So rightfully Empower reversed the credit.When the credit was reversed the transaction displayed two times on my account but I can clearly see that the funds were only Deduct one time . to ensure that I wouldn’t be charged twice I contacted Empower in regards to the charge displaying twice. The next day I was contacted by an Empower representative via email informing me that my account would be closed due to a false report of recurring charges. I immediately called the number on the back of my card and spoke to a representative after some waiting, informed him of what happened and he apologized and confirmed with me that the charges were showing twice but was not deducted twice the representative instructed me to reload my app to see if the charges were still showing two times which it was not, So the representative fix the issue of the charges showing two times but I received an additional email notifying me that my account would would remain closed..If anyone can help please help me get this resolved I’ve been a member for 2 and a half maybe 3 years

First, they try and entice you with all of these promises and yet it’s all lies and false advertising. I more then qualified for their “advance” and yet it kept telling me I didn’t. It wouldn’t pick up my legitimate paychecks and deposits of my checks. I then emailed their team about it and was told there’s nothing they can do. They basically repeated all of the qualifications to me, which I already knew as I took snap shots and sent it to them. Even with the checks and deposits it did pick up I more then qualified and it kept stating I didn’t. I then took shots of my bank account deposits for both my accounts and sent to them with a snap shot of their “requirements” and showed them I qualified and I am again told them is nothing they can do. Go figure! This company is horrible! Do NOT WASTE YOUR TIME! You’re better off going with MoneyLion, Cleo, Dave, Viola or any other company out there. Now to try and cancel this $8/mo account and to get my banking information taken off here.
If it would actually work, the concept is great. It just is a lying company after your money.

Update> I have contacted the email address before leaving this review. Their reply makes people think they care or are trying but they do not. I have sent photographic proof of my qualifying. They even agreed that I qualify and don’t know why their system is denying me. It’s a SCAM they just want to make money off your subscription. DO NOT JOIN! Go to MoneyLion, Viola, Dave, Cleo or any other site that actually works.