Cleo
reviews and complaints

Do not download this application. They tease you with overdraft cover, first telling you you’re not yet eligible. After you interact with the application for a while, it then notifies you that you’re eligible if you agree to sign up for Cleo+. So I paid them, and attempted to utilize the feature. Cleo told me they were just waiting for my payment to clear and then they would get me my overdraft cover. As soon as the money left my bank account, they reverted back to me being ineligible for overdraft protection which was the only reason I even signed up for Cleo+. This is a bait and switch to get your money and then not you offer the features that they advertise that you will receive for paying that money. This is more than false advertising, this is theft, plain and simple. You string people along for days / weeks who are already struggling to make ends meet and then compound the situation by offering them hope so that you can get their money and then not following through with your end of the transaction. I am making formal complains with Apple / App Store about this and encouraging anyone else who has experienced this to do the same. I will dispute the membership charge with my bank and I am putting Cleo on blast on social media and researching any other places I can report this fraudulent app to.

Whether it’s deposits hitting my account, or Cleo canceling savings transfers from my checking account, she’s always a day late. I’m notified at minimum 12 hours after a deposit hits (usually 24 hours later). She sets an amount to transfer from checking into cleos savings wallet, and cancels it the next day because I’ve spent money. Of course I’ve spent money, it’s my checking account! Even when I have Cleo set up to round up my dollar for every card purchase I make, it isn’t instant. It is set for the following day, and she cancels these too when too much money is spent. I pay for the membership which I’m now canceling. For a (very small might I add) salary advance, it takes seven days to do another one. They call this a cool off period. However, on the 6th day after you pay your advance back, Cleo tells you to check back later that day if you want another advance... however I’d you paid Cleo back at 6 am, you really can’t get another salary advance the day she is telling you to check back. Her days are registering as hours to her.. you have to wait 24 more hours until 6 am the next FAU to get the advance. I know this is a lot of information, but people like this app for what reason? She’s 24 hours behind with absolutely EVERYTHING that goes on in your checking account. I’ll be cancelling and deleting the app. 0 stars if I could

The app started off great and extremely useful for what I was looking for in a budgeting app. I signed up for Cleo+ and even gave them my private information for their new rollout feature to collect interest in their own savings account. I loved this app for 1-2 months and the categories and spending is great.

However - I will never recommend this app to anyone purely that their customer support is non existent. I have sent over 12+ email over a *simpleissue linking the Cleo cover that they offer and absolutely no response. I then have sent in 4+ account cancelation/deletion requests over two weeks now and not received one response back. On top of that, my account has not been deleted and is still active despite my numerous deletion attempts. They also refuse to disconnect my bank and banking information. Before you ask, yes I did email support for this and big shock they have not once responded to me. If I could stop myself from ever giving my personal information to this company I would immediately. Especially considering they will not delete my account or private financial information from their app. It’s baffling to me how they have so many great reviews with a non existent customer service team. If I ignored emails at work the way they do I wouldn’t have a job anymore... and they shouldn’t either.

Steer clear and do not give them any of your information.

I’ve used this app for over a year and it was nice to have the change rounded up and saved. However, with apps like Acorn who invests that for you, there really isn’t a point anymore for this feature. This was mainly the reason why I wanted this app to begin with. Now the app itself is okay to run, it’s not so bad. What makes this 2 star worthy isn’t the app itself but the lack of options. Yea it’s funny to have an app roast your spending habits, sure, but it feels like the app keeps your savings in prison or something. You have to wait “3 business days” which I’m guessing excludes Fridays and the weekends. Meaning that if you place a withdrawal on a Wednesday it claims it won’t be in your account until Tuesday! If you are reading this and are okay with waiting that long, then this app is not so bad. It has some unique features that could be useful but were not useful for me personally. If someone would have told me that their business days are Monday- Thursday I would be less harsh but it’s frustrating when the money is needed and you have to wait almost a week to get it! Not to mention it was supposed to be in my account already but somehow was canceled. It’s frustrating to say the very least. If they were to add an instant payout method then that feature alone would easily make my rating 4 stars. Since that isn’t an option and some glitchy stuff happened with my transfer, they will be getting 2 stars from me.

This app seemed like a great idea! Need a bit of cash? Want to build money skills? “Sounds like this is the app for you.”

This is where the problems start. I payed for the $5.99 plan, and used it for about 3 months. Once I got into a better place financially I cancelled the plan. Then an issue came up (death of a family member) and I needed money once again. So I went to CLEO only to be met with a host of issues. I asked for an advance and was shown “ooooppps there’s a problem.” I tried to resubscribe to the $5.99 plan and NOTHING HAPPENED. I would get kicked out of the app, try again, and get kicked out of the app again! If I wanted or in this case NEEDED an advance I would have to pay the $15.99 cost for the PREMIUM plan. How does that build better money management? People should be trained now to NOT NEED CLEO, but instead they are punished for leaving.

Honestly I wouldn’t be that mad since I know every app needs money to function, but to code your app to loop people who have already subscribed into choosing a larger subscription is trash! And it wasn’t even hidden! A simple breakdown of the app coding shows that anyone who subscribed to a basic subscription will NOT be allowed to use that subscription again. This a breach of the APP STORE terms of service, and is NOT mentioned anywhere in the app. DONT USE! This “bug” has already been reported to the App Store, but as long as the app is up, DONT USE!

I love this app. At first I wasn’t too into it. But you either have to have the patience to customize it immediately or overtime customize it the best way you can. Once you’ve done that You and Cleo have a better understanding of where your money is going.

I’m confused as to what the points now do for you. It’s suppose to go towards your salary advance but if that’s the only thing or reason why it doesn’t have to be so big. I think my score is so high based upon my balance in my account and that’s wrong. You shouldn’t get scored on how much money you have it should be about your spending habits.

Which then brings me to another point. You should ask daily if the purchase was a need or want or bill and it should be mandatory.

The credit should be updated each week and you should be able to give more insight as to the accounts that are on my credit. If that’s not going to happen then you should take it down because who wants to know their credit score and see something bad but can’t see what’s actually making it bad. No one wants that cuz now we have to open up another app. You see where I’m going with this?

All in all it’s a great app I’ve been using it for 6months and finally got it set up the way I like it so Cleo understands my buys and the category a certain store is. Helps me really focus on my spending and my budget. It’s not perfect it makes its own judgement but if you want this to be successful you literally have to take the time to make it yours and fit you.

If everything this working fine and you are paying attention to everything it works fine. But once something messes up customer support is very rude and won’t listen to you at all if they think they are right. Multiple times I have proved them wrong about things they didn’t believe me at first. Always screen shot everything with them to have back up protection. 2 issues I am having that haven’t been resolved!

1st: I signed up with student beans and it’s a discount of 33% off the credit builder subscription. Well it didn’t give me the discount so I emailed support the same day and at first no one had a clue about a student discount. Like I had to argue with them about it. They said it would be taken care of and put a ticket in. Well almost 3 months later still was paying full price and nothing resolved after multiple attempts to support. Then they just started to shut me down and say they can’t prove I signed up for it and blah blah. Won’t speak to me about it anymore or answer. Now my next step will be to file a complaint to the Consumers Financial Protection Bureau and the FL Attorneys General’s Office.

2nd: I had done the research study for $250 in November and completed it. Still waiting on my money for doing it. I have talked to support multiple times and they have verified it was completed that it will be on my card next day but doesn’t. I have reached out once more to a different person today hopefully it will be resolved or I will be doing the same filing complaints.

If I could rate zero stars I really would. Personally for me, it’s not worth it. I had downloaded and signed up to Cleo in an emergency in the hopes of getting a cash advance like it advertises. I’m not too sure if the app offers other features since I didn’t bother navigating through it after how disappointed I was. First off, to even be qualified for a cash advance Cleo charges you for a subscription of $5.99/month that charges you FIRST so you can enjoy the perks of 1)cash advance 2)credit score coaching 3)getting cash backs on selected stores. Now I’m not saying that’s bad to offer but credit karma offers all things credit score 101 and getting cash back at stores you can do with just about any other credit card etc. anyway I digress..seeing as to that’s not what I was looking for those benefits were pointless to me other than the cash advance. So if you’re in an emergency, with no money, $5.99 is already a reach. Upon agreeing to subscription you get to see what you qualify for your cash advance. I got qualified for $20. Yay! If you can’t tell.. sarcasm! So in order to get these $20 dollars transferred to my bank it’s, of course, going to charge for a transfer fee of $3.99. I took screenshots of all of this but unfortunate can’t post it on here. Getting qualified for only $20 on top of already being charged with $5.99 plus $3.99 for a transfer fee just seemed ridiculous to me. Anyway, you might qualify for something entirely different and you may like this app but for me this was a hard no. I ended up declining the offer and writing to customer support to have my $5.99 refunded as soon I declined offer. (Cash was refunded btw)

You have to pay a monthly fee to borrow money. On top of that, they don’t allow you to borrow what they promise. They say you can borrow up to $100 right? Well the max I see is $70. Also, they keep lowering the amount you can borrow each time. First time I borrowed $45. Second time was $35. Now this time it’s allowing me to borrow up to $20 dollars? That’s ridiculous and unprofessional. Cleo calculates your spending wrong. Their customer service is ridiculous and unprofessional. They take a very long time to respond back to your concerns (if they even look at them that way). The whole point of the app is to get people to not have to borrow money, to help people that way. But then what’s the whole point of loaning out the money then? There’s other apps out there that can help you learn how to budget. Plus, there’s other apps that I found out about that actually let you borrow what they advertise. And you don’t have to wait days to reloan. Apps like Dave, Moneylion, Earnin, Bridget and Klover. AND you don’t have to pay a monthly fee. They’re scamming people out of their money. It’s a scam. Just read my review. It’s a scam. What I wrote in this review is not a lie. They keep lowering the amount I can borrow. And it’s dumb. They don’t want to help people. They want to keep lowering the amount you can borrow and scam people out of their money. I might just borrow the money and change banks after and scam THEM out of their money. Take me to court. I’d love to have a back and forth on this in court. Resolve the issue you guys. Your app is ridiculous, false advertisement and your customer service is unprofessional. I’m reporting you guys to the ComplaintsBoard.com.

I really wanted to love this app. I did at first. However, I think I will have to take it amongst myself to find alternative ways and apps to save money.

I’ve had the Cleo+ membership for about 3 months. All was fine and well for the first two months. It would take money out of my checking once a week depending on my spending habits and would also take out another portion for my round-ups and then be deposited into my Cleo Wallet. My transfers would take no longer than 24 hours between my bank account to my wallet

Then all of a sudden for the past month, I’ve had these round up and weekly charges be taken out of my account, only for them to be sitting in processing for over 4 days but meanwhile, they had no problem with taking it out of my checking account immediately. Then when the charges finally process and complete in Cleo, it doesn’t reflect in my Cleo Wallet. So, they’re pulling these charges and not adding it to my wallet.

I contact customer service via email and the chat feature in the app - I get zero response over email and then it’s like pulling teeth getting a hold of someone through the chat. They say that response time typically takes a day. I’ve had four charges taken out of my bank account since 1/30. Today is 2/5 and they finally processed and were completed. Yet once again - that $32 is not reflected in my Cleo Wallet. Where is my money going? Why is it not showing up in my Wallet after the processing is completed? Why do I have to keep contacting customer service over and over again only to hear crickets?

You have customers paying for a service, we expect timely responses on inquiries when we’re having problems with the app.

Overall, the concept of the app could be really great. However, I’m now leery of having them pull money out of my account anymore if it’s just going to go in limbo when transferring to my Wallet...

Started using this app today because I was applying to work for the customer support team, and wanted to have a little experience with the app. I would not recommend this to anyone, and had such an unpleasant experience that I am no longer interested in applying for the job with this company.

1. Notifications
Cleo doesn’t let you turn off notifications. It gives you a “snooze” option for notifications that can be a month long maximum, but the app continues to bombard you with “turn on notifications” screens every time you open the app or leave for a second and go back.

2. Bank connection
My bank account was locked after Cleo failed twice to connect to my account. This was not an internet connection issue, as I have been having no issues on any other devices or platforms while connecting my bank account. This was also not an issue with my bank, First Horizon, as I have used two other budgeting apps without issue from my bank.

3. Layout
When looking for notification settings, I was directed to the text page, and had to select which kind of settings I was looking for from a text message. I recognize the intention is to have a new and creative approach to user interface, but this was confusing, unnecessary, and disorganized. Settings are practical, not interpersonal. The third page you can toggle to is very scattered, lacks a natural flow, and creates a very unpleasant aesthetic.

4. Emojis
The use of emojis in this app is ridiculous. It’s excessive and makes the app feel childish and unprofessional. That’s a lot coming from a gen-z kid. I understand wanting to connect with people, but this app doesn’t understand the difference between connection and unprofessionalism.

I really wanted to love this app, but I could not stand it. I put a genuine effort into making this app work for me, and went into expecting that I would love it. I am very disappointed.

The app is cute and has a lot of good features once you connect your bank account. It can give you a broad picture of what you’ve spent for the past year. The roast feature is fun and informative. The concept is great but this app needs a lot of tweaking.

A major problem with the app is that it does not refresh with the bank often enough. Even when you select refresh bank, it says it can take an hour which is really a day or two. I bank with a national banking service so this shouldn’t be a problem for them to get real time updates. It was not able to recognize payments I made until a couple of days later, even though it’s posted in my bank account. It also didn’t recognize my paycheck until a couple of days later.

Setting a budget, saving manual entries does not seem to work. You select it and maybe enter the info, but it does not save. I entered my rent payment several times and it never populated. When I adjusted a dollar amount from one of my spending locations to the amount I know it will be next month, it never saved the info. Cleo kept saying I was wasting money at Winco (which is the name of my local grocery store), there is not a way to notify Cleo that it’s a grocery store and this is a food purchase. I really only spend about 300$ a month on groceries for myself and my three kids. $300 a month in food, for an adult, a college kid, and two little girls is extremely good and I’m proud that I’m able to keep my food budget so low. They need a way to categorize the things they pull from your bank account. Example: an option to drag and drop Winco (or whatever company) into food, entertainment or whatever.

Overall this would be a great app if they worked out kinks and updated a few more of the features. Good, but not quite there. I’m not sure I will continue using this much longer as it’s not really helping me save money with the above listed problems.

Let me be honest with you and (hopefully) save you some potential stress, disappointment and frustration. Cleo Plus: You can pay $5.99 and still not be eligible. You won’t be able to get your money back unless you cancel within 7 days of signing up. Even if you cancel within the 7 days, it will take up to 4 business days for you to get your money back (they don’t care, lol). They will allow you to sign up without telling you this so they can take your last $6. Banks/institutions that are not compatible: Capital One, PNC, Starling, Green Dot, PayPal, Dave to name a few. Even if you are eligible for a certain amount, this amount could always change (and usually will). You will very, very rarely be “eligible” for $100. You cannot get more than $100. The range is usually around $20 to $50. Even while you’re continuing to pay $6 for this service. Signing up for the Credit Builder Card has no influence on the amount Cleo deems you eligible for. They are two separate services and have no effect on the other. If your issue has to be “escalated,” it could take between 24-48 hours+ (or more since the esc team is very small) for someone to even get back with you. Not solve your issue, just get back to you. The app is consistently buggy (much more than normal) and there are issues that have been ongoing for months and still have not been fixed or addressed. (Hint: they probably won’t be anytime soon). If your issue has already been “escalated,” opening more tickets/chats won’t help. They’ll just be closed repeatedly and ignored. If you’re waiting on a prompt response to a more complicated issue, good luck. Always check your statements as they are prone to double charging you Overall: This is a heavily buggy app that has a 30% maybe 40% chance of working (I’m being very nice) most of the time. After paying that last $6 you have, you may or may not get approved for a loan. And if you do, it might be $20 or, if you’re lucky, $45 or $50. Not worth it at all imo. Save your coins and your mental health and go elsewhere. TLDR: this app just wants to take your money and take advantage of your financial situation. Save your dignity and go somewhere else. Trust me, I know.

edit*** THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE CUSTOMER SERVICE*** “HELP”
If I could give this app negative stars I would. I spoke with customer service through there chat window. They disconnected my bank account and reconnected it. Since then I have been charged the monthly service fee twice this month once on the sixth and again on the 15th. One of those service fees overdrafted my bank account so now I have over -$40 in that account. I am now all of a sudden also not eligible for advances due to my past advance being late but it was late because my bank account was suddenly disconnected and I was unable to reconnect it so the late payment was not my fault. Now just today out of nowhere I get a bank message saying that I got a $20 advance which also was sent to the account that they overdraft so I am not even able to use that money. I have two bank accounts connected to Cleo as I am in the process of shutting down one of the accounts and moving to the other. I have it said that advances go into the new account which it did not. The customer service I have been speaking with has been no help since talking to them I have now been charged to service fees within a week of each other that overdrafted my account and an advance that it said I wasn’t even eligible for that I just got out of nowhere sent to my old bank account. So in all do not use this app it is messed up you will just end up getting screwed in the end.

This app was fine at first all my info was connected and I received several advances and payed them back. Then randomly My bank account was disconnected and would not reconnect it said I had the “wrong credentials” when 100% they were not wrong. Then I was unable to even log into my account for over a month for no reason at all. Because of that my most recent advance was late on payback. I was finally able to log on and reenter my bank info. But now I can’t even get an advance bc it says my last advance was late and my bank info is incomplete. How is that my fault if the app literally doesn’t work. But yet it’s still charging me the monthly fee but I can’t even use the app. I try to delete my account but it literally won’t allow me to type in my email to do so.

This is to inform people interested in the services offered by this company and for those interested in how this company really runs its business behind the scenes. I’ll begin with my experience with the app. I only had it for a few months but there were nothing but problems from the get go. Strange glitches that never seemed to get resolved, and I didn’t find the savings/money tips to be helpful in the slightest. After about two months I deleted my account. I never needed a salary advance but I never understood why they charge folks for it. It was only after my daughter started working there that she’s explained to me how it worked. Always gave me the impression of greed rather than genuinely wanting to help people with their financial well being. This company is a SCAM. There’s a world of reviews all over the internet with people’s experiences. If you need a loan try ACE - company that at least gives you more than $100 and is accredited.

Now, onto the company itself: my daughter worked for and gave this company a very hardworking and dedicated 4 months. There was NO proper onboarding/training. From what I observed from her workdays and meetings, the management team was made up of the most immature, unorganized & unprofessional people I’ve ever seen in my life. These are supposed to be people whose job it is to LEAD by example and serve their users. Not live out high school dramatic, play favorites, and then gang up on one of the only hard workers they will ever have. I’ve been a manager for 15+ years and to see a supposed “leadership” team behave this way was nothing short of ridiculous.

Funnily enough, not even two weeks after two incompetent leaders of management let her go for “not being receptive to feedback” (translation: not allowing people to walk over her and not sucking up enough) she got hired doing what she’s passionate about with a reputable, stable company making much more money. I viewed the video of this last “conversation” and all these “managers” could do was sit there and look like the clowns they are. It’s sad that people resort to such hatefulness towards good people but that’s the world we’re in.

All around, this company/app is a terrible, unprofessional, immoral, chaotic institution that does too many hardworking people wrong. What you put out always comes back but I’m putting this out there as a warning for future potential users. Beware.

I had fraud on my card was told report it as stolen which I did. They were going to send out a new card. However when the new card came it wouldn't let me activate it. Then was told to Uninstaller the app and re install which then deleted my account. I have emails screenshots and print outs of my account transactions and they say they can't find my account. They owe me $623 when I email or chat to get help they give me the run around and won't help me. I want my money back.

I will be taking legal action.

Somehow I sign up for Cleo, they took 14.95 out of my account and a 30.. I disputed the 14.95 and my account credited my account, the 30 I was able to get switch over . I figured since I disputed the 14.95 it would end my services with them. Nope they continue taking 30 out of my account 2 more times . I disputed it and chime have found them not at fault. But I can't get my 60 back. I was emailing Cleo and they were responding but than all the sudden they quit. Again I file dispute with chime over the 60 and each time I say Cleo not at fault. So my question is where my money and if Cleo hadn't done anything why did they quit responding to my emails.

I have spoke with Cleo numerous times. Sending them screenshots of texts with my payroll from my job , the actually account when use for payroll this has been a horrible experience.gave them the transaction code so they can locate my money. Poof they stopped messaging me. I am a single mom and my child need formula. I have $400 unaccounted for . I need my money I had my other part of my check that all went to my car payment in to my account Wednesday. It’s Friday. They said by 5 today it’s now 6:17 it says on the home page my direct deposit is pending yet they are holding my money. This is crazy I need my money

The first time I used Cleo+ it seemed cool I borrowed $20 and paid it back on time. The next time I used it, wouldn't allow me to take out a loan again.. It said I wasn’t eligible...WAIT WHY,? It didn't give you any info on why your eligibility changed but your income stays the same. The app said just try again later and gave advice to keep playing the 5.99 well. I decided nope told that Artificial intelligence chat (more like Artificial Unintelligent chat) to cancel

Then a week or so ago i check my email cause i get s notifications saying I'm approved for their max advance.. so go relog in it asked me to pay the $5.99 I agreed to pay or one time to see if i could get that max advance as i needed it bad.

after i pay i request the advance and it tells me I’m not eligible. talk about misleading, deceiving, scamming tactics.. I wouldn’t of have come back if this company hadnt misleas me with said email..forgot about this app on my phone. This email was just a scam, Violation of US banking and finance laws all to get me to resubscribe. Then I noticed a just a day later I was double charged.. had to go thru like 8 or 9 screens in chat just to get to message a CSR who outright refused to help.. I also noticed they been charging me of and on for over 2 years $5.99 a month.. csr escalated to higher department with me still only wanting my $5.99 back just one of time.. a total refund of 5.99 when they owe me way more..no one will issue you that refund.. I'm thinking about class action litigation as this is the same kind of thing credit karma Another fintech company did, scamming members with your approved emails and alerts to make them subscribe only for them to be denied.. I have tons of evidence I've been putting together a huge file for a possible case. My email is [protected]@gmail.com if you have a similar story maybe we can be lead plaintiffs together if they don't refund at the very least the double charge.. I has to jump threw hoops and fight he most complicated AI Chat bot just to message them in the first place also go to their website and try to find that "contact Us" link every reputable company has... not their just that crazy poorly designed chat bot that shouldn't ever have AI in its name.. cleo to have my email address so does everyone else, I told you guys via your horrible customer service chat response that I'd take this route and this is just stop #1... I will not be scammed lied to and or mislead. Also they actually follow some of my groups and their main Cleo Admin and company is showing based in The UK so I guess they think US regulations don't apply to them... wrong

. I just want at the very least three 5.99 you stole from me back when it should be almost $115 because some months my transactions where off.. because I told you to cancel way before that... but nope you lie, cheat, scam, steal from, and take advantage of your customer base.

Update: Still giving one star. Got a developer response and it’s just a bold face lie. I don’t have an outstanding balance and I still cannot remove ANY of my payment information. AND I STILL GOT CHARGED FOR THE $15 SUBSCRIPTION FEE EVEN THOUGH I CANCELLED BEFORE THE DUE DATE. When I reached out to support I got the run around of unhelpful responses INCLUDING radio silence when asking to speak to a manager. I’m not trying to be a Karen, but this is my money, I will be reporting to my bank for malicious activity. I regret ever signing up with this company.

Who knows how many others they’ve done this to!

Can’t delete your cards, can’t delete you account. You still end up getting charged after you cancel before your subscription date arrives. Overall scam! BEWARE!

Cleo was okay at first I first started with $25. I’ve had the app for at least a three or four months. Even though the ad says you could get over $200, I guess that’s true for a certain of people. Anyway, I was paying $14/month for really nothing special and the highest amount I ever got with Cleo is $45 and I got approved once. They say that your eligibility can approve by paying your advance on time. Yeah, I have never seen it. As a matter of fact, it goes down whenever I pay it on time or pay it early. They spotted me $30 this time on a $40 repayment. And it keeps getting lower and lower. How?! My salary did not change! All in all, I rarely liked Cleo and I’m not sure why I kept the app for this long. Not anymore. Hope it works out for anyone. It didn’t for me though.

The first time I used Cleo+ it was all good. I borrowed my $100 and paid it back on time. The next time I used it , it didn’t allow me to take out a loan. It said I wasn’t eligible...WHY not? It barely gives you any info on why you aren’t eligible. I said okay. Waste of money. I cut my losses on the $5.99 and moved on. Today I’m minding my own business and Cleo pops up and tells me I’m eligible for a loan. Okay. I resubscribe for half price. I request a loan and it tells me I’m not eligible. WTH? I literally wouldn’t have come back if you hadn’t sent me a notification. I forgot I had this app on my phone. This notification was just a scam to get me to resubscribe. I wish I had screenshot the notification as proof but now I know and I’m warning others so they won’t fall privy to this scam.

This app is such a headache. Been trying to get advance for 2 days now added both of my bank accounts with multiple direct deposits only to find out I’m approved for 20 dollars. What the heck imma do with 20 dollars as pricey things are nowadays. So I’m in such need right now i accept the 20 dollars they tell me funds are being deposited then I get an email pops up saying there was a problem depositing funds to your account, I look at my info and whole different card number on file when I’ve gone in entered my banking information several times updating things uninstalling reinstalling, logging out logging back in. No luck I’ve still haven’t gotten anywhere with them, try to contact customer service only to get a automated response telling me someone will contact me in 72 hours ‍♀️ but I need help TODAY! This app is soooo Booty!

Okay, I get it if you can’t advance me money due to my financial flaws. I know that I am part to blame for my ignorance in not reading the fine print a little closer. similar apps don’t generally charge you the monthly subscription fee before they’ve even gone through your application. Anybody that even needs your cash advances in the first place is already struggling. You couldn’t even advance a lousy $20 advance, but you were sure quick to take that $5.99 that I don’t have.
So I ask you to not end up up like the me, it feels pathetic having to write a angry review like some miserable Yelper that has nothing better to do. So now my bank will probably charge me a $35.00 overdraft fee, for the $5.99 that I didn’t even have.
I’ll bet you’ll get that one on my monthly irresponsible spending habits portfolio and make my chances even harder of getting your lovely $20 advance.

At first glance I loved Cleo. It was fun, funny, an exciting financial product to use. I signed up for the credit builder card. That’s where it all came crashing down. Once you sign up they assign you some MYSTERY amount for your deposits. I’ll go to add money one day and it will give me an error saying the deposit limit has been reached and try again another day. Like WHAT?! So then I have $ split between 2 accounts (Cleo and my main bank) and no way to combine the 2 so I can actually pay bills. Whatever you do, do NOT depend on the Credit Builder Card to pay anything important. It’s super hit or miss how much $ they’ll let you add. It’s a REALLY crappy system. It’s a big enough of an issue that it completely negates anything good Cleo had going for it. As soon as I can $0 out my account I’ll be canceling, deleting the app, and never looking back. Cleo, rule #1, NEVER MESS WITH SOMEONES MONEY.

It’s fun and informative, but it’s really not that smart. I’ll start by saying that it was a huge eye opener as it gave me my yearly spending and that hit me like a ton of bricks, download the app just for that! But, that’s it that was helpful, that 1 feature. It should know what a toy store is (especially if the store has the word “toy” in it). It needs more sub categories. It should recognize “Discover” as a credit card payment. It should let you add that Discover Card so it knows you’re paying back debt and congratulate you instead of saying you’re over your budget for the month because of it. Also, the responses are all preprogrammed and not AI so it’s just repetitive. There’s a lot it should do and I expected it to do, but it hasn’t done it yet. When you don’t use preprogrammed questions, it says it doesn’t understand you...even something as simple as how much did I spend on “a category”. I’m keeping it downloaded because it makes checking spending easier even if it’s not broken down well, but this is feedback for the support team to work on implementing .

I used to love this app and recommended it to everyone. Now, the app can’t connect to my bank account so all the money I’ve been saving using cleo’s wallet feature I can’t get back. I’ve tried browsers, visiting the website on a computer instead of the app, etc. I’ve reconnected my bank a hundred times. Looks like I will never get my own savings back. Not sure if the app developers have never made an app before or if they have just moved on to other projects and don’t care about this one, but the app is literal garbage. I’ve been paying for the subscription too, and it’s honestly not worth it. There are better apps out there. Don’t use Cleo. As soon as I figure out how I can get MY money out of this stupid app, I will be canceling everything and deleting it, and telling everyone that I previously recommended to get Cleo to delete it as well. If you want your money stolen, use this app! The roasting feature is funny and it’s cool to have help budgeting but what’s the point if all the money saved using this app isn’t accessible. Makes no sense at all. Worst budgeting app you can get.

OK I signed up with them May 19, 2023 so yes this is a recent review. Not only did they take $50 out of my account the 5.99+ of $44.99 subscription. I was eligible for a refund because I just signed up and did not want it because they only approved me for $20. How are you going to take out $50 from my account and only approve me for 20 who does that. So a representative chatted with me because you can’t talk to them they were only check stating I would get my money back the same day. When I chatted with them, it was around 11 AM going on 12 noon.. The representative advised me that I would get my money in the afternoon so I followed up with them at 4:08 PM in the evening because I let them know I have yet to receive my money. And I am still waiting for my refund. Please deposit back into my account.. now I give him down the writing that I did because it was a slap in the face to approve me only for $20 but you take 44+ $5.99 out of my that is a rip off to people. So again today is May 19, 2023. I am writing because I have yet to receive my full refund back into my Bank of America
Thx

Beware of scammers out there. This app is one of them. After I repaid them back what I owed. I deleted this app. But yet this app continues charging my bank account. I haven’t been on this app for awhile. After I deleted it from my phone. I got another phone and I never downloaded it again. I don’t work to give out free money you know. If you are downloading this app. One it doesn’t have the feature for you to delete your bank account nor your debit card. Yes it gives you the feature of deleting your account. Which I will definitely do. But hopefully they won’t keep charging me. This is not the only time they charged me. After I paid fully that I deleted the app. They charged me I ignored that thinking that they wouldn’t do it again. Then now they charged me again like seriously. WARNING! Just remember if you download this app and link your bank. They can see how much you have in your accounts. Me knowing this I would have never downloaded this app. I can give you a tip on another app called Dave. After I paid them fully I deleted the app. They haven’t been charging my bank. That one I do recommend.

The app is only useful if you have the same payment method forever. Change banks, card expires and gets replaced, literally anything? Oh, it’s a “bug”! Can’t add or update payment methods! And that credit card they offer is a scam. Another “bug” in their system sends it to you with the wrong name on it, or never sends it at all, or won’t let you deposit the money but it’ll keep harassing you to do it anyway, and all those payment methods you “couldn’t add”? Oh, they have access to them now even though you can’t use them in the app! They’ll take that subscription payment from one of the other no matter how many times you reach out to their “customer service” about not being able to use the services! AVOID THIS APP! It was cool when it was young. It’s become something else entirely over the years! Even the free services, like tracking your spending, etc, have become so buggy that it’s useless now. It just gets your bills confused and asks what your rent payment was for every single month, chastises you for buying gas to go to work while it praises you for buying alcohol, etc. And the only way to win anything is to post your personal spending on social media! Useless…

This is no exaggeration- there is hardly any support or help from this company. They will ignore all of your inquiries, complaints, questions, etc. they will offer ZERO apologies or reasons behind not answering you for days and act like they have done nothing wrong.
Idk about you, but if I give a company full access to my bank account, well, I expect them to be on point and make me feel reassured that it’s safe and that this is the right budgeting company for me. Did they do this? Not even a tiny bit.
Such a joke! I was finally contacted SEVERAL DAYS later and after my fourth complaint, I believe, and by then my original question was irrelevant. I received zero explanation as to why it took soooooo long to get back to me except “sorry for delay.” Delay? A day is a delay...not 3 days or 4 or 6. No apology, no attempt to make me happy - or at least not upset. That would require way too much effort.
No one even gives a crap that a client is unhappy and they certainly don’t try to fix it. And they definitely don’t care if you cancel your Cleo - I guess they have plenty of other people to rip off.
I have news for the Cleo Team- I’m putting up a review regarding your wonderful customer service EVERYWHERE I POSSIBLY CAN... EVERY WHERE and as many times as I’m allowed.

The whole roast me thing? Yeah that would be a great thing if you (Cleo) weren’t telling me to literally shut up and let you finish like that’s so rude. If I could I’d give you guys no stars so I also don’t like the fact that you have to buy a 599 subscription plan in order to borrow $20 what’s the point of that like you tell me that I’ve had apparently $3000 coming to my account last 10 months there’s no way cause I had $3000 going into my account. I think my rent would be paid so this app is not good it doesn’t it literally will tell you that you can only borrow $20 the first time mind you you won’t see that money for 3 to 4 days unless you buy the 399 Xpress delivery of the $20 that you borrowed on top of already having to pay the 599 a month to be able to borrow that $20 so 599+399 is $10 that I just had to spend in order to borrow $20 there’s no point in that that’s stupid you claim that I’ve had all this money come in apparently I’ve had $365 come into my account which I haven’t so this app is not good it’s just like Dave all these borrowing apps are terrible and they ruin your credit scores. Just let you guys know, you guys ain’t touching my 680 credit score that I’ve worked so hard to get to, so yeah I give this app zero stars you jerk of an iPhone spell crap. cause it’s terrible.