Astra is on a mission to automate personal finance and their app accomplishes this in two ways:
- Allows you to link all of your financial accounts together
- Enables automated transfers between those connected accounts based on smart triggers and routines
For those with very simple finances and those that aren’t ready for financial automation, Astra might not be a great fit. However, if you have several financial accounts and would like to spend less time moving money between them, Astra might be just the thing.
Let’s take a closer look and answer some key questions.
How Does Astra Work?
In short, this is how Astra works:
Download the App & Connect Everything
You start an Astra account by first downloading the application from either the iOS or Android application stores. Then you provide some simple identity information to become a verified user which allows you to make automated transfers between your accounts.
With your established Astra account you can then add your financial accounts to the dashboard which will show you account balances as well as the status of your savings goals.
Automate Transfers
Astra is all about simple financial automation, entirely handled through a mobile application. With a savings account and a checking account connected to Astra, you can set up clever automation to move your money to the optimum location with you having to do a thing:
- Set a maximum value on your checking account and have any additional funds automatically transfer to your savings account.
- Monitor the spending on your main credit card and use the individual charges to create round-up transfers from your checking account to your savings account.
- Setup an alert for balance on your main credit card so that when it hits a certain value you get a notification.
- Save a percentage of every paycheck automatically by choosing an account to monitor, how much of your paycheck you want to save, and an account to send that transfer to – no math or individual transfer setup required.
Astra offers various ways to set up transfers, some varying amounts based on income or transaction volume and others more standardized and of fixed amounts. The platform is flexible and robust and whatever you are looking to do with the management of your cash, there is a good chance Astra can help.
Is Astra a Good Way to Automate your Money?
- If you are looking for a great way to start saving with clever routines, but don’t want to set up another bank account, Astra is a great option.
- If you want to handle cash flow and your individual investments in a single application, Astra won’t be a good fit.
Is Astra Federally Insured?
Astra is an automation platform for the movement of money between financial accounts. Although you are able to save money in the Astra application itself which is not specifically FDIC insured, we highly recommend that users connect savings and checking accounts with the opportunity to collect interest (high yielding savings accounts can often be set up online without having to go to a bank) and should keep most of their funds in those institutions.
How much does Astra cost?
Astra supports the mission that powerful financial tools should be available to all, regardless of income level. At present, Astra is completely free to use, but each transfer may only be $1000 or less. There is no weekly or monthly limit on total assets transferred.
What’s new with Astra?
We’ve talked about how Astra works in its current form, but as a young company they are constantly rolling out new features and functions.
Some of their most recent features include:
- Higher Transfer Limits: Using Astra you can now move up to $1,000 per transfer between accounts for free with settlement times in as few as 2 business days.
- Percentage Based Transfers: Establish a routine that will automatically move a percentage of an incoming payment to another account.
- Unlimited Savings Goals: Create as many savings goals as you like and fund them with creative Routines from your existing financial accounts.
- Recurring Routines: setup recurring routines that move money from one account to another on a set schedule.
Pros and Cons of Astra
Pros
- Universally works across a wide range of institutions
- Allows you to use clever routines to automate the flow of funds between accounts
- Free for everyone!
- Intuitive mobile experience
Cons
- Only works in the U.S. with depository accounts
- Can’t use it to pay bills
Is Astra worth it?
Astra is free to use for everyone, and at that price, there is a lot to like. Their universal approach to consumer finance means that you can keep the banking relationships and accounts that you already have, but use modern automation to make those accounts interact in a seamless and intuitive way.
If you are just looking for a way to view all of your financial accounts in one place without hopping from one app to another or you are looking to automate some of your financial transfers, Astra can definitely help and the price is hard to beat.
This review was sponsored by Astra Finance, but we did test-drive the app, love the features. and think it’s a great concept. Being able to automate your finances across accounts using one app, gives you more opportunities to save.
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