Clink App Review 2023 – A Free Microsavings App Especially for Millennials

Here's a list of our top-ranked Microsavings services:

Service	Our Rank
Visit Acorns Acorns review	The Acorns app invests your spare change. It rounds up to the nearest dollar (or more) for every credit card purchase and micro-invests the difference. It makes saving fun and easy.
Visit Digit Digit review	The Digit app makes saving money as easy as texting. It offers a friendly way for individuals who are just starting out. Unfortunately, expect a one percent return on your savings, and at $5/month, this service isn't free.
Visit Stash Invest Stash Invest review	Stash Invest is a microsavings service geared toward beginning investors. Compared to its rivals, the service has more flexibility in choosing your investment options. However, we've found that it might be too costly for smaller accounts, compared with other savings apps.
Rize review	Rize is among the newest microsavings apps to hit the internet and is the first to offer interest on the money you save. Unique features that help boost your savings rate and the ability to create multiple savings goals make it an interesting financial tool. However, it is not a good choice for long-term or retirement savers.
Clink App review	Clink is a microsavings app that aims to help Millennials by making saving and investing simple. On the plus side, the service is totally free to use. The downside: Clink lacks a retirement account option, and there are easier-to-use services.
Qapital review	Qapital is a mobile banking app that allows you to save money by rounding up your everyday purchases, as well as through other activities, including social media participation. However, a big drawback is that it doesn't let you earn money from interest.
Simple review	Simple offers a holistic solution to meet its customers' needs with banking and saving software that's innovative, sleek, and functional. A free account gives you access to budgeting, goals, and bill-paying features. On the downside, unlike Mint, you're limited to only using your Simple bank account.

Built for Millennials, Clink associates saving and investing with fun and ease. Clink does this by connecting saving with shopping and dining activities. Going out to dinner or doing some online shopping? You can set a percentage of your bill that will be automatically added into your Clink account and invest in your stock portfolio.

What Is Clink?

Eyal Fruchtman, the founder and CEO, decided to create Clink because he saw a need for a saving and investing platform that would appeal to Millennials, the only demographic with a negative savings rate.

Clink polled twentysomethings and discovered a pattern:

• They think they don’t have enough money to save.
• They think they don’t understand enough about investing.
• They’re turned off by the minuscule return of bank savings accounts.

In addition according to Clink, Millennials were clear on what they did want:

• No minimum deposit to start.
• Ability to save small amounts monthly.
• Completely mobile app.
• No ongoing fees.
• Easy functionality.

Clink started in February 2014 and ran in beta for two years prior to its official launch in January 2016. While Clink is “for anyone who is looking to build a more financially secured future at any age,” the majority of current users are between 20 and 35 years old.

Clink App Features

• Available Accounts — Individuals accounts only. Retirement accounts are not available.
• Flexible Investing Options — Schedule regular deposits into your Clink account, invest every time you dine or shop with your credit card, or both
• Touch ID Security – For Apple iOS devices that support it, you can log in with an added layer of security via your fingerprint.

Clink is currently available on iOS devices via iTunes and on Android devices via Google Play. Users can also register or login from their Facebook account.

How to Create a Clink Account

Signing up for an account is quick and easy and can be done from the website or app.

To create a Clink account, download the app, enter your details, and link your checking account to the platform to start investing.

Linking your checking account to your Clink account allows you to determine how much money you would like to contribute to a diversified portfolio and how often.

The Clink scheduler allows you to pick what days you want to add money to your Clink account and determine the set amount. You can make changes to this setting at any time.

You choose to invest in two ways:

1. Schedule a fixed dollar amount like $5 a week or $1 a day. Money is transferred from your checking account to your Clink account and invested in a diversified ETF-based portfolio based on a “Modern Portfolio Theory” (MPT) investing algorithm.
2. Link your credit card and choose a fixed percentage that will define how much you set aside for savings every time you use your credit card to be added to your Clink account after transactions. For example, every time you dine out, 10% of the total spent would be calculated and transferred to your Clink account.

Highlights
Rating	8.5/10	8.5/10	6.5/10
Minimum to Open Account	$0	$0	$0
401(k) Assistance
Two-Factor Auth.
Advice Options	Automated	Automated
Socially Responsible Investing
	Sign UpAcorns Review	Sign UpStash Invest Review	Read Review

Where Are Your Clink Funds Invested?

The money from your Clink account is placed into a portfolio of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). An ETF is an investment fund traded on the stock exchange and holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds.

Clink manages your investment portfolio based on how aggressive or cautious you would like to be. Their algorithm applies a low-risk portfolio that’s right for you based on the Modern Portfolio Theory. The MPT is all about diversification and is the key to maximizing return with minimal risk; it emphasizes that risk is an inherent part of higher reward.

Security

Clink uses bank-level security measures to protect your personal information. Clink does not store your personal information. Your banking credentials are used only once to authenticate and verify that the account belongs to you. All credit card information is stored by Envestnet, a leading provider of unified wealth management technology and services to investment advisors. If using an Apple iOS device and your device supports Touch ID you can enable it for more protection.

The investments you choose through Clink are held by the Apex Clearing Corporation, a brokerage and clearing firm. Actually, many brokerage firms are just a front end to Apex. Apex Clearing is a member of FINRA and SIPC.

Pricing

To the user, Clink is completely free. So how do they offer their services for free? According to Eyal, they’ve raised $1.5 million to date to support research and development and are starting to discuss options with a few venture capitalists (VCs).

Additionally, the company is planning to make money by introducing a special savings feature in the second quarter of this year. It will allow users to save while actively buying with Clink’s online affiliates via a loyalty program.

“We plan to take a small part of the savings that would be mostly directed to a user’s Clink account as a cash back. For example, for every $100 spent on Amazon, $6 will be returned to the Clink user’s account and $1 will go to Clink as revenue.”

According to Clink’s filing with the SEC, it will most likely earn some fees from ETF sponsors.

Clink App Screenshots

Clink App Pros & Cons

Summary

Clink is a free service that allows you to save and invest a portion of your money into a diversified portfolio. Since we initially reviewed their service, they have improved the user interface and seem like a more mature app.

From testing and reviewing all of the microsavings services we still believe Acorns is a better option. Keep in mind if you do use Clink it has the limitations of the other microsavings services in that it lacks a retirement account option.

Clink's app should be used for short-term “rainy day fund” savings, such as emergency savings or saving toward a vacation. If you want to save toward retirement, we recommend one of the robo advisor services instead.

While other savings apps put your money in a low-interest savings account, Clink invests your money in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). As an investment choice, they are easy to trade, have a relatively low cost, and offer the opportunity to invest in a variety of assets. Many investors choose ETFs over mutual funds to create a proper asset allocation.

Clink is designed with busy Millennials in mind, who understand the importance of saving and investing but prefer simplicity and ease.