M1 Spend Review 2022

The M1 spend feature from M1 finance is a fully mobile checking account that blends two of my favorite things in the world which would be digital banking and automated investing.

So today let's look at everything that M1 spend has to offer and help you decide if this is a good financial tool for you. Alright, let's jump right into it. What is going on everyone I hope you are all having a fantastic day.

So I've briefly talked about M1 finance and specifically their investing platforms in the past but more recently they launched their M1 spend feature that, as I just mentioned, blends their already robust investing tools with a checking account.

so I don't have to bore you to death reading that but as always this will be the open and honest review you’ve come to expect. But enough about all of that let's get into the features.

So, this product is broken down into two major categories which would be M1 spend checking as well as M1 spend credit. Both are easily accessible under the M1 spend menu and offer different benefits which we’ll compare in the second but let's start off with the M1 spend checking feature.

So obviously this is going to work in a similar way to any other checking account where you're going to have a visa debit card that you can use to make purchases anywhere that Visa is accepted. But despite the fact that this is a checking account that traditionally offers no interest rate at all,

M1 plus members are going to earn 1% APY on their M1 Spend Plus checking account as well as 1% cash back on purchases made with your visa debit card. I'll get more into what exactly M1 plus is later on

but I will just mention now that this usually has an annual fee of $125 but right now M1 one finance is actually waiving that fee for the first year meaning you can try out all of those premium benefits for an entire year for completely free plus the $95 annual fee

for the M1 spend credit card is also waived for the first year if you are in M1 plus member so needless to say if you're going to give this platform a shot then you'll definitely want to sign up for M1 plus.

Again more on that in a second but going back to the checking account you also have the ability to send checks and schedule one time or recurring paper checks from the M1 app and as we've all come to love,

you can get your paycheck up to two days early with early direct deposit which I will mention does come with the standard checking account if you do not opt for the M1 plus membership.

This account also has no minimum balance requirements, gives you one ATM fee reimbursement each month or four reimbursements each month with M1 plus, and is FDIC insured up to $250,000.

Now I will mention that there is an international fee of 0.8 to 1% depending on where you're at but this fee is reimbursed if you have M1 plus so as you're probably picking up on, M1 plus is definitely worth it.

Alright but moving on to the Owner's Rewards Card by M1 which is powered by Deserve, this product allows you to earn between 1.5%-10% cash back up to $200 back per month on a number of different popular brands. Obviously,

you're not going to earn 10% back at all of those brands as nice as that would be but there are over 70 popular brands where you will earn 2.5%, 5%, or 10% cash back plus you get 1.5% cash back on all other purchases which is fairly competitive.

But perhaps the biggest and most unique advantage of the M1 spent credit card is the ability to automatically reinvest your cash back into your portfolio using M1 automation. You all know that I am a huge fan of automating your finances, especially on the investing side of things and M1 finance has had this feature locked down for a long time so the fact that they are so seamlessly integrating their different financial tools is really cool in my opinion.

And the card looks really cool in my opinion and comes with the visa zero liability protection and the many benefits that come with visa signature. Again the M1 spend credit card usually has a $95 annual fee

but if you are an M1 plus member that fee is waived for the first year giving you a full year to try it out which should be plenty of time to figure out whether or not it is a good financial tool for you.

Alright, so we'll circle back to the checking and credit products in a second but I've mentioned it a million times so I feel like I should clarify what exactly your M1 plus membership is.

Essentially this is just the premium version of the M1 finance platform and I'll say from the start that in my opinion if you are going to use M1 finance and the various financial tools that they offer then becoming an M1 plus member is kind of a no brainer and will probably save you money in the long term.

The reason I say that is because of the many advantages that it offers such as extended trading windows, smart transfers and custodial accounts on the investing side of things, reduced interest rates on M1 borrow products,

increased APY and cash back on the checking products as we talked about earlier as well as the elimination of international transaction fees, and four monthly ATM fee reimbursements, plus the substantial increase in cash back on your M1 spend credit card,

the ability to reinvest your rewards, and the many benefits that come with visa signature. I know that that was a lot to take in at once but remember that currently you can become an M1 plus member and have your first-year fee of $125 waived plus they will waive the $95 fee for the M1 spend credit card

which basically means that you're getting an over $200 value right from the start by joining M1 plus. Alright so with all of that stuff in mind what do I think of the M1 spend account and how does it stack up against similar options on the market.

Well for starters I'll say that as I mentioned earlier if you're going to use M1 finance as a whole then I highly recommend that you sign up for M1 plus for all the reasons that

I just mentioned and looking at it through that lens, this account offers some really competitive features. 1% APY isn't anything mind-blowing but the fact that this is on a checking account is very competitive plus unlimited 1% cash back on

a debit card is also incredibly rare on the market today. We've all become accustomed to the features of early direct deposit and no minimum balance requirements and all of that good stuff

but you all know that I am always a fan of a financial platform that blends different financial tools from banking to investing to borrowing all under 1 app and I think that M1 spend really fills the final void that was existing within the M1 finance platform.

The credit card really takes that to the next level and the fact that you were able to easily have your investing, borrowing, banking, and credit card all linked together gets a huge thumbs up from me and will probably save you a ton of time and headaches if you decide to make this your main financial tool.

I would like to see them add a more robust ATM network like Allpoint or MoneyPass, but to be completely honest,

I couldn't tell you the last time that I personally used an ATM or used cash for anything so the fact that you do get those ATM reimbursements each month is at least enough for me in the off chance that I do need to withdraw cash.

I have got nothing but good things to say when it comes to the M1 finance app and considering how popular this platform is it's no surprise that the app is incredibly well designed, easy to learn,

but still gives you a robust and in-depth understanding of your various financial metrics. And I feel like it's worth mentioning here that the M1 finance investing platform has been an industry leader for a long time with commission-free investing on over 6000 stocks and ETF's including the ability to invest in fractional shares plus fully customizable,

pre-made, and automated portfolios to meet the needs of every investor across the board so the fact that they have such a robust investing tool and are now adding in features from other aspects of personal finance is really nice since similar companies

who have multiple financial tools under one app typically excel in one area but other aspects like investing may feel like an afterthought. So this probably doesn't come as a surprise considering

I am a huge fan of having all of my finances under one platform but the M1 spend account definitely gets a thumbs up from me but as always that's just my opinion and I'd love to know what you think of this platform down in the comment section below. Remember if you do want to sign up for M1 spend

I will leave a link in the description below where you can sign up and help support my channel which I really appreciate.

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