Albert is a mobile banking and personal finance service, with fintech tools, that aims to help people achieve financial independence and economical wellness.
Albert is one of the newest options when it comes to digital banking services — an option that is always improving its suite of tools with new features and benefits. In this article, we’re going to discuss exactly what Albert is? We’re also going to answer some of the most asked questions regarding this product, including, if Albert is safe? Is Albert a bank? And how exactly do you get $100 from Albert?
What is Albert?
Albert is a banking service provided by Sutton Bank. It has all the makings of a bank, with key features, but its parent company, the one offering all these tools, is Sutton Bank — an actual brick and mortar institution.
Albert is a personal finance and mobile app that's equipped with banking tools such as saving, investing, rewards, cash advances, and many more. What makes Albert stand a head or two above the competition, its main feature, is that it offers its clients a team of Genius money experts that can guide them.
Albert’s main objective is to help you understand your personal finances a bit better, and, in doing so, help you grow. It wants you to make sound financial decisions. The company’s lofty goal is to help folks make the right choices, regardless of income or net worth.
That’s why it gives its users two options to how they want to manage their accounts:
- Self-managed
- Albert Genius co-management.
What is a self-managed Albert account?
A self-managed Albert account is a classic banking account with all the traditional tools you might expect, including:
- Instant advances, up to $100 from your next paycheck — no credit check and no interest rates.
- Automatic savings — you can set up automatic savings weekly. An amount that's deposited into a saving account with interests.
- Overview and budget — a view of all your accounts, in one place, with a perfectly succinct analysis of your monthly spending and your current financial health.
- Bill lowering — the ability to lower your bills.
What is Albert Genius?
Albert Genius is a team of actual real human experts, talented and trained, that are there to help you grow and have better financial wellness. They are there to answer all your questions, give you stellar advice, and make banking easier for you.
They’ll show you how to save and invest, how to plan a budget, how to create sensible financial goals and reach them. The Genius feature is available 7 days a week and, as Albert is prone to say, “no question is too small, or crazy.”
Albert Genius is there to guide you and give you honest money advice based on your personal profile. They can help you out with tax information and answer all manner of questions, including whether or not you should buy or lease a car - Navigating their customers through the intricacies of modern-day budgeting, from credit cards to student loans, all the way to budgeting.
An Albert co-managed genius account gives you access to these “geniuses”, that can in turn help you:
- Improve your credit score.
- Pay down debt.
- Help you craft a personalized financial plan.
- Create simple savings goals and enable smart savings with interest rates.
- Intelligent alerts that notify you when you’re overpaying for a bill.
- Real-time account monitoring.
- Guided investing — trade in a worldwide fund with a custom portfolio created by a genius. No expertise on your behalf is needed and you can begin investing with just $1. Buy stocks, themed ETFs, and help companies grow, while you grow your investment.
Is Albert Secure?
Security is one of the most important traits Albert invests in. As a bank service, under the jurisdiction of Sutton Bank, a member of FDIC, all your savings accounts are covered and insured up to $250,000.
Aside from that key benefit, Albert accounts have:
- Cutting edge security features that are constantly updated and meant to protect its customer’s sensitive information.
- As a member of SIPC (a nonprofit corporation, Securities Investor Protection Corporation), Albert Securities - the branch that deals with investing - protects its customer’s trades and securities for up to $500,000 (including a $250,000 claim for cash).
Albert Bank Features
Smart investing, and a team of genius are just some features this powerful mobile app has in store for its customers. You can also take advantage of:
- $100 to $250 on your next paycheck. If you need an advance, Albert can spot you up to $250 on your next paycheck. No credit check, nor interest, no late fees. There’s no mandatory repayment time frame.
- A powerful mobile app that can help you keep track of your financial goals, your spending, and your budget.
- An Albert Mastercard debit card, issued by Sutton Bank and licensed by Mastercard International.
- Guided investing can start at $1.
- Auto investing is based on your experience and your investing profile.
- Free cash withdrawals from over 55,000 free ATMs.
- Up to $20 in cashback rewards.
- Get paid two days earlier if you set up a direct deposit.
- No hidden fee.
- No minimum balance requirements.
- No maintenance fees, no matter how low your balance goes.
- No overdraft fees — as long as you let Albert spot you that extra a month ($100 to $250).