Saving · Module 9 of 9
What the app does with your spare change
How round-up saving apps really work, who is holding your money, and the fee that can wipe out what you saved.
Key terms in What the app does with your spare change
- Round-up savings
Round-up savings is a feature that rounds each card purchase up to the next whole currency unit and moves the difference into a savings account. A financial institution or app performs the transfer automatically, usually from a linked debit card. The method turns small leftover amounts from everyday purchases into deposits without a separate decision each time.
Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Looking for an easy way to save money? Make it automatic
- Pass-through deposit insurance
Pass-through deposit insurance is federal coverage that can extend to funds a customer holds through a third party, such as a payment company that keeps pooled money at a partner bank. Coverage depends on specific record-keeping conditions being met. It protects against the failure of the insured bank or credit union, not against the failure of the nonbank company that handles the funds.
- Payment app
A payment app is a software service that lets people store money, send it to others and pay merchants from a phone. Well-known examples include PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and mobile wallets from device makers. Balances in these apps may be combined with other users’ money, and whether they carry deposit insurance depends on how the company holds the funds.
Every term on Lever is in the money glossary.
About this module
What the app does with your spare change is part of Saving, one of 15 subjects in Lever. It’s a short run of 5 lessons, about 13 minutes in all, so you can finish it in one sitting.
Every lesson takes one idea at a time. You read it with the math worked out step by step, answer a question that puts it to use, then see why the right answer is right and why the others aren’t.
It’s for anyone who was never taught this, and you don’t need to know anything first. Every lesson is free. Lever works out what you already know, so you can start here or let your path bring you to it.
More in Saving
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1
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2
Money with a name on it
Give your savings a job, plan for more than one goal at a time, and work backward from a date to a monthly amount.
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3
So it doesn't depend on a good month
Keep saving even when your income goes up and down, with an honest average and a plan that runs on its own.
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4
Three ways to divide a month
Three popular ways to budget, including 50/30/20 and envelopes, and how to pick the one you’ll actually stick with.
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5
Running a tanda
How savings circles like tandas work, what your turn in line is worth, and what to check before you join one.
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6
Money sent home
The hidden costs of sending money abroad, and how to get more of it to the people who need it.
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7
The money that shows up all at once
Make the most of a bonus or refund: decide what it’s for before it arrives, and when paying off debt is the better move.
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8
When your own money buys less each month
Why money that just sits loses value when prices rise, and the one comparison your bank’s ads never show you.
5 lessons
Try this module
It’s part of Saving. Lever will bring it to you when you’re ready, or you can go straight there.