Digit mobile app shares your info and uses deceptive marketing practices

The Digit Save Money Automatically app by Hello Digit Inc., or simply Digit app, is a mobile application that claims to help you automatically save money; However, that’s not really the case. If you connect a bank account to the Digit app you will actually be spending money to use the app and this is something they deceptively avoid mentioning beforehand, or really at any point until they begin withdrawing money from your bank account.

Many mobile users have unexpectedly signed up for the Digit free trial without actually knowing they were signing up for a free trial and gearing up to be a paid monthly subscriber. Digit doesn’t clearly warn users beforehand that using their app comes with a price. Instead, they use the questionable “fine print” marketing technique and bury the information as far as they possibly can as if they’re a shady used car dealership.

When the Digit app is initially launched you’ll be greeted by a large and dominant call-to-action “Get Started” button that invites your finger to immediately tap on it, as well as several pages of nonsensical jargon such as “Save for anything” and “Get there with Digit” that you can swipe through individually to read, if you want. But, there doesn’t appear to be anything important to read and swipe through so continuing to the last page doesn’t feel necessary and Hello Digit Inc knows this, otherwise, they would have done things differently.

On the bottom of the last page, you’ll discover small text that says “Digit is free for 30 days, then just $5/month” and this is the only warning you’ll receive before connecting your bank account to Digit. To be clear, the only way you’ll find this text is if you avoid clicking the provocative Get Started button and are interested in reading and swiping through nonsensical jargon that is mostly mundane or similar in nature. “Save for anything,” “Create your goals,” and “Get there with Digit” is what you must succumb to swiping through if you want to eventually find the hidden text that reveals the truth about the Digit mobile app.

Another point at which Digit buries the price is on the “About this app” section located in the Google Play Store. To find the buried text you’ll have to open the About this app section by tapping on it and then scrolling to the mid-bottom area where the buried text is present. The price to use the app is cleverly hidden between multiple paragraphs as to consciously make it harder for anyone to locate.

Furthermore, a subscription to Digit cannot be maintained or canceled through the Play Store app or Google Play Store website like other subscriptions are. If you visit your subscriptions in the Play Store app you won’t even see Digit as like you would with other subscriptions. In order to cancel a subscription to Digit, you’ll need to sign in to your Digit account, go to https:///www.digit.co/help, answer numerous questions appropriate to what you think will initiate a cancellation, and eventually persuade Digit to cancel your subscription and return any funds that were automatically transferred. It’s not a pleasant experience.

Digit collects and shares your personal information

The Digit Save Money Automatically app and Digit.co collects and shares your personal information including information they gather from third-parties. Information collected by Digit includes what you submit to them, your full name, email address, mobile phone number, bank information, age, gender, location, address, date of birth, social security number, citizenship information, occupation status, income source, transactions, and much more.

Personal information collected by Digit may be shared with third-parties and used for commercial purposes. This means that you may receive unsolicited email messages, text messages, phone calls, and snail-mail for various products and services.

In Digit’s privacy policy they state “We may share your Personal Information with unaffiliated third parties.” Digit claims that they will use your information “to offer our products and services and products and services of third parties that we think you might find of interest” and “to assess your needs and interests in order to better tailor offers and/or advertising” among other things.

And, just like the price of the app this information about retaining, sharing, and using your personal information is buried on their website and their privacy policy is not mentioned or linked on their page in the Play Store app.

In conclusion, there are many reasons why you should avoid Digit like a flea-infested animal during the plague. To give you a quick rundown here are some reasons why Digit may not be suitable for you:

• Digit collects and shares your personal information with third-parties.
• Digit and third-parties use your personal information for commercial purposes which may result in unwanted email messages, text messages, phone calls, and snail-mail.
• It’s difficult to contact Digit without knowing their email address beforehand.
• It’s difficult to stop Digit from texting your mobile device.
• Digit costs money to use.
• There are many complaints about Digit, Digit’s marketing practices, and concerns about how they have used personal information.

Last but not least, Digit will not help you save money since it costs money to use the app and service. This means that you will technically lose money if you decide to use the Digit mobile app to save money. Users have reported charges from $5.00 USD to $30.00 USD per month and some have even claimed to be charged multiple times per month.

In reality, there are plenty of legitimate banks that offer free checking and savings accounts and Digit is neither a bank nor a free service. We recommend trying something else before you even consider forfeiting your personal information to a business that utilizes deceptive marketing practices to obtain customers.