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. This product has a ton of amazing features but
before we get to those I do want to clarify that this video is not sponsored by M1 finance
however there is an affiliate link down in the description if you do decide to sign up
and you'll help support my channel which I really appreciate! There will also be some
legal clarifications throughout the video just 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 in the video 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.
If you did get value out of this content and you want to help support me the easiest way
to do that is by checking out M1 finance and letting me know what you think of it
down in the comments section and of course by hitting the like button and subscribing
to the channel for more content like this in the future. As always thank you so much
for your time I really do appreciate it so much take it easy and I'll see you in the next one!