Trim App Review 2020 | An Easy Way to Save Money On Bills

The Trim app, also known as AskTrim, was introduced in 2015. It’s well-known for helping you negotiate for lower rates on your bills and cut out any unused subscriptions. Trim has already helped users save over $20 million and over $1 million in the last month alone.

Trim works a lot like other personal finance apps and budgeting tools. You sign up, link your bank accounts, etc. But what makes Trim shine is that it’s actively helping you reduce your spending. That’s by cancelling your unwanted subscriptions and negotiating your bills.

And before you say, “I can do that on my own,” I know you can. Trim just makes it really freaking easy. There’s no stress. No anxiety… I’ll talk more about this further down in my Trim app review.

Trim added new features in 2019, and now calls itself a “financial health company.” It’s taking more of a holistic approach to managing your money, adding some premium features to help you with even more aspects of your financial life. These new, paid features includes a high-yield savings account, debt services, and financial coaching.

What you first need to know about how Trim works is that it’s like a personal finance bot that goes through your transactions and finds recurring transactions, like subscription services.

The reality is that it’s really easy these days to find yourself with more subscription style charges than you realize. There are common ones, like your Netflix or Hulu subscription. Or, you could have forgotten to cancel your HBO subscription even though GoT ended a while ago.

And according to Forbes, the subscription economy has grown by more than 100% in the past five years. The biggest names in the game generated a combined $2.6 billion+ in 2016.

Then there are recurring charges sometimes known as “gray charges.” These are small charges that fly under the radar for things like membership sites, software, video games, etc. These include free trial periods you forgot to cancel.

Unless you go through everything single transaction (which is really good to do!), they’re easy to forget about. And they cost you money.

Trim knows subscription-based services are an issue, so the Trim app will cancel them for you. Here’s how this works:

• Trim looks at transactions from your linked checking and credit card accounts
• It analyzes your transactions to see which ones are recurring subscriptions
• The Trim app shows you how much you’re spending on them
• Select the services you want to cancel
• Trim cancels them for you and keeps you updated on the progress.

Trim can negotiate for lower rates with your cable service, internet, and/or phone company. You are charged for bill negotiation, but it’s only if Trim is able to save you money.

Here’s how bill negotiation works with Trim:

• Submit a bill for negotiation
• Provide a payment method (you are only charged if Trim saves you money)
• Trim will contact the bill holder to negotiate
• You will be notified if Trim can save you money
• Trim will charge you for the service three days later

For bill negotiation, Trim charges 33% of the total you save each year. You pay that to Trim upfront. That means if they can save you $20 a month on your cell plan, or $240 over the course of a year, you would pay Trim $79.20. You can switch payment methods during the three-day period if you need to.

If that fee sounds high, you can always negotiate bills on your own.

Trim can help you with car insurance at no extra charge. They connect you with a service called Gabi that scans 90% of insurance companies to find you a better rate. Again, there is no charge for this.

Related: 36 Ways to Save Money Fast and 29 Easy Ways to Lower Your Monthly Household Expenses

This is Trim’s brand new automated savings account. It comes with a 4% annual reward on the first $2,000 that you save in the account. The rate is 1.1.% after that (only slightly higher than the average APR). You can use the Trim app to schedule automated transfers in your Simple Savings account.

Related: Best Online Savings Accounts in 2020

​TrimPay is set up to help you destroy your credit card debt, and it works a little different than you might expect:

• Pick which credit card you want to pay off
• Set up automated weekly bank transfers to your TrimPay account (this is a savings account)
• Pick a day of the month for the total in your TrimPay account to be sent to your credit card company

This is an additional credit card payment — you are still responsible for making the minimum monthly payments.

TrimPay only works with one credit card at a time, and you can withdraw money from your TrimPay account if needed.

Related: How to Pay Off Debt: Step-by-Step Plan (That Actually Works)

By looking at all of your debt — why you need to link all of your accounts — Trim will help you build a payoff plan that minimizes interest. I’m assuming Trim is using the debt avalanche method.

One of the reasons I like Trim is because it’s offering users something completely new: bill negotiation services. To see how Trim compares to other personal finance software, check out these articles:

• Mint vs. YNAB 2020 | Which Budgeting App is Best?
• Digit Review 2020: Effective Saving App Or Total Waste Of Time?
• PocketGuard Review 2020: Track Your Bills, Spend Smarter, and Save More
• Personal Capital Review 2020 | Free Investment and Net Worth Tracking
• Quicken vs. Mint: Which Budgeting Tool is Better in 2020?
• EveryDollar vs. Mint Comparison 2020: Which Budget App is Best?
• Best Personal Finance Software of 2020 (You NEED These Apps!)