PSA: Avoid the Albert app.

I know there are other posts about Albert on here but I just had such a terrible experience with the app that I need to warn others in a similar situation so they don’t get screwed over like I did.

Albert is a money management app, with its instance advance feature being the main component (and why I got the app.) From the app’s description and ads, it sells its service as an easy way to get money before payday to cover bills or unexpected expenses.

Once you download the app and finish linking all your accounts/giving your personal info, Albert then reveals that in order to use this advance feature, you have to subscribe to a plan for $150/yr, starting with a free trial.

I still signed up because I needed money right away for an emergency vet visit, but I would get paid two days later so I knew I would be able to repay the advance and cancel the subscription well before the trial ended.

The catch? You are prevented from cancelling the subscription until your account is completely empty on Albert/all advances are repaid. Makes sense, right? Except when you find out that repaying the advance takes 6-8 business days to ‘settle’ in Albert after you send it. Albert also automatically ‘invests’ money you have in the app, meaning that returning this money to your checking account takes over two weeks because you have to wait to ‘sell’ the ‘investment’, then wait for the money to ‘settle’, THEN wait for Albert to process the transfer back to your checking.

I have been trying since 12/4 to cancel my subscription and just got charged $150 today for this crap. Fortunately, my bank is going to charge it back and I’ll have the money back before Christmas hopefully. I just wanted to warn others on this sub because this has been a nightmare and I don’t want anyone else to go through this. Don’t be an idiot like me.

TLDR: *Do not download Albert. It is designed to make it extremely difficult to withdraw your money, and it all but forces you into a $150 subscription that cannot be cancelled quickly or easily.*

EDIT: For reference, Albert took $20 out of my checking on 12/4 to ‘invest’. It is 12/18 and I am still unable to withdraw this money from my account.

EDIT 2: Albert charged me another $12.49 today for a “Genius subscription” even though I am literally unable to cancel this subscription because of a pending transfer that is now on its 11th business day of “processing”. Fuck this app.

EDIT 3: After texting their customer service, Albert initially refunded this $12.49 fee, but then withdrew the refund. The app also got a new update today and you cannot even open the app without signing up for a subscription.