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Stash: Overall Rating
| Feature | Insider rating (out of 5) |
| Fees | 4.00 |
| Investment selection | 4.25 |
| Access | 4.40 |
| Ethics | 5.00 |
| Customer service | 4.00 |
| Overall score | 4.33 |
Is Stash Right For You?
Stash Invest is best for beginner investors who want help investing more each month. Investment options don't do you any good if you aren't able to find money in your budget each month to invest. Stash offers tools like Set Schedule, Round Ups, and Smart-Stash to help find extra cash and invest it, but it also lets you choose your own investments.
Stash additionally offers automated portfolios, as well as a suite of tools to help you determine your risk tolerance, open a retirement saving or custodial account, and invest in fractional shares or ETFs. While the platform supports both DIY traders and passive investors, it isn't best for those in search of a wide range of investment options.
Stash vs. Acorns
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Min. Investment $0 ($5 to start investing) | Min. Investment $0 |
Fees $3 or $9 per month depending on plan | Fees $3 to $5/month |
Investment choices Stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies | Investment choices ETFs |
| Start Investing |
Stash's main competitor is Acorns, which also offers round-ups, recurring investments, and fractional share investing.
If you're only looking to invest, Stash has the slight edge because it offers more flexibility. Stash account holders can invest in hundreds of individual stocks and ETFs. With Acorns, your investment choices are limited to five ETF portfolios.
If you're looking to open a custodial account for your kids, Acorns will be the more affordable choice. Custodial accounts are included in the Acorns Family plan, which costs $5 per month. Stash, meanwhile, restricts custodial account access to subscribers on its $9-per-month month Stash+ plan.
Stash vs. Robinhood
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Min. Investment $0 ($5 to start investing) | Min. Investment $0 ($1 for fractional shares; $2,000 for margin trading through Robinhood Gold) |
Fees $3 or $9 per month depending on plan | Fees 0% ($5 monthly fee for Robinhood Gold) |
Investment choices Stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies | Investment choices Stocks, ETFs, options, cryptocurrencies, IPOs, and ADRs |
When it comes to fees, Robinhood Investing is the best choice for individuals looking to save the most on trading. But Stash is the best option for those who want access to both DIY trading and automated investing. You can choose which investments you'd like to buy, but you can also select one of its robo-ETF portfolios.
However, Robinhood has a larger suite of investment options.
Ways to Invest with Stash
Stash is a micro-investing platform that offers a wide variety of individual stock and ETF investment choices. Plus, you can also invest in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, and others. Fractional share investing, starting at 1 cent, is available for each of the investments on Stash's platform.
Stash offers "themed" ETFs, with names like "Blue Chips" and "Delicious Dividends," that make it easy to understand what types of securities are bundled in the fund. Finally, Stash offers "Portfolio Builder" ETF portfolios, which are built to match each investor's specific risk level.
The platform also allows you to automatically reinvest any dividends you earn. You can use this feature for any of your Stash investing, retirement, or custodial accounts.
In addition, Stash offers two plans (Growth and Stash+), which both charge a flat monthly rate. Growth plan subscribers pay $3 per month. And the cost triples with Stash+ to $9 per month. The only major difference between these plans is that you need to be at least a Stash+ subscriber to get things like advice for family finances, market research, custodial accounts, and $10,000 life insurance.
Stash's flat-fee pricing model means that investors with smaller accounts will pay more as a percentage of total invested assets. For example, at $3 per month, Growth subscribers pay $36 per year.
By comparison, many robo-advisors start their annual advisory fees at around 0.25%. And, of course, you could avoid advisory fees altogether by opening an account with a discount broker and buying your stocks, ETFs, or mutual funds on your own.
However, Stash's flat pricing model becomes more attractive as account size grows. The fees remain constant as your balance grows (unlike asset-based fees).
Fractional shares
Individual share prices of some stocks can be very expensive. For example, at the time of this writing, one share of Apple stock would cost you over $154. And you'd need over $100 to buy one share of Amazon.
But with Stash, you can buy little pieces of these companies, called fractional shares, at any dollar amount. Fractional share investing is a great option for investors who don't have loads of money to invest but still want to own top stocks and ETFs.
While $15 is the minimum fee required to invest with Stash, you can invest in even smaller increments once your account is up and running. For investments that cost less than $1,000 per share you can invest as little as 1 cent, while 5 cents is the minimum for investments trading above $1,000.
Charles Schwab, Robinhood, and Acorns also offer fractional share investing.
Automatic investing tools
Being able to start investing with as little as $1 is great. But you still need to find a way to carve out space in your budget to save that $1, $50, or however much you hope to invest per month. Thankfully, Stash can help with that too.
All Stash subscribers are given access to a suite of automatic saving and investing tools called Auto-Stash. Here's what Auto-Stash includes:
- Set Schedule: Save and invest automatically according to a recurring schedule
- Round-Ups: Link a debit card to save and invest your spare change from each transaction
- Smart-Stash: Let Stash analyze your spending habits and transfer "extra" money automatically
Each of these tools is designed to help you save more each day and month. You can choose to move these funds to your cash balance until you're ready to invest them. Or you can choose to immediately invest your savings in an investment you already own in your portfolio.
Smart Portfolios
This feature is ideal for those who don't want to make the day-to-day trading decisions in their account. With Smart Portfolios, Stash invests your funds into personalized ETF and stock portfolios that strive to generate returns based off your investing goals and risk tolerance.
You can access these portfolios with the Growth plan.
Retirement and custodial accounts
Stash offers both traditional and Roth IRA accounts, and you can use Stash to open custodial investment accounts for kids.
Unlike 529 plans, custodial accounts don't have to be used toward education expenses. And you can contribute up to $17,000 per year ($34,000 per year for a married couple) to your child's account without having to pay any gift tax. Note that custodial accounts can affect a student's financial aid eligibility.
You'll need to be at least a Stash Growth subscriber to open a retirement account, while custodial accounts are only available to Stash+ subscribers.
Stash: Is it Trustworthy?
The Better Business Bureau has given Stash an NR ("No rating") status. Stash has this rating since it's currently responding to previously closed complaints.
In addition to customer complaint history, the BBB considers a company's time in business, its business practices, and any advertising issues associated with the company. However, the bureau also says on its website that its ratings don't guarantee whether a company will be reliable or perform well. This is why it's also wise to do your own research when weighing different investment companies.
Stash's record appears to be clear of any major scandals or lawsuits within the last few years. According to BBB data, the investment app has closed nearly 1,000 complaints in the last three years and 400+ complaints in the last 12 months. It currently has 13 unanswered complaints.
Stash — Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Yes. Stash is a reputable business that was founded in 2015. The investment app is registered with both the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).
Yes. You can make money with Stash, but you can also lose money like any other investment platform.
Stash charges a $3 monthly fee for personal accounts and a $5 monthly fee for family accounts.
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Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.
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