How to Sign Up for SoFi Coach for Free
By Dana Webb
If you’ve been thinking about using a money tracker to take control of your financial life, but haven’t wanted to pay for a subscription, SoFi Coach℠ could be the free money tracker you’ve been looking for. Signing up to use SoFi Coach is simple, and the tool has all the features you’ll need to keep tabs on your finances, get answers to your money questions, monitor your credit score, and more. Read on for the details, and learn how to log on and get started managing your money.
- Key Points
- • SoFi Coach is a free, AI-enabled money tracker available in the SoFi app.
- • It combines money tracking, credit monitoring, and AI-powered financial chat in one tool.
- • Simply log in to the SoFi app or website to access the SoFi Coach.
- • Link your external accounts to get a full picture of your personal finances.
- • Your financial data remains secure and is not used to train AI models.
Your money questions, answered.
What Is SoFi Coach?
SoFi Coach is an AI-enabled tool that lives within SoFi’s app. It’s free to any SoFi user. It has budget-planning features, and once you connect any non-SoFi accounts you may have — bank, credit, and investment accounts, for example — you’ll have a full picture of your spending categories and where your money is going. Then you can use the tool’s AI features to ask questions and get advice about your finances, such as how to make a budget or how to create an emergency fund.
SoFi Coach also provides free credit-score monitoring. And if you need help managing debt, the tool can provide advice on where to put any extra funds you have available to pay down pesky credit card balances. (Next step: reducing bills going forward and getting a handle on needs vs. wants).
Recommended: Free Monthly Budget Template
Signing Up for SoFi Coach for Free
Getting access to SoFi Coach is fairly simple. If you’re already a user of the SoFi app or website, you can find the SoFi Coach icon on the home screen at the top right. (Look for a curved line inside a circle.)
If you don’t yet use SoFi’s app or site, you can create an account by typing in your name, state of residence, and email address. You’ll need to choose a password, and on the mobile site you will be asked to enable multifactor authentication with a phone number and facial recognition (the latter is optional).
Once you tap on the Coach icon, you have the opportunity to link external bank, investment, and credit accounts so that Coach can run a more robust financial analysis for you. You’ll be asked if you want to turn on Coach’s free credit-score monitoring function. There’s no harm to your credit score if you do this, so why not?
From there, you can look for the phrase “Ask Coach” in your app or on the web site to begin to interact with Coach Chat, the built-in AI guide. Also look for Coach Insights on the toolbar of the web site to see a dashboard of your financial life, including your net worth, credit score, and debts. You can even include the value of your home, other property, and car after providing the necessary info about them, such as your home address and the make, model, year, and trim of your vehicle.
Benefits of SoFi Coach
SoFi Coach’s key advantage is that it combines three useful features in one free tool: money tracking, credit monitoring, and an AI-powered chat function. Some other money apps offer one or two of these features, but it’s unusual to find all three in a free app.
The benefits of SoFi Coach lie in its expansive product features, so let’s take a closer look at all you can do with this money tracker and financial guide.
Product Features of SoFi Coach
There are four key features of SoFi Coach that you’ll want to take advantage of.
Coach Chat
Coach Chat is SoFi’s AI-powered guide, available 24-7 to help you get your money right. It’s backed by the training and insights of SoFi financial planners. You can ask questions about common budgeting mistakes, saving for retirement, and how to manage credit card debt.
You can also instruct Coach to execute simple tasks on your behalf, such as transferring funds, opening a new SoFi checking and savings account, or allocating funds into Vaults within your SoFi high-yield account. (Vaults are subsections of the high-yield account that you earmark for specific savings, such as a down payment on a home or a big vacation.) You’ll always review and approve the action before anything happens.
Coach Insights
Coach will automatically review account data to create your Insights. Think of this as your financial dashboard, the place where you can see how you’re doing on savings, paying down debt, keeping your credit score healthy, and more.
Credit Score Monitoring
And speaking of your credit score: Free credit-score monitoring is included in SoFi Coach. You can pop in any time to see your VantageScore® 3.0.
Budget Planner
There are different types of budgeting methods, and SoFi Coach can help you decide how to set and track budget goals.
Ways to Maximize SoFi Coach Benefits
To get the most out of SoFi Coach, it’s important to connect your external accounts. This can take a little time, but once you’ve done it the tool will have a more comprehensive view of your finances, so it’s worth making the effort.
Another tip? Don’t be shy with SoFi Coach. You can ask it any money question, any time of the day or night. Budgeting questions, questions about saving for a down payment on a home, even “how much can I afford to spend on restaurant meals this month?” Ask the questions you would ask your friend who is smartest about finances, if you weren’t embarrassed to text her at 1 a.m.
How to Sign Up for SoFi Coach
There’s no secret to signing up for the SoFi Coach money tracker and guide app: You simply log in to your SoFi account or sign up for an account using your first and last name, email address, and state of residence. After that you can link external accounts, add your phone number for multifactor authentication, and start using SoFi Coach to monitor your money and take steps to save, budget, and reach financial goals.
SoFi Coach Tips
Here are a few other insidery things you should know about SoFi Coach:
The Takeaway
The signup for SoFi Coach is quite simple, and once you connect any external accounts and authorize SoFi to check your credit score, you’ll have a helpful financial dashboard and access to a free AI-powered financial guide.
Take control of your finances with SoFi Coach. You can easily view all of your accounts in one convenient dashboard: bank and investment balances, current debts, spending breakdowns, and credit score. Easily set up budgets and spot upcoming bills. And get personalized insights on everyday money questions and take action with Coach chat, the AI guide that’s powered by the playbooks of SoFi Financial Planners, so its guidance comes from expert knowledge.
FAQ
Is it worth it to be a SoFi Coach member?
It doesn’t cost anything to use SoFi Coach — there is no membership fee. So it’s worth it to use SoFi Coach if you are looking for a tool that can help you better manage your finances and keep tabs on your credit score. The only investment you will make to use SoFi Coach is your time, as you will need to spend time at the outset to connect any external accounts you have with your SoFi account so that SoFi Coach has a complete picture of your financial life.
Is Coach Chat free to use?
SoFI Coach Chat is free. In fact, there is no charge for SoFi Coach services.
What is needed to open a SoFi account?
To open a bank account with SoFi, you need to be at least 18 years of age. You’ll have to provide the following: your first and last name; home address in the U.S. (or U.S. military states); date of birth; citizenship status; Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number; phone number; and email address.
What are the main benefits of SoFi Coach?
The primary benefit of SoFi Coach is that it is a money tracker, credit-score monitoring tool, and AI financial guide all rolled into one — and all free.
When is a good time to use SoFi Coach?
The beauty of an AI guide is that you can call on it anytime, whenever a question strikes you. A particularly good time to use SoFi Coach is when you’re facing a money challenge, such as how to reduce credit card debt or how to save for a down payment. Another key time to check SoFi Coach would be before you plan to apply for new credit, so you can see how your credit score is doing.
Is SoFi legit and trustworthy?
SoFi is a legitimate bank and financial services company. It’s been around for more than 15 years. SoFi started in 2011 as a loan provider. SoFi received its federal approval to be a bank in 2022, and its checking and savings account holders are entitled to FDIC protections. As a bank, SoFi uses bank-grade security to protect its members’ assets and privacy. Coach Chat, SoFi’s AI guide, is protected according to SoFi’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies, so the information you share with Coach Chat is secure.
