Is SoFi Coach Safe and Is It Worth It?

What Is SoFi Coach?

SoFi Coach is a tool within the SoFi app that tracks and analyzes your finances, helps users cultivate a strong credit score, and includes AI-powered advice. If you want to avoid common budgeting mistakes, it’s a big help having your financial stats at your fingertips and being able to ask questions of an AI that has been trained on the same playbook as SoFi’s own financial planners.

Is SoFi Coach Safe and Secure?

When you hear the words “money” and “AI” in the same sentence, it’s natural to wonder, is SoFi Coach safe? — and maybe even, is SoFi safe? SoFi is a bank, and the company uses gold-standard administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that have been established to protect customers’ confidential information. This includes multifactor authentication and other features you’ve come to expect from a bank.

SoFi has taken additional steps to protect the information users share with SoFi Coach and the company’s AI partners, so that member information is not used by partners for their own commercial purposes, or used to train partners’ large-language models. You can read more about SoFi’s Terms of Use and Privacy policies if you want to dive deeper.

Why SoFi Coach Is Worth It

Once you’re satisfied that SoFi is safe and the information you share with Coach is secure, it’s natural to wonder if it’s worth using SoFi Coach. Perhaps the most compelling evidence that SoFi Coach is worth trying is this: In early testing, SoFi Coach helped nearly 70% of engaged test members take steps to improve their finances, from paying down high-interest debt to moving money into higher-yield accounts.

It’s hard to argue with those results. But while we’re at it, here are a few other reasons SoFi Coach is worth a look.

It’s Free

Financial management apps often charge a subscription fee. Not SoFi Coach. The SoFi Coach tool is right in your SoFi app and costs nothing for SoFi members. SoFi members aren’t just those with SoFi checking or savings accounts; it’s anyone who uses SoFi’s financial services. Maybe you have a SoFi personal loan or student loan. If so, SoFi Coach is available to you, too.

SoFi does ask you to invest a few minutes of your time to securely link any external accounts with SoFi Coach, so it can have a full picture of your financial life. Doing so makes using the features below most helpful. You can link bank and investment accounts, and even include information about property you own so that becomes part of your financial picture.

Product Feature: Coach Insights

Coach Insights will appear within your SoFi app. You can see your net worth, how you are spending against your budget goals, and more in simple graphics. If you have a question about your insights, such as “Am I on track to save the IRS maximum IRA amount this year?”, you can ask Coach Chat.

Product Feature: Coach Chat

Coach Chat is the AI-powered advisor at the heart of SoFi Coach. Ask SoFi Coach your budgeting questions and determine which of the different budgeting methods you want to use. Its answers will be customized based on your SoFi account information, the budget goals you set in SoFi Coach, and the access you allow to your external accounts.

Product Feature: Budget Planner

Many people who want to get their money right struggle with how to make a budget. SoFi Coach puts an online budget planner in your pocket. “When building a personal budget, it’s a common mistake to set budget categories with aspirational numbers pulled out of thin air, only to have a budget fall apart later on when faced with reality,” says Brian Walsh, CFP® and Head of Advice & Planning at SoFi. With SoFi Coach you can easily see your Coach Insights and examine your top spending categories as you are working on your budget.

Product Feature: Credit Score Monitoring

SoFi Coach users will be able to check their VantageScore® 3.0 credit score as frequently as they like at no cost. Free credit-score monitoring is one of the elements that sets SoFi Coach apart from many other financial-management apps.

Recommended: Free Monthly Budget Template

Ways to Maximize SoFi Coach Benefits

Here are some ways to make the most of your use of SoFi Coach:

•   Link any external bank or investment accounts: This will allow the app a complete picture of your financial life.

•   Set some budget goals: Maybe you want to wipe out your credit card debt. Or perhaps you want to take a big trip without dipping into your savings, so you need to build up a travel fund. Use SoFi Coach to set these goals and ask Coach for tips on how to achieve them.

•   Take advantage of SoFi’s Vault system: Vaults aren’t separate accounts, but rather subcategories in SoFi savings accounts that let you portion out funds for different purposes, such as travel, holiday gifts, and emergencies. You can use Coach to set up recurring transfers into your vaults to ensure that money is set aside before you have a chance to spend it elsewhere.

How to Sign Up for SoFi Coach

Signing up for SoFi Coach isn’t complicated. You’ll find the Coach icon at the top of the home screen on the SoFi app. Simply tap it to get started linking any external accounts so SoFi Coach can have a full picture of your finances.

SoFi Coach Tips

SoFi Coach is simple to use. The only tip you need to remember to use SoFi Coach effectively is this: Ask any question, no matter how simple, small, or seemingly silly. The more you ask, the more you will learn, and the more the tool will learn about your needs so that the advice will be customized to you.

If you’re used to having a limited amount of time with a financial advisor or making a call and waiting days for a reply, having your questions answered immediately may take some getting used to. Maybe you’ve never talked to a financial advisor before at all — in that case, SoFi Coach is a good way to get started.

Recommended: Needs vs. Wants

The Takeaway

In this age of fraud alerts and AI anxiety, it’s natural to wonder, Is SoFi safe? And is it safe to use a tool like SoFi Coach? Rest assured, your information is carefully safeguarded according to SoFi’s privacy and security protocols. Moreover, taking advantage of all SoFi Coach has to offer can help you set and reach financial goals.

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.

Meet SoFi Coach, your smart personal guide to getting your money right.

Chat with Coach