SoFi Coach Benefits Guide
By Dana Webb
If you’ve been looking for a money tracker app, there’s a new player on the field. Simplify your financial life with SoFi Coach℠, a free AI-powered budget planner and guide you can access right from your phone. It’s one of many SoFi benefits for members. (Members are those with SoFi bank accounts or other SoFi financial services such as loans or credit cards.) Let’s take a look at all the ways you can make smart money decisions with a little help from a coach.
- Key Points
- • SoFi Coach is a free digital tool available to members that provides personalized insights, budget planning, and financial analysis.
- • The platform’s “Coach Chat” feature uses AI-powered advice, based on the same playbook used by SoFi financial planners.
- • Users can gain a comprehensive view of their financial health by linking external accounts, such as bank, investment, and real estate assets.
- • Key features include credit score monitoring, automated expense tracking, and customizable budget goal-setting.
- • The tool safeguards user data according to strict privacy policies.
Your money questions, answered.
What Is SoFi Coach and How Can It Help?
SoFi Coach is a new digital tool within the SoFi app and website that lets SoFi members view and analyze financial data, gain personalized insights, learn about SoFi products, troubleshoot issues, and even make certain money moves via chat.
Benefits of SoFi Coach
We’ve all got that smart friend who seems to know a lot about managing money. Using SoFi Coach is a little like having that person in your pocket. But you won’t feel like you’re taking up too much of your friend’s time or asking a dumb question. SoFi Coach is on 24-7 and never judgy.
Take a look at some of the goals you can accomplish with SoFi Coach:
• Goal: Get money questions answered. Wondering why your credit score rose or fell? Curious whether your 401(k) balance is shaping up? Use the Coach Chat feature to find personalized answers to questions about your accounts, credit score, or general financial health.
• Goal: Track spending. Link non-SoFi accounts to examine your spending across categories, track your progress, and manage your budget. No more pondering whether you need to be more disciplined about needs vs. wants.
• Goal: Monitor your assets. Link your accounts and real estate to watch your net worth grow, and see a comprehensive view of your financial health.
• Goal: Manage and reduce debt. View all your payments in one place, and chat with Coach for personalized ideas on how to trim down what you owe.
• Goal: Check your credit score. Access free credit score monitoring anytime to stay updated on your debt management and credit health, backed by expert insights. A healthy credit score can pay dividends: “Working to build your credit score before applying for a home loan could save a borrower a lot of money in interest over time. Lower interest rates can keep monthly payments down or help you pay back the loan faster,” says Brian Walsh, CFP® and Head of Advice & Planning at SoFi.
Key Features of SoFi Coach to Explore
SoFi Coach has many useful features, with more being added in the future. Here are a few of the most popular SoFi Coach benefits you can use today:
Coach Chat
SoFi Coach’s AI guide, Coach Chat, is powered by the proprietary playbook SoFi’s financial planners use to answer financial questions and provide advice. Ask SoFi Coach your budgeting questions, such as “am I saving enough for a down payment on a house?” or “am I on track to max out my retirement savings this year?” and get personalized answers quickly.
Coach Insights
Once you’ve linked all your accounts with SoFi Coach, you can log in any time to see your net worth, how you’re tracking against your budget, your debt level, and more. Simple, easy-to-understand graphics give you a clear picture of your finances. The app will track recurring transactions and provide a heads-up on impending expenses.
Budget Planner
If you’re exploring different types of budgeting methods, SoFi Coach’s budget planner could make things easier. You can set monthly spending targets and see how you’re tracking against them. The app can recommend spending targets based on self-reported income, but you can always tailor your target to fit your goals.
Recommended: Free Monthly Budget Template
Ways to Maximize SoFi Coach Benefits
As with so many things in life, what you get out of SoFi Coach depends on what you put into it. So take a few minutes to link any external bank or investment accounts you have with companies other than SoFi. This will allow the app a complete picture of your financial life. Then you can use SoFi Coach Chat to ask questions about how to best manage these accounts.
To make the most of having an online budget planner at your fingertips, set some budget goals for yourself. Maybe you want to eliminate credit card debt. Or perhaps you want to take a big trip without dipping into your savings. Use SoFi Coach to set these goals and ask Coach for tips on how to achieve them. Unsure where to start? Ask SoFi Coach for tips on how to make a budget.
How to Sign Up for SoFi Coach
Signing up for SoFi Coach is easy. If you’re a SoFi member, you can access the tool through the SoFi app (check the top of the home page) or on the SoFi website. Not a member yet? Explore opening an account with SoFi for free access to the app.
SoFi Coach Tips
Don’t hold back. You can check your credit score as often as you like with SoFi Coach — checking won’t affect your score. And don’t hesitate to ask SoFi Coach any question you may have, even the seemingly silly ones. Once you’re comfortable using SoFi Coach, take a little time to explore other benefits for members, such as referral bonuses and discounts on home loans.
Recommended: Common Budgeting Mistakes
The Takeaway
Making the most of all the benefits of SoFi Coach can help you reach your financial goals and get smarter about managing your money.
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 SoFi Coach worth it?
SoFi Coach is a free tool, one of many SoFi benefits available to members. And in early testing, SoFi Coach helped the majority of users take meaningful actions to improve their finances. It takes a little time to connect any external accounts to SoFi Coach, but it’s worth it to get a complete picture of your financial situation, plus personalized advice.
Is Coach Chat free to use?
Coach Chat, like all the functions of SoFi Coach, is entirely free to use.
Is SoFi Coach safe and secure?
SoFi takes security and privacy very seriously, and all the information you share in SoFi Coach is safeguarded according to the company’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies. SoFi’s AI partners don’t retain your data for longer than is necessary to service you or to comply with industry rules, and they aren’t allowed to use your info to train their large-language model. SoFi periodically reviews member interactions with Coach to ensure quality.
What are the main benefits of SoFi Coach?
There are many benefits of SoFi Coach, including free credit-score monitoring, budgeting tools, and goal-setting tools. The main benefit is that SoFi Coach combines money tracking and management tools with an AI-powered chat function backed by the training and insights of SoFi financial planners.
When is a good time to use SoFi Coach?
The best time to use SoFi Coach is anytime you have a question about your finances, as the AI-powered advice is available 24-7.
How does SoFi Coach work?
Once you give SoFi Coach permission to access data and share your budget goals, the tool will pull in the latest information from your checking, savings, credit card, and investment accounts and also access your VantageScore® 3.0 credit score. Using this information, and with an AI-powered chat function based on the same playbook SoFi financial planners use, SoFi Coach can show you how your finances are tracking and answer your questions about how to reduce debt, maximize savings, curb spending, and more.