Is NerdWallet A Scam? User Doubts Company, Alleged Scam?!

What Is NerdWallet?

Who could imagine that a multimillion-dollar company started with only $800 investment? This is how Tim Chen and Jacob Gibson started NerdWallet back in 2009.

Their idea of creating a free web application to help the Americans compare various credit offers succeeded, increasing their ranks on the search engines. 

Their services attracted users to use NerdWallet as their financial partners. Consequently, the $800-company turned into a $520 million worth of value in 2016.

Due to the increasing demands and a successful launch, NerdWallet expanded its services not only focusing on credit cards, which was the original plan. They included investing, savings account, mortgage, online broker, and personal loan.

Albeit the great start for a small company turned into a multimillion-dollar business, NerdWallet experienced a plateau in 2017 resulting in laying off 11% of its employees. 

The company may be experiencing troubles a few years, they go back on the track and continue to serve the Americans who heavily rely on NerdWallet in their financial decisions, preventing themselves from bankruptcy.

Who Is NerdWallet For?

Have you done grocery shopping or bought new stuff using the credit card lately? If you did, are you aware of your expenses?

I mean like how much do you think you spend in the past few days using the credit card. Do you know the numbers? 

Imagine the worst scenario if your credit card declines after a long line at the grocery store. Without any options left, you ended up pushing your cart on the side and leaving with nothing. 

That sucks, right? 

This is why NerdWallet is created to prevent you from being trapped in these situations. It saves you from any credit card troubles. Back in 2009, they concentrated on giving you the best credit card options.

As the company grew, they expanded their reach through other financial-related areas like investing, mortgage, personal loan, savings account, and online broker. That reminds me of the Secrets of the Wealthy review, which helps in becoming rich through investments.

The inclusion of these areas led to becoming one of the top choices for a finance application aside from its closest competitor, Credit Karma. 

That said, NerdWallet provides a functional website containing comprehensive discussion about financial-related topics, giving insights to its users which serve as a reference for their decisions. 

To serve its users best, NerdWallet allows more convenience for users who are away from their laptops or PCs by making it available for mobile devices. The app is downloadable in Google Play and App Store. 

Overall, NerdWallet is for everyone interested in learning their finance score in various areas where it involves money. You want to know where your money goes and how much you still have to spend for yourself. 

What broke people do is spending their money blindly without tracking everything, leading to financial chaos. To prevent this, this free app is a big help not only to save you from the worst, but it can also help you grow your money by investing. 

NerdWallet provides basic information about everything you need to understand about investing. They provide a list of the top brokers you can refer to once you invest. 

At the same time, the app allows you to compare the online brokers to make sure you're working with the top-notch expert. 

Further, it has a calculator feature that allows you to track your retirement to make sure you are on the right track. This is good for self-employed individuals like me. 

The last feature is one of the best among the line of financial applications today. NerdWallet has a fee analyzer feature created to make sure you retire rich. 

At this point, do you think NerdWallet is a good choice? 

So far, we have gathered good points based on their impressive services and opportunities for you to grow your money. If not investing, at least, they teach financial lessons to prevent you from getting trouble. 

That said, we’ll go deeper into the company and know its pros and cons to help you with your decisions.  

Before that let me suggest to get your Ultimate Make Money Online Guide to open another income stream aside from the investments you make. In this way, it provides you the chance to earn passive income possible.

Pros & Cons of NerdWallet

Here are the pros and cons of the top American personal finance company to help you decide whether NerdWallet works for you or not. 

1. Legitimate Finance App

As far as my research goes, NerdWallet appeals in the American market as it became one of the top personal finance companies available for free.

As I mentioned before, the company only started with $800 investment which turned into a multimillion-dollar business. This is proof that many people trust NerdWallet in their financial health. 

2. Lots of Key Financial Features

Not only it concentrates on the credit card lines, but NerdWallet also caters to different sectors where people spend money from. For example, they also monitor mortgage payments, as well as personal loans.

Aside from that, you are given the rare chance to work with the top online brokers to help you grow your money. 

This is how NerdWallet works in your investment to make sure you won’t deal with future financial traps due to reckless spending today. 

3. Free Personal Finance App

If you think about it, NerdWallet could have opted to ask for a membership fee to provide access to tons of content: tips and pieces of advice from financial experts, credit card comparison, all that stuff. 

Yet, they wanted to serve their mission which is to help as many people as they can to be financially healthy. 

That means, making the app available for free to use on different devices: PCs and mobile devices (compatible for both iOs and Android phones).

4. High BBB Rating

When you see a company with a high BBB rating, it means it is reliable and legit. Why? 

The Better Business Bureau or the BBB is a reputable company review resource that helps people to determine whether this or that company is scamming people or not. 

The fact that NerdWallet has a BBB profile, it is already a good thing for reference. On top of that, they also got a high-rating from them. What does this mean? 

It means that NerdWallet has satisfied the BBB with apt company information and proved their dedication to serving its users without putting them into harm. 

Typically, they will be required to submit additional documents. Aside from that, proof of activity on the BBB website to respond to customer complaints can be considered as a basis to determine their score.

5. BBB-Accredited Company

Concerning my previous point, NerdWallet has successfully proved itself its legitimacy to users, especially those who haven’t tried the free finance app yet. 

At the same time, it has also proved giving the users a worthwhile experience by providing comprehensive reports of their expenses and other investments. 

As I said, one of the key factors in determining their score is by responding to the complaints as soon as possible. 

1. Non-User-Friendly Interface

2. Alleged Scam

Despite the efforts of creating a sensational finance application for the Americans, many of the users remain doubtful about NerdWallet’s capacity to help them financially. 

As far as my research goes, most people claim that NerdWallet may look attractive upfront, but it could potentially put you into financial trouble as opposed to its core values.

According to one of the many users I came across on forums, he wrote that the company leads people to wrongful decisions because the advice they provide turns out to be inaccurate.

3. Lots of Negative Reviews + Complaints

Following the previous point, NerdWallet surprised me with loads of negative reviews and a series of complaints from various review sources. The screenshot above is one of the many users who wrote about NerdWallet and its alleged scams. 

Among the complaints filed against NerdWallet, although not that many on the Better Business Bureau (BBB), this one involved slandering other finance companies that caused an uproar. 

“That seems like NerdWallet is clearly stating that these [finance companies] scam people. That is libel slander. It is not true. Nothing we do is a scam or fraudulent,” one of the affected finance companies wrote after NerdWallet’s disturbing disclaimer.

4. Poor Customer Service

NerdWallet may provide the most comprehensive financial data to refer to your finances, but they failed to satisfy its users with its poor customer service.

Is NerdWallet a Scam?

Despite the accusations, NerdWallet continues to serve the Americans with its legitimate services in personal finance. They may not satisfy everyone and prove its legitimacy, at least, they have served its cause.

Even though the company pursues and thrives up to this day, its business plateau in mid-2017 is quite disturbing. They laid off 11% of its employees making the event a sign of its potential downfall.

That is if their market discontinues and the numbers decline in the future, given the rising doubts from the people about NerdWallet and its capacity to help them truly in their financial decisions.

Nonetheless, NerdWallet is a legitimate company with a good rating and accreditation status from reputable company review sites in the public domain. 

That said, it is best to say that this free app saves a lot of people from getting into inevitable or, perhaps, the worst finance-related scenarios. 

Conclusion - Is NerdWallet Worth It?