Does anyone else feel like they see Rocket Money ads and sponsorships everywhere? Much like Hello Fresh and other meal kits a year or so ago, I feel like this is the latest app/product/company that is sponsoring everybody and their mother. I see their ads on Instagram, YouTube, everywhere, and one thing has always really, really bothered me about their sales pitch.
I understand the purpose of the app is to be a financial and budgeting tool; to help people get a handle on their money and keep track of it. It’s an option among the many different money-centered tracking tools out there (I personally love and regularly use YNAB for my budget goals). I understand this is all meant to be about financial responsibility.
However.
The core of Rocket Money’s sales pitch (the hook they use to draw in potential users) is, to summarize, “Do you ever forget how many subscriptions you have? Can you name all your subscriptions? I found out I was paying for X for months/years and didn’t even realize it until Rocket Money showed me and helped me cancel it.”
Sure, it’s probably dramatized for advertising and marketing purposes (I get it, I work in marketing) but you can’t seriously tell me you don’t know where your money is going. What do you mean you didn’t know you were paying for something? Forgetting you have Disney+ because you don’t watch it super often, I get that, but that expense still shows up on your credit card and/or banking statements (either monthly or annually). Recurring charges like that still show up on your paperwork.
You can’t seriously tell me you are so irresponsible with money management that you don’t check your credit card or bank statements. Like, at all. Every time I hear that sales pitch it blows my mind and I think “There is no way that is actually something people do/don’t do.”
Rocket Money is probably a good budgeting app, especially if it can cancel subscriptions for you that you don’t want anymore — sidenote though, I’ve put subscriptions on hold before or cancelled them and I haven’t had bureaucratic issues at all. But that sales pitch anchor, to me, is so ridiculous and makes anyone doing an ad read for them sound super irresponsible.
