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How do predicted savings work?
How do predicted savings work?

With Cleo Savings, you can save up to $3529 in one year, and even more if you do Challenges. How does it work?

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Written by Aine McAlinden
Updated over 3 weeks ago

Your predicted savings are based on how you spend your money, specifically with your linked accounts. Predicted savings are shown when setting up your Cleo Savings, thanks to the various automated tools that help your money grow, and when setting up Challenges, where you commit to cutting down spending in a specific area. In either case, predicted savings are based on a number of factors, explained in detail below. Your actual savings may vary according to your specific usage.

How does Cleo Savings help me save money?

With Cleo Savings, you are able to grow your money with the help of five automated Save Hacks, paired with a competitive interest rate. Using these features, which are available to all Grow, Plus, and Builder subscribers, you can save up to $3529 in one year. So how does it work?

The average savings calculation of $3529 per year is based on users who start with a balance of $20 and enable the five Save Hacks: Roundups, Smart Save, Swear Jar, Set & Forget, and Payday Saver. You’re free to enable and disable any of the four Save Hacks at any time, but the more you use them, the more you’ll save. And keep in mind that no money will ever be taken for Save Hacks if your account doesn’t have sufficient funds, so you don’t have to worry about going into the red. Here’s how each of the five Save Hacks work:

  • Roundups

    Round up your purchases to the nearest dollar and save the difference. Say you spend $12.20 on lunch, $0.80 of that will go into your Cleo Savings. This way you’ll save the roundups for every transaction you make from an account of your choice. Roundups save the average user about $8 per week.

  • Smart Save

    Each week, your financial data will be analyzed to calculate the ideal amount for you to save. So if you’re short on cash one week, only $1 may be moved to your Cleo Savings, but if your account is in better shape the following week, a higher amount may be transferred. There are also 3 settings available to choose from, depending on how quickly you want to increase your savings: easy, normal, and hard. Most users who sign up for Smart Save choose the normal setting, and the average user saves approximately $8 each week with this tool.

  • Swear Jar

    Got a guilty pleasure? Choose an amount you want to save every time you spend there. Say you want to cut down on your pizza addiction: choose Domino’s from your list of merchants, with a transaction amount of $10 or more and a fine of $1. Every time you spend $10 or more at Dominos, you'll see a transfer of $1 into your Savings—your “fine” for spending. On average, Cleo users that sign up for Swear Jar are saving $10 per week with this Hack.

  • Set & Forget

    Save a set amount every week. Just choose an amount you want to save, and this amount will be automatically transferred to your Cleo Savings every week. On average, Cleo users that sign up for Set and Forget are saving $12 per week with this Hack.

  • Payday Saver

    Confirm your income and how much you want to save each paycheck, up to $200. Then when you get paid, that amount will automatically be transferred to your Cleo Savings. Say you want to save 5% of your paycheck, and you earn $1000, then you’ll automatically save $50. The average user saves $34 per week on Payday Saver.

Let’s say you start by depositing $20 into your Cleo Savings. The average user will save up $288 per month using Save Hacks: that’s $32 from Roundups, $32 from Smart Save, $40 from Swear Jar, $48 from Set & Forget, and $136 from Payday Saver. If your Hacks go through successfully every week, that’s $288 saved (remember, Save Hacks won’t go through if you ever don’t have sufficient funds). Add in your original $20 deposit, and you’ll have $308 at the end of the first month, before interest.

In just 3 months, if you’ve turned on all five Save Hacks, you’re likely to now have a balance of $924 from Save Hacks alone, plus the original $20. Continuing on that trend, you’ll have saved $1,848 in 6 months, and $3,476 in 12 months. Then you have your APY interest, which will give you an extra $53.10 at the end of the year. All in all, your Cleo Savings will grow from $20 to $3,529.10 in just a year.

How do Challenges help me save money?

The way Challenges save you money is a little bit different. Let’s say you have a spending problem at Dunkin Donuts, wasting away your hard-earned money multiple times a week when you know you don’t really need it. So you decide to start a Dunkin Challenge, setting your limit at $25 for one week. Now the ball is in your court—can you handle staying under the limit?

As you’re setting up your Challenge, you’ll see a “predicted savings” amount. This amount is calculated based on deducting a percentage of your average spending on Dunkin over the last 12 weeks (with your connected account). Let’s say you usually spend $100 per week at Dunkin, and you want to cut down this week and only spend $25. Then your predicted savings is simply 100 minus 25, so $75. Or, let’s say you wanted to do the same, but for 14 days instead of 7. Then your predicted savings would be $150. If you wanted to do it for 21 days, then your predicted savings would be $225. In other words, your predicted savings is the amount you would’ve normally spent minus your limit.

If you complete your Challenge successfully (hooray!) then you will have spent less on Dunkin in one week than what you normally would spend, which is great news for your wallet. Hopefully, you’ll keep it going and turn this one-time-change into a long-term habit.

So you’ve actually saved yourself some money simply by not going over your limit, which is where your predicted savings come in. Just note that there is no money being automatically put aside and saved from the Challenge—rather, it’s by not spending the way you usually would that you’ve saved yourself some cash.

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