Betterment is offering up to a year of free service for new and existing users. Learn more about this promo and other Betterment promotions below!
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What is Betterment?
Betterment helps you invest easily with their automated investing platform, also known as a robo-advisor. The simple process asks you a few questions and based on your answers, it builds a tailored portfolio for you.
Betterment has two levels of service:
- a digital service with no account minimums for a low fee of 0.25%
- a premium service that requires a $100,00 minimum investment for a fee of just 0.40%
New and existing users can get free service though by taking advantage of the promotions in this post!
Betterment Promotions
Betterment offers many different promotions throughout the year, including new user sign-up offers, referral bonuses, and free service promos.
Here are the active promotions currently available:
Offer #1) Betterment 12 Months of Free Service
Get up to 12 months of free service from Betterment with an initial deposit of at least $15,000.
The length of time you can use Betterment for free depends on your initial deposit amount:
| Initial Deposit | Free Service |
| $15,000 – $99,999 | 1 Month Free |
| $100,000 – $249,999 | 6 Months Free |
| $250,000+ | 1 Year Free |
How To Get Free Service:
- Open a Betterment account using this link
- Make an initial deposit within 45 days
- Receive free service from Betterment based on the initial deposit amount
This promotion is available to U.S. residents only and can’t be combined with any other Betterment offers.
Offer #2) Betterment Referral Bonus
Receive 3 months of free service for every person you refer to Betterment through the referral program.
You’ll earn 3 months of free service as a referral bonus for every person you invite that signs up with Betterment. When your first three referrals fund their account, you’ll get an extra year free.
How To Refer:
- Find your referral link in your Betterment account
- Invite friends to join Betterment using your unique referral link
- Receive referral bonus 90 days after the referee makes an initial deposit (provided that the initial deposit amount is not withdrawn for 90 days)
Once you have referred five people, you’ll no longer be eligible for future fee waivers.
Even when you are not eligible to receive a fee waiver, you’ll be permitted to send invites to friends and they will be eligible to receive fee waivers through the Betterment Refer-a-Friend Program.
The Bottom Line
Betterment is one of the more popular robo-advisor platforms with Empower and M1 Finance (which currently has a $500 sign-up bonus) being two of their biggest competitors.
The monthly value of the free service depends on the amount in your account. For example, a $100,000 investing portfolio will save you $20.83 a month ($250 a year) with their basic service or $33.33 ($400 a year) with their premium service.
The fees are comparable to the other robo-advisors mentioned and much less than going with an actively-managed mutual fund.
I recommend Betterment for those who aren’t 100% comfortable in investing by themselves, but don’t want to pay high fees to a financial advisor to do it for them.
