While many financial experts have opposing views on money, they almost all agree that having an emergency fund is a crucial step to achieving financial stability.
Unfortunately, most Americans are not great at saving. In fact, just 39% of Americans say they could afford a $1,000 emergency. On the other hand, the average American spends $1,000 a year on lottery tickets!
It's no debate that saving money can be a challenge for many, but perhaps there is a better way to save. PrizePool is a company with a mission to make saving money fun and exciting. Keep reading for our full PrizePool review.
Summary
Prizepool is an online savings account with a twist. In addition to earning 0.30% APY, members are also automaticaly entered into a weekly raffle to win over 6,000 prizes.
Prizepool is on a mission to make saving money fun and exciting.
With no fees and no account minimum, truly anyone can get started and see their savings grow.
Pros
Cons
PrizePool is an online savings account that was launched in 2019 by Frankie Chien. The company is on a mission to make saving money fun and exciting.
From the PrizePool website, it states:
"PrizePool’s mission is to incentivize Americans to build a better financial foundation."
This savings account is a simple way to save and earn more than a traditional savings account. Not only do you earn a much higher interest rate than the national average, but you also have a chance to win prizes in the weekly drawings.
Are people loving this app's solution to the financial problem in America?
The app has a 4.6-star rating out of 1,400 reviews in the app store. So, while it's relatively new, so far people are loving the opportunity to win money just by saving money!
PrizePool is not a regular savings account. Instead, it is a Prize-Linked Savings Account (PLSA).
A Prize-Linked Savings Account is a savings account that incentivizes savings through offering lottery-based prizes. However, unlike the actual lottery, you do not buy tickets but are awarded tickets based on your account balance.
Thus you are automatically eligible to win prizes without having to buy a ticket. After the lottery winners are announced, the funds in your account are still yours.
The prizes are paid out from the company's earnings.
PrizePool has a simple app that you need to download in order to get started. Once you have an account and transfer your funds, you will automatically be enrolled with a chance to start winning prizes.
The company offers over 6,000 cash prizes every single week that vary in value. Every 4 weeks, the company has an additional grand prize of $10,000.
Every dollar you have in your account awards you with one ticket per day. Therefore, if you have $50 in your account, you will earn 50 tickets each day. Each time a drawing occurs, the number of tickets you hold resets.
For instance, If you had $50 in your PrizePool account, you would earn 350 tickets (50 tickets per day multiplied by seven days). These drawings occur every Friday at 12pm PT.
Unlike with the lottery, whether or not you win a prize, your money is still your money. You did not have to pay anything to be entered into the drawing. You just needed to be saving money.
In addition to weekly cash prizes, PrizePool also offers members a number of other features:
Creating an account is very simple. It takes about 2 minutes to sign up and the process does not impact your credit score.
After downloading the app, you will submit your name and email and then create a password. After verifying your email, you will submit your address, phone number, and date of birth. Like any other savings account, you will also need to submit your social security number.
This is to verify that you are who you say you are. Verification typically takes less than 2 minutes.
After your account is created, you will be able to link a bank account using Plaid and start growing your savings.
Every single week, the company raffles off over 6,000 prizes. The prizes range from $0.10 to $500. You have the chance to win one prize each week. Below you can see the number of prizes and the amount you can win each week.
When in the app, you will be able to see your total ticket and the total tickets in the pool. The app also shows your percentile, which tells you how many tickets you have in relation to other members. For example, if you are in the 30th percentile, that means you have more tickets than 30% of the other members.
Yes, fortunately for all of us, there is a limit on the total number of allowed entries. If this were not the case, all it would take would be one millionaire to enter and the whole system would be rigged in their favor. The current limit is 3,000,000 entries per person per entry period regardless of method of entry.
So, what does this mean for you? Assuming you do not make any new entries once a new week as begun, the max amount of money you could be rewarded for is roughly $429k.
This is because each entry period is seven days and you earn a ticket for each dollar you have in your account. $428.5K x 7 = $3M.
PrizePool is currently in the process of launching a debit card that will allow users to earn lottery tickets even more generously. For every dollar spent on the debit card, users will earn 100 entry tickets. For every $1,000 spent on the debit card, users will earn 100,000 entry tickets!
Talk about a way to really accelerate your potential earnings from PrizePool. This debit card has not been released yet and a waitlist is currently being formed.
If you are interested in applying, you can sign up on the PrizePool website.
PrizePool ensures funds are protected. All deposits are secured with their partner bank, Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC, with bank-level security and encryption.
This protection guarantees that your funds will be protected up to $250K. This protection provides the confidence that should anything go amiss with the company, fraud, bankruptcy, or the like, your funds will be safeguarded.
This is the standard protection that is granted to the vast majority of banks in the U.S. Because of FDIC insurance, your money is just as safe with PrizePool as it is with Bank of America or Capital One.
PrizePool is a savings app that makes savings a bit more fun! It is no secret that the average American is not the best saver. With PrizePool, you are actually incentivized to save money!
By saving money, you open yourself up to the opportunity to earn even more money! This is on top of a competitive interest rate.
With no account minimums and no fees whatsoever, opening an account is truly free. Depending on your account balance, you will earn tickets that will automatically go into a drawing each week on Fridays. The company raffles off over 6,000 prizes every single week. Even if you do not win a prize, your money is still yours. You do not lose money with PrizePool.
In addition to weekly cash prizes, you also earn 0.30% APY, which is significantly higher than the APY you can earn with the average savings account.
Signing up is incredibly easy and takes just two minutes! Check out the platform today if this PrizePool review was interesting to you!