It’s Alright... – Varo: Existing Users Only Review

I thoroughly enjoy the fact that I get my direct deposit early, and I enjoy(ed) the no fee overdraft feature which spots you $50 until your next deposit. It was nice being able to be spotted a little extra until payday...in the beginning anyway. At some point Varo updated their app which started interfering with the 50 overdraft limit you could use, making all purchases decline even if you still have $45 available for use with the overdraft amount. It doesn’t even solely affect the overdraft amount - you could have $30 bucks in your account, but if you have a couple of pending charges, new purchases will decline until those pending charges settle. Even if the purchase(s) don’t exceed the amount you have left in your account before overdraft takes over. Example: I had about $75 in my account, I attempted to make a $6 purchase and my card declined. I went elsewhere and tried to make another small purchase to test the waters, and again my card declined. I logged into the app and saw that I still had $75 bucks left in my account, and only had about $15 worth of pending charges. Basic math suggest that’s even when those pending charges settled, my avail balance would still be able to cover the $6 purchase and then some before creeping into “overdraft mode”. Varo has some perks, but the seizing of your funds while 2-3 charges are pending is ridiculous, it’s frustrating and embarrassing to say the least.
Review by JerkDiggler on Varo: Existing Users Only.