Jupiter.Money Review – Should You Join it?

Jupiter Money is a Neo bank built specifically to target Generation Z and millennials. You guys know how much I love millennial finance, so I just had to talk about Jupiter.

Before we talk about Jupiter, it’s important you understand what a Neo bank is and how it differs from the traditional banks we use.

A Neo bank is a digital bank, without any physical presence, at all. It doesn’t have branches, paperwork, physical verification and it doesn’t support cash transactions.

Not exactly, but much similar to the digital savings bank, you find in the U.S., such as Ally savings or Capital 360 savings account.

Jupiter Money

Jupiter Money is being built by a bunch of well-accomplished folks.

Its CEO, Jitendra Gupta was the founder of Citrus Pay, which he sold for $130 Mn in 2016. Another notable person involved with the Jupiter Money Project is Anupam Bagchi who previously worked at Standard Chartered and Axis Bank. At Axis Bank, Anupam was the Vice – President of the Digital Banking section.

So, the team isn’t some bunch of newbies trying their hands-on financial services. They know what they’re doing, and the future looks solid, so far.

You can join the waitlist so when Jupiter Bank goes live, you can get early access including an extra cashback percentage for the first three months.

As of now, here are key features Jupiter is expected to offer:

• Free savings account (No charges whatsoever)
• Free debit card powered by VISA
• Cashback on all transactions
• UPI access

Jupiter is currently in its beta stage. Here’s a link to their Road Map.

Here are some fundamentals about Jupiter:

Jupiter isn’t itself a bank. It’s not licensed by the RBI to be a bank. Rather, it’s using the infrastructure and institutional foundation of the Federal Bank. Federal Bank seems to be the primary choice of every new Neo bank in India. Maybe because they offer competitive commission rates and their regulations are easy to match.

What this means is when you deposit money into your Jupiter account; Federal Bank is where your  money is deposited and regulated.

Federal Bank is also where your money is insured by the RBI and kept safe. Up to 5 Lakh INR is insured by RBI.

Your Debit Card is regulated, issued and payments to merchants through your card are settled by VISA. Your grievances, chargebacks, everything is settled by VISA as well.

Jupiter offers a debit card plus an ATM card, so you can use it to withdraw money, transact at local merchants, and do online shopping. I think you’ll get a PayWave card where you can set limits for specific transactions like in an ICICI debit card.

You will be able to control the card, block it, set the transaction limit, freeze it when you want to, and so on.

Also note, their parent company has released two products, which I expect to become a part of Jupiter at some point. The first is Bullet App and the second is Mutual Funds portfolio analyzer.

Using the Bullet App, you can use UPI payments as a credit line and pay the bill later. Meaning, you can buy a cup of coffee from a store, pay for it using the Bullet UPI credit line, and you don’t have to pay from your pocket.

The Mutual Funds Portfolio Analyzer allows you to track your funds in one place, as well as Jupiter’s A.I. gives you a portfolio analysis for free. It can show you which funds give you the most returns, where you’re losing money, which funds are sale, volatile, and so on.

This feature is being offered by many financial apps, we recently saw CRED also add a mutual fund portfolio analyzer as well as INDMoney and ETMoney.

Coming back to Jupiter Bank, they plan to release tons of advanced features in the coming months.

Most notably:

• Friction fee 2FA – You apparently won’t need an OTP/Pin for small transactions. Your biometric lock details will be used.
• No fee for any transaction
• Smart savings features, similar to ICICI’s iWish, I presume, could be better though.
• Virtual cards for online shopping
• Quick overdraft wallet
• IFTTT integration (I’m pretty sure it won’t happen. It’s an extra burden)
• Get rewarded for saving money, automate the savings and create goals
• Tax-filing via app

And more. There’s a Jupiter community where you can share your crazy ideas for Jupiter.

As I said, the team behind it is very passionate. So, there is a high chance this community-based project will become a great banking app, built by and for the new generation.

One of the members suggested a unique debit card unboxing experience, which they acknowledged and are actively working on. Here’s a sneak peek:

Jupiter Money is what most people want:

• Digital account opening process
• A Zero balance account with a lifetime free debit card.
• No hidden overdrafts, transaction fees, and a smart app that works as an expense tracker.
• Allows you to earn cashback whenever you transact.
• Expenditure analysis that doesn’t look like a spreadsheet
• Free IMPS (Most banks charge a fee unless you are a high-tier customer. Heck HDFC charges me a free even though I’m a Premier Classic Banking customer)
• Quick 24×7 chat support
• And a millennial-centric approach with the feel, look and intuitive UI of the app. Ever tried the Bank of Baroda or the Central Bank mobile app? God bless.

This means, a win-win situation for all of its users.

So, should you sign up for Jupiter?

I would recommend Jupiter. And there’s no sign-up fee, or any kind of fee for that matter. But you have to remember to not use it as your bank because it’s not a bank.

You can safely use Jupiter as your interim savings account for day-to-day transactions. Using Jupiter and its debit card will make sure you don’t end up spending all of the money from your savings account.

And the expense tracker will help you understand where you’re overspending and how you can improve.

However, Jupiter isn’t the first. Fi.Money already has an active Neo banking service running in India. And you can’t get a better expense and income tracker than Wallet by BudgetBakers, period.

You can sign-up for the Jupiter here.

Let me know what you think of the Jupiter Money app in the comments.