Stairs: Savings App Reviews

I have been using Stairs for over 6 months now. Initially loved the concept of being able to make a good percentage rate of interest on liquid funds. It has not been smooth sailing however, had difficulties setting up my account and still not able to get the full 6% I had hoped for. After several weeks of back and forth with the initial set up with Groundfloor, they were not able to rectify the issues with Plaid and my bank account so I had to settle with the 5%. Recently there have been lots of issues with this app being down & not being able to enable any transactions, we received an email that the problems had been fixed however I recently tried making 2 withdrawals last week which showed that the the transaction had been accepted successfully on Stairs however the transaction history never updated in Stairs , nor did I receive the funds in my account. It’s now a week later. Be very careful putting any money in here that you might need immediate access to because Stairs does not consistently work reliably.

The idea behind Stairs with risk free investments earning 4%+ that I can withdraw at any time is great but there is some room for improvement.
The accumulation counter that shows how much you should be earning is not accurate. The only way to get the 6% interest is if you have a bank that will accept the round up feature of your account. Unfortunately that only includes big branch banks like wells fargo or bank of America, wont work for small town banks or credit unions.

After you have enabled the automatic monthly withdrawal for an extra 1% interest boost it takes three months for that extra percentage hike to take effect. The same thing goes for the round up feature of your bank account if it works with Stairs .

Lastly, the amount that is shown as my balance is not being reflected in the amount im earning in interest. Example, I have $1,000 invested in Stairs and i should be earning $0.10 a day from the 4% interest and compounded every 5 days. Right now im only earning roughly $0.06 a day which is a 2.19% interest rate. The money i have deposited into Stairs has cleared my bank account and is shown as being deposited into Stairs and applied to some real estate loans. I understand they need time to apply that money to loans but give the person loaning the money what they are expecting.

Overall, i will still stay with Stairs regardless of its short falls. Im still earning more interest here then i would with a bank account.

UI is actually pretty decent although accuracy of the data being presented is not always good. The “real time” interest calculation is rarely accurate and just unnecessary. Update it once a day like some other apps or make it better. I take screen shots of it and then the next day, somehow I have less interest. Withdrawals are not consistent and don’t always process so then you have to reach out to customer service, which is slow to respond. If this wasn’t backed by groundfloor, I’d definitely be out due to the risk but they really need to polish things up if they except this to survive. Just feels like they were 80% done and rushed it to market.

4%-6% interest is very nice and to me it’s backed by tangible assets to offer these types of interest rates. That said, Stairs is very very buggy and recently I had a transfer into this app fail with no explanation. I started off small and am concerned with the execution. I should never have to be concerned if I can transfer funds into or out of the account. The basis of the platform is to allow the free flow of money.

Will update once product gets better and issues are ironed out. Have contacted support which seems to be only email. Should have a chat function for more real time support during business hours.

The idea is great and I really like the gamification if the savings process. You can see the “interest accruing” on your account. However, I encountered incorrect balances that have randomly corrected themselves after complaining to support; who claimed to not know what’s going on. The latest issue is related to actual interest being deposited onto your account. At the moment, I don’t see interest being deposited under transaction. While I can see the “number” going up, it’s not real. I’ve resorted to manually jotting down how much I have and should have in this savings account. I much prefer HMBradley over Stairs as of yet.

I have the same issues several other reviewers mention (lack of security features, constant demands for feedback that crash Stairs upon refusal, general bugginess) and now Stairs has been down for over a day. There’s no website version of Stairs so I’m completely unable to access my account/make sure my money is still there. It’s an interesting idea generally and I have made decent interest so far but the whole thing seems a little fly-by-night. Please, for the love of god, at least set up a website version of this app through Groundfloor so I can have some idea what’s happening when Stairs inevitably crashes.

I have opened an account and deposited $5000 on November 19. At the time of writing this review (November 30), 11 days has passed. I am currently earning 4% interest (additional 1%+1% will kick-in in 90 days). According to my calculation, I should have about $5.5 in interest in my account. However, I see only about $2.1 in interest. What is going on? Am I missing something? I saw some other reviews mentioned something like this, but they reply from the developers was generic.
Update: Now I am seeing the interest at $1.69. So in 4 hrs I have accrued negative interest. I am getting real close to closing the account.

First off, love Stairs! Love the concept, love the return and love the simplicity! My bank account is not a member of plaid so I can’t link it to get round ups, but even if I could, we never use our debit card. Would love to have the ability to link both our bank account for auto deposits as well as a credit card for round ups. I’m sure there are issues with allowing that, but it is a dream of mine nonetheless. 😁

For a financial tool it does need some security to be built in. FaceID/pin should be required to login to Stairs and at the time of executing transactions . 2fa should also be enabled.

Something else to improve is the accuracy of the interest been generated. Rollbacks on the amount predicted are como you seen.

Please continue working on it.

Stairs attracted me because of the 4-6% interest rate.
I ran into some issues with transferring my $ to Stairs . First it canceled my transfer once, then failed 4 of my transfers, now it’s pending 2 transfer and one of which is not authorized by me!
I understand the team is working hard, but seeing my bank account might be overdrawn is frustrating!
And to the developer: yes I have escalated my issues via email and telecom chat multiple times, but never got any reply.

I set up Stairs and linked my bank account and transferred money. For a few days all was good. But now, Stairs keeps telling me to link my bank account, which makes me wonder if my money is gone. I can’t get past the screen. I deleted Stairs and reinstalled, but nothing. Stairs says you can get your money out anytime, but that’s not true in my case.

Lastly, and less important, is there are no instructions about how to “round up” for increased savings. It would be nice to know how to use Stairs to its fullest.

To everyone, you better wait on Stairs until they get this stuff figured out.

This is the best thing Groundfloor has come out with, and it pays significantly more than any bank would. The yield is great, plus you have access to the capital when you need it. It isn’t tied up for 3+ months or anything. So excited to have found this product!

So far this is a nice app. The main issue I have with it is the request for feedback. When I say “do not show again” please respect that. When I do submit feedback please stop popping up the comments modal. The interruptions stop me from doing what I want to do in Stairs , which is watch the interest count up!! Will update as soon as the feedback stuff is fixed

this app is great for short term savings and emergency funds. 6% regular returns on a savings account is unheard of. That said, I still keep the majority of my emergency savings in an FDIC insured account, but I like the idea of putting a chunk into something with high returns and equal liquidity.

I transfer in and I transfer out as I need. 4-6% interest that’s paid weekly is very useful. Pulled my money out of monthly equity REITs yielding practically the same but with constant volatility. None of that with this app, only the yield and I can withdrawal at any time.

I have created an account 4 times in 2 weeks using the same exact credentials. Everytime I log out my account disappears z, when I attempt to login it tells me my password is incorrect and I know it’s correct then I attempt forgot password then I get authentication error so I create an account using the same exact email and it allows me. Customer service stopped responding to my emails…I can never get thru to anyone when I call. Just horrible

App layout is great. Setting up is quick, painless and you also see the interest accruing in real time. Only complaint, needs to be more secure. Needs an update to add 2fA which will make changing your info (specifically email and bank) more secure than it is currently.

I love Stairs because it is very easy to use and everything is pretty straightforward. That being said I can’t give five stars because from time to time the value in the account lowers when I haven’t withdrawn anything.

Who doesn’t want to earn more interest on their savings?!? Stairs I just found not only makes savings fun with the rolling calculator, but also encourages me to save more with the higher interest rate and the auto-savings features. Very cool app!

Earning more than my savings account and almost as much as my ETF account. I like that there are no fees. Would like to link multiple bank accounts.

As others have mentioned, there is no uniformity between the “real time” account balance and what your actual interest is.

For new users it would be helpful to explain that deposits are combined and credited by day. For instance- any deposit that clears and is credited on a Monday is combined with previous balances that cleared on Mondays, while one on a Tuesday will act as a separate investment.

The Plaid API link is horribly broken and is my main reason for considering deleting Stairs. The need to re-verify your bank every few days (and it doesn’t work most of the time) leaves very little trust in the developer and Groundfloor, and leaves me wondering if I would be able to withdraw my funds if I ever needed to.

They continually make updates that are obviously not fully end to end tested that begins to seed feeling of mistrust that they will ever get it correct. Perfect recent example
Is an update to reflect a count down to when the additional interest rate would begin, low an behold the day before and when you were supposed to start getting the additional interest show as Null or blank. These are amateur IT misses that any reasonable though testing would have uncovered. Now I ask from what day was I supposed to be getting the extra interest, am I getting the enhance interest? Is this a scheme?

Easy to set up and use but can be a bit glitchy. Customer service (especially Kelly) is great! Helped resolve issues I had with bank account linking. Fun to watch interest calculate too.

Updating Stairs caused my balances to reset and projections to indicate zero growth in the future. The 3 month tab shows my previous yield. The 0-10 star feedback in app is broken because the keyboard blocks any option to submit the review, and entering inserts a new line rather than submitting the review. iOS 14

As a newbie to investing, I can’t thank Groundfloor enough and then they go and make this app!

Slowly building a portfolio as my finances allow but it’s incredibly reassuring to know that I’ve got a more stable way to grow my passive income.

It’s a good app, earning 6% is much better then .0whatever. However they seem to holding back how principle can be lost. All that I seem to be able to find about risk is that money is not FDIC insured. It’d be great to get a dev response to my concern

I’m loving the parent company, Groundfloor, as an amazing way for an investor to invest in real estate without having to be a millionaire/ billionaire. What a great idea!
Stairs just makes all of this so much easier to do!
Thanks Groundfloor!