Bumped app review
Bumped is a new start-up company that gives fractional shares of a company as a reward if you spend your money on that brand. They are testing as beta and currently, the signup process is invite-only. I waited for 7 months on the waiting list to get the invitation. Because they are in the beta stage so there are not enough brands to select in the portfolio and they give the brands randomly so you may not get the brands that you love. But I am enjoying the app because the fractional shares that I will get is a bonus addition.You can sign in using the link. The link: Sign up. After the signup process, you have to connect your credit cards and bank accounts in the app and they will monitor your expense and will add the fractional shares of the company that you have in your portfolio. Under the loyalties, you will get the options for the selection of a company or brand. Unfortunately, they have selected the brands for me randomly. That was the only thing I did not like in the app. I am really disappointed that I haven't got Walmart in my option. I shop a lot at Walmart.
I have got 9 categories to select. They are
- Club Warehouse
- Coffee
- Convenience store/ gas
- Entertainment
- Grocery
- Personal Care
- Quick Eats
- Ride Sharing
- Vineyard
Under the club warehouse, I have got Sam's Club and with that, I can get 1% shares of Vanguard Total Index (VTI). I sometimes shop in Sam's but I am not planning to renew my membership when it expires. So this will be useless after the membership expiration.
My second category is the Coffee category. Here you have the option to choose from various coffee shops. I decided to choose Dunkin Brands. I don't drink coffee that much so this category will also not help me. maybe twice a year I go to the Dunkins to buy donutes.
The next category is the one I will get the reward on a regular basis. They gave me the option to select an energy company. I choose Chevron (CVX), as it is just next to my working place. The downside is that I will get only 0.5% of my spending on gas. So definitely, I will not get enough stocks of CVX for the long term.
The Grocery category is totally useless for me as there is no Kroger near my place. Hopefully, they will add more brands under this category.
Another useless category for me is personal care. I never went to these brands for shopping.
The next category is a good one for me as I sometimes go to Mcdonald's for eating. My kids also love to eat in Mcdonald's and I personally own MCD stocks in my portfolio. I will get 3% MCD shares when I spend money in MCD. That's a good pick for me.
Sign-up Bonus:
Ok, this is interesting. As I have read some blogs about Bumped and I have never seen that anyone got any sign-up bonuses. I have got in total $25 worth of stocks from Exxon (XOM), Chevron (CVX), and McDonald's (MCD). So on the very first day the value of my portfolio is $25.12 with $10 worth shares of XOM & CVX, and $5 worth of MCD.
The first reward I got is from Chevron. This station is near my working place and I got $0.09 worth of CVX share which is nothing but if you continue to use this app and reinvest the dividends it will grow definitely and always consider this in mind that these are free stocks.
I would say this is a great and unique idea from Bumped. I think this will help both the customers and the companies. I would be very happy if they keep adding more brands with time. What I am missing is Walmart, eBay, Amazon, BestBuy, Google, and Comcast stocks from them.