Empower Personal Cash Review 2026: Online Cash Management Account
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Many or all of the products on this page are from partners who compensate us when you click to or take an action on their website, but this does not influence our evaluations or ratings. Our opinions are our own.
Overview
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Empower Personal Cash helps customers manage their money with no fees or minimum balance and a solid interest rate. Cash management accounts — also known as cash accounts — combine features that are commonly found in checking and savings accounts but are typically offered by brokerages. Keep in mind that you can’t withdraw or deposit physical cash with Empower Personal Cash, and there is no face-to-face customer service. Empower isn’t a bank, but it works with third-party banks to provide FDIC insurance for customer funds.
» MORE: Check out NerdWallet’s review of Empower’s investment offerings
Strong interest rate.
No fees.
No minimum balance.
Federally insured through third-party bank.
Limited phone support.
No branches.
No physical cash withdrawals or deposits.
No debit card.
No check writing or deposits.
Product reviews
Cash management
Upsides
No fees. Empower Personal Cash doesn’t charge any fees — monthly or otherwise — for its service.
No minimum balance. Empower Personal Cash has no minimum balance requirements.
APY is comparable to online banks. Customers receive 3.00% APY on their money in an Empower Personal Cash account.
Up to $5 million in federal insurance through third-party banks. Like most cash management accounts, Empower Personal Cash uses third-party partner banks to federally insure customers’ deposits. Personal Capital sweeps its customers’ cash balances into one or more third-party banks, where those funds have Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage up to $250,000 per depositor per third-party bank. Customers can get aggregate FDIC insurance up to $5 million.
Downsides
No physical cash withdrawals or deposits, and no check writing. Empower Personal Cash supports electronic transfers to deposit into and withdraw from the account. Direct deposits and wire transfers are also supported.
No debit card. A debit card is not available with the Empower Personal Cash account.
Customer experience & overdraft fees
Customer experience
Upsides
Budgeting tools and net worth tracking. Empower helps customers budget and track their net worth via its online platform.
Solid mobile app ratings. The Empower app has decent app ratings in both the Apple and Google Play app stores.
Human phone support is available. Customers can receive phone support for their cash account Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
Downsides
No chat support. Customer support is available via phone and email.
No branches. Empower Personal Cash is an online-only financial service, so customers don’t have access to face-to-face service.
No mobile check deposit. The only way to deposit money into your account is through electronic transfer, so if you need to make a check deposit, you’ll need to deposit it into a linked bank account and then transfer it into your Empower Personal Cash account.
Overdraft fees
No overdraft program. If a customer tries to make a transfer that exceeds available funds, Empower will decline it. This means customers avoid hefty overdraft fees, but there's also no cushion if they come up short during a transfer.
Rating methodology
NerdWallet’s overall ratings for cash management accounts are weighted averages of account features and customer experience. Factors we consider, depending on the category, include rates and fees, ATM access, availability of cash withdrawal and limits, user-facing technology, customer service, overdraft programs and innovation. The stars represent ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). The ratings are incremented in tenths of a star.
NerdWallet does not receive compensation for our star ratings. Read more about our ratings methodologies for banks and credit unions and our editorial guidelines.