Beanstox: Simple Investing

Bottom line up front: If you have funds invested with Beanstox and they will not reimburse you, you need to contact the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). I started investing on a weekly basis with this app in December of 2020. It worked very well and I was extremely happy with the service until September of this year when funds stopped automatically coming out of my account. I attempted to link two different bank accounts from two different finical institutions but the app gave me an error message. I contacted the app multiple times and in every response they said that they, “We’re looking into it” and that they were not sure if the problem was on their end or mine. Regardless I was very clear that I wanted to close the account and reinvest the funds elsewhere, but I continued to get the same response. In early November I filed a compliant with the SEC for Beanstox withholding my funds and not closing my account as requested. The SEC confirmed receipt and a day later Beanstox contacted me and said they would manually liquidate my account. I finally have received my funds. If you go on the SEC website and go to “How to report complaints about investments or investment professionals” you can start the process there. Overall this was a great vehicle for investing in high yield ETF’s but when I could not add to my investment or access my funds I lost faith in this app.

As an investor/shareholder of Beanstox, I really enjoy using it as a way to help me save for retirement. It’s very easy, almost too easy, to set up your account, fund your first purchase then make regular monthly contributions for as little as $1! The app pre-selected my investments based on my risk tolerance, how long it will be before I retire and a few other parameters asked at the beginning. Within 10 minutes, I had an account, chose my sticks and submitted my first deposit. Don’t miss this opportunity to make investing as simple as it can be! Also, it’s the best value you can get anywhere for only $5/month!

This service is horrible. Stay away at all costs. Everything worked great for a few months. About a week ago, my account suddenly showed a notification that it was “pending liquidation” after I had made no such request. It instructed me to “contact support” if I had questions, so I did. I received a generic reply that it was an “internal error and we’re working on fixing it.” The next day, my account shows $0 balance - no transaction history showing that shares have been sold, no transfer history saying that money has been withdrawn. Fast forward to a week later, my account still shows $0 balance, nothing has been fixed, and each time I email support, I’m given the same generic reply that “we’re working on fixing this right away. Rest assured your funds are still invested.” I have even emailed asking very specific questions like, “can you tell me when/how I can get my funds transferred back to my bank account and cancel my account?” Each time, these questions are completely avoided. There is no phone number to call and talk to a representative. It’s insane, like they’re holding my funds hostage and not allowing me access by claiming an “internal error”. I just want my money back. If there’s really an internal error affecting your customers’ ability to maintain their own investment accounts, you should not be taking over a week to fix it.