Novo - Small Business Checking 4+

Great bank. App still needs work

I’ve been with Novo for almost 2 years, and am really happy with them. They’re super responsive, have lots of integrations and are constantly improving. My only gripe is the app. It’s fine but has one pretty big flaw that’s never been fixed. It doesn’t have a real time view of your account. You have to go into activity, change the time period and then it refreshes. If you don’t change the view (eg from 1 wk to 1 mo) before pulling down to refresh, it doesn’t show new data. And this is true even if the app loads for the first time since restarting the phone. And sometimes, activity shows on the Home view but will never show in the Activity view (like it’s too new to show, but then why is it on the Home view?). The web app never has this issue. It’s not a deal breaker, but resulted in some issues with transfers where I thought something didn’t happen because it wouldn’t show, or thought my balance was one thing when it was another. No other banking app I use has this issue, so it feels like it needs addressing. And it happens on all mobile devices I’ve tested, so it’s not just my phone. Hopefully they get around to this issue, but I’m still a fan of Novo.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for being a loyal user and for your honest critique of our app limitations. We're always striving to make our products better and easier to use, so we appreciate your feedback around your account's accessibility of the current activity. Please email us at support@novo.co if you have any more feedback or need help with something specific in your account.

Good until something goes wrong!

I had an overall good experience with the “bank” and used them for about 2 years at this point. However, I have recently notice some charges to my account that I have not recognized, so I reached out to the customer service and was told “We can’t do anything about it because it’s been over 24hours since the charge”. They give you 24 hours to report suspicious activity?!? And I reached arguable within 24 hours!! So I let that slide in June. Comes July- I have a related charge for the same amount- STILL don’t recognize it and can NOT track it (tried going over all my subscriptions, googling the merchant the way it shows up on the bank statement, etc)- they DON’T HELP you with tacking or looking into it. AGAIN I noticed it the NEXT day after it was posted and was told AGAIN ITS BEEN OVER 24 hrs!!!! The ONLY solution from them was “Fill out a form to stop payment from the merchant that only works for 1 month!” And after that they can keep charging you and you BETTER BE ABLE TO CATCH IT WITHIN 24hrs! So I guess, my options are to either be charged for something I didn’t not buy for the rest of my life or move to a different bank (which I am currently doing)! Wow. So disappointed because I really enjoyed the simplicity otherwise! But if you don’t mind that they treat your finances and hard earned cash with a simple “sorry, can’t do anything about it” and you are able to check your bank DAILY and monitor it DAILY- then this might be for you!

Just listen and you’ll be the best mobile business banking app there is

Listen, this is to the founders/bank developers. I’ve read the good and bad reviews of this app, Novo is a great app. But to make it even better, us as novo customers could use features as such: setup the novo debit card to be able to get instant pay through cashapp, that is where a lot of people’s money come through. And for your customers that have money coming in and out, find a way where we can turn our cash in and get it the same day. Bitcoin converter, instead of reserves have the option to open a savings account, even if it’s through another bank partnered with Novo. At the end of the day, we are all business owners or gig workers, the better the app, the more money you will see come to the app. I honestly use Brex more than Novo, but I believe you guys could be great. If you can do just the basics of what I mentioned, and at the same time keep it secure for us and for y’all, it’s a win/win situation. I’m hoping to hear of an update soon. Whoever responds to this, if you care about the app, and it’s users honestly you would show this to the founder. We can all succeed, once I brought even a portion of my business to this app, we became partners. Let’s solidify it and make Novo the best mobile business banking app there ever was!

Developer Response ,

Thank you for your valuable feedback! We will pass this feedback on to our team to keep in mind as we continue to develop.