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Empower® App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2023
Empower® app received 39 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using Empower®? Can you share your negative thoughts about empower®?
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Empower® for Negative User Reviews
✓ Forced to use app to login from a mobile deviceThis is the only financial institution that I have ever encountered that completely disallows accessing an account from a mobile device - I reached out to their support to see if there was any way to access from a mobile device with the following response: “To provide the best experience and keep your account information secure, our website can no longer be accessed from a mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet. In order to view your account information from a mobile device, you must download the Empower app.” The best part about it is that I no longer work for the employer that used them so I will be rolling over my accounts to other institutions..Version: 2.1.6
✓ I use this because of work, not by choiceThis app and website are greatly lacking. It is not easy to see how your individual investments change on a daily or weekly basis. The monthly view is very small with a scrollable window within a scrollable window. By the time you scroll to what you want you lose all headings . Very frustrating. Also, watch out when you rebalance and keep track of your percentages before you rebalance because when you change one of them all of the others change. I hate this feature. My non-work investment website is light years ahead of this one..Version: 1.5.1
✓ UselessShouldn’t need an app that is rarely used just to set up and delete shortly after kind of useless unless you plan to check it repeatedly because you have no life or you’re unhealthily paranoid. Sorry definitely can’t recommend and definitely won’t recommend this uselessness straight garbage can’t even create a new account and that was waiting for it to save for 45 minutes after finally trying to create the account and it still wasn’t made straight garbage hire people who actually know how to make apps the current model is garbage.Version: 2.1.8
✓ Changing Investments DreadfulThe interface to change your investments for current or future investments is dreadful. When selecting funds to transfer to you cannot see your current allocation by percentage alongside any changes you are making. Also when you select allocation amounts by fund by percentage the application automatically updates your allocation percentages in other funds without the users input. It seems like Empower wanted to make it very difficult for users to change their fund allocation after the initial setting to prevent them from doing that..Version: 1.9.9
✓ App is junkWill not let me log in my log in info is correct still can’t get in made calls get in sign out try to log in it don’t go it’s trash the other thing is I don’t believe my moneys being invested properly either if you use these guys request a paper statement with all of who what and where there investing your money to and start looking those up and do your research but be ready to find out your funding the Rick to get richer while you get pennys on the dollar back and they rack in the profit from your investments then these guys charge you a big fee to steal from you I’m considering cashing out and doing something else you should too.Version: 2.0.3
✓ Terrible appEmpower recently stopped letting people use the website and now force you to use their underdeveloped app. Using the app I can no longer view the daily price of specific investments and also no longer can move a specific dollar amount from one investment to another. I tried emailing Empower to see if the features were still there but maybe in a place I wasn’t looking. I think they may use a bot to reply to emails. In spite of several attempts, they kept sending back instructions to do other things that completely missed the mark. I was left thinking they don’t understand how bad the app is and thus no hope of enhancing it..Version: 1.9.7
✓ Not user friendly, incorrect infoThis app is awful. I cannot see any financial history regarding loss and gains. It will not let me change date ranges and says data isn’t available. From the very first login, I immediately noticed my beneficiaries were completely incorrect. One had the wrong name, two are actually my husband’s beneficiaries and should not be on my account at all, and beneficiaries that should be there we’re not named. I honestly don’t know if the issue is with the information that carried over from the previous app to the new one or if my employer is to blame. Either way, I am not finding this app user-friendly right now..Version: 2.1.8
✓ Hate this appWhen I could just go to the Empower website and log in, I was able to easily see my balance and breakdowns by fund for any given date and had no problems navigating the site and managing my account. That is definitely not the case with this now required app. With the exception of maybe one section, there is no back button for returning to previous page--so you have to keep starting over from the menu. Additionally, I wanted to rebalance my fund, but was afraid to do so based on how the options are presented in the app (and the lack of clear instructions). Wasn't sure what I'd end up with. Really hate that I have to take up space on my iPad with this extremely annoying app..Version: 2.2.0
✓ Very confusing appThe main reason we have this app is to provide the CUSTOMER a way to watch their payroll contributions. Also, look at the matching of their employer. These need to be detailed so we can evaluate our contributions to go over the yearly IRS rules of law. Not employers give a fixed amount so you can calculate those contributions. As you are aware some only allow percentages. So the employee needs to manage those in detail to maintain the maximum contribution amounts. Without going over. Because what happened in the past if this occurred. Someone not sure stop contributing the beginning of the following fiscal year. The old app showed us the yearly contributions that did not include the employer matching. PLEASE HELP US POOR PEOPLE..Version: 2.1.8
✓ UnsatisfactoryI tried to use this app only to result in failure. The application is clunky and slow. I tried to choose my own password, but was only allowed to use the iPhone’s suggested strong password; this was because when I was signing up, I would select to choose my own password instead of using the iPhone’s suggested password, but when I would confirm the password, the same prompt came up, I chose the same option of choosing my own password, and it would clear the previously entered password: queue the Groundhog Day experience until I defaulted to the iPhone password. THEN, after repeated attempts to verify and receiving multiple codes, now I have to contact the system admins to get help. This app is not worth the effort..Version: 2.1.8
✓ GarbageGarbage company forcing you to use their garbage app with no mobile browser support. Just keeps getting worse. 2 minute login process. Slowly turning into an upselling marketing app. Not great for anything other than basic info, not acceptable for a 401k provider. Better hope you only have 1 fund in portfolio otherwise good luck determining your individual performance as all you get is aggregated info across ALL funds. Want to rebalance with any level of complexity….desktop browser it is as app can’t do it. Basically a platform to try and up sell you to their other products..Version: 2.1.3
✓ FaceID is doesn’t workFaceID just doesn’t work. It’s a joke they still have it there when every time it just won’t work and take me to “forgot password” page. Many times I’m unable to login to the system on repeated attempts because the “system isn’t available”. How can a site/system that manages my money be unavailable for maintenance in 2022? This alone stops me from moving my other money to this app. Other aspects of the app are average when compared with other brokerage/retirement apps. There’s a lot of potential but I haven’t seen any improvements for months so it’s obvious there’s a lot of “baggage” in the backend systems that stops progress on the app itself..Version: 2.1.7
✓ Stop the notifications about how session has timed outCould anything be more annoying than checking your account and then getting on with your life, only to have it pop up with a notification 1 or 2 minutes later saying that you have been logged out to inactivity, and to have that happen EVERY TIME you use the app? Goodness gracious, what were they thinking? No other app does that because it is a crazy annoying thing to do.Version: 2.1.9
✓ Needs a overhaul pros vs consI put this app on my phone to help manage my fiancé’s retirement plan here are the pros and cons I’ve found it is very simple and easily navigated and pretty straightforward Easily make changes change your investments increase or decrease contribution amounts only would recommend it To you anyone with an account way easier Then trying to manage your account from their website which need serious work and being more user-friendly go with the app. Con However not being Able to see who your money is invested with is a major drawback if you press the managed account button it tells you you don’t have authorization but it is your money so who is this authorized person managing the account. con two it doesn’t show you the money that you contribute versus the money your employer contributes. Con three it is incredibly slow to update my fiancé’s has been showing the same amount for a month and finally went up one dollar today when she got paid I would say both their app and their website need a major overhaul..Version: 1.1.2
✓ Do not understand 4.7 starsThis app is not working. As of today after seeing high review and my app does load any of investment info, it displays as it has always the error msg we are working hard to... and then point me to a dead end the webpage does not load displays another error in red. I have uninstalled and then reinstalled same issue. This is crap. When will they finish working hard, please stop upgrading the app, it does not work or load proper info from my investment. For once provide a full fledged working app. If your excuse is that you do not find proper engineering ressources, then now is the time to hire the right ressources to remedy the app problems and solving the working hard in vain. There are plenty of qualified engineers out of work, help the economy and help the customers meet they productivity and life on the go by hiring..Version: 1.6.3
✓ Not user friendlyAfter attending a 401(K) meeting, I decided to enroll. Upon installing the app, (as it required me to on a mobile device), I went to register, following the prompts as instructed. After filling out all of my information correctly, I got to the screen to input my phone number and then it was unable to verify my identify. It instructs me to call a sales representative to assist in enrollment. I tried doing it on a computer instead, but the same issue arose. I’m the type of person who likes to do things on their own so that I have control of what I’m doing and signing up for. This inconvenience makes it that more difficult trying to enroll. After that, I decided it’s not for me to continue enrollment..Version: 2.1.8
✓ Useless for making trades for n the go.The slide for dollar amounts to transfer money between funds is extremely frustrating. It goes from $1 to like $20,000-$80,000. You try to go lower and it goes back to the $1. It would be nice if you could just type in the amounts you would like to move between funds like on the website or fix the scale of the slide. App is basically useless for making trades. Need computer to get accurate dollar amounts so basically the app is of very little use to me other than to view balances. Please fix the slide or eliminate it altogether..Version: 2.1.4
✓ Joining the loud chorus who HATE being forced to download appI am *infuriated* that this company requires me to download an app that I don’t want that takes up space on my phone that I do not wish to give it in order to check my account balance. This is horrendous and I am complaining to my company, I hope they switch retirement savings companies. This is enraging. Update: got some baloney letter from the company stating that the app is more secure. So that why they are the ONLY company forcing you to download the app if you want access to your account. THIS COMPANY is responsible for making the website more secure!!.Version: 1.9.9
✓ This is an unusable appIt is very disappointing that Empower has forced us to use the app if on a mobile device, which is all I’m ever on. Even though my password is correct, when Face ID is used, it says it’s not correct. I then get locked out for trying to login a couple of times. If I’m ever able to get in the app, it does not have near the features you get by being on the website. After calling and emailing, the only response I received was “oh well, that’s all we can do.” The mailed letter stated that this was the new, better way and that it wasn’t going to be changed. So unfortunate that the company can’t let us decide how we want to view our money and from what device. It’s also unfortunate that they don’t really seem to care what their customers think either, especially after seeing so many poor reviews for the app..Version: 1.9.9
✓ UselessMy retirement system switched from T Rowe to Empower in July. The log in for this app does not consistently work or will show there was an authentication error but then you can see that it is actually running. The log in takes much longer than any other app requiring a log in. With my T Rowe app, I saw a graph that showed the daily change in my balance. This one only shows two points - where it was when the account opened & where it is on the day I log in. I want to see those peaks & valleys in between. The only thing I find this app useful for is checking my balance on a particular day..Version: 2.1.6
✓ Definitely not the caliber of Mass MutalI am sad my retirement company mass mutual sold out to empower. After getting an invitation to their app I quickly noticed that much of my info that I thought would have migrated over is either not there like beneficiary information or the fact they have a 6 year old email address that is not even in use, although they used my correct email address to contact me???? This app is sad and not what I would have expected for the hype we received. After 30 minutes on hold to just speak with a person I am not impressed. As I am the manger over planned benefits I will be contacting our local broker to determine what other options their are versus empower. Never stay with a company just because they are big. I cannot recommend Empower at all at this time..Version: 2.0.0
✓ Pls fix the loginI am shocked at the login issues and even more shocked to see this has been a complaint in other reviews for at least two years. The login is atrocious and if it actually allows you to log in, it takes forever showing bouncing bar graph animation for a long time. Sometimes it errors out. Sometimes the faceid feature doesn’t work and when I try to manually log in, I get logged out. What’s most shocking is this is supposed to be the #1 retirement company and they don’t spend funds to make the user experience better and actually usable..Version: 2.1.10
✓ App is not ready for prime timeI was forced to use this app on my ipad and iphone since Empower has coded a User Agent (UA) detection into their platform. This allows them to see what device or browser I am coming in on. They will deny you entry and force a load this app page on to you. In essence you cannot access their web page from a mobile device. This would be tolerable if the app is even 50% of the features and function of their website. This is a dumbed down app. When you want to restack your investments you have only the option to do so by percentage which force you to calculate each percentage in the new target percentages. No other financial organization ie Vanguard, Trowe, etc. would force you to use the app only from your iPad. We should have the option to choose. Well I choose to NOT use this dumbdowned app. I will go old school and use my PC until they shut that down. Don’t use this app. Call their customer service and register your complaint..Version: 1.9.7
✓ Face ID is worthlessI’m accustomed to Empower’s “hokeyness” is so many ways, but this one has driven me to delete the app from my iPhone. The face ID feature flat out is inop. Having to input my userid/password every single time I use the app - yes, the face ID switch is on - when every other app using face ID works just fine is infuriating. You can even see the face ID s/w doing its thing, the app still forces you to input your credentials every time. Worthless, in my view. The only reason it gets two stars instead of one is the touch ID feature on the iPad actually works..Version: 1.7.2
✓ No Way to Access Brokerage AccountWhen I go to the Empower site it redirects me to the Empower app, which is fine. But once on the app I cannot access my self-directed Brokerage account (where a majority of my funds are). The app only shows balances, you can’t make trades, rebalances or look at holdings in your brokerage account. So the app doesn’t let me go to the website any more and I can’t access my brokerage investments / make trades from the app. I’ve lost functionality and it really impairs my portfolio management. Otherwise the app is really nice. But not being able to access Self Directed Brokerage Accounts is a big oversight..Version: 1.9.8
✓ Lacking in features - now can’t loginI wish I could go back to voya. Ever since my company changed to empower - I’ve felt so much less empowered managing my 401k. This app has always been flawed but now I can’t even login after the last update. 1) Prior to this issues logging in seemed to take a solid 30 seconds after entering credentials - now it won’t log in at all. 2) Having the ability to see a graph / multiple types of bar/line graphs on month over month or year over year progress with different colors for each fund is important but extremely lacking. 3) Also being able to compare on a table available mutual funds to invest in to and history of possible fund performance on a birds eye view for the last 30 days, ytd, 3month, 6month, 1 year, 3, 5, 10 year for a given etf/fund is so crucial but lacking in this app. 4) having visibility with reinvesting dividends and when the next ex-div dates are happening for my company needs to be present as well (and isn’t but is in other 401k apps like voya). Developers please give this app some love as its extremely lacking in core features that are present in other competitor apps (like voya etc).Version: 1.5.3
✓ Can’t Access Self-Directed Brokerage AccountI cannot get access to my self-directed brokerage account on any of my mobile devices now. This is a huge step backwards. If I’m out in the field and have no access to a computer how am I supposed to access this? I can see my balance but am told to visit the website using a desktop to do trades. Up until a week ago I could trade in the field using my iPad. Called for help but was told I can not trade using mobile devices and will need to use a desktop. The app for mobile devices does not give access to the self directed account. Please get this fixed ASAP. You also should have notified customers of this issue when you knew of the problem as I spent hours trying to figure out the problem and find a way around it. In a mobile first world this is a huge step backwards. Please fix this soon guys..Version: 1.9.7
✓ Login is junkThis app is so buggy at login. Sometimes it goes fast to your account and sometimes not at all. The spinning circle spins endlessly. You cannot even use the app at times. The need to fix the login process. It shouldn’t take 30 seconds for the FaceID to log you in to your account. Now my Prudential Retirement app has become an Empower app too, but that app logs in fast as always. But that is just because they are using the previous Prudential app with their name on it. Cannot wait until Empower breaks that app. Now, if this app does let you into your account, then it works fine and is a decent experience overall. The website is much better though for actual account management processes. There are less usable functions within the app. Fix your login please, as this has been an issue for at least 6-12 months now..Version: 2.0.2
✓ No more goals?I really liked this app but i read change logs before upgrading and the most recent upgrade says it will remove the goals feature from the app because users can simply go to the website to do goals. This makes no sense to me. Why remove working features from an app and gate them behind the website? Now i’m stuck on the current version and won’t upgrade to the new one or future ones because I love apps being able to use touchid to access things and not have to dig up 1 out 60 unique passwords in my password safe to access some web gui. Please consider not removing working features from an otherwise fantastic app that keeps getting better and better up until this point..Version: 1.3.2
✓ Mobile inferiorLogging in to the app it says I have to link a 401 account to my other accounts. However. I am not a participant in that account lol. It will not let me login otherwise and when I call to correct the issue the automated service wants me to do the same. Obviously, if I’m using this on my mobile I am mobile and cannot get to anywhere I can remedy the issue. Since I cannot even get into the app or use it to fix this issue I should be giving it 0 stars as an app lol. I hope this isn’t the future. I’ll probably be letting someone else handle my 401 quite soon considering this is bologna..Version: 2.1.10
✓ Locked out after multiple loginsOn more than one occasion, I have been looked out after multiple logins (not unsuccessful attempts, but successful logins). The reason is I login and the function to request a withdrawal is down (on the server’s side). This is very frustrating and needs to be addressed. Every time this happens, I have to wait 24 hours before I am allowed to get into my own account and complete my transactions. My wish is this would be addressed and corrected ..Version: 2.0.2
✓ Visually appealing, lacking general informationI was happy when my company moved our 401k from Transamerica to Empower - the last app was horrendous. Gave Transamerica one star and Empower gets two from me. This one is easier to navigate and to see the details of my investments. However, it doesn’t get a better review due to it’s lack of a helpful resource for app questions and the inability to see the $ invested in different types of retirement accounts (Roth vs 401k vs employer match..) in the app. I have clicked every button on this app to see my investment contribution categories. Upon not finding the answer, I contacted the email listed as the help email on the app. They gave me browser instructions and told me to call in. I called in and they gave me browser instructions too. How sad that for a simple thing, I have to log into the browser. Defeats the purpose of having the app..Version: 1.5.1
✓ No customer serviceI’m not sure that this is the place to put your money but it’s the the company that my employer has for 401k, I just wanted to start a new retirement account so down loaded the app enter tons of personal information then it said for me to call customer service, stayed on hold for some time then was given option for a call back from them and they did , afte again given more information the guy OK you can have from 1%to100% with held and asked what is the 401k invested in? Is it a aggressive plan? How much does my company match? He said that he wasn’t allowed to discuss that but he would transfer my call and 20 minutes later….. nothing. I would hate to try to speck with someone about issues with my 401k if they show no interest in a new customer.Version: 2.1.7
✓ Doesn’t work if you have two jobs.I have two jobs that both use empower for retirement. I spent an hour on the phone with people from empower using me as a hockey puck, shuffling me around just to tell me that I was unable to have access to both of my retirement accounts on the App. This is not intuitive at all. Customer service reps had no clue about the issue until they tried to transfer me to technical service and came back on the line to tell me they weren’t transferring me since technical services were unable to do what I was requesting at this time, “but it’s being worked on.” Also, they had no timeframe to give on the completion of when the issue would be fixed..Version: 2.1.6
✓ Disappointing…Empower’s app is not great. I have a 401k, HSA and an investment account through Empower and it doesn’t link them very well. They are not user friendly and aren’t really in harmony with each other. It is difficult to login, often citing errors that make you have to do it over and over and over. It usually takes several tries to login (and the investment account is almost impossible to login without calling them. On an iPad, you need to use the app (can’t use Safari or Chrome), but the investment account app just takes you to the website but through the app… even though it will not let you use a browser? No idea why. For being the largest retirement company in America, they need a better, more user friendly app. They fooled me into rolling over my investment account from another company and I regret it. It’s the least user friendly investment platform I’ve used. I’ll probably move it back out so I have a better user experience. If I could move my 401k as well, I probably would..Version: 2.1.10
✓ Unuseable, Utterly WorthlessUpon logging in, I am unable to bypass the enrollment screen, even though I have already enrolled to the level I want(1% not the 5% THEY want). Considering that I have already enrolled, I am flabbergasted that I can't do anything with this app except enroll... hence, it's worthless. I am enraged that this company constantly pesters me to modify MY enrollment option, and view this as them wanting to increase their fee (tied to a % of assets under management), which completely eradicates any measure of trust that should be present between a client and financial advisor. Moreover, I feel that they make it too easy to accidentally enroll in a larger contribution, and thus find using their tools risky--not that I can even use it in this app!(I speak from experience using their website). FYI, in the event that this company actually listens to customers, the reason that I haven't enrolled in the 5% is that I want to understand (incrementally) the impact on my takehome pay. Thus, showing your customers the math on this would be an excellent start toward fixing this mess of a tool. I have low expectations of an improvement, however, because I expect a big company like this to be a useless dinosaur that only gets business by appealing to low cost targets of companies offering retirement/401k plans. Hence, the real problem is that I'm not your customer, my company is and I'm just an afterthought--much like this app seems to be!.Version: 1.2.0
✓ Repeatable crashes, poorly designedIPhone 14 Pro Max 512G and previously XR 128G Go to balance over time and select any other date range, YTD for example. Repeatable crash. HSA data is terribly out of date. Why post it at all if it’s two weeks old or more? It is not useful at that age. Many settings such as retirement age and risk tolerance are not available in the app, it does not tell you this and you have to just go explore the website. Same for personal investments — all of these dramatically affect the retirement score which is the first thing you see when starting the app. Trying to compare investments is useless unless you download the PDF version. Navigating the app is like a phone tree, you must traverse through options to get to another selector to traverse through options. No way to get directly there. No way to store time periods (eg start date for compare) for future. App incredibly slow compared to my other apps even on fastest iPhone available When replying, realize I am not going to expose my email address and take more of my valuable time to send you emails on these issues..Version: 2.1.7
✓ BasicI think the entry point to the app and retirement information is better, but find that you are limited in terms of what you can and cannot see. For example, I have not been able to see transaction history, investment performance, etc. I found the old mobile site clumsy to navigate but you had everything there. This app is also clumsy to navigate but you don’t have Everything you need Could be much better. Stop creating something new when there are blue prints out there from other retirement providers which are better. Focus of this app seems to be to get users to enroll in managed services..Version: 1.3.1
✓ Completely unusable cannot even sign inSo I was forced to move to this new app and because of how it was written you cannot create a strong password to get in or use the Apple Suggested Password. It tries to force me to use the Apple Suggested Password and if I give in and say yes the app doesn’t recognize there is a password and let you click the button. If you try to make your own password switching to the second password field invokes the Apple Suggested Password to again take over and erase your password and use theirs. I literally cannot even create an account much less see my retirement…. Brilliant.Version: 2.1.10
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