Moka Reviews & Overview

Is Moka safe for Members?

The first potential safety concern associated with Moka is to do with the sharing of personal data.

Based on Moka's privacy policy, they don't seem to sell any of this information, and they only share it if they have your prior consent.

Keep in mind, there are still risks with sharing your information with Moka as the internet is never 100% secure. Although they do follow the proper security measures, a data breach is always possible, and you should be prepared for that.

The next potential safety concern has to do with the security of your funds.

Here's what Moka has to say:

"The ETFs that Moka users are investing in are held in trust by a custodian that is insured by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. The custodian for Moka funds is Fidelity Canada Clearing and our trustee is TMX Trust, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Toronto Stock Exchange Group. Please note that while the funds in your account are insured, your Moka account itself is not CIPF insured."

What this essentially means is that, if Moka were to go bankrupt, your funds would still be safe as they're held by a CIPF-insured custodian (Fidelity Canada Clearing). CIPF insurance offers up to $1M in coverage for each individual account type (non-registered, retirement, etc.), so that's how much money you should be covered for.

It's also worth noting that you can withdraw your money at any time.

To summarize:

Moka seems to follow proper data-handling measures and keeps user funds safe with an insured custodian. Overall, it seems like quite a safe platform to use.

Does Moka offer good support for Members?

Moka's new robot assistant can be a bit annoying but if you have a serious question it's not too difficult to get in contact with a (more helpful) human. I've contacted support recently and they responded in under a day with a helpful response.

What's the overall pricing (costs and fees) like for Moka Members?

Moka uses a flat fee of $4.99/month for its basic features. This flat-rate style pricing isn't very common with robo advisors, but compared to similar platforms, it can be considered slightly pricey. These costs go even higher once you look at Moka 360, which comes in at $15/month.

In terms of fees, they try to find ETFs with low MER fees, but that's pretty common practice.

Overall, Moka isn't super expensive, but it isn't cheap either.

Does Moka have a minimum deposit amount for their accounts/investments?

Moka has a required minimum deposit of C$1. Moka holds all pending deposits (e.g. roundups, recurring, and one-time additions) and deposits them weekly, every Monday. If you don't meet the minimum deposit amount, your deposit will get rolled over to the next week until you do.

Is Moka worth the money for Members?

When looking at the value of a robo advisor, the main thing to look at is your annual management fee. This is typically charged as a percentage of the amount of money you have deposited on the platform.

Now, because Moka operates on a flat monthly fee, your management fee completely depends on the amount of money you have deposited in your account. At $5/month (or $60/year) for the basic account, if you have only $500 in your account, you're technically paying a 12% annual management fee, which is insanely high.

For reference, most robo advisors in Canada charge around a 0.5% annual investment management fee. That means if you had $100 in your account, you'd pay $5 in management fees.

To hit a 0.5% management fee with Moka, you'd need to have at least $12k in your account. From there, your management fee would only get lower and lower.

In other words, the flat fee model can be good if you're holding a lot of cash in your Moka account, but it hurts you when you only have a small sum.

Of course, Moka does offer other features besides just robo-investing, but these really don't add a ton of value to the platform. You can find most of the features (like cashback, goal-based savings, and roundups) for free elsewhere.

Also:

When it comes to Moka 360, which is even more expensive, we don't think that it adds enough value to be worth the additional costs either. Similar to the above, most of the additional features you get can be found for free elsewhere. And at $15/month ($180/year), you'll need at least $36,000 in your account to hit a 0.5% annual management fee.

How is the overall user experience for Moka Members?

Moka provides a pretty good user experience. The app is straightforward to use, but some features (like easier performance tracking) would be nice to see. It would also be nice if deleting goals was easier to do.