The most common pre-purchase question about Monarch Money: does the free trial require a credit card? Yes, it does — but the trial is genuinely risk-free if you cancel before the 7-day mark. Here’s exactly how the trial works, what happens at day 7, and the SMARTMONEY discount that locks in 50% off if you decide to stay.
Quick answers to the most-asked trial questions
Q: Is the trial actually free? A: Yes. You’ll enter payment info during signup, but you’re not charged until day 7 — and only if you don’t cancel before then.
Q: How long is the trial? A: 7 days. Full feature access during that window — no restrictions.
Q: Do I need a credit card? A: Yes. Monarch requires a payment method to start the trial. This is to prevent abuse and to enable seamless transition to paid if you stay.
Q: How do I cancel before getting charged? A: Settings → Billing → Cancel Subscription. Per Monarch’s documentation, cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends. Most users cancel on day 5 or 6 to be safe.
Q: Can I get my money back if I’m charged after the trial? A: Yes — Monarch has a money-back guarantee. Email support@monarchmoney.com to request a refund.
Q: What happens if I forget to cancel? A: Your card gets charged for the first year ($99.99 standard, $49.99 with SMARTMONEY). You’ll have full Monarch access. If you decide you don’t want it, request a refund within a reasonable window — Monarch is generally accommodating.
Q: Can I extend the trial beyond 7 days? A: Generally no. The 7-day trial is fixed. Some referral-based or promotional offers occasionally extend to 30 days; if you’re a Mint refugee or have an advisor sponsorship, ask Monarch support directly.
What “full feature access” means during the trial
The trial includes everything in Monarch Core ($99.99/year list price). Per Monarch’s pricing documentation:
- All 13,000+ institution connections (Plaid, Finicity, MX) — connect every account
- Cash Flow + Sankey diagram — full visualization
- Budget (Flex + Category modes) — both budgeting approaches available
- Goals 3.0 — Save Up, Pay Down, and Investment goals with growth modeling
- AI Assistant — natural-language queries about your finances
- Recurring detection — auto-flags subscriptions
- Receipt scanning (mobile)
- Reports — custom charts and analysis
- Shared Views — invite your partner during the trial
- Investment tracking — holdings-level breakdown
- Credit-score monitoring
- CSV export for backup or migration
There are no feature restrictions during the trial. You’re getting the same product paying users have access to.
The one tier the trial does NOT include: Monarch Plus ($299/year). Plus has its own separate 7-day trial that you can start by upgrading from inside the app after Core trial activation. See Monarch Plus vs Core for details.
Why Monarch requires a credit card for the trial
A few reasons — and they’re standard practice in subscription SaaS:
- Prevents trial abuse. Without a card requirement, users could re-trial endlessly. Monarch’s “once per household” rule needs a payment method to verify against.
- Enables seamless transition. If you decide you love Monarch, you don’t need to re-enter payment info — your subscription continues seamlessly at day 7.
- Filters serious evaluators from tire-kickers. Trials with payment requirements have higher activation rates and lower abandonment because users who sign up have actual buying intent.
The card-required model is the same as Netflix, Spotify Premium, Apple TV+, every major cloud service trial, etc. It’s the modern SaaS standard.
If you’re philosophically opposed to entering a card for a trial, your options are:
- Use a virtual card with a low limit (Privacy.com, your bank’s virtual card feature, or Apple Card’s virtual card) — limits exposure if you forget to cancel
- Use a free alternative instead — Empower is the closest free option for net worth tracking; Rocket Money’s free tier is the closest free option for subscription tracking (with caveats)
- Wait for a no-card promotion — Monarch has occasionally offered no-card trials for specific partner audiences (Mint refugees in 2024, advisor-sponsored accounts), but these are rare
For most users, the card-required trial is fine because cancellation is genuinely easy if you decide Monarch isn’t for you.
Day-by-day timeline of what happens
To make the trial mechanics concrete:
Day 0 (signup): You enter email, password, name, and payment info. Apply SMARTMONEY at checkout to lock in 50% off if you stay. Card is authorized but not charged.
Day 1-6: Full Monarch access. Connect your accounts, build a budget, set goals, run the AI Assistant. Use the trial period actively — most users figure out within 2-3 days whether Monarch is for them.
Day 5 (recommended): Make your decision. If you’re staying, do nothing — your subscription will auto-start at day 7. If you’re not staying, cancel via Settings → Billing → Cancel Subscription. You keep full access through day 7 even after canceling.
Day 6 (24-hour cutoff): Per Monarch’s documentation, cancel by this point at the latest. Cancellations within 24 hours of trial end may not stop the auto-billing.
Day 7 (trial ends):
- If you canceled: Access ends. No charge. Your data is preserved for 30 days in case you change your mind.
- If you didn’t cancel: Card is charged ($99.99 list, or $49.99 if you applied SMARTMONEY). You become a paid Monarch Core subscriber for 1 year.
Day 7-37 (first 30 days as paid): Money-back guarantee window. If you decide Monarch isn’t for you, request a refund.
Day 38+ (settled in): Your Monarch subscription runs through day 365. Renewal at standard pricing ($99.99) unless you cancel before renewal.
How to cancel during the trial (step-by-step)
The cancellation flow is the same as canceling a paid subscription. Per Monarch’s “Canceling Your Subscription” Help Center article:
- Sign in at app.monarchmoney.com
- Click your profile icon at the top right
- Click Settings
- Click Billing in the left settings menu
- Find your active subscription (it’ll show as “Trial — ends [date]”)
- Click Cancel subscription
- Confirm
Monarch will ask why you’re canceling. Honest feedback genuinely helps their product team. The cancellation processes immediately.
Important: If you signed up via the iOS App Store or Google Play in-app purchase (rather than direct billing through Monarch.com), the cancellation flow is different. See How to Cancel Monarch Subscription for the App Store / Google Play paths.
What about the SMARTMONEY discount?
Apply the SMARTMONEY code during the trial signup flow, and:
- The total updates to $49.99 in real time at checkout (instead of $99.99 list)
- You’re not charged on day 0 — payment info is just authorized
- At day 7, if you didn’t cancel, you’re charged $49.99 for the first year
- Year 2 onward renews at full $99.99 unless you cancel before renewal
The SMARTMONEY code only works during initial signup. If you start the trial without applying it and want it later, you’ll need to cancel and re-sign-up (or contact support — they’re occasionally accommodating).
For full details on every Monarch promo code (SMARTMONEY, NEWYEAR2026, ROB50, WSS50, BEGINNERS, etc.), see Monarch Money Promo Code 2026.
Common questions
Will Monarch send me reminders before the trial ends?
Yes. Monarch typically sends an email at day 5 and another at day 6 reminding you the trial is ending. If you’re staying, ignore them. If you’re canceling, click through to Settings → Billing.
Can I use a debit card for the trial?
Yes — Monarch accepts most debit cards, credit cards, and digital payment methods (Apple Pay, Google Pay) for the trial. The “credit card required” framing is shorthand for “payment method required.”
Can I use a virtual card / disposable card?
Yes. Privacy.com cards, Apple Card’s virtual card, and most virtual-card services work fine. This is what we recommend for users who want to limit exposure if they forget to cancel.
What if I miss the cancellation window and get charged?
Email support@monarchmoney.com referencing your subscription. Per Monarch’s money-back guarantee, refunds are evaluated individually. In our experience, Monarch is generous within the first 30 days of paid usage. Beyond that, refunds become harder to get.
Will canceling delete my data?
No. Per Monarch’s documentation, after cancellation: “30 days after a subscription ends, institution connections within a Monarch account will be disconnected.” Your transaction history stays — you just lose Premium access. If you re-subscribe within 30 days, you can pick up where you left off.
Can I trial Monarch Plus separately?
Yes. Monarch Plus has its own 7-day trial that’s separate from the Core trial. To start a Plus trial, sign up for Core first, then upgrade to Plus from Settings → Billing → Manage Subscription. Plus trial mechanics are identical to Core’s.
Does the trial work the same on iOS / Android?
Mostly yes, but the cancellation flow differs. If you sign up via the iOS App Store, cancel via iPhone Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions. If you sign up via Google Play, cancel via Google Play → Subscriptions. Direct web billing (sign up at monarch.com or via our SMARTMONEY-tagged signup link) is the cleanest path because cancellation is in Monarch’s own settings rather than Apple’s or Google’s.
Can my partner trial Monarch with me?
Yes — invite your partner during the trial via Settings → Members → Invite Member. Both partners get full access during the 7-day window. The trial covers your full household; you’re not charged twice.
What if I want to give Monarch a longer try than 7 days?
The 7-day trial is fixed. If you want longer evaluation, the path is:
- Use the 7-day trial intensively (you can absolutely figure out if Monarch is for you in a week)
- If still on the fence at day 7, let yourself get charged $49.99 (with SMARTMONEY) and use the 30-day money-back guarantee window for a longer evaluation
- If you decide it’s not a fit by day 30 of paid usage, request a refund
Effectively this gives you about a 37-day evaluation window — 7 days trial + 30 days money-back guarantee.
Can I pause the subscription instead of canceling?
Not currently. Monarch doesn’t offer pause/resume functionality. If you need to step away (extended travel, financial focus elsewhere), the cleanest approach is to cancel and re-subscribe later when you’re ready.
What’s the catch?
There isn’t one specific to the trial. Monarch’s trial is genuinely full-featured for 7 days. The “catch,” if you want to call it that, is that you have to remember to cancel if you don’t want to continue. Set a calendar reminder for day 5 and you’ll be fine.
Code SMARTMONEY · WSJ Best Overall Budgeting App · 4.9 stars across 60,000+ reviews · No ads, no selling data
If you want a fully free option (no card required, no trial), Empower and Rocket Money’s free tier are the closest alternatives in the category. Both have meaningful tradeoffs vs Monarch, covered in our reviews.
Related reading:
- Monarch Money Promo Code 2026
- Monarch Money Review 2026
- Is Monarch Money Worth It?
- Is Monarch Money Safe?
- Monarch Plus vs Core
- How to Cancel Monarch Subscription
- How to Connect Bank Accounts to Monarch
- How to Create a Budget in Monarch
- Best Mint Alternatives in 2026
Not financial, legal, or tax advice. We earn a commission if you sign up for Monarch through a link on this page; the price is the same. Trial terms verified against Monarch’s official Help Center documentation as of May 7, 2026.