Acorns Nets Hefty Preorder for its Mobile Payments Card System

Acorns is best known as an investment platform, a tool that takes the spare change from your various purchases and puts it to work in various investments. A novel enough idea, and really one that extends from the old practice of saving your spare change in a big jar. Now, it’s stepping up the process by offering its own mobile payments tool, a debit card that keeps your change for investment.

Essentially, the card takes your purchases and automatically rounds up, depositing the result into an investment account. So if you went out for dinner one night and the bill came to $14.83, you’d end up with a $15 debit, and $0.17 deposited into the Acorns investment account. Plus, there’s digital direct deposit available, as well as

Right now, the cards have seen 10,000 pre-orders, which is actually really good as there will only be 100,000 cards issued to begin with. Those who use the cards will get some specific perks, like investments into an Acorns account, when purchases are made at select retailers.

The cards are set to be mailed out November 1, 2018, and even boast some particular design features. Acorns’ chief executive Noah Kerner noted “The design is important to us, because this card is a badge of honor. By choosing it, people are choosing to save, invest and earn while they spend. They’re handling their business and they deserve a card that reflects that — a card made of tungsten metal, the heaviest non-radioactive element, and designed together with the visionary behind Apple’s design group.”

While that might be taking things a little far—did the card really need to be made of tungsten?—the sentiment is certainly noted. It’s also a good way to painlessly invest; writing a $500 check to E-Trade might be a tall order for some, and the regular payment to a brokerage firm likewise. But who notices that $0.17 rounded up from dinner? Or anything like that? These pennies add up—anyone who’s saved that jarful knows as much—but putting them directly into investment is just a smart idea.

Acorns’ strategy is likely to pan out well, taking investment and savings and making it a natural extension of the user’s everyday life. Adding mobile payments component only makes a good thing better.