With thousands of Yotta customers having lost access to their funds for months, one woman says she received a refund—but it’s far less than what she’s owed.
Yotta Savings is a fintech company that offers gamified savings accounts. To provide banking services, Yotta partnered with Evolve Bank & Trust, while Synapse, a banking-as-a-service provider, handled the backend.
In May though, Synapse suddenly collapsed, leaving Yotta’s funds in limbo. Since then, Yotta has alleged that Evolve mishandled its users’ money, as reported by CNBC.
The situation escalated in September when Yotta took legal action, suing Evolve for failing to protect customer funds.
Unfortunately, for Yotta’s thousands of users, Synapse’s collapse means $109 million in frozen funds.
A Yotta customer shares her story online
This is precisely the situation TikTok user Abby (@abby.ritter8) finds herself in.
In a recent TikTok video, which has since garnered 13,700 views, she shared a surprising development in her case.
“So my bank has had $865.09 of my money hostage,” Abby begins. “I can’t withdraw. It’s been like that since May.”
She then explains how she invested with Yotta in 2021, inspired by personal finance YouTuber Graham Stephan. After providing a brief explanation of the situation with the three financial entities involved, Abby reveals the most recent events.
Just recently, on Election Day, she says Yotta finally sent out an email, promising some relief. “They said you’re gonna get an email, they were gonna give you back your money,” Abby explained.
But what Abby actually received was allegedly a laughably small amount. “I got back $3 and I think 62 cents… I did the math, and it was like 0.4%,” she says.
Abby decided to speak out because, to her, it felt like no one else was covering it.
“And part of the reason I think no one’s talking about it is because it’s so complicated,” she says.
Abby says she isn’t alone in her concern.
“People have [invested] hundreds of thousands [of dollars], and these are just regular… it’s a savings account,” she explains. She adds that Yotta users aren’t big investors, but “people saving for Disney trips or other trips with their kids, saving to buy a house.”
“I think they purposely set it on Election Day so that no one would talk about it,” Abby concludes. I just wanted to put this out there that I’m involved in case anyone else on here is or cares.”
Other users shared their refund stories
Many users on the r/yotta subreddit have shared their experiences from the past few days as they attempt to recover their funds.
One Reddit user, Janon75111, shared they were able to recover their full amount.
“Had saved up some money in Yotta and today I finally received an ACH transfer back to my US bank account,” they wrote. “I had $13,400 in there—I am so relieved.”
However, others haven’t been so fortunate. User Wavester64, for instance, reported receiving only $0.17 out of their $2,257 balance, a story that seems common among others posting on the subreddit.
We’ve reached out to Yotta to clarify the situation.
Viewers react
In the comments, some users shared advice, while other shared their own stories.
“Close the account. they have 90 days to write and send you a check,” one user advised.
Abby responded, writing, “Just tried:/ It says I have to withdraw money before closing and they’ve prevented withdrawal for everyone.”
“I feel like Reddit is the only place talking about and I’m like why aren’t there more people talking about it?” wrote another user.
“I got back 0 my cousin got back 50 cents,” shared a third.
Abby Shares more details
In a DM to the Daily Dot, Abby shared more details about her situation.
When asked if she received any warning before her funds were locked, Abby clarified, “We had NO warning they would be locked.”
“We received an email on May 10 from Yotta, saying they were discontinuing paying ‘rewards’ (their version of interest). I tried to withdraw my money ($865.09) on May 22 because there’s no point in a savings account without interest,” she further explained. “The withdrawal attempt failed. Everyone received an email on May 24 from Yotta saying they were experiencing payment processing failures due to an issue with partners Synapse and Evolve Bank.”
Abby noted that only a small number of people have managed to recover their full balances.
“There are VERY few people who have received their full balance. Reddit is where the most people are connecting to get information. Reddit user JelloBrickRoad shared this Google sheet that has a ton of information on expected balances vs. actual payout from over 800 users.”
Since posting her video, Abby has taken additional steps in an attempt to recover her funds.
@abby.ritter8 My bank failed me when it failed:/ I guess not technically true because Yotta didn’t fail, Synapse did. But either way, all of us are screwes because we were promised our money (held hostage since May) back yesterday and got back like less than 1% lol. If you want some good stories go look on reddit / yotta. #yotta #bank #hostage #moneytok ♬ original sound – Abby
“I’ve filed an appeal with Evolve Bank that can take up to 10 days and I’m not hopeful about it,” she said. “Most people who’ve phoned Evolve have just had the blame pointed at other players. I’ve been paying attention to Reddit because that’s the only place people are really talking about it.
In an email to the Daily Dot, Evolve refused to comment and directed the publication to its FAQ and other resources.
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