Lisa Gerstner
About the Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards 2025
The Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards aim to recognize and celebrate the best products and services in the personal finance arena. We asked you, our Kiplinger community, to help us name the products and services you think have delivered excellent value in the past year.
The survey results, which we’re sharing here in our second annual Readers’ Choice Awards, offer valuable insight into which providers shine when it comes to your everyday interactions and experiences with them. Our Awards recognize excellence in everything from credit cards, banks and brokers to insurers, tax software and financial apps. For each category, we’ve listed an overall winner that earned the highest score. We’ve also highlighted other products and services that earned above-average scores for various criteria we asked readers to assess.
By voting, our community has helped us form our guide to the very best financial products. These are the products and companies that you think stand out from the crowd.
Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards: Peer-to-Peer Apps
Peer-to-peer payment apps allow you to digitally send and receive money with friends and family from your smartphone. We asked readers to evaluate their preferred payment app’s ease of use, their overall satisfaction with it and how likely they are to recommend it to others.
OVERALL WINNER: Apple Cash
Outstanding for:
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- Ease of use
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
Apple Cash topped the charts this year as readers’ favorite peer-to-peer payment tool, earning above-average scores for all three surveyed criteria. To use Apple Cash for a peer-to-peer payment, tap the Apple Pay icon in an iPhone’s Messages app, enter the amount, and authenticate using Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.
“Overall, my experience is positive,” says one reader. There are no fees for transferring money out of your Apple Cash balance if you select a standard transfer, which takes one to three days.
For an instant transfer, a 1.5% fee applies, with a minimum of 25 cents and there's a maximum charge of $15 per transaction.
Zelle
Outstanding for:
- Ease of use
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
Zelle also earned high marks all around. The service no longer has a standalone app, but if your financial institution offers Zelle, you can use it through your banking app to easily make transfers from one checking account to another.
“I prefer Zelle because it’s direct,” says one reader. “I love using Zelle,” says another. “Zelle is very straightforward and easy to use. Plus, it is really fast in sending and receiving funds.” Typically, Zelle transfers are instant and require no transfer fees.
Venmo
Outstanding for:
- Most recommended
Readers who use Venmo noted its popularity among their friends and family members. The app has about 90 million users, according to parent company PayPal.
Venmo offers two options for transferring money from your Venmo balance to your bank account: instantly for a fee of 1.75% of the transfer amount (with a minimum of 25 cents and a maximum of $25), or a standard transfer, which comes with no fee but takes one to three business days.
Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards 2025 Awards Categories
- Readers' Choice Full-Service Brokers
- Readers' Choice Wealth Management
- Readers' Choice Cash Back Credit Cards
- Readers' Choice Travel Rewards Credit Cards
- Readers' Choice Airline Credit Card Rewards Programs
- Readers' Choice Hotel Credit Card Rewards Programs
- Readers' Choice National Banks
- Readers' Choice Internet Banks
- Readers' Choice Auto Insurance Companies
- Readers' Choice Homeowners Insurance Companies
- Readers' Choice Annuity Providers
- Readers' Choice Tax Software
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