Watch the full Alpha Bank walkthrough video here:
1. How Students Earn Alphas
Students earn Alphas by completing academic work in their apps: mastering skills, being consistent, and achieving strong growth and mastery results on tests.
When students earn XP in Alpha Anywhere, the corresponding Alphas are available to be deposited to their Alpha Bank in real time right on their TimeBack.
Students can confirm their Alpha deposits by checking their Alpha Bank and allocating any pending deposits. This ensures they stay updated on their earnings.
2. Opening Alpha Bank
Students tap their Alphas balance in the top right of Timeback. That opens a panel showing what hasn't been deposited yet, what's in checking and what's in savings, with a button to open Alpha Bank. No separate login is needed.
3. Allocating Your Deposits
When Alphas come in, they appear as pending deposits on the Alpha Bank main screen. Students must decide where to put them before they become available.
Three options for each deposit:
Put it all in Checking
Put it all in Savings
Split between the two (choose any amount for each)
Once allocated, the balances update immediately. Students can access Alpha Bank from Timeback using their existing login.
4. Checking vs. Savings
Students have two accounts in Alpha Bank:
Checking Account: This is the spending account. The balance shown in the top right of the screen is how many Alphas are available to spend right now.
Savings Account: This is where Alphas earn interest, just like a real bank. Savings has a lockdown period: once Alphas are deposited into savings, they must stay there for 14 days before they can be moved. During lockdown, students can see a countdown timer and how much interest they are earning.
Interest compounds weekly, which is actually faster than most real-world savings accounts. The longer students keep Alphas in savings, the more they earn.
Monthly interest cap
There’s a limit on how much interest you can earn each month: up to 100 Alphas, or up to 200 Alphas if they’ve saved more than 10,000 Alphas. Once they reach the cap, interest pauses for the rest of the month and starts again on the 1st.
If your child leaves Alpha Anywhere, savings are handled automatically during a 10-day wind-down: see "If your child leaves Alpha Anywhere" below.
5. Transferring Between Accounts
Students can move Alphas between checking and savings at any time, as long as savings funds are unlocked. Before confirming a transfer, the system shows how the move will affect interest earnings.
6. Spending Alphas in the Shop
Students can use their checking balance to buy gift cards in the Alpha Bank Shop.
How to redeem:
Open the Shop from the Alpha Bank screen
Browse available gift cards (items that require more Alphas than you have will be grayed out)
Select the gift card you want and confirm the purchase
The order appears in your transaction history with its status
7. Gift Card Delivery
Gift cards are processed Monday through Friday and delivered within 1 – 2 business days. Students usually receive their rewards before the weekend.
We partner with a rewards platform called Tremendous for gift card fulfillment. The reward is delivered to the parent's email address on file. Please save [email protected] as a trusted sender so it doesn't land in junk or promotions. The gift card is sent to both the student's email address and the parent's email address associated with the account.
Quick Tips
Allocate pending deposits as soon as they arrive
Use the Savings Account to earn interest while saving for bigger rewards
8. Troubleshooting Deposit Issues
If you are experiencing issues with deposits not reflecting in your Alpha Bank account after earning Alphas, follow these steps to resolve the problem:
9. If Your Child Leaves Alpha Anywhere
If you cancel, transfer, or leave Alpha Anywhere, your child doesn't lose their Alphas right away. Alpha Bank enters a 10-day wind-down so there's time to spend what they've earned.
Here's how it works, counting from the day your enrollment ends (Day 0):
Within the first 48 hours, pending deposits and savings are moved into Checking automatically.
Through Day 10, your child can keep spending their Checking balance in the Shop as usual. Gift cards are still processed Monday – Friday and delivered within 1–2 business days, so it's best to redeem a few days before Day 10.
On Day 10, Alpha Bank access ends, and the account is closed out.
If you re-enroll before Day 10, the wind-down is cancelled, and the account simply continues as normal.
If your child is transferring to an Alpha School campus, their balance can move with them. The campus arranges that with us.
If your Child Pauses
Pausing stops interest from accruing. It starts again when you come back.
Common Issues with Alpha Transactions
Deposits Not Reflecting in Alpha Bank:
A pending deposit may not appear immediately after earning Alphas. You have to allocate them to see your checking or savings balance update.
Contacting Support for Persistent Issues
Need help? Talk to Alphie, our smart AI assistant, in the Parent Portal or TimeBack. If he can't sort it out, he'll connect you with our team.