95% 0f households in UK have mobile phones where only 88% have a computer and only 89% have internet access.
(ONS 2020)
So more and more people are using smartphones to download apps
for activities and services which help them keep in touch, shop, search for
information and be entertained.
What is an App? It is short for application and is a
computer programme designed to run on a mobile device.
Budgeting apps can support customers manage their money by
helping them to monitor their spending, plan ahead and budget day to day to make sure they
have money to cover their needs.
An initiative called Open Banking has made it easier
for app providers to let you see all you bank accounts in one place.
Open Banking is all the technologies and the rules that
allow you to safely share your financial information with app providers. Read
more on www.openbanking.org.uk
2 million users have already downloaded budgeting/banking apps (OBIE 2020)
Only consider budgeting apps that are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), an
independent organisation who parliament task
to protect customers of financial services.
Lets look a Yolt as
an example of a budgeting app. It is free to download and is registered with
the FCA. Yolt provides a Feature
Spotlight describing what the app can do. Here are just a few features
• Account
aggregation – the core feature that relies on Open Banking and your
permission to bring your current accounts, savings, credit cards, pension and
investment information into on place
• Build
a budget – to let you set a monthly budget, define goals, set reminders,
monitor and predict your spending patterns
• Set
Categories – apply categories to your transactions to suit you
• Tagging
– allowing you to personalise transactions with a #tag to help monitor total
spending on tagged items
• Pay
Day – amend your budgeting period to run from your Pay Day
• Split
costs – to help split shared costs like restaurant bills with friends
• Move
money – to help you save
*Remember there are lots of budgeting apps – to see more that are also registered with the FCA visit www.openbanking.org.uk
Budgeting well can ensure you have enough money for all your
living costs and have some money set aside for planned future spending,
unexpected costs or your longer term security.
Is a budgeting app right for me? Listing pros and
cons can help you think about the positives and negatives of using a
budgeting app.
Using Yolt as an
example, try a 3 step approach to create a pros and cons that applies to
your circumstances.
Step 1: Features, Advantages, Benefits (FAB)
On the Yolt website,
in the search box enter Feature Spotlight to display articles
about some of the app’s Features (or what the app can do).
Read the Feature Spotlights and notice some of the suggested
Advantages of that feature. For example see “Connect your accounts
from supported banks”. It suggests that “getting a proper overview
of your all money can be tough” . The suggested advantage of this
feature is you can “see all your
money in one place. Even if each account has different login details.” Do
you agree?
How would this be of Benefit to you? How might it save you
time or be easier to do?
Try to write down some Features of
Yolt, the Advantages and how you
might Benefit from them to manage your money.
These benefits are the Pros of the app to you!
Step 2. Complete the Budgeting Needs questionnaire
Do you need to improve your budgeting? Could an app be the answer?
Step 3. Using customer reviews
Finding negatives of a product can be hard, they won’t be on
the products website. When exploring the Yolt
website did you spot features that you thought where negatives? View more
pages and read the Frequently Ask Questions. Write negatives you see in
the Cons box on activity sheet.
Customer who have already used the app might be able to help
you. Trustpilot is a website
where people write reviews about products and services.
Search for Yolt on
Trustpilot. How many reviews are there?
Read some reviews, you might spot some more Pros for your
list. Are there negative reviews? Has Yolt
responded to clarify the issue?
List some possible negatives in your Cons list.
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