Is there an app which does a money makeover?

Brendan Burgess

Founder
Messages
54,417
We ask people to provide this basic information:

Key Post - Basic information required for the "Money Makeover" forum

It can be difficult, but please try to use a meaningful title in your thread For example "27 year old with mortgage arrears". You will get a much better and much more coherent answer if you give as much information as possible in your first post. For example, if you give your mortgage rate, it...
www.askaboutmoney.com

Is there an app or piece of software which summarises all this information on one page. It would have an input page e.g.

Mortgage: Balance outstanding
Name of lender:
Mortgage rate:
Term remaining

Current account:
Name of bank:
current balance (ideally this would be linked to my AIB account to get the information automatically.)

Car insurance:
Insurer
Policy number
renewal date:
 
Ideally what I am looking for is an "at a glance" summary of my finances and utilities.

What I have looked at seem to be budgeting packages such as Mint

Brendan
 
I have never seen one that would encompass all the variables that you listed above.

Using individual tools offered by banks etc or investment companies like Zurich individually and writing down various figures is the way most people I know analyse their financial situation.

It would be a great app, and speaking to various people in software development etc they say that it wouldn't be to difficult to create.

Edit, I have thought about this in great detail.
 
Last edited:
AndroidMan said:
I would be wary of that point. You would have to provide the app with the login details.
Click to expand...
Great point and it applies to not just bank accounts but technology has moved on and if you were to allow the app to " login into your bank account " it might be possible to login in using the pan as in existing bank apps, and for extra security get a push notification, this obviously would need to have the bank in agreement......

Security would be a huge part of any app like this and I would imagine solutions wouldn't be cheap.
 
Last edited:
Although SCA got a lot of attention last year, AISP was also part of the PSd2 regulations. It forces financial institutions to build APIs that allow (somewhat regulated) third parties to access your account information. Sensibly, this isn’t based on giving third parties your username and password. Instead, you are redirected to your banks websites, log in there and then grant permission to the third party (like Login with Facebook). You can revoke access wherever you want and it periodically expires and needs to be granted again.

There are a few apps doing this already. Revolut has a decent one and the now-dead Olivia.AI did it really nicely. I’m not sure if the rules apply to mortgage accounts though, I’ve only ever seen it exposed for current accounts and credit cards.

Apparently it’s used by some landlords and mortgage institutions in the UK instead of looking for paper copies of your statements.
 
Last edited:
Brendan I have a notebook with all accounts listed, including utility providers, online accounts, passwords etc. Its for ease for those picking up the pieces if i kick the bucket - which i hope wont be for at least another 35/40 years.
 
That's was one of the solutions we came up with, the app wouldn't store information and when you opened it , it asked you what service you wanted and the link brought you to the "official " site.

It worked but it wasn't a real bank, pension administrator in our tests. It was very cumbersome too, and we felt it was easier for the user to simply log into their accounts.

As that was 6/7 years ago and Fintech really wasn't at the personal level, but now the likes of Revolut etc probably would be an easier fit, but all the regulatory requirements now would take a lot of time and money.
 
niceoneted said:
Brendan I have a notebook with all accounts listed, including utility providers, online accounts, passwords etc. Its for ease for those picking up the pieces if i kick the bucket - which i hope wont be for at least another 35/40 years.
Click to expand...
Best recording device ever imho, and when you write you think.
 
I've started using the free open source GNUCash for expenses tracking.
It's only available for desktop clients and is manual input. Old fashioned but no monthly app charge or complex (2 factor) authentication.
I find that entering the expenses makes me more aware of my expenditure.
There are some youtube tutorials to get you started.
 
I've been using a free app called "expense manager" since 2012. It's all manually input, but the same as @Alexander_ , when you enter you expenses you're aware of them. You can categorise things too to give you a breakdown of where your money has been going, and build charts and budgets. This with google pay notifications when I buy something, makes it pretty easy to keep it up to date. It's pretty basic, even for 2012, but it does what I need it to.

Alas, it's not a money makeover app. An app like you describe @Brendan Burgess would be terrifying. All that personal information given up to a 3rd party app. I wouldn't download that.
 
Hi BK

But could you not have the app and store the information on your own phone or laptop?

Either way, when looking for financial advice, you could send it to your financial advisor and they would have a full fact-find instantly.


Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Hi BK

But could you not have the app and store the information on your own phone or laptop?

Either way, when looking for financial advice, you could send it to your financial advisor and they would have a full fact-find instantly.


Brendan
Click to expand...
For this I would use one of the built in reports available in the Desktop application and export it. GNUcash is double entry and you can create as many sub categories as you wish. It has a good starter template that you can modify.

Makes for interesting analysis when you see it adding up over the year:
I've spent x on eating out
x on subscriptions etc.
x on insurance

Individually they seem like peanuts but when you add them all up it can be surprising.
The Income vs Expenses sections quickly shows you if you are overspending.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Hi BK

But could you not have the app and store the information on your own phone or laptop?

Either way, when looking for financial advice, you could send it to your financial advisor and they would have a full fact-find instantly.


Brendan
Click to expand...
I do this on excel....first sheet is a summary and a personal balance sheet the other tabs have all bank accounts, investments, shares ,pensions, debt which I download from the respective websites. I also have a tax tab for CGT and rental income.

I then link to the information held within each tab, I used to do this monthly but now find doing it quarterly is sufficient unless a major financial event has occurred

I also download official statements of everything from utilities to pension statements.

Bit of effort initially but will give you a month by month financial overview.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register