What do you think of these new saving apps? Are they safe?

Jlawson118 · 12 February 2017 at 7:06PM

I keep seeing these new apps cropping up lately. There was one a few months ago that previewed your credit cards and bank cards and saved the change into their own pot as such. There was a £1 monthly charge and I can't remember what it's called.I went through the process of signing up but then suddenly felt this distrust and deleted it.

However, I stumbled across another one last night called 'Piggy Pot' in which allows you to deposit and withdraw funds as and when you want. Although you can separate so much money into specific folders as such, so 'Holiday Savings', 'Car Insurance' etc..which I find interesting. I kind of do a similar method now where my Bonus Savings is my car insurance, my everyday savers for other things, just without the titles.

Are these apps safe? Are they really backed by the FSCS?

eskbanker · 12 February 2017 at 7:19PM

Jlawson118 wrote: »

Are they really backed by the FSCS?

Why would you think they're backed by FSCS? At the foot of http://piggypot.com/ it clearly states:

You should be aware that your account with PiggyPot is not a bank account or equivalent and that any pre-payments made to PiggyPot / PGY Group are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme

Jlawson118 · 12 February 2017 at 7:22PM

eskbanker wrote: »

Why would you think they're backed by FSCS? At the foot of http://piggypot.com/ it clearly states:

However, the first app that I discussed did say in the description that it was backed by the FSCS.

eskbanker · 13 February 2017 at 12:49AM

Jlawson118 wrote: »

However, the first app that I discussed did say in the description that it was backed by the FSCS.

Riiiiigghhht....

So your message is basically "I came across a savings app once upon a time but can't remember what it was called. It said it was covered by FSCS, is this true?" - good luck with getting any meaningful answer to that!

PiggyPotApp · 13 February 2017 at 3:57PM

Hi Jlawson118

I'm currently working for PiggyPot and noticed your post so thought I'd give you some answers about our security at PiggyPot.

Security of our customers details and money is top on our list of priorities. The PiggyPot app uses bank level encryption and security measures so that customer data, customer orders and payment details are held with the utmost levels of security.

All customer funds are held in escrow by our payment gateway MangoPay. MangoPay holds an E-Money Issuer (EMI) licence granted by the CSSF. They are a PCI-DSS compliant, accredited provider who keep your funds in secure, guaranteed e-wallets.

This ensures that all customer funds are available in full and are not put at risk at any point. We constantly monitor security of customer funds and are working on adding further fund security measures in the near future.

I hope this answers your question and provides you with more reassurance

If you would like to learn more you should check out the security section in our help centre (Google 'piggy pot help security')

Any questions give me a shout,
Jemma

Reaper · 13 February 2017 at 4:26PM

Hi Jemma,

Firstly while a right of reply is fair enough as a business you need to apply to the site for permission first. See "How can my company get a right of reply?" on this page:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs

Secondly as I understand it all the measures you describe concern data security, however I am not clear that the funds held by MangoPay are ring fenced. If they were to go bust would customer funds be protected or would their creditors have first claim over the money?

The same question applies to PiggyPot. If you go bust would the customers or your creditors have access to the funds held on MangoPay?

Bmth100 · 13 February 2017 at 9:34PM

Jlawson118 wrote: »

I keep seeing these new apps cropping up lately. There was one a few months ago that previewed your credit cards and bank cards and saved the change into their own pot as such. There was a £1 monthly charge and I can't remember what it's called.I went through the process of signing up but then suddenly felt this distrust and deleted it.

However, I stumbled across another one last night called 'Piggy Pot' in which allows you to deposit and withdraw funds as and when you want. Although you can separate so much money into specific folders as such, so 'Holiday Savings', 'Car Insurance' etc..which I find interesting. I kind of do a similar method now where my Bonus Savings is my car insurance, my everyday savers for other things, just without the titles.

Are these apps safe? Are they really backed by the FSCS?

I've recently started a Stocks and Shares ISA with Moneybox, which I'm fairly sure is the first app you're referring to.

In terms of the security of your cash, as far as I can recall, I'm pretty certain it's covered under the FSCS. EDIT: Just double checked; covered up to £50,000. This is the only reason I took the plunge.

I chose Moneybox because I've never invested anything before. I understand it's not the best when it comes to charges (small but not the smallest), but for a newbie who just wants to set up a simple, small direct debit and dip his toe in the water, it works.

Oh and in terms of the transaction stuff, they call it "Round ups". They have no means of actually taking the rounded up pennies from every transaction as it happens; instead, they adjust your weekly direct debit amount to include those rounded up pennies.

I've not set up Round ups because they require your online banking details to make the link. it all seems above board and I'm sure it is, but I draw the line there.

Malthusian · 14 February 2017 at 12:11PM

The second question should be answered fairly easily once you have checked what the money is actually invested in and the FCA's register.

To answer the first: there are DIY investment services which provide much better functionality at a lower cost. These are only for those who value mobile app gimmickry and, in some cases it seems, revoltingly twee names.

If you put pennies in you get pennies out.

PiggyPotApp · 20 February 2017 at 5:52PM

Hi Reaper,
Thank you for bringing the posting rules to my attention

I have since emailed and obtained the right to reply to your message, apologies it took so long.

To answer your questions:

Yes customer funds are always protected in full. If MangoPay were to go out of business, all funds will be returned to the user in full. As an e-Money institution they are required by law to keep an amount equal to 4% of all customer funds on top of the customer funds they hold. This 4% is used to pay for the administration of returning all funds.

On the other hand if PiggyPot were to go out of business, because we don't hold any customer funds there would be no risk for the customer. In this scenario we would inform our payment provider MangoPay and all customer funds will be returned to the users in full.

I hope this helps! Any further questions let me know.

Thanks,
Jemma

What do you think of these new saving apps? Are they safe?

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