Can you help me taking care of my bills?

petergriffin95

Thanks so much for your answers :)

So you wouldn't subscribe to a service which does that automatically for you via your bank account? Why is that? Is it really that dangerous??


Thank you:j

DCFC79

petergriffin95 wrote: »

Thanks so much for your answers :)

So you wouldn't subscribe to a service which does that automatically for you via your bank account? Why is that? Is it really that dangerous??


Thank you:j

I'd like to keep my account details safe, Im sure the details are safe at the website end.

Im not saying the websites are dangerous or anything like that, it's a personal choice.

Plus I like using a spreadsheet for a budget, maybe just me but I don't mind spreadsheets, you can do pretty pictures eg pie charts, bar graphs etc.

gingercordial

petergriffin95 wrote: »

Thanks so much for your answers :)

So you wouldn't subscribe to a service which does that automatically for you via your bank account? Why is that? Is it really that dangerous??


Thank you:j

A few reasons for me:

1. I don't find what they do very helpful because they can only work on the limited information that a bank transaction gives. So if I withdraw £100 and spend £50 on groceries (essential) and £50 on going out (fun money) how does it know that to split it? Either you're going to have to tell it - in which case you're still having to do the work and might as well use your own spreadsheet - or it isn't going to give you helpful information on your spending.

2. You do need to know what you're spending your money on, but the next step is to control what you're spending and stick to a budget. I don't know if those sites really help with that. Say I buy takeaways and I budget £50 a month for these. It isn't actually enough to look at my bank transactions at the end of the month and realise afterwards that I spent £60, oops. What I need to know during the month is that I've spent £30 so far, I have £20 left, and so I need to not add those extra side dishes to my curry tonight. To know you've spent the £30 so far you need to be inputting/categorising/writing down everything you spend daily whether it's on a site, spreadsheet or paper, so there's still daily work, you can't avoid it. And your system, whatever it is, needs to be able to tell you what you have left in that category. Maybe those sites can do it, I don't know. Pen and paper can if you keep a running total.

3. Letting a site automatically download and categorise your transactions tends to mean you don't really notice/think about them as much. The act of writing them down yourself or typing them into your own spreadsheet gives you much more of a sense of "Did I really spend that much on that?" I find that helps me spend less.

So I don't use those sites - added to which I don't think they're very dangerous but sites do get hacked and the reasons above mean I don't think it's worth the risk.

Personally I use a combination of my own spreadsheet and an app called You Need A Budget (YNAB). The latter has some ability to download transactions but I think it doesn't work with UK banks (it's made by a US company), but I don't have the version that does it anyway as they changed to a pay monthly service which I didn't like. A spreadsheet or pen and paper will do exactly the same thing.