Best mobile credit card app with real notifications

FuffyCat

A few months ago I canceled my Tandem card as they were introducing fees, I should have accepted their other non-interest paying credit card however I'm not even sure they're doing that one anymore either. It had an excellent mobile app that would give instant notifications and was always up to date with your transactions, it was so much easier to budget. I preferred this to using a debit card as it was a clear "you have spent £x this month" then at the end of the month you just clear it. I know banking debit apps like Monzo have in-built budgeting but I want to use a credit card to keep up my credit score and generally have one to make large payments safer (e.g. it recently took months to get a canceled flight refund to my debit card which I could have contested with a credit card!!)

Does anyone know of any good credit cards app with this functionality? I've seen Virgin Money does one, are there any others - maybe with other benefits?

dr_adidas01

What credit score are you talking about? I hope it’s not the one with the CRAs where they give you a fictional number that no lender uses.  

What you should be focusing on is your credit history, you might want to check out the sticky at the top of this forum about what your credit score really means. 

You could try Tymit as they have almost instantaneous notifications when you spend on the card. 

Also Capital One do this provided you’ve turned notifications on for the app. 

D3xt3r5L4b

Amex do. In fact I think most banks with a decent mobile app offer this functionality now

dr_adidas01

D3xt3r5L4b said:

Amex do. In fact I think most banks with a decent mobile app offer this functionality now

I was about to add Amex as I remembered mine did this after I posted.

jet01

Amex will also give you notifications via GPay and Apple Pay even if you use the card rather than the app to pay which can be useful. Curve would be another option because their app as this functionality and you can use pretty much use any card you like then so long as it’s a Visa or MC and get real-time notifications and and a categorisation of all your spend in the app across multiple cards. 

jbrassy

As other's have said, Amex's app has this functionality. I can also tell you that the Capital One app has this function. 

In terms of trying to budget, you could use an app such as Money Dashboard, Yolt, or Emma. These apps use Open Banking to monitor your transactions across credit cards and bank accounts to ensure you're not overspending.