Personal Finance apps (was: Money Dashboard apps closing down)

SamDude

Just had an email from Money Dashboard stating they are shutting down the apps on 31 Oct and will be focusing on B2B.

I found the website view really good for tracking and analysing my budgets and spend, and none of the alternatives offered a 'money dashboard' like it.

Full email:

Hi, We are sad to announce the closure of the Money Dashboard Neon and Classic apps which will shut down on 31st October 2023. Unfortunately we could not find a sustainable business model for the apps and are therefore unable to continue supporting the services. What does this mean for you? We’ll permanently close any open accounts from 31st October 2023 and thereafter you will no longer be able to access the Classic or Neon apps. Existing Money Dashboard accounts will be closed and deleted, and any bank connections will be disconnected. We will retain only the data that we are required to in accordance with our legal, regulatory, and data protection obligations, and for no longer than is necessary under those. For more information on this please refer to our FAQs here. Your options in the meantime If you wish to view or download a copy of your Money Dashboard app information, or if you wish to delete your Money Dashboard account yourself before 31st October, instructions for doing so can be found in our full list of FAQs here. If you’re having any difficulties accessing or deleting your account please contact our support team at support@moneydashboard.com for further assistance and we'll be happy to help. We appreciate this may be disappointing news for many of our loyal users. If you are interested in an alternative free money management app, Snoop provides a lot of similar functionality to Money Dashboard and may be of interest. Please see our FAQs to find out more about how they can help. We’d like to thank you all for trusting us to help you master your money, and while we’re sad we could not see a future for the Money Dashboard apps, we hope we’ve helped in some small way to make personal finance clearer and easier to understand. Thank you for your support over the years. The Money Dashboard Team

camelopardis

I moved from Money dashboard to Pocketsmith a few years ago. Its a paid subscription but I have found it excellent for keeping track of balances across multiple accounts. It has open banking links to far more accounts than money dashboard ever did

You can sign up for a free one month trial via this link:

(Removed by Forum Team)

Doshwaster

Not surprising news as the app/website hadn't been updated in ages.

I switched to Moneyhub (https://www.moneyhub.com/)  about 6 weeks ago and find it better than MoneyDashboard in almost every way. I especially like it supports a lot of investment providers. Currently doing a 6 month free trial but after that it's only £1.49 a month which is reasonable.

I've tried Emma but couldn't get on with it. Havne't tried Snoop or Pocketsmith 

RedDwarf82

Yep -> https://www.moneydashboard.com/faq ("Important Information: Money Dashboard Apps Closing"). They are offering 3 months free for Snoop Plus.

I know about these alternatives

• Emma

  • https://emma-app.com/

  • £83.99/year for the Pro version (https://emma-app.com/emma-pro / https://help.emma-app.com/en/article/what-are-the-features-of-emma-plus-pro-and-ultimate-678fjp/ / https://help.emma-app.com/en/article/how-much-does-emma-plusproultimate-cost-1ywhulq/ )

  • Supported banks -> https://help.emma-app.com/en/article/what-banks-do-you-support-in-the-uk-tskl17/ (includes Chase)

  • https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=001b00000438M90AAE

• Lumio

  • https://www.lumio-app.com/

  • £3.99/month (i.e. £47.88/year) for the Pro version

  • Supported banks -> https://help.lumio-app.com/en/articles/8075722-which-accounts-can-i-connect-to-lumio (includes Chase)

  • https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=0010X00004Vt4mjQAB

• Moneyhub

  • https://www.moneyhub.com/app/

  • £14.99/year (https://intercom.help/moneyhub/en/articles/5603511-how-much-is-the-subscription-fee-and-how-do-i-subscribe)

  • Unknown list of supported banks (but there is https://www.moneyhub.com/status) (includes Chase)

  • https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=0010X00004ATv9RQAT

• Nova Money

  • https://novamoney.com/

  • £99.99/year for the Pro version (bottom of the main page)

  • No known link to public list of supported banks -> https://novamoney.notion.site/List-of-Open-Banking-supported-institutions-in-progress-5530ba0835c94441b654b99e7290d362 (but Chase is not supported)

  • https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=0014G00002Uv2NnQAJ

• PocketSmith

  • https://www.pocketsmith.com/

  • £119.88/year for Foundation, with 6 banks connections (https://my.pocketsmith.com/plans)

  • Supported banks -> https://www.saltedge.com/products/account_information/coverage/gb (includes Chase)

• Snoop

  • https://snoop.app/

  • Free / £31.99/year for Plus (https://snoop.app/plus/)

  • Supported banks -> https://space.snoop.app/t/which-banks-are-supported-by-snoop/58 (includes Chase)

  • https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=0010X00004ZCfVnQAL

• Spendee

  • https://www.spendee.com/

  • $22.99/year (https://www.spendee.com/pricing) / 0.06 ETH (~£87.51) for lifetime via a NFT (https://nft.spendee.com/) / There seems to be another lifetime option (https://help.spendee.com/article/205-what-is-lifetime-premium)

  • Supported banks -> https://www.spendee.com/bank-connect (includes Chase)

• Wallet

  • https://budgetbakers.com/

  • £25.99 for lifetime access

  • No known link to public list of supported banks (but Chase is supported)

• YNAB

  • https://www.ynab.com/

  • $99/year

  • Supported banks -> https://truelayer.com/reports/open-banking-guide/open-banking-and-bank-accounts/ (does not include Chase)

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YNAB

I still have to choose one.

Money Dashboard does indeed allow you to export the data into CSV format. Not sure any other app supports that, and even less sure if any app will let me import the data from MoneyDashboard (maybe Wallet, which seems quite nerdy, but I have not checked).

ClaraSolis

I just got the email as well. I'm quite sad that it's going, as I had been using the website version on a daily basis. I have all our accounts/credit cards/saving accounts set up in there, so I can more easily keep track of everything.

Especially the Planner has been really useful for me, so I can see what's going out, what's coming in (my income isn't stable) and what our accounts will look like over the next 12 months. 

Is there any other app that offers this particular feature? Preferably one that doesn't cost a lot.

SamDude

I have Snoop (the free version) but don't particularly like the large/tile simple interface.
I did also try Moneyhub last year and I did like it - but I gravitated back to Moneydashboard when the trial was up.
I think Lumio are a rebranded/white-label version of Moneyhub? 

Now I'll check the suggested apps, before deciding. I'll probably go back to Moneyhub as it was the closest to what I wanted.

janusdesign

Just did a quick install of Snoop, and while I could have linked those bank accounts that use open banking, most of my savings accounts don't use it - and there seems no equivalent of "Offline Sources", so not really practical for me.

i've installed Moneyhub and added 1 credit card - would prefer to use it on a desktop browser though.

anyone got a list of alternative offline software options ?

RedDwarf82

For me personal needs/preferences, my thought process:
- I still trust more a UK, FCA regulated, company than a US one. So let's start looking at the UK ones.
- I value my historical data, that I have been carefully tagging. Any company can double the price overnight, I want a way out by having the option to export the data to CSV or similar.
- Ideally it would have a web version too, not only app. But it's not a showstopper.
- Emma limit of 2 accounts in the free version is a showstopper. 4 accounts in the Plus version is still not ideal. £83.99 for the Pro version seems too much (and didn't like how hidden the number was). Discarded for the time being.
- Lumio's free option limit to 3 months of historical data is a showstopper. £3.99 for Pro may be an option. I will have to check it. It's reliance on MoneyHub makes me wonder why I shouldn't go with MoneyHub directly, which is even cheaper, though.
- MoneyHub £14.99/year makes it attractive. Without having installed any yet, this is my first position so far.
- Nova Money's £99.99/year (I see no mention of a free version, if it exists it would lack "Unlimited bank connections") makes it a hard no.
- PocketSmith free doesn't offer open banking connections, so hard no. £119.88/year, with a limit of 6 connections? Directly to the bottom of my list!
- Snoop... maybe I could even use the free version? And £31.99 doesn't look that bad if I want Plus.
- Spendee and Wallet one time lifetime payment seems interesting.
- YNAB is in the expensive side, I have other options I want to try first.

So I guess I will try the MoneyDashboard suggested option first: Snoop.

SamDude

RedDwarf82 said:

So I guess I will try the MoneyDashboard suggested option first: Snoop.

Would be interested in your thoughts on Snoop...
As mentioned, I have it but can't get on with the clunky/fat-finger friendly interface. It is very limiting and you can't see the categories or tags on the screen without clicking each transaction.

RedDwarf82

SamDude said:

RedDwarf82 said:

So I guess I will try the MoneyDashboard suggested option first: Snoop.

Would be interested in your thoughts on Snoop...
As mentioned, I have it but can't get on with the clunky/fat-finger friendly interface. It is very limiting and you can't see the categories or tags on the screen without clicking each transaction.

So far, not great. Adding the banks was slooow. And yeah, not a fan of the interface at all. Since apparently it's "Scanning..." for my bills ("This can take up to 20 mins.", seriously?), I'm giving it a chance to see if once it's "ready" it's better.

The fact that you can have unlimited accounts with the free account is the only reason I'm still giving it a chance, but I'm likely going to be checking MoneyHub soon.

LesD

Not surprising if you look at last years accounts on Companies House.  This year's are overdue - never a good sign.  And they took out two secured loans earlier this year as the cash had been draining away.  They had too many people for the low level of income they generated.

I switched to MD when the First Direct offering ceased some years ago and MD never matched that's usefulness.  I'm still running MS Money which does a good job of bringing all accounts together, although it obviously needs manual inputs.