Yougov Finance "Spending" Analysis

Qyburn

Has anyone looked at this?

The first thing that struck me is they count credits as well as debits as "spending", so just as an example they have counted the three refunds from HMRC as spending on tax. Money received when I sold my motor bike is classed as spending on "Car Brands".

They also count transfers between accounts as spending, even accounts that they're monitoring. So my monthly standing order into an account I use to smooth out periodic lump sums like oil or insurance, is classed as spending on "Rental Car & Taxi"

There are plenty of misclassifications, Origin Broadband is "Gaming", deposits to Tandem are "Electronics & Software", Zopa deposits and withdrawals are added together under spending on "Loans". Under "Car Sales, Service & Fuel" they only recognise Tesco, not Morrisons or Asda.

I get that it's new and doubtless they can improve the classification, but it's beyond me how anyone could have set it up without realising there's difference between money going and going out.

I'm not working at the moment but I'd be interested to know if they count salary as spending in the same way.

MikeJXE

Qyburn said:

Has anyone looked at this?

The first thing that struck me is they count credits as well as debits as "spending", so just as an example they have counted the three refunds from HMRC as spending on tax. Money received when I sold my motor bike is classed as spending on "Car Brands".

They also count transfers between accounts as spending, even accounts that they're monitoring. So my monthly standing order into an account I use to smooth out periodic lump sums like oil or insurance, is classed as spending on "Rental Car & Taxi"

There are plenty of misclassifications, Origin Broadband is "Gaming", deposits to Tandem are "Electronics & Software", Zopa deposits and withdrawals are added together under spending on "Loans". Under "Car Sales, Service & Fuel" they only recognise Tesco, not Morrisons or Asda.

I get that it's new and doubtless they can improve the classification, but it's beyond me how anyone could have set it up without realising there's difference between money going and going out.

I'm not working at the moment but I'd be interested to know if they count salary as spending in the same way.

I'm with yougov finance but I have never looked at spending

Why would I ? I know what i spend and don't need anyone to tell me 

wmb194

MikeJXE said:

Qyburn said:

Has anyone looked at this?

The first thing that struck me is they count credits as well as debits as "spending", so just as an example they have counted the three refunds from HMRC as spending on tax. Money received when I sold my motor bike is classed as spending on "Car Brands".

They also count transfers between accounts as spending, even accounts that they're monitoring. So my monthly standing order into an account I use to smooth out periodic lump sums like oil or insurance, is classed as spending on "Rental Car & Taxi"

There are plenty of misclassifications, Origin Broadband is "Gaming", deposits to Tandem are "Electronics & Software", Zopa deposits and withdrawals are added together under spending on "Loans". Under "Car Sales, Service & Fuel" they only recognise Tesco, not Morrisons or Asda.

I get that it's new and doubtless they can improve the classification, but it's beyond me how anyone could have set it up without realising there's difference between money going and going out.

I'm not working at the moment but I'd be interested to know if they count salary as spending in the same way.

I'm with yougov finance but I have never looked at spending

Why would I ? I know what i spend and don't need anyone to tell me 

Because it's interesting to see what YouGov makes of it and, presumably, is reporting in its analysis of these data.

Most of my transactions are classified as 'investments' which is about right but I was amused to see a debit card deposit to my Legal & General investment account classified as, "insurance."

Qyburn

wmb194 said:

MikeJXE said:
I'm with yougov finance but I have never looked at spending

Why would I ? I know what i spend and don't need anyone to tell me 

Because it's interesting to see what YouGov makes of it and, presumably, is reporting in its analysis of these data.

Exactly. And what sort of analysis can be done if they're not differentiating between income and expenditure.

masonic

wmb194 said:

Most of my transactions are classified as 'investments' which is about right but I was amused to see a debit card deposit to my Legal & General investment account classified as, "insurance."

Likewise, although most of the transactions on the accounts I've let it see are just transfers between my accounts.

allegro120

wmb194 said:

MikeJXE said:

Qyburn said:

Has anyone looked at this?

The first thing that struck me is they count credits as well as debits as "spending", so just as an example they have counted the three refunds from HMRC as spending on tax. Money received when I sold my motor bike is classed as spending on "Car Brands".

They also count transfers between accounts as spending, even accounts that they're monitoring. So my monthly standing order into an account I use to smooth out periodic lump sums like oil or insurance, is classed as spending on "Rental Car & Taxi"

There are plenty of misclassifications, Origin Broadband is "Gaming", deposits to Tandem are "Electronics & Software", Zopa deposits and withdrawals are added together under spending on "Loans". Under "Car Sales, Service & Fuel" they only recognise Tesco, not Morrisons or Asda.

I get that it's new and doubtless they can improve the classification, but it's beyond me how anyone could have set it up without realising there's difference between money going and going out.

I'm not working at the moment but I'd be interested to know if they count salary as spending in the same way.

I'm with yougov finance but I have never looked at spending

Why would I ? I know what i spend and don't need anyone to tell me 

Because it's interesting to see what YouGov makes of it and, presumably, is reporting in its analysis of these data.

Most of my transactions are classified as 'investments' which is about right but I was amused to see a debit card deposit to my Legal & General investment account classified as, "insurance."

My deposits from current account to Zopa were shown as "loans".

Qyburn

allegro120 said:

My deposits from current account to Zopa were shown as "loans".

Same here. And withdrawals, so for example putting £20k into Zopa, then later withdrawing eight lots of £2,500 each, gets counted as £40k spent on loans.