Budget Planner Discussion Area

zippy08

I've also had a mailer from them. Just trawled the net to see if there are any reviews, but it's mostly the likes of Telegraph Personal Finance writing up press releases. Claims are that it's easy to use, but my main concern is security. Without getting too bogged down in detail, they don't store any bank details and are a 'read-only' service, so you can't actually transact from their website (nobody else can either).
My worry is that if something goes wrong (e.g. someone gets hold of your bank details) using such a site, it gives the bank that you use a get-out excuse to say that you didn't take adequate care of your own security, so it is not liable for any resulting losses.
Come on, there must be opinions on this :-P.

jobamberger

I need a budget planner that will allow me to track daily income and expenditure and be largely self populating. It needs to cope with fortnightly benefits income as well as monthly private pension, monthly regular expenditure (eg direct debits) and other irregular costs. I need to see when money is in and out and what is left to cover the next bill. This monthly and fortnightly requirement seems to be lacking from all the spreadsheets I can find. Any suggestions?

getmore4less

jobamberger wrote: »

I need a budget planner that will allow me to track daily income and expenditure and be largely self populating. It needs to cope with fortnightly benefits income as well as monthly private pension, monthly regular expenditure (eg direct debits) and other irregular costs. I need to see when money is in and out and what is left to cover the next bill. This monthly and fortnightly requirement seems to be lacking from all the spreadsheets I can find. Any suggestions?

get a copy of MSMoney or equivilent

robbiem123_2

Dudley / Zippy - did you sign up and use ontrees in the end? I got mailed as well via Metro a few weeks ago and havent signed up yet - looks like it could be useful?

robbiem123_2

has anyone taken the plunge and started using this?
there are a couple of ok reviews out there (indie and a few blogs), and good / mixed-ish on app store - could be good as my credit card (Virgin) doesnt have an app.
Would be great to hear of someone signing up before I spend time setting it all up?

robbiem123_2

Alright - seems no one has! I've taken the plunge, added virgin, barclays egg savings and nationwide account pretty easily. It seems quite a neat way to see everything, need to spend some time changing some of the categories but it's definitely interesting, will have to see if the budgeting helps me.

Jenbie

I have just got a cheapy tablet for Xmas and want a free app to help me budget and track our income and expenditure easily and quickly. I would really like to find a way to actually have savings again! But all the apps I have found are either rubbish or only free for 15-30 days. Any recommendations?

Tony_H_3

Jenbie wrote: »

I have just got a cheapy tablet for Xmas and want a free app to help me budget and track our income and expenditure easily and quickly. I would really like to find a way to actually have savings again! But all the apps I have found are either rubbish or only free for 15-30 days. Any recommendations?

It might be worth taking a look at
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/budget-planner
As it's based online you only need a browser to use it. After completion it gives you a reference number so that you can access it in the future. Perfect for Ipads etc & FREE

superhoop

I've just had an interesting email from my bank. I was interested in Ontrees and asked my bank what they thought, esp. regarding security.

To paraphrase their reply, they said they do not work with any third parties when it comes to sharing customer account details.

They added that the Ontrees service requires the user to disclose personal account information to gain access to account details and transactions. My bank does "not recommend" disclosing these details to anyone.

That's good enough for me. If the bank doesn't recommend this, I doubt they would cover me in the case of fraud.

I'm not suggesting Ontrees is fraudulent. Far from it. It is part of Associated Newspapers (Daily Mail). But I'm not risking my cash to use their service.

OnTrees_-_Charlotte

Hi superhoop,

Thanks for your interest in OnTrees! We’re really keen to reassure everyone that their data is completely safe and secure when using OnTrees. We’re confident in our security credentials which you can have a read though in our FAQ section on ontrees.com.

Our partner, Yodlee, works with most of the top banks in the world, has over 20 million users globally and has never experienced any security issues.

If your bank has provided certain guidance, we can’t really advise otherwise. We hope to have formal agreements in place with the banks in the future, but, understandably, most banks appear to be reluctant to formally support a service like ours as it allows users to directly compare products and lose the level of ‘control’ they have.

So, whilst the banks are aware of services like Yodlee, and we’re confident in our security, we can’t offer different advice to that which your bank gave you.

Please let us know if you have any other questions or if there’s anything else we can help with.

Thanks,
Charlotte