When it comes to saving money, Millennials are doing a pretty decent job. And they’re using budgeting apps like Spendee to diligently track their spending, savings, and investment progress.
According to Bank of America, nearly one in four millennials have at least $100,000 socked away. And almost three-quarters are saving for life milestones and future goals.
But at the same time, the study found that 51% of millennials feel behind in their overall financial situation. If that sounds like you, you may be considering giving Spendee a try.
In our Spendee review, you’ll learn all about how the app works, how much it costs, and much more to determine whether the service is right for you.
What’s the Spendee App?
Spendee is a money management and expense tracker app for Android and iOS. The mobile app, which launched in 2013, is made by a development team headquartered out of Prague.
To be clear, Spendee isn’t a bank. You can’t use it to store or transfer money, make payments, or invest. It’s purely a personal finance tool you can use to manage your money.
Spendee originally started as a side project for co-founders David Neveceral and Jakub Sechter while they were working at Cleevio, a software development agency. The company now operates independently, with Neveceral as CEO and Sechter as CSO.
Spendee Features
Here are the important Spendee features to be aware of.
Bank Account Syncing
Spendee connects to more than 2,500 global financial institutions, including Bank of America, ING, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank. The app works with bank accounts, e-wallets, and crypto-wallets.
If you have several accounts, Spendee comes in handy by acting as a central dashboard for your finances. It also helps you observe spending habits across your accounts.
Unfortunately, you’ll have to pony up for the paid versions to access bank account syncing (more on that later).
Smart Budgets
One of the hardest things about budgeting is sticking to a daily spending plan.
With Spendee, you can avoid overspending with the smart budgets feature.
Using automated alerts, smart budgets let you know whether you’re getting close to exceeding spending limits for different categories — like food, entertainment, or travel.
The benefit here is that Spendee saves you a few extra steps. For example, instead of having to log into numerous credit card and bank accounts to tally up your monthly restaurant spending, Spendee automatically notifies you when you’re approaching your preset limit.
Shared Wallets
When living with someone and sharing financial responsibilities, communication is important.
Spendee makes it easy to communicate with the people you budget with using shared wallets. Spendee tracks mutual expenses, giving you insights into who pays for items and when.
It’s pretty easy to set up this feature. Just select the wallet you want to share, open it, and click “share wallet with other people.” Next, type in that person’s email address and have them accept the invite. Voila, you can track expenses together.
While two people can share a wallet, only one person can “own” it and have operational control. This could be a good feature for couples or parents and their children.
Multiple Currencies
Do you frequently travel internationally or live abroad? Then you know how tricky it can be to stay on top of your exact spending amounts due to fluctuating exchange rates. Spendee helps in this area by tracking finances in multiple currencies.
To adjust the primary currency in your account, simply go to the app settings and select which currency you want to track. The app automatically recalculates your transactions according to the current exchange rate.
Alerts and Reminders
As a busy person with a lot on your plate, it’s pretty easy to forget to pay a cable, electricity, or credit card bill. We’ve all been there before.
Spendee helps you avoid this by reminding you beforehand when due dates are approaching.
Plans & Pricing
Spendee has three different account tiers: Basic, Plus, and Premium. Here’s a breakdown of the fees and features that you’ll get with each account level.
Spendee Basic
- Cost: Free
- Bank accounts sync: No
- Automatic categorization: No
- Backup and sync: Yes
- Number of cash wallets: 1
- Number of budgets: 1
- Shared wallets: No
- Import/export transactions: Yes
Spendee Plus
- Cost: $1.99/month or $14.99/year
- Bank accounts sync: No
- Automatic categorization: No
- Backup and sync: Yes
- Number of cash wallets: Unlimited
- Number of budgets: Unlimited
- Shared wallets: Yes
- Import/export transactions: Yes
Spendee Premium
- Cost: $2.99/ month or $22.99/ year
- Bank accounts sync: Yes
- Automatic categorization: Yes
- Backup and sync: Yes
- Number of cash wallets: Unlimited
- Number of budgets: Unlimited
- Shared wallets with others: Yes
- Import/export transactions: Yes
As you can see, you won’t be able to link your bank accounts unless you upgrade to Premium. With that in mind, if you want maximum visibility to your finances on the go, it might make sense to spring for the Premium account. At $2.99 monthly or $22.99 for the year, it’s not a ton of money.
Premium also comes with automatic categorization, saving you additional time.
Signing Up
Signing up for Spendee takes just a few minutes. You can take care of the process either within the app or on the website. Here’s how to get started.
1. Download Spendee
First, download the platform from either the Google Play Store or the App Store.
2. Create an account
Next, create a Spendee account by entering your email address and password, either within the app or on the website.
3. Link your bank accounts
During setup, Spendee asks if you want to connect your bank accounts. You’ll need to upgrade to the Premium version to do this. If you decide it’s worth it, be prepared to enter your credit card information.
You don’t have to link your accounts to use the app, though. If you skip this step, simply move on and enter transactions manually. Keep in mind that you can always upgrade at a later time.
Promotions
Here are the top Spendee promotions.
- Seven-day free trial: All Spendee plans come with a seven-day free trial period. So if you sign up for Plus or Premium and decide you don’t like the app, you can cancel your plan at no charge.
- Spendee discounts: You won’t find any deals on Spendee.com. However, Spendee occasionally posts giveaways on its social media channels. For example, the company has previously posted a promotion for lifetime Premium service on its Instagram page. If you’re interested in using Spendee, keep your eyes open for a deal. You never know when one might pop up.
Security
According to Spendee, the organization pulls financial data and accesses it in read-only mode for both checking account balances and downloading transaction lists.
The company passes all information through secure, encrypted channels, which reduces the threat of someone stealing your data. Further, Spendee claims that it will never sell your data.
That said, the app is as safe to use as any other.
Customer Support
Spendee doesn’t offer a telephone number on its website. But it does offer a pretty decent lineup of customer service options.
The easiest way to get in touch with customer support is by sending an email to [email protected]. The company also invites you to engage with them directly over social media. In addition to the company’s Facebook or Instagram page, you can also interact with Spendee on Twitter.
The company offers a live chat option on its website as well. Live chat is available Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central.
The main takeaway here is that Spendee is a startup, and it wants to go above and beyond to win new customers and establish a name for itself.
The app isn’t perfect, and it’s still a work in progress.
That said, take a look at the company’s Facebook reviews and notice all the comments about stellar customer support. In my opinion, this goes a long way.
Pros and Cons
Here are the pros and cons of Spendee.
Pros:
- Free version available
- Automatic and manual spending categorization
- Shared wallets for dual budgeting
- Smart budgeting prevents overspending
- Supports multiple currencies
- Well-rated customer service
Cons:
- According to a Spendee review, the software can be buggy on Android
- You have to pay to access the top features
- No credit monitoring
- No bill pay feature
- Doesn’t sync with all banks
- Less features than its competitors
Alternatives to Spendee
Here are the top alternatives to Spendee.
Personal Capital
Personal Capital is a popular personal finance app that offers budgeting and investing tools. The company also has a wealth management service if you have over a $100,000 balance. Personal Capital is also free. However, it does charge an asset under management fee if you decide to invest on the platform.
Mint
Mint is a personal finance app that tracks spending and budgeting. I like Mint because you can track investments through the platform. It also provides a free credit score monitor. Best of all, Mint is completely free to download and use.
You Need a Budget
You Need a Budget (YNAB) is one of the most robust budgeting tools on the market. The service offers shared budgeting, goal tracking, cash flow analysis, and much more. If you really want to dial in on your budgeting, YNAB is a great app to use. Unfortunately, there is no free version. YNAB costs $11.99 per month or $84 annually.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most frequently asked questions about Spendee.
Is Spendee Premium worth it?
For most people, yes. Spendee Premium comes with the most useful features, including bank syncing and automatic categorization for purchases. My advice is to start with the Free version, see if you like it, and then upgrade if needed.
Is Spendee safe to use?
Yes. Spendee doesn’t have any control over your bank account. It simply links to it and pulls data for reporting purposes. In other words, you don’t have to worry about someone hijacking your Spendee account and stealing your money.
Does Spendee offer a referral program?
Spendee doesn’t have a referral program at this time. If you’re looking for a budgeting app with a referral program, head over to YNAB.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, it’s going to be very difficult to reach financial independence if you don’t put yourself on a budget. In today’s digital world, it’s easier than ever to do exactly that by using a user-friendly budget-tracking app like Spendee.
However, budgeting apps are only one small ingredient to a healthy financial foundation. Each and every day, you have to do the hard work of limiting your spending and investing as much as you possibly can so that your money grows for you.
However you decide to manage your money, I’m rooting for you each step of the way.
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