Popular finance tracker app, BillGuard, is now available in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Most Australian major banks and credit card providers are supported to use alongside it’s simple, yet powerful features to help you keep track of your spending and the app is available in Android or iOS.
BillGuard remains free to use in the above mentioned countries as it is in the US. BillGuard previously charged a subscription fee for multiple card tracking, but now it’s totally free and totally unlimited.
The main feature of BillGuard is to link all your bank accounts on a read-only basis to pull in your transaction history to your smartphone or tablet without the need to log-in to you internet banking. The app is protected by a pin-code to prevent unauthorised access.
Android Central states:
Also coming to new customers in these three new countries is the Resolve service, where BillGuard will step in and assist its users with dubious charges as an alternative to waiting on hold with the card companies. You can tackle them right within the application. Data breach information makes the international expansion, too, and will alert you if any vendors you’ve spent money with has its data compromised.
Existing U.S. based customers aren’t forgotten, either. As part of the international launch the application has been updated to provide new alerts right before your credit card bills are due, notifications when an account is out of sync and much improved loading time.
Here’s a extract of the description from Google Play Store:
See all your account balances and charges in one place.
Get instant alerts to suspicious charges posted to your accounts.
100% free.BillGuard tracks your spending, protects your cards from fraud and unwanted charges, and helps yousave money with simple budgeting that actually works. And it’s absolutely FREE!
Join over half a million users who together have saved millions of dollars.
Now also available in a gorgeous tablet version!
KEY FEATURES
TRACKÂ your spending, the fast and smart way:
✔ Powerful spending meter and budgeting at a glance
✔ Know exactly what you’re spending by category. Adjust on the fly.
✔ All your charges, intelligently organized in one Smart Inbox
✔ Get notified on new purchases. Nothing sneaks through!PROTECT your cards from fraud and unfair charges:
✔ New! BillGuard data breach alerts tell you when a hacker may have access to your cards
✔ Get alerted right away when BillGuard identifies a sneaky charge
✔ The world’s #1 transaction monitoring app, powered by millions of diligent consumersSAVE money with smarter tech:
✔ Found an unfair charge? Ask the merchant for a refund with a tap.
✔ Bite-sized, real-time budgeting
✔ $60+ million in card fraud and grey charges found since 2011
✔ Over $1 million in fraudulent charges flagged by BillGuard users since the Target data breach
Now I have downloaded the app but I’m always careful when putting my bank account details into another app so have only put my credit card account in for now.
I’ll give it a go for a while and see how it performs.
Download link below:
I won’t be using it either. I have accounts with CBA only and their CommBank App does a fantastic job with real banking features too ….
I wont be using it. For one I’m guessing it wont support my bank if PocketBook don’t. Two, I’d already be sketchy giving my details to PocketBook let alone some overseas service. But I’m glad it’s here since it hopefully means PocketBook will get a move on with supporting new banks.
It doesn’t seem to support my credit union account
I have been using this app for about a month now, haven’t noticed any suspicious activity and seems to work quite well. Once you set up all your transactions to your different expense categories its quite easy to see where your money is going! My “nightlife” category is consistently too high, but I put that down to Perth pricing! Haha
Pocketbook does something similar, just without the fraud or data leak detection.
I’ve also been using this app for the past couple of days since it became open to us. It uses the login ID and password to retrieve the transaction history from the credit card company. Can’t tell if using said login details exposes my credit card number to the app though…
Also a little concerned about putting bank details in, please report back with your findings and any other information to confirm security of bank details
I’d like to know too please.
From the app description –
Q: How does BillGuard keep you secure?
A: BillGuard establishes a read-only secure connection to scan your transaction history.
1) Bank-level security to ensure your data is kept private and secure.
2) No one – not even you – can move money with BillGuard.
3) Passcode so that only you can open the app
I’m with Commonwealth Bank and the app requires my netbank username and password which if you were to enter those on netbank you’d have full access to my account. This is where my concern lies. Who’s to say Safeguard won’t use your log in details some months/years down the track when they’ve folded and rip you a new one?
I decided not to use it. Too much to lose. Thanks.
I use the CommBank App as well. Make sure you set your pin properly. According to CBA, the App is “rather secure” (CBA Branch Customer Service’s not mine). The main reason why I prefer the CBA app to BillGuard is that if a fraud happens as a result of me using that app, I am pretty sure I have a legal leg to stand on. That may not be the case with BillGuard. Besides, CBA App allows me to conduct a full gambit of banking rather than just tracking the money.