Credit Simple launches free online spend tracker

Credit Simple launches free online spend tracker as Money Simple’s research reveals Kiwis find budgeting too tricky

Credit Simple aims to put more power in the hands of people to live their best financial lives by providing free access to its budgeting tool Money Simple.

28% of Kiwis are hardcore budgeters but 10% never budget at all

9% say they’re too lazy to bother budgeting

49% have an emergency fund, while 30% say they scrape by from pay cheque to pay cheque

24 July, 2018: Credit score company CreditSimple.co.nz has launched an online spend tracker for its members, called Money Simple, on the back of feedback that budgeting can be difficult without access to the right tools.

A survey sent out to members in May, which was answered by more than 5,160 people, investigated Kiwis’ budgeting habits, and revealed that only 28% are ‘hardcore’ budgeters, while 10% never budget at all. Meanwhile, 15% said they had tried budgeting in the past but stopped because it was too difficult to stick to, and 9% said they were ‘too lazy’ to bother trying.

Credit Simple CEO David Scognamiglio said the company gets constant feedback from its members, who want online tools to help them better manage their money.

“There’s a real gap there, for people who want quality tools for budgeting, so we decided to build our spend tracker and make it free for our members.

“We’ve built Money Simple to help Kiwis live their best financial life. Knowledge is power, and knowing where you’re spending your money is the first step to tweaking that spend and making it work harder for you. We think that this will help people save real money.

“We’ve incorporated flexible functionality into Money Simple – you’ll be able to see your spending habits from multiple banks and finance companies and across multiple accounts. We will even show you how you compare.”

Money Simple can be accessed from within the CreditSimple.co.nz dashboard for users who have signed up for a Credit Simple account and received their credit score.

“We really want to encourage people to start budgeting,” Mr Scognamiglio said. “Our survey showed that 49% of people have an emergency fund in case something goes wrong – such as a medical emergency – but there’s still a huge chunk of people who don’t have any financial backup. And a lot of people are scraping by from week to week, or pay cheque to pay cheque – 30% say they live like this and find it hard to build up reserves of money.

“Credit Simple and Money Simple give Kiwis the opportunity to see their credit and their money in one place, in a way that’s streamlined, free, and easy to understand. We’re looking forward to seeing our members start using the service.”

Respondents to the survey gave information on what they found was the hardest thing about budgeting, including ‘sticking to it’, ‘having enough constant income to sustain the cost of living’, ‘remembering everything that needs to be paid’ and ‘finding the right app’.

Kiwis can find out their credit score at www.creditsimple.co.nz.

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