To think some banking practices make it so hard to track your spending?

[coffeerevelsrule]

Like many people I am panicking about money atm and trying to keep a close eye via the app of what goes in and out of my account.

I got paid 2 days ago - about £2800. My mortgage is £600 and my fuel £135 (fixed) and they've already come out along with a few other DDs but not council tax or car loan, which are the other biggies. I'm already down to £1600 despite not really having done anything since being paid.

I felt a bit sick on seeing the total and then saw that the online shop I did on Friday came out yesterday. But I am sure it had shown as having come out (not pending - actually gone) at the weekend. At the end of every month (so weekend just gone for me) I transfer whatever is left (if any...) to savings, or this month to the credit card I used when away on holiday. However, this Asda payment seemingly moving from the end to the start of the month has meant I moved about £80 more than I could really afford to and has now set me back for the rest of the month.

I'm so sick of thinking about fucking money all the time...Why do banks do this?

That’s not them telling you what you can or can’t do with your money. It’s just different services offered by different firms. You can use money from an HSBC account to buy Bitcoin from a firm that offers that service. That’s like saying Revolut is telling you you can’t use your money to get a mortgage because they don’t offer mortgages.

They don’t have a banking licence in the U.K. though.

This post made me do a little scream! Being FCA regulated does not mean your money is protected under FSCS. FSCS doesn’t cover all types of financial services. They have a list of them on their website. Note e-money is not included. Revolut e-money accounts are not protected by FSCS directly. If Revolut failed you would need to claim it back from the bank where it is actually being held (safeguarded), rather than automatically compensated by FSCS and you aren’t guaranteed to get all your money back even below £85k.

Yes it can be annoying.

My bank (Barclays) will show the online supermarket shop as pending on Saturday morning but it only probably comes out of the account on Monday.

However, they don't include pending amounts as part of the balance so it doesn't look like I've more money than I have.

Lithuania is in the EU. You seem to be trying to paint them as some fly-by-night entity here when they are a proper bank, with an EU banking licence.

I know that Lithuania is in EU😐 We aren't
What I pointed out is that it may be bit pita to communication with foreign banks if something goes wrong.
They are NOT a bank. They say so themselves...

I use a piece of paper
PayPal is really slow to come out of my account so I've been stung by that before
Now I just have a list of everything and cross it off as it comes out the account

Thanks to Brexit, you can no longer passport financial services between the EU and the UK. So they aren’t allowed to conduct banking activities in the UK, and being allowed to do so in the EU is irrelevant to UK customers. PayPal has a banking licence in Luxembourg but they aren’t a bank in the UK either.

I use a piece of paper Honestly it is the best way.

All the apps and programmes etc are simply replicating what we all did on paper 100 years ago - there is no magic solution, it is down to your checking process. Every claim about this app or that programme is just marketing.

I use Halifax, which shows pending amounts on total, and spending insights, I find it helpful
basic account works well for me

I used to use Microsoft Money but changed to Money Dashboard which is a free app and it is linked to your bank accounts so you can see where you are at with every account in one view. We have a joint Santander account and at the beginning of the month put money in to cover all the DDs so we can be confident they are covered.

No, that’s not true, they explicitly say the opposite.

See here;

www.revolut.com/news/revolut_launches_as_a_bank_in_10_western_european_markets_now_available_in_28_countries/

They are not a bank in UK.

A completely different claim to the one I was countering.

On their UK website they describe themselves as a “banking alternative” rather than a bank www.revolut.com/help/more/company/about-revolut

It doesn't really matter whether someone is a bank in another country

You actually cant do that. If I wanted to pay money into Binance or Coinbase from HSBC they wouldnt let me.....so in effect telling me what I can and cant do with my money....which is why I left

Anyway the point is (regardless of whether theyre a bank or not) I have found them really useful in terms of budgeting and keeping track of spending which was the OPs original question

It doesnt really matter if theyre a bank or not....I have a current account with them and a debit card and its great....and they dont block transactions as they see fit

Dont see what the problem is to be honest....all the banks are corrupt anyway....including the BoE

Snap, all bills are entered ahead of time so I can see exactly what is going on. All cash withdrawals/ credit card spending entered at least weekly so reduces nasty shocks.
It's a real shame it's no longer available but Excel can be used, just need to be fairly disciplined in entering spending.

I have one bank account for all the direct debits and move one total each month from my day to day current account.

Just find it easier then I'm not wondering what Dds are left

I use YNAB app (You Need a Budget) to run my life - I rarely look at my bank account as everything is accounted for in YNAB. If I make a time sensitive or massive purchase, I log it manually immediately until it's cleared so it's always accounted for.

We have 2 current accounts and have the HSBC app.
One account has all the DD payments set up on it. The other is for food clothing and incidental spending.
The HSBC app tells me the projected balance on both accounts. It means we can transfer between the two accounts if either gets 2 close to zero. Since having the app we have finally been able to budget better and have paid off £1500 of overdraft and not use the facility for over 2 years.