If you have ever had the dreaded end-of-the-month money woes then OCBC’s new tool might be just for you. Singapore’s first personal financial management tool for online and mobile banking, the OCBC Money Insights tool allows customers to easily monitor expenses, set budgets and save towards
their goals.
Available on both the bank’s internet banking service and its iPhone and iPad mobile banking applications, the OCBC Bank Singapore Money Insights tool is integrated with customers’ savings, current and credit card accounts. This saves customers the hassle of manually updating their daily expenditure via spreadsheets or other standalone personal financial management apps.
So just what does this new tool do? Well, with OCBC Money Insights, customers are able to:
• Track spending via automatically-categorised expenses
Customers can choose to view their spending patterns by month (over the last 12 months) or by expense category. The information is presented via intuitive graphs showing an automatically-categorised breakdown of where, and how much, money is coming from and going to. Customers can also add their own notes to help them remember their transactions or split and change the preset expense categories – which range from Dining and Entertainment to Insurance & Investments.
• Set budgets and manage expenses through SMS or email alerts
Customers can keep track of their expenses by setting monthly budgets for specific categories, or as a lump sum. They can stay within budget through the help of SMS or email alerts that they can opt to receive when their expenses are reaching pre-set limits or when the budget has been busted.
• Manage cash flow with payment reminders
A calendar display gives customers a bird’s eye view of their daily money inflow and outflow for all their accounts and cards with OCBC. They can plan and schedule future bill payments and funds transfers. They can also customise reminders for their credit card payment amounts and due dates.
• Set automatic contributions to different Savings Goals within one account
Customers can split one savings account into multiple ‘sub-accounts’ to save for different goals, instead of maintaining many savings accounts. Each of these ‘sub-accounts’ can be personalised with different names, savings targets and durations. This encourages disciplined saving as the money cannot be withdrawn unless the customer transfers it back to his main account. Customers can set automatic monthly contributions and alerts to notify them of their savings progress.
Lastly and most interestingly, the OCBC Bank Singapore tool allows customers to gain insights on financial behaviour of people with similar demographic profiles with the “People Like You” feature. This handy tool allows customers to compare the way they manage and spend their money against others with similar demographic profiles. By indicating demographic criteria like gender, age range and marital status, customers can learn from the savings, spending and investment habits of people like them.
Mr Pranav Seth, head of e-Business and business transformation, said: “The industry is not short of financial management tools. But OCBC Money Insights is the first to combine banking with an online tool that automatically tracks your finances as well as helps you save and understand your spending habits with minimal effort.”
For more information about the OCBC Bank Singapore Money Insights tool, go to www.ocbc.com/moneyinsights.