If you're on a Galaxy Fold, consider unfolding your phone or viewing it in full screen to best optimize your experience.
Many of the best banks today have integrated budgeting tools into their mobile apps to help clients manage their finances, track spending, and save for financial goals. These tools are free and often powerful enough to replace budgeting apps, which typically charge a monthly or annual subscription fee. As technology advances, these budgeting tools can simplify your finances, helping you plan and save without the hassle of spreadsheets.
Not all banks provide budgeting tools, and those that do may not have the strongest tools available. If you're on the hunt for a new bank, let's look at those whose budgeting tools really stand out.
Like a regular budget, budgeting tools help you manage three main areas: earning money, spending money, and saving money. Unlike a regular budget, however, which requires manual input and diligent upkeep, budgeting tools can monitor your finances automatically, often with very little maintenance on your part.
While budgeting tools can differ by bank, they have some similarities. Most will track your monthly expenses and give you a big picture view of how much you are spending. Some will break your spending into various categories, like "groceries" or "gas," helping you see how much you're spending at specific places. Others will even let you allocate portions of your income for your month's biggest expenses (like housing), thus helping you visualize how much you have leftover for the rest of the month.
Banks with budgeting tools almost always offer them as a free service to clients. They can be invaluable for those who don't want to pay subscription fees to use budgeting apps and software.
Budgeting tools can help you set realistic financial goals and create a plan to achieve them. They could increase your savings account balance, help you manage debt, and give you a clearer understanding of your spending habits. Best of all, they're super convenient, often tracking your finances accurately without any input from you.
As technology develops, many banks now have the capability to offer budgeting tools to their clients. Some are even integrating advances in AI within their budgeting software, giving you a kind of personal financial assistant to help you manage your finances. While not all banks offer even rudimentary budget planners, the following six banks have excellent budgeting tools.
SoFi Checking and Savings
On SoFi's Secure Website.
On SoFi's Secure Website.
For those who plan to set up direct deposit with their new account, we think SoFi Checking and Savings (Member FDIC) is hard to beat. Not only does this savings account offer a strong APY, but the linked checking account earns an above-average rate, too -- which is a rare perk. Plus, there's the opportunity for a bonus of up to $300¹ and a long list of extra account features. Frankly, it's the kind of combo that could make it worthwhile to switch banking relationships.
You can earn the maximum APY either by making direct deposits into checking or savings, or by depositing $5,000 or more every 30 days. Learn more.
SoFi Disclosures
SoFi Relay is a budgeting tool that tracks your spending, categorizes expenses, and clues you in to your spending trends. The tool also has a neat "cash flow" feature which helps you visualize how much you're earning versus your spending for the same month. You can also set a "spending target," which could help you save money by spending less than you're making.
Capital One 360 Performance Savings
On Capital One's Secure Website.
On Capital One's Secure Website.
Capital One 360 Performance Savings checks all the boxes we look for in a high-yield savings account. It even offers branch locations and Capital One Cafes where customers can seek in-person support (if you live near one). This makes it a great fit when you want to reap the rewards of online banking but aren't quite ready to cut ties with brick-and-mortar banks.
Capital One's "Map Your Spend" is a budgeting tool that helps you track your spending for monthly expenses. You can add numerous pre-created categories to your budget, like Housing, Shopping, and Dining Out, or create your own. You'll then decide if these are "needs" or "wants" and rank them in order of importance. Finally, you'll give your best estimate as to how much you spend on each one per month, and the tool will help you stay within budget.
In addition to Map Your Spend, Capital One Bank can also help you keep track of recurring expenses. Within its mobile app, Capital One will alert you of any upcoming bills. You can also use Eno the virtual assistant to identify any subscriptions, bills, or housing payments that might be coming up. Seeing all your recurring expenses could also help you eliminate subscriptions you're no longer using.
Ally Savings
Ally Online Savings features a competitive APY on all balances, with no fees or minimums. Customers also have access to several tools like savings buckets, recurring transfers, and roundups to maximize savings opportunities.
Ally Bank has crafted a slew of powerful and unique tools that will help you budget monthly expenses and put money aside for your savings goals.
For one, it has savings and checking buckets. These will automatically portion out your income for different expenses, like rent and groceries, helping you visualize how much you have leftover for fun expenses. You can even create buckets to help you hit certain savings goals, like building an emergency fund.
It also has a unique "surprise savings" tool that identifies money in your checking account that could be earning more interest in your savings account. Finally, "round-up" can round to the nearest dollar on certain debit card purchases and transfer the difference from your checking to your savings.
Chase Savings℠
The Chase Savings account doesn't offer a high APY, but it remains a popular pick because of the bank's impressive customer service and huge branch network. Those who prefer personalized, in-person support will find Chase difficult to beat.
Chase Bank clients can easily keep track and manage their budgets through Chase's "Spending Planner." Found within the Chase mobile app, the planner gives you a quick summary of your monthly spending, including the top categories you're spending money on. It also has a "Budget" feature that helps you visualize how much you've spent that month and how it compares to previous months.
Wells Fargo Platinum Savings
The Wells Fargo Platinum Savings account can offer higher APYs than most branch-based banks, but with the convenience that comes with a national bank. To qualify for the account's highest APYs, customers will need to maintain a high account balance and qualify for a relationship rate by linking to a Premier Checking account. The account's standard APY and relationship rate for linking to Prime Checking are not competitive with other high-yield savings accounts.
Wells Fargo's My Spending Report tracks income, deposits, payments, and withdrawals to help you keep track of money that comes in and money that goes out. Wells Fargo also has a budgeting feature that lets you customize how much you want to spend on monthly categories, then pulls data from your actual monthly expenses to show you how you're doing.
Bank of America Advantage Savings
Bank of America Advantage Savings does not earn a competitive APY, even for Preferred Rewards members, and it carries a monthly fee except for minor and college students under 25 years of age. Still, the savings account is a viable option for those wanting in-person local banking or an account with an established big bank.
Bank of America has one of the most powerful budgeting tools available -- Erica, its virtual financial assistant. Erica can provide you personalized insights on your weekly and monthly spending, as well as give you budget recommendations based on your current spending patterns. It can identify recurring expenses, helping you stay current on your bills, and it can even let you know when a recurring expense is higher than usual.
Along with Erica, Bank of America also has a more traditional Spending & Budgeting feature, which tracks your spending and helps you stay within a preset budget.
Like any banking feature, using budgeting tools comes with its own set of pros and cons.
We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent, a Motley Fool service, does not cover all offers on the market. The Ascent has a dedicated team of editors and analysts focused on personal finance, and they follow the same set of publishing standards and editorial integrity while maintaining professional separation from the analysts and editors on other Motley Fool brands.