Original text here from Patrice Bernard (LinkedIn)
While economic pressures continue to strain the budgets of Australian households, Ubank is rolling out a series of small, useful, and practical features to tangibly alleviate their growing concerns—an uncommon approach that goes beyond typical passive personal finance management.
Whether their issue is stretching their budget due to rising living costs, maintaining their savings level, or handling an unexpected expense (with about a third of responses for each category), consumers are very aware of the stress caused by their daily financial worries. Clearly, traditional income and expense tracking tools alone are not enough to restore their peace of mind.
Through awareness campaigns, especially those serious ones found by younger generations on their favorite social platforms, generic management techniques are beginning to resonate. Examples include months without unnecessary purchases and "loud budgeting," which involves publicly declaring saving intentions to strengthen commitment and gain support from friends and family.
It is precisely these initiatives that NAB's fully online subsidiary wants to encourage and thus offers support through several dedicated options in its mobile app. One option allows customers to specify their pay frequency, so when they check their account balance, they see how much time is left until their next paycheck. This helps them anticipate the efforts needed or, conversely, enjoy a break to indulge or rebuild an emergency fund.
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Following on from the first illustration, it is now also possible to freely choose when to receive reminders for bills and other recurring payments. The aim is simply to synchronize these with expected income, to avoid the additional anxiety caused by an imminent debit notification when finances are tight, and ideally, to delay the actual payment by a few days.
Designed with the goal of facilitating proactive personal finance management and decision-making, these bank initiatives are primarily oriented towards a psychological approach to money, focusing on minimizing opportunities for negative emotions to enhance control recovery. While they might seem modest, they are important building blocks of a proactive policy to support financial well-being.
The pay cycle tracking feature has attracted 6% of Ubank's customers in three months... and it must be acknowledged that the adoption level will probably never reach very high (maybe 20%?) as perceptions vary greatly from one individual to another and therefore require different solutions. Hence the importance of identifying small, easy, and cost-effective improvements that can be scaled to meet all needs.
