Plum Review 2022

Plus review 2022 – that will be the topic of today’s article.

If you have any questions, you can contact me via advice@adamfayed.com.

Nothing written on here is legal, financial or tax advice, and the facts might have changed since we penned this article.

Introduction

Managing money and staying on budget can be challenging. After all, many challenges arise when it comes to money. If you find it difficult to keep your personal and business finances in order, then using personal finance software can be a great solution. With many options, you can make your life easier and easier.

In the modern world, budgeting apps can be a great tool that will help you make your financial life simpler. For example, imagine the applications that can help you keep track of your budget, expenses, and income. This kind of applications can be extremely  useful for those individuals who are financially educated. Except for the ease of use and comfortable interface, these modern technological advantages can assist you in improving your financial health for a very long term.

First of all you can enjoy the user-friendly interface. Advanced technology makes personal finance apps easy to use. They have an easy-to-use interface that gives you direct access to all the financial information you need for business and personal use. In addition, these personal finance apps have a wide range of tools that can provide guaranteed financial transparency. They can perform tasks such as predicting cash flow for asset management and even filing a VAT return. These actions are necessary to manage the business and related finances.

You can effectively organize your finances. When it comes to personal finance, you need everything to be in place to be financially efficient. If you are organized, you always feel better in the direction your money is going, especially for your business. With personal finance apps, you can keep track of your income and expenses. In other words, using these apps can help you organize your personal and business finances efficiently.

You can better take into account your finances. There is no doubt that accounting is an essential feature of any personal finance application. They consist of fixed assets, general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, and bank reconciliations. What’s more, some advanced apps come with professional tools that can make personal budgeting simpler and easier. If you’re looking for a more efficient way to keep track of your business finances, using apps can be extremely beneficial.

You become more confident in your financial decisions. Sometimes you worry about how and what you are going to do with your finances. You can hesitate to make a decision concerning your finances, especially if it can cause a high personal and business risk. However, with a personal finance app, you can be more confident about your money and how you are going to manage it. You will feel that every financial decision you make for yourself and your business is right and worthwhile. Please note that if you are confident in how you manage your finances, you can relieve undue stress in both your personal and business life.

And finally you will know how to achieve your financial goals. No matter what are your financial goals are, personal finance apps can help you achieve them. By using these apps, you will have an idea of ​​your process and how close you are to achieving your goals. One of the main and most important features of these apps is to get monthly emails that will remind you of how your everyday personal or even business financial decisions may impact on your finances. So, if you want to quickly track your progress, your best bet is to pick an app that you intend to use wisely.

Later in this article we will talk about one of these apps called Plum, that allows its users to manage, save money. Continue reading to find out more about Plum.

What is Plum and how it work?

As you may already guess, Plum is a savings and investment robot for your phone that analyzes your spending and automatically saves you money, so you don’t have to. Plum decided to make saving money less tedious and easier by allowing us to spend “on what we want, not what we need.”

Plum is a fintech startup that connects to your bank account and uses sophisticated AI-powered algorithms to calculate exactly how much you can afford to save without even realizing it. It’s aimed at people who have historically struggled to save, and it offers several handy features that you can use to boost your savings.

Plum was launched in 2016 and is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and offers protection from the Financial Services Compensation System (FSCS).

Plum originally worked with Facebook’s messaging chatbot, but has since evolved into standalone apps for iOS and Android.

The application was founded by Victor and Alex, who were living and working in the UK. They decided to challenge each other to rescue, which in fact led Alex to come up with an algorithm that tracked his spending, saving the amount he could afford to save each month. This process allowed him to automate the savings process without changing his spending habits.

Plum will run by linking it to your bank account, the application supports all major UK banks. It will analyze all your spendings and transactions and will determine the best amount for you to save each week. You decide how much you want to save Plum, and you can ask him to stop saving at any time. To register with Plum, you must be a UK resident and have a current UK bank account. With Plum, you will not only have the great chance to accumulate savings, but also the application allows to invest your savings for a very small monthly fee.

Plum is fairly straightforward to figure out, so it’s easy to start saving and investing. To get started with the application, you need to follow a few steps:

• First, you need to register an account. To do this, you need to be a UK resident over the age of 18 and have a checking account in the UK.
• After registering, you will need to authorize the application to access your bank account. It is read-only, so your safety is always a top priority.
• When you spend money and shop, Plum analyzes the patterns of your habits. From here, the Plum algorithm determines where to save on bills or save money.
• Once the settlement is complete, Plum will postpone a suitable amount. It does this by setting up a direct debit to your Plum account. The funds can be maintained in an interest pocket that pays up to 0.6% AER (annual equivalent rate), or kept in an e-wallet until you withdraw it.

As you can see, this is a fairly intuitive process and requires minimal user input. Once set up, you will soon be saving money for Plum.

Pros:

• Allows you to easily and automatically save money
• Free to set up and start using
• Intuitive app makes it easy to use
• Budgeting features to avoid wasting extra money
• Quick account opening

Cons:

• You cannot get instant access to your money – it can take up to 24 hours.
• Customer service is limited and very slow
• Monthly fees will start to affect small amounts

Plum Products

Plum has a few main investment accounts, it has also ISA and SIPP, which offer varying degrees of functionality to assist you in saving money.

Plum Basic

If you just want to save some money, then there are two main pockets in the basic account:

• Instant access
• Easy access

Plum Instant Access

An Instant Savings Account is efficient, intuitive and best of all, free! The magic of artificial intelligence is used to analyze how you are currently spending your money in order to determine the appropriate amount to set aside every few days, an amount that you won’t even miss out on in your day to day life. You can control how much money you save by choosing your mood and withdrawing money back to your bank account within 24 hours.

An instant account is provided by Investec Bank, where your money is kept in a segregated account. This account is great if you are saving money on a one-off item or short-term (so you can easily take some of the financial stress out of Christmas), however the main disadvantage of this account is that if it offers nothing interesting, and therefore it not the best place to store your savings for a long time. This gives you instant access to your money, so it’s a handy account if you think you might need to access your savings within 5 minutes. In case you need to make your savings for a long term, you can consider upgrading your account to Plum Easy Access Pocket.

Plum Easy Access

This is a new feature of the basic account that pays interest at 0.25% AER without any account fees. You will have to wait 1 business day to withdraw funds, however all of the great instant account features are available and your money is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

A different useful feature of above mentioned both Basic accounts is that Plum automatically offers options to save on your utility bills. While this is essentially a little more than a comparison site, they can take some of the work out of the process and automatically switch you over, and ensure that you stay with a cost-effective supplier.

You may also have the option to take advantage of the rounding feature, which means that the application’s system rounds all your purchases to the nearest £ 1 and deposits that amount in your savings account. While this is a great way to save money, it is not entirely innovative and has been offered by many major banks for several years now.

Plum Plus

For long-term depositors, the Plum Plus account gives you the option to invest money for a small fee of £ 1 per month. The Plum Basic account’s all features are still available, moreover you may also have a quick access to Plum’s 12 investment funds. The investment fund includes hundreds of companies and assets in a risk-assessed portfolio. Plum Plus works in almost the same way as a regular investment account. But most general investment accounts do not have access to neat savings features.

The fund management fee at Plum is currently 0.15% of your portfolio and the fund’s commission is 0.08% – 0.90%. However, it still costs less than some of Plums’ closest competitors, that can charge a 0.12% – 0.30% commission.

Plum Plus users can benefit from the feature called “Splitter”, that allows them to split their savings by leaving a predetermined part in their savings account while investing the remaining funds.

The Plum Plus account also provides easy access, which allows you to split funds that go towards a specific purpose, and where you can earn interest at an interest rate of 0.40% AER.

Plum Pro

Plum Pro includes almost all the advantages of a Plum Plus, plus a few handy small useful features that really can help you get the most out of your savings. Plum Pro’s cost is £ 2.99, and luckily it includes £ 1 that you have to pay for Plum Plus account to invest your savings. Here are the main features of this account:

• Pockets – Both with Plum Plus account, and Plum Pro you will give you access to a few quickly accessible pockets for various savings goals.
• Goals – Set predefined goals for each of your pockets of interest.
• Play with your savings – Plum has a 52 weeks savings challenge that has received great feedback from users.
• Savings for a Rainy Day – Save more money in your account every time it rains in your area.
• Cashback – Get cashback when shopping at one of their partner stores.
• Diagnostic Report – Plum analyzes your spending to help you identify areas with further potential for savings.
• True Balance – True Balance provides information on the exact amount you can spend, taking into account any recurring payments that must come out.

Plum Ultra

This account has everything you’d find in a Plum Plus account, but with the added benefit of a management tool called Money Maximiser. The Money Maximizer is designed to maximize the amount of interest you earn on your cash by automatically transferring funds between your bank account and your Plum Easy Access account so you both can receive interest on cash, but there is always enough in your bank to pay. your bills.

This system will be a really great assistant and will help you budget by tracking all your spendings. The amount of money you have to spend before your next payday is calculated minus your regular expenses and then distributed on a weekly basis.

The tool offers a daily spending limit that is automatically recalculated when overspending. If you are the type of person who grapple with hardships at the end of each month, this little tool can be a game changer. However, it will set you back £ 4.99 a month, which seems pretty steep, especially for people on a budget!

Plum account opening

The Plum mobile app is really very easy to use. Setting up your account takes seconds and you really don’t need to have your bank login details handy as it automatically connects to your current account through your banking app (with your permission, of course), accesses your banking transaction data, and your bank account balance, and when a savings bot needs to work to analyze your spending habits, calculating numbers to determine where you could potentially start saving money so you can start saving money.

You can link Plum to multiple bank accounts, however it is for private accounts only and will only connect to major UK banks.

After going through this process and reading some reviews from other users, I suspect Plum has an affiliate deal with Octopus as it seems to be the default vendor they recommend when analyzing your electricity bills. In doing so, they can tell you how much you can save by switching and managing all inconvenient admins for you.

Plum main features

• Automatic Savings Using Artificial Intelligence – Plum uses Al to analyze your spending and save available amount every month
• Regulated by FCA – Plum is the appointed representative of Resolution Compliance Limited
• Savings Pockets – choose between the main pocket or the one that brings interest. You can withdraw your money instantly from the main pocket where you keep the main amount.
• Possibility to invest your money – invest in Plum Stocks and Shares ISA or general investment account
• FSCS protection – your money is protected by a financial services compensation scheme if your money is kept in easily accessible savings pockets or if you invest with Plum
• Roundups – save money by rounding last week’s transactions to the nearest £ 1
• Invest from £ 1 – You can open an investment account even for £ 1
• Payday savings – choose a fixed amount to save or invest every time you get your salary
• 52 Week Challenge – Take the 52 Week Challenge and save money every Monday, starting at £ 1 and increasing by £ 1 e each week (Pro users only)
• Rainy Day Feature – Sounds good but really, Plum will save or invest money every time it rains (Plum pro users only)
• Privacy Mode – Show your friends how Plum works without sharing your personal account information
• Adjustable Mood – Change the amount you save each month with a customizable mood range ranging from “Shy” to “Beast Mode”
• Switch to cheaper accounts – when analyzing your expenses, if Plum notices that you may be overpaying for a financial product, it will notify you and help you switch
• Link Multiple Accounts – Plum gives you the chance to link more than one credit card.
• Overdraft Savings – If you regularly use overdrafts, Plum allows you to save while you are in an agreed overdraft facility. This feature must be enabled as it is not an automatic feature
• Saving for Retirement – Plum is in the process of implementing Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) so you can save for retirement and consolidate other pensions in one place.

How much does a plum cost?

The Plum Basic account is completely free, which is great if you’re just looking for a way to use artificial intelligence to effectively save as much as possible in line with your income and expenses. The ability to earn interest is also a great feature that really makes it competitive.

A Plum Pro account costs £ 1 per month and also charges a fund management fee for your investments of 0.15% and a fund fee of 0.08% – 0.90%. In comparison, Moneybox charges a 0.12% – 0.30% fee as well as a 0.15% fund management fee, making Plum a relatively inexpensive offering.

Plum Pro charges a monthly fee of £ 2.99 on top of the fund and funds management fees. The Plum Ultra account fee is £ 4.99 per month.

How safe is Plum?

Overall, Plum is a fairly secure application. The company is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, which means it can carry out payment services. They are also appointed as an electronic money distributor on behalf of PayrNet Limited, which is also registered with the FCA.

When it comes to protecting the FSCS, things are a little less clear. Any money held outside the pocket of interest is not protected by the FSCS, but that is because it is unnecessary. If Plum goes bankrupt, you can apply for a refund of the deferred money. As far as your investments are concerned, they are protected by a regulated custodian. If they fail, the FSCS scheme up to £ 85,000 will work. It’s the same with Plum Interest Pockets.

As far as the application is concerned, there are some pretty strict security measures, which means that your account details and money are safe.

Adam is an internationally recognised author on financial matters, with over 329.4 million answers views on Quora.com and a widely sold book on Amazon