The best multi banking apps for Germany: Zuper vs Outbank vs Numbrs
We use our phones to check emails, social media profiles, read the news and send SMS messages. But how much time do we spend on thinking about our finances? I’d say — probably not that much time. And it is not an encouraging answer since finances are a critical aspect of life.
Personally, I was surprised with some data which confirm a very high level of smartphone addiction. For example — do you know that millennials look at their phone more than 100+ times a day? Almost 40% of them who participated in a survey related to smartphone addiction claimed that they interact more with smartphones than with lovers, parents, friends, children or co-workers.
This is also supported by the fact that in Germany smartphone users spend about 1.37h on a daily level checking their phone.
But there are a lot of perks the digital era brought that are related to keeping track of your finances, and one of them is the occurrence and popularization of personal finance management tools (PFM tools).
What is PFM and why do you need a PFM tool?
Personal financial management tool (PFM tool) is a term related to the tools whose primary aim is to help users manage their money. With PFM tools users can categorize their transactions and add accounts from multiple financial institutions into a single view, to see their financial status without going to the bank.
Today, when everything is personalized, users want to have a clear and bright picture about their own finances.
PFM tools often include data visualizations such as spending trends, budgets, and net worth. They allow users to aggregate financial transactions in one place and then use that data to manage and their money and optimize their spending habits.
Not all PFM tools are created in the same way.
They differ in the way they have been created, the technology they use, and the methods they use to help their users achieve their financial goals.
In this article, I will present and compare some PFM tools which are recognizable as the best and most popular among German users.
Meet the Zuper App — One App for all your Bank Accounts
The Zuper app is providing a money management platform that allows users to visualize spending, learn about finance and discover critical financial opportunities.
It is free and available in Germany and Austria for iOS and Android devices.
Zuper is connected to all major banks in Germany and Austria, with plans to expand to more European countries.
When a user connects bank accounts within the app, Zuper does all the hard work for them. Your income and expenses are automatically categorized, which is one of the differences to similar apps. Automatically categorizing expenses means you don’t have to add tags to your spendings manually. Transaction categorization is entirely Zuper’s job. That is enabled thanks to the machine learning techniques, which guarantees accuracy above 90%.
Via Zuper app you can send money in just a few and easy steps without any provision.
Additionally, users can create personalized budgets and track all changes which are happening on their bank accounts.
One of the new features I personally really like is the splitting of ATM withdrawals: it lets you split your cash expenses into different spending categories.
For example, if you withdraw 50 EUR from an ATM and spend 20 EUR on food and 30 EUR on transportation you can split that 50 EUR transaction and add the matching categories accordingly (entertainment and mobility). So for people who still pay for a lot of stuff and services in cash, this feature is a must to track your spendings precisely and see where your money goes.
TÜV Saarland, an independently recognized organization for product testing and certification, acknowledged Zuper as a highly trustworthy app.
What distinguishes this application from others is a clean and bright design of the app plus a personalized newsfeed, where users can find advice about money management and finance tips. An additional benefit is that Zuper sends you personal notifications and messages to always keep you informed about what is happening on your bank accounts.
Meet Outbank
Outbank is a PFM tool currently available for iOS and Android.
Similar to Zuper, Outbank´s mission is to make personal finance management easier. Users can connect their bank accounts within the app to see an overview of their finances. In addition, there features to analyze spending habits, send money, and organize transactions.
Users need to manually categorize their transactions, which, compared to an automatic categorization, provides an extra layer of control but it also makes the process more time-consuming than it has to be.
Outbank added a budget feature recently, allowing users to enter and track their expenses.
Following the recent bankruptcy-scare, Outbank was bought by the consumer platform Verivox. Thus, Outbank’s focus is more likely to be on the brokerage of financial products, insurances, and similar contracts. What the change will actually look like remains to be seen.
Similarly, it is still unclear whether existing features, like transaction categorization and budgets, will be further developed.
Meet Numbrs
Centralway Numbrs (Numbrs) is a PFM tool currently available in Germany on the App Store and Play Store. It operates on the same principle as Zuper and Outbank.
Useful core features include automatic categorization of transactions, detailed analysis, personal budgets and savings targets.
When I tested the app, it seemed like the auto-categorization of the transactions were not so reliable. Many transactions were added to the wrong categories or not categorized at all — for example, a charge from the well-known car sharing company DriveNow.
Numbrs has already established itself as a consumer platform with an in-app store that can be used to compare financial products, like credit cards or checking accounts.
Conclusion
Let’s be honest — we are dealing with pretty good competitors and products. And we love healthy competition.
In the end, all PFM tools aim to help their users become financially healthier and offer the tools required to achieve this.
Yet there are some very significant differences in the way the apps operate. Numbrs and probably Outbank, too, focus more heavily on the referral of financial products to help their users save money in their daily lives.
Zuper, however, focuses more on fighting the cause, instead of the symptoms. We believe it is crucial to offer not only the necessary tools but also the education needed to use them effectively. Our primary goal is to understand our users and make sure to provide the right information at the right time.
Although we are aware of the fact that our product is still not perfect, we are continually working on different improvements. During that process, the most useful inputs and suggestions we are getting right from our users. We always love and appreciate the feedback.
What sets Zuper apart is never-ending hustling and constant efforts to create and keep high-level service.
For us at Zuper — user experience is everything.
We are investing a lot of time and energy to develop the best possible product for our current and potential users. Thinking about new features, improving user experience and changing the world of finance are our daily tasks, and Zuper is a perfect representation of all the zuper things we aim to achieve.
7 reasons why I recommend Zuper
• Since I installed Zuper, I haven’t gone to the bank
• Extremely simple to use
• Well designed dashboard
• Automatic categorization of transactions
• Extraordinary bank coverage
• Completely ads-free
• And the best benefit of all — I have improved my knowledge about finance
You also think that banking is boring?
