Real-time

How real-time budgeting works

A budget only helps if it's current. Real-time budgeting means your purchases show up seconds after you pay, so the number you see is the number you have.

The problem with catching up later

Most budgets fall apart the same way: you mean to log purchases, life gets busy, and by Friday you're guessing. A budget you have to catch up on is a budget you stop trusting.

What real-time looks like in BudgetBucks

With real-time data on, you tap or pay with a supported card, and seconds later the purchase is in your BudgetBucks Inbox with the store and the amount. You file it into a folder, or a rule you set files it for you, and every folder shows exactly what's left.

• No typing in receipts at the end of the week.
• No bank login required, ever, and no full card number. There's no bank connection to break or reconnect, and BudgetBucks can't move money.
• Each purchase arrives once, without the duplicates or missing purchases that pending transactions can cause.
• You set it up once from your account page, in about five minutes per card.

Why it changes your decisions

When you can see that Dining out has $61 left before you order, you make a different choice than when you find out next week. That's the whole idea: make the right thing the easy thing.

Good to know

Real-time is optional and works with purchase alerts from supported credit and debit cards, with more being added. Alerts for checking or savings transfers, ACH and bill payments aren't supported, since they can include credit card payments already in your budget. Adding purchases by hand always works and takes seconds. New to budgeting? Start with how to start a household budget.