Emma App is a money management and budgeting app that allows you to collate all of your financial information into one place automatically. This includes transactions from your everyday spending through your bank accounts and credit cards, plus any money you set aside for your future in savings accounts and investments.
The app was created in 2018 in the UK with the aim of becoming the best app for budgeting. Since then it has also been launched in the US and Canada in 2019 and continues to enhance the available features.
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How Does Emma Work?
The app works by giving you the ability to automatically sync all of your banking and investment accounts so you no longer have to manually log into each separate platform and can quickly see everything in one place. With this data in one place, you can more effectively see your current balances and spending habits with excellent analytics showing trends and where to focus.
There’s also a brilliant feature that makes you aware of your future commitments based on historic spending, mainly around subscriptions, so you can easily spot areas to save.
How to Set Up an Emma Account?
Setting up an account is quick and easy. You just need to download the app either from the Google Play Store for Android or Apple App Store for iOS devices. Once you have the app, you just need to search for your financial account provider in the app and link them together to allow it to automatically sync the data going forward.
If you want to get started, download the Emma App here.
How to Budget within the App?
Within the analytics section, there’s an area called “Budgets” that lets you set a specific budget for each category of spend, such as transport, food etc. When you’ve synced your accounts to the app you can then set these budgets to help you more effectively manage your money.
Each transaction that is added to the app will be analysed and automatically assigned to a category based on a prediction algorithm. Sometimes this can go wrong, so it’s best to double-check your latest transactions and amend any that aren’t accurate. Over time the app should get more effective as it learns after any manual intervention, helping save you time when you sync again.
You can then see any variances compared to your budgets for each category of spend. For example, if you set a budget of £200 for groceries each month, you can quickly see how much you’ve spent against that category for the month. This can help you understand how much you’re spending very quickly and make
If you want to learn how to budget more effectively, I’ve made a detailed guide on how to create a personal budget that you may find useful.
Daily Balances
One great feature that you can enable is getting a daily balance update. This is just a quick notification that’s sent each morning that gives you a brief snapshot across all of your accounts.
For many people, this kind of information is all they’ll need to have peace of mind their money is safe and in the right place.
Emma App Quests – Exploring the App
The quests feature is a way to help you explore and learn how to use the app in a fun process where you can earn badges and icons. It’s essentially a gamified FAQ and walkthrough which I think is a great way to learn.
Emma App Cost & Pricing (free & paid)
There’s a free version of the app which is excellent. There’s a ton of features and for the average person, just having access to all of these benefits will significantly improve their money management and insight into their spending.
For those people that are wanting to take it to the next level with advanced features and customisation, there’s also a pro plan.
The pro plan come with a number of excellent features which I’ll go into in more detail below, although to get access to this there’s a small fee. Fortunately there’s a 7-day free trial to see if it’s something that will help you, then you have the option to subscribe monthly, every 6 months or annually.
1 month – £9.99
6 months – £39.99 (£6.66/month)
12 months – £59.99 (£4.99/month)
Benefits of Emma App Pro
With Emma App Pro you get access to a number of additional features shown below or you can go to the “More” section in the app to get the full detail.
Accurate Net Worth Tracking
Split Transactions
Custom Categories
Exporting Your Data (CSV)
Advanced Transactions Editing
Renaming Transactions
Create and track offline accounts in any currency
These advanced features will give you a lot more flexibility to manage your finances. If you want to get started, download the app and get access here.
Is the Emma App Safe?
In short, yes. The app is protected by bank-grade encryption so you can rest assured that your data is safe. The company is also registered with the FCA and ICO which ensures it has impeccable internal processes and does everything above board.
When you sync all of your accounts, the app will only request read-only access. This means it only has the permission to see your transactions and can’t make any changes or get access to your money. So even in the extremely unlikely scenario that there is a security problem, there isn’t any risk to your accounts.
Supported Banks
- American Express
- Bank of Scotland
- Barclaycard
- Barclays
- Capital One
- Chip
- Clydesdale Bank
- Danske Bank
- First Direct
- HSBC
- Halifax
- Lloyds Bank
- MBNA
- Marks & Spencer
- Monzo
- Nationwide
- Natwest
- Paypal
- Revolut
- Royal Bank of Scotland
- Sainsbury’s Bank
- Santander
- Starling Bank
- TSB Bank
- Tesco Bank
- Transferwise
- Ulster Bank
- Vanquis Bank
- Virgin Money
- Yorkshire Bank
These are all the banks that are currently accepted on the platform although new ones are continually added based on demand, for example, Marcus is getting a lot of attention recently due to lots of requests. So if your account is missing, make sure you let them know!
What Investment Accounts Can you Use with Emma?
- Nutmeg
- PensionBee
- Wealthsimple
However, there are also a number of other providers that aren’t supported but are listed within the app. When you try and select one of them, you’ll get a pop-up saying these providers either don’t have a public API or haven’t been able to supply one.
You are then encouraged to tweet the provider to help bring it to their attention that there’s customer demand for them to build this functionality. In my opinion this should be available as standard across all financial platforms, so feel free to help give them a kick!
- Freetrade
- Hargreaves Lansdown
- MoneyBox
- Moneyfarm
- Vanguard
- Wealthify
Emma App Alternatives – Emma vs Snoop
Emma allows you to have access to some brilliant features in both the free and paid versions, although let’s quickly see how they stack up versus their competitors.
Snoop is a great alternative that’s worth considering. They have a free app that consolidates your accounts into one place and provides actionable insights on where to save money.
In my opinion Emma has a more intuitive interface and more helpful analytics which is really the main reason why I’m using the app in the first place to have the insight at my fingertips. This is why Emma has my vote for best app for budgeting and money management.
Emma App Referral – Refer a Friend Bonus
If you’re looking for a referral link for Emma, then click here.
It’s definitely appreciated if you use my link, especially if you’re interested in the Pro version.
Rewards – Extra Perks of the App
As an extra perk of using the app, there are rewards available for making purchases with selected partners that give you discounts and free stuff. This is great if you were thinking about using one of these services anyway.
Below are the current providers that offer rewards and you’ll also get a notification through the app when any new offers are available.
- Beer52
- Farewill
- Pact Coffee
- PensionBee
- Vitl DNA Nutrition Test
- Vitl Vitamins
Keep Reading
If you’re reading an Emma App Review I’m going to take a guess that you’re interested in getting more money, both from saving more and spending less.
Check out some other pages on the site to help you get more money in your pocket.
Hi, I’m John. I’ve always had a keen interest in Finance, so much so that I’ve made a career out of it! This site is a place where I can share everything I’ve learned as well as give me the excuse to research certain topics.
Check out my about page for more info.
