Open banking and Yolt

I went to the money saving bloggers event last week and met the team from Yolt, an app that helps consumers to benefit from open banking and aims to change our attitude to money. It’s bank agnostic and provides one view of financials.

Money is the root of all evil, apparently. Unfortunately, most of us in the UK, don’t have savings to cover three month emergency period. Some people don’t have the income to allow them to save, and others are simply not interested in saving.

Sometimes we’re irrational when it comes to money, and don’t really know the true value of products/services we buy.  There’s this thing called anchoring you see. It’s used by restaurants for example, where there is a high price of wine or dish, and basically when you see the price, you think everything else on the menu is a bargain!

Yolt wants to help us be aware more aware of this tactic, and determine up front, what you want to pay for an item.

Yolt believes that smarter spending allows you to save, and sees that technology can make things easier, but also more complex. But while taking away the pain, eg contactless payments, this also takes away the moment where you think about the transaction.

Open banking is a pan European government initiative means you are less locked into your bank. It will be here from 13 January 2017.  It provides you with the opportunity to have your financial products where you get the best deal. Open banking will encourage switching, transparency and better customer experience, and the initial focus will be on credit cards and current accounts.

Yolt is an app only service and is part of ING bank. It’s a money management app, and the team wants people to acknowledge that money matters, it’s not always easy and that tech can help.

You can use Yolt to transfer between other accounts, with one view.