Emma App Review

Emma is a personal finance application that helps manage your overdrafts, subscriptions, and finances easily.

Our rating
4.5/5

When it comes to finances, we all desire to make intelligent choices. Many personal finance applications are emerging on the market to seize on the chance of individuals inheriting personal wealth. With the rampant technology we have nowadays, various personal finance applications are available to the UK Market. 

Emma is a personal finance application that helps manage your overdrafts, subscriptions, and finances co-founded by Antonio Marino and Edoardo Moreni in 2018. Emma was coined from the initials of of the two founders. Both of them arrived with the concept as they were studying at Manchester University. The first round of the funding initiatives raised over €500,000. 

In Berlin, they first started working on Kiria, Emma’s predecessor. However, Kiria was unsuccessful. For one, it encountered issues with the banking laws of Germany. In England, the rules were less strict, and it paved the way for Emma’s development in June 2019. It is the first money management application from the United Kingdom that was made available in Canada and the United States. 

1. Accounts

You can connect all your bank accounts in a single place in Emma. In Emma, you can add the following accounts: cards, savings, current accounts, pensions, and even cryptocurrencies. There is no hassle in tracking your accounts since you can access these in real-time from anywhere.  

Emma supports banking service providers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.  You do not need to have other applications since you can access all the financial details in your accounts at any time.

 Banking Service Providers Supported:

  • Yorkshire Bank
  • Virgin Money Savings
  • Virgin Money Investments
  • Virgin Money Credit Cards
  • Vanquis
  • Ulster Bank
  • TransferWise
  • Tesco Bank
  • TSB Bank
  • Starling Bank
  • Santander
  • Royal Bank of Scotland
  • Revolut
  • PayPal
  • Natwest
  • Nationwide Building Society
  • Monzo
  • Marks & Spencer
  • MBNA
  • Lloyds Bank
  • Halifax
  • HSBC Bank
  • First Direct
  • Danske Bank
  • Chip
  • Capital One
  • Barclays Bank / Barclaycard
  • Bank of Scotland
  • American Express

Investment Accounts Supported:

Crypto Exchanges Supported:

  • Kraken
  • Coinbase
  • Bittrex
  • Bitstamp
  • Bitfinex
  • Binance

You can also have an idea of how your balance will grow over time by checking your accounts’ latest transactions and creating manual accounts allotted for cash expenses or providers uncovered by Emma.

2. Subscriptions

You can find and track your paid subscriptions in Emma. You may also cancel subscriptions you think you no longer need, and decide not to push through with them. This is one way of fixing money leaks.  There is an analysis for your transactions in Emma, giving you a complete list of your accounts’ recurring payments. This helps you keep track of them easily. 

You need to have your bank accounts linked to receive your list of active subscriptions. Emma helps you in knowing how much you pay for each of your subscriptions. You can also check your transactions history for the providers of your subscription to identify changes in pricing. Most significantly, this  will help in spotting wasteful payments, which helps in cleaning your finances. 

3. Synchronization

Your expenses and cash inflows are automatically and accurately categorized and tracked by Emma in all of your accounts. Your financial behaviors will have advanced insights. You can also analyze your spending habits through individual merchants and categories to determine your progress and identify areas that need improvement. 

Emma helps decipher your budget performance since it provides you smart budgeting and actionable insights. After signing up with Emma, set your budget, and it will automatically sync in your pay period. Emma instantly notifies you when you spend an item in your budget, and congratulates you each time you make a sound spending.

4. Protection, Security, and Encryption

In Emma, you can guarantee protection for all your accounts. Emma’s top priority is protecting your data. Modern security measures help in managing your information. A TLS 256-bit encryption protects the connections of banks, devices, and servers. 

Statements requested from financial institutions are secured at bank level and with read-only access. There is no storing of login credentials in the servers and no access to making changes to all of your accounts. 

Emma recognizes the sensitivity of your data; hence, you will have peace of mind knowing that these data are not rented or sold. Lastly, Emma is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) registered and Information Commissioners Office (ICO). 

The Emma app is for anyone who owns a smartphone and who finds it difficult to manage their finances. The app’s main users are people in the 25 to 35 year-old age bracket, followed closely by a younger generation of people aged 18 to 25. These are people that belong mostly to the millennial generation.

Now, there’s no reason for you to be turned off if you are not under any of the mentioned age brackets. If you are 40 years old, for example, and you can understand the features and easily navigate through the Emma menus, there’s no reason the app will not work for you.

If you belong to an older generation, however, you may not find the app’s overall feel appealing. One common criticism from older users is that the design is somewhat child-like. You should understand that the app is mainly aimed at younger users. However, with a gummy bear being the main logo, and all the bright colors, it feels like it is a game for a toddler you’re loading, instead of an application intended to help improve your finances, which is no child’s play. 

This is only a minor issue that has nothing to do with the app’s main purpose. What matters is that the app delivers on what it promises. 

Pros of Emma

  • A hassle-free sign-up process
  • Easy navigation
  • Comprehensive budgeting and analysis tool
  • Identifies wasteful subscriptions
  • Daily balances are available
  • Specific retailers give cashback, and you can earn rewards. 
  • You can earn € 15 for every friend invited to avail of Emma Pro 
  • Scramble mode lets you show other people how Emma works without disclosing sensitive details and  information about your account. 
  • The chat feature provides in-app support for problems encountered. 

Cons of Emma

  • There is no category for savings.
  • Rewards are sent through PayPal and not directly credited in your account
  • The overall theme has a child-like feel.
  • A lot of banks are unsupported.

Overall, Emma is a powerful financial tool to manage and save your finances. Emma also provides a process that you can easily set up, a smooth user experience, and many outstanding features. 

What makes Emma even better is that it is a free personal finance application!

However, you can also opt for Emma’s paid version to unlock more useful features.

If you have an Android device, you can download Emma on Google Play, and if you have an iPhone, you can download Emma on the App Store. You can also visit https://emma-app.com/