Yolt Review

Yolt is a great little money management app that connects all of your bank accounts into one place for easy access.

Our rating
2.5/5

Yolt is a money management app that connects all of your bank accounts into one place (like Curve).

Based in the United Kingdom, the company was established in June 2017 by the ING bank as a venture giving them the strength and agility of a bank but with the forward-thinking of a Fintech company which enabled them to – in just 18 months – grow from 5 employees to over 500,000.

With over 900,000 users across 3 countries Yolt is giving the likes of MoneyDashboard and Emma a run for their money.

It is amazing how many features Yolt includes despite the fact that it is free.

Out of the box, Yolt synchronizes your selected bank accounts (current, credit card, and savings) through open banking.

Having all your financial details in one place is a key feature for Yolt; this, coupled with attractive visuals and a colourful interface, should make it easier to manage your finances.

Here’s a breakdown of each of Yolt’s other top features:

Budgeting Tool

Setting budgets was a feature that Yolt implemented as soon as it was launched and was quickly followed by challenger banks like Monzo and Starling.

Using Yolt’s budgeting tool, you can see a visual display of your spending limits on a variety of categories allowing you to plan in accordance with your set budget.

Yolt Account

Their new pre-paid card allows you to spend, transfer, and save money through your Yolt account. Under the wallets section, it’s grouped with your other connected accounts.

Listed below are some technical specifications for the card:

  • The maximum top up amount via bank transfer is £20,000
  • Use your debit card to transfer up to £250
  • Up to £5000 in a single transaction
  • There are no spending limits or minimums

The fly in the ointment here is that Yolt have made it compulsory to have a pre-paid card as without it you will not be able to use the app. A “feature” that hasn’t exactly been well received by some users. 

This extra faff is somewhat ironic given Yolt’s CPO’s comments about the company’s core values:

“We believe that staying on top of your money shouldn’t be a hassle. That’s why we built Yolt with a fresh approach, smart insights and easy actions, so you can make the most of life.”

Don’t know about you but we’d say that making anything compulsory when it comes to personal finance usually adds some extra hassle to the end user…

Yolt Pay

Yolt users can also make transactions with any of their connected accounts via Yolt Pay. There are currently nine high street banks that offer payment via open banking using their platforms, albeit while in the testing phase.

All of which you can find listed below:

  • Nationwide
  • Santander
  • Barclays
  • Lloyds
  • RBS
  • Halifax
  • Bank Of Scotland
  • Natwest
  • Ulster bank

This is a great way to settle bills between friends and family members, share financial account details without having to remember them or simply move money between your accounts.

Money Jar

A separate account that works as a savings account, with a few enhancements to increase savings, is the money jar. Money Jar aims to help through:

  • Roundups – Round up the transactions made with your Yolt card
  • Affiliate program – Earn £5 for each referral you make
  • Cashback – Earn cashback from a selection of retailers via Cashback Collector
  • Automatically save a specified amount at the frequency of your choice

Using Yolt, you can set weekly goals that you can perform within the app. This encourages you to really challenge yourself when you’re saving habits.

There are many more minor features in the app but we’ll leave you to explore those.

Your data is safe in the app thanks to bank-grade technology. You can initiate a bank transfer from the app, but a confirmation will be required from your main banking app. Basically, Yolt has read-only access to your financial information so couldn’t steal from you even if they wanted to.

Open Banking is becoming more and more common, and some of the major banks now offer Open Banking through apps, so you can see all your accounts in one place.

“Has Yolt been approved by the FCA” I hear you ask – well the short answer is yes. In addition to being regulated by Dutch authorities, Yolt can be found on the FCA register since it is owned by ING bank.

Yolt is worth it, then? Budgets can be set quite easily and plenty of aspects can be customized within the app.

In reality, you will probably end up using only a few of the available options after spending quite a bit of time setting it up.

You should not be frustrated with setting up a budgeting app, because the goal is to simplify your finances. It is an app worth considering, but there are better alternatives. The one we like the most in this space is MoneyDashboard – Read our review of MoneyDashboard Classic here.