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Anyone in a relationship knows that budgeting is a touchy subject. It’s also a leading cause of arguments (and even divorce) among couples.
With this in mind, staying organized and having a financial plan with your significant other is always a good idea. Shared expenses don’t need to be a struggle, and apps like Honeydue can guide you toward power couple status.
In this post, I’ll run through how Honeydue can simplify your budgeting. I’ll also compare it to other budgeting apps and weigh its pros and cons to help you figure out if the app makes sense for you.
Let’s start with a look at what Honeydue is and how it works.
Pros
- 100% free
- Easy-to-use budgeting app for couples
- Highly-rated iPhone app
- Optional Joint Cash account
Cons
- No signup bonus
- Limited customer support
- No APY earning on Joint Cash deposits
- No round up or investing features
What Is Honeydue?
Honeydue is a budgeting app with one simple mission: helping couples manage their money better together.
You can link your bank accounts, coordinate bill payments, and even open a joint checking account through the app. Rather than constantly updating a shared spreadsheet, the couple’s expenses are visible in the app in real time.
Now that you have a better idea of what Honeydue is, let’s examine some of its features and the user experience for handling personal finance as a couple.
Honeydue Features
Mobile App
Honeydue is entirely app-based, and it’s available on both iOS and Android devices. At the moment, the app has a commendable 4.5-star rating (out of 5) in the App Store and 4 stars (out of 5) in the Google Play Store.
Account Tracking
When couples sign up for Honeydue, the first step is to link all of your relevant accounts so that the app can track them. This could include bank account, loan, credit card, investment account — whatever makes the most sense for your unique financial situation as a couple.
The more you add, the better overall picture you’ll have of your monthly spending habits, shared financial position, and financial goals. Honeydue supports more than 20,000 financial institutions across five countries, so odds are you won’t have an issue adding yours.
Once your accounts are linked, you’ll have control over what your partner can and can’t see. For example, you can choose to share your account balance and transactions, just the balance, or nothing at all. Honeydue recommends couples start out with “balances only.”
For deeper insight into your spending, the app breaks transactions down into 17 different preset categories. But you can also add your own categories to fit your personal budgeting style.
Bill Reminders
Honeydue offers due date reminders to help you stay away from late fees or missed payments. In the app, you can enter your recurring bills along with who’s responsible for paying them. When it comes time to pay, Honeydue will hit you or your partner with a reminder notification, which should help you settle your bills on time.
You can also split expenses and easily keep track of who owes what. Similar to apps like SplitWise, you can enter in all of your shared costs and the app will compute the total balance to help you settle up.
Live Chat
One of the most helpful features of Honeydue is its in-app chat function.
Suppose you’re curious about a questionable transaction that your partner made. In that case, you can send your partner a direct message — or a sassy emoji 😉 — rather than flipping back and forth between your messaging and personal finance apps.
Plus, you can easily discuss specific charges in the app rather than having to take a screenshot from one account and forward it along in a text. Keep discussions of your partner’s weird spending habit or your shared savings goal in the app and out of the bedroom.
Joint Cash Account
Honeydue’s Joint Cash account is a joint bank account both you and your partner can use. Joint Cash is FDIC-insured through Honeydue’s partnership with Sutton Bank.
Here are the main features that come with a Joint Cash account:
- Visa debit cards for each of you
- No monthly fees or minimum deposit requirements
- Fee-free access to more than 55,000 ATMs nationwide with your Visa card
- Custom notifications
- Real-time balance updates
- Modern budgeting tools
Honeydue Pricing and Fees
Honeydue’s money management platform is entirely free. It does solicit its users for tips, but these are completely optional. If you like the platform, you can choose to add a recurring tip between $1 and $10 per month, which you can cancel at any time — or never offer in the first place.
The good news is that whether you tip or not won’t affect your account status, and none of Honeydue’s features sit behind a paywall.
Signing Up and Getting Started
To get started with Honeydue, all you need to do is download the app and enter your email address. It takes less than a minute to set up an account.
After confirming your email, you have the option to invite your partner immediately or reach out to them later on. The same goes for adding your recurring bills and bank accounts.
You’ll need to enter some additional information to sign up for a Joint Cash account. Luckily, this won’t affect your credit score because Honeydue doesn’t run a credit check.
At the time of this writing, Honeydue isn’t offering any sign-up bonuses or promotions for new accounts.
The Joint Cash account is relatively new, though, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise if Honeydue eventually runs a promotion to attract new signups.
I’ll keep you updated if and when a bonus shows up, so keep checking back.
Honeydue Security
To use Honeydue effectively, you need to link your most sensitive financial information.
Fortunately, Honeydue has bank-level security practices in place to keep you and your accounts protected. The app doesn’t store your usernames, passwords, or security questions. It also doesn’t have access to your account or routing numbers.
On top of that, you can restrict account access by enabling multi-factor authentication, touch or face ID, or a PIN code.
Customer Service and Support
Honeydue’s platform is relatively limited when it comes to customer support, as you might expect with a free service.
If you have questions about your account, your best bet is to send them an email (at [email protected]) or check out the FAQ section in the online Help Center.
Learn More:
Pros and Cons of Honeydue
Pros
- 100% free
- Easy-to-use budgeting app for couples
- Highly-rated iPhone app
- Optional Joint Cash account
Cons
- No signup bonus
- Limited customer support
- No APY earning on Joint Cash deposits
- No round up or investing features
Alternatives to Honeydue
Honeydue is one of the only budget apps out there that focuses on couples and shared finances. That said, there are some other options that deserve a look.
PocketGuard
PocketGuard is an app designed to help you optimize your spending and grow your savings account.
Rather than simply tracking your accounts, PocketGuard analyzes how much you have to spend each month after taking care of each expense. You can create custom categories and build a plan for paying down debt. PocketGuard will even help you negotiate lower rates on your bills.
YNAB
YNAB, which stands for You Need A Budget, is a personal budgeting software available on Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android.
YNAB is based on the envelope method and encourages budgeters to allocate certain amounts for certain expenses each month.
Currently, YNAB is offering 34 days free to new users. After that, the service costs $11.99 per month or $84 annually.
Personal Capital
Personal Capital is a more advanced money management platform that focuses on budgeting and long-term wealth management.
You can easily set a budget and track your cash flow, and it also comes flush with tools to help you plan for education and retirement.
FAQ
How does Honeydue make money?
Honeydue makes money through tips from its users. These are completely optional, so it’s up to you if you’d like to pay a small amount for the service.
Is the Honeydue app safe?
Yes. Honeydue has bank-level protections in place to keep your account information secure, and it doesn’t store any of your sensitive information.
What is the best budgeting app?
The best budgeting app for you is the one that you’re going to enjoy using.
But remember: Only you can control how much money you spend, save, and invest.
Access to the best budgeting app in the world means nothing if you and your partner can’t manage your finances.
So, Is Honeydue Right For You?
Relationships are never easy, and money issues definitely don’t help.
The key to financial bliss is to have a plan, and apps like Honeydue can help you and your significant other put together a good one.
The bottom line is that Honeydue is a great option for couples who are really excited to budget together and share their finances. Overall, it serves as a solid platform to help you stay on track and hold each other accountable. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the app is completely free, either.
At the end of the day, only you and your partner can keep the budgeting train on the tracks, so to speak.
Whichever budgeting app you go with, here’s to making the right personal finance choices each and every day — and achieving financial freedom together.