Monarch: Budget & Track Money

If I knew in August, when I decided to try this app, what I know now, I would not have allowed a subscription to go through. A one week free trial is not long enough to learn that this app is subpar and a major hassle. I have nothing but problems with connecting accounts and it staying up to date. The online version is a better display than on a phone screen. But if it is not going to help me track my numbers consistently, then why bother? What a waste of money.

It worked great for the first few months. It was very good at automatically categorizing my purchases and letting me now my spending compared to my budget. However, for the last few months it has not been able to sync with my bank account. Monarch doesn't really have customer service, and their AI chat bot can't resolve this. I will be unistalling this app and purchasing a different one. Edit : Yes, I tried the support chat bot but it just gives me the same answers as before.

Can pull from most financial institutions, when it can't though, it's the fault of the bank. Acceptable import/export capabilities, though definitely room for improvement, especially around scripting or automation. Category support is excellent, with some ability to set up automatic categorization. Budgeting capabilities are complex, despite a supposedly simple option, and I haven't figured it out yet; I don't think it will budget how I want to, but with exports I can keep doing that on my end.

Really disappointing that an app that's supposed to help you manage money is setting you up for a "free trial" with a subscription renewal that you'll hopefully forget about before you're even allowed to see what the app does. Also defaults to the annual plan that's made to look like a cheaper monthly option. This may actually be a good app, but with tactics like this in place, I won't be trying it.

Apparently I already used a free trial a long time ago, so I am completely locked out of the app unless I pay $99 for a year. Haven't been vibing with Rocket Money so I was really interested in switching, but wanted to see if I could test basic functions first and see how it works. Oh well I guess, I'll find a different app ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe at least let me see my data from last time instead of completely locking me out for daring to go try other apps. Rude.