by Our iPhones make it easier than ever to keep our budgets in check. There are an abundance of spending trackers in the App Store that will alert us when our bills are getting out of hand, but they’re really only as smart as we make them. Constant vigilance is required to catch errant charges, and if you’re not careful, fees and fraud can pile up and siphon money from your wallet. BillGuard looks to take human error out of the equation. By leveraging the power of crowd-sourcing, the app scans every credit and debit card transaction and alerts you to anything that looks suspicious.
If you already have a favorite finance app, BillGuard won’t replace it; rather, it works as a companion to your budget balancer, catching the so-called deceptive “gray charges” the other apps overlook. For example, if you visit the same restaurant twice in one day, BillGuard will alert you to the excessive activity, and it’ll do the same with hidden charges and scams, surveying the thousands of deceptive charges logged by the BillGuard community to quickly spot any potential pitfalls.
BillGuard is serious about security, as evidenced by the two-layer password and passcode protection for your semi-sensitive data. Account numbers aren’t actually stored in the app – to add a new card, you use your bank’s online login – so prying eyes will only see a list of your most recent transactions. Still, the extra safeguarding is reassuring. The interface is fresh and clean, with a series of tiles that offer quick access to recent and recurring transactions, as well as anything BillGuard may have flagged.
The free download of BillGuard only supports two cards from the outset, but a $9.99 in-app purchase adds eight more. We would have liked a cheaper upgrade option, but you can also earn extra card slots by spreading the word to your friends on Twitter or Facebook.
