How Plum works ⚙️

What is Plum?

Plum is an app 📲  But we like to think it’s a bit more than just that!

We describe Plum as the ultimate money management app, because it's a budget app, investment app and money saving app, all in one.

Plum is an app that can help you automatically set more money aside, invest in what matters to you and save money on household bills.

10 ways Plum can help you manage money

1. Plum uses Open Banking to put you in control of your personal finances

Once you connect your bank account and credit cards to the app, Plum uses the latest technology to analyse your transaction history and look for areas where money can be saved.

With great power comes great responsibility... and when it comes to money, we take your security and privacy very seriously. We support face and fingerprint ID, and use 256-bit TLS encryption to keep things secure 🔒

Plum is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and your money is also covered by other regulations too.

2. Plum pays interest to help you earn a return on your savings

In addition to your Primary Plum Pocket (your bank might call this a ‘pot’), you can create a separate saving Pocket* which pays 0.65% AER interest.

Interest Pockets are now available to all Plumsters, but we’ve reserved the best rate for our Plum Plus, Plum Pro and Plum Ultra subscribers. Customers on these tiers can earn up to 1.15% AER.

*Easy access interest pockets are provided by Investec Bank Plc.

3. Plum provides a complete picture of your finances to help you manage your budget

Because you can link all your bank accounts and credit cards to Plum, it means you can easily keep track of regular payments and expenses.

Plum shows you a total overview of your finances, letting you filter your transactions by account, and find specific retailers with a few taps.

This is especially powerful when combined with our advanced budgeting features, such as Money Maximiser, which helps you manage your money by tracking your spending in real time.

Money Maximiser can also help you offset the effects of inflation. It does this by seamlessly moving your money, to keep it in your savings Pocket for as long as possible (maximising interest), before providing a weekly flow of cash back to your everyday bank account to cover spending 💸

4. Plum uses automation and AI to help you set more money aside

At the heart of Plum is an algorithm which has been designed to help you stash more money over time, by automating your deposits. And because the amounts deposited are tailored specifically for you, it means we’ll never leave you short, and you should always have money when you need it!

If you’re looking for ways to boost the amount you put away, beyond the standard algorithm, then Round Ups can set aside extra cash every time you spend. You know the deal… we round up your transactions to the nearest whole pound, and then set aside this ‘spare change' for you.

By helping you tuck money away, even when you’re not thinking about it, Plum can help you at every stage of your personal finance journey.

If you’re struggling to repay stubborn debt, Plum can be configured to use your bank overdraft to save extra money… meaning you might be more likely to have money left at the end of the month, so you can repay your debt.

Once you’re free from debt, it means you can turn your attention to the task of building a financial safety net (or emergency fund) 🚨 By having an emergency stash of cash that can be quickly accessed to cover living expenses, it means you’re more likely to stay debt free, should the worst happen (e.g. you fall ill or lose your job).

5. Plum can promote positive personal finance habits, to help you stick to your spending plan

Newsflash ⚡️ Saving money can be hard.

One of the reasons for this is that it's human nature to prioritise short-term gratification over long-term gain. So no matter how dedicated you are, the act of setting money aside goes against our natural instincts.

However, despite the odds being stacked against you 🎲 there are some budgeting tricks that you can use to help level the playing field. A tried-and-tested budgeting technique is to ‘pay yourself first’.

Pay Days can be configured to deposit an additional lump sum to your Plum account when your salary first hits your bank… but before life has a chance to get in the way of your best intentions!

The rule is completely customisable, so it doesn’t matter if you get paid weekly or monthly. You specify when you get paid and choose the additional amount that you’d like to automatically deposit to your Plum account.

6. Plum can be customised to match your mood… and adapt to your life

Although we may crave predictability in our personal finances... unfortunately, life doesn’t always work like that. Money ebbs and flows.

Whilst Plum was built on the ethos of automation, sometimes we need to be able to adapt and override the defaults. That’s why each of Plum’s saving rules can be enabled or disabled individually, and the amount of your auto-deposits can be tuned by setting your ‘Mood’.

In addition to the normal setting, there are five additional saving moods to choose from, ranging from ‘Shy’ (-50%) to ‘Beast Mode’ (+75%). Roar 🦁

7. Plum can help you save more by gamifying the experience, with exclusive saving rules

As we’ve already touched upon… saving can feel hard.

But what if there was another way? A way to make saving fun 🤓

When you subscribe to one of our subscription tiers (Plum Plus and above) you automatically get access to extra saving rules, plus the ability to create and customise additional savings Pockets that pay up to 1.15% interest.

Rules like the ‘52 Week Challenge’ and ‘Rainy Days Rule’ are a great way to boost the amount you save… even if they can be addictive!

Plus, by being able to customise your Plum account and allocate goals to your saving targets, you might actually be able to save more money over time (compared to someone who doesn't set a goal).

Along with this increased personalisation, Plum Pro tiers and above literally put money back into your Pockets. Cashback offers exclusive rewards when you shop with one of our partner merchants through the Plum app 🛍

8. Plum can provide an easier way to start investing in funds or stocks

If you’ve saved up some money and you’re now wondering what to do with your savings to try and make the money work for you, then you could consider investing.

There are lots of different ways to invest, and with Plum you can choose from either a Stocks & Shares ISA or General Investment Account.

With a Stocks & Shares ISA (sometimes called an Investment ISA) you can invest in a variety of funds, bonds and individual company shares without having to pay capital gains tax (CGT) or income tax on any dividends or profit from your account, up to a certain value 📈

When used with the Plum ‘splitter’ you can automatically divide your deposits between your savings Pockets and any investment you’ve selected.

Please remember that as with all investing, your money is at risk.

9. Plum lets you control your pensions and plan for retirement in a tax-efficient way

You can use a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) to top up your UK state pension and consolidate previous workplace schemes into one account.

Plus, you can control your own investment decisions, with a choice of risk-managed or diversified global funds 📊 Capital at risk.

As an added incentive, the UK government also offers tax benefits on contributions towards a SIPP. So if you’re a basic rate taxpayer, a contribution of £100 into your SIPP would only cost you £80 in real terms. This is because the income tax you paid is reimbursed by HMRC.

10. Plum can switch your supplier to save you money on household bills

As soon as your accounts are linked, Plum will automatically check to see if you might be able to save money on your home utilities, like gas, electricity, broadband, and other financial products such as credit cards or loans.

If we believe you can make a saving, we’ll notify you to confirm a few details and make sure the switch is right for you. It takes about two and a half minutes to switch (we timed it!), and we calculated that Plumsters who switch energy suppliers with us save at least £91 per year*.

Switching is the quickest way to save money with Plum… equivalent to getting paid £2,184 an hour! That’s over £36 a minute 😮

*51% of customers that applied to switch via the DT Partner Network could save at least £91.42, April-June 2021.

*Please remember that your capital is at risk if you invest. You shouldn’t invest in/use any financial product unless you understand its nature and your exposure to risk. If you choose to invest or automate investments, you should be satisfied your choices are suitable for you and your circumstances.

So there you have it… ten nuggets of Plum know-how.

To learn more about Plum you can check out our website.

For all the latest Plum news and discussion, head to our Plummunity Forum, or follow us on Instagram and Twitter.