HoneyFi Review

So what are you going to do? You have to figure out how to manage money as a couple, without boring your better half to death. That’s where Honeyfi comes in. It’s a money tracking app built just for couples. You can use the app to track, categorize, and discuss expenses, and it’s easy to get the less nerdy partner on board. Here’s why I love Honeyfi.

Shared Or Separate?

Should you and your partner have joint or separate accounts? The answer depends on you, your partner, your relationship status, and 1,000 other factors. Thankfully, Honeyfi is flexible enough to accommodate almost any configuration of couple’s accounts.

Joint accounts only? Honeyfi can help you track your spending together. Want to track individual and joint accounts separately, but in the same App? Honeyfi can handle it. You can even handpick transactions to share while keeping most of your spending and saving private.

You and your partner can handle money the way that you want to. Honeyfi just helps facilitate communication about money.

Real Time Tracking

Honeyfi’s biggest strength is as a money tracking app. I signed up for the app, hooked up our joint checking account, and invited my husband to join the app. From that point forward I got instant alerts any time either of us made a transaction.

I knew my husband forgot his lunch when I saw a $6.02 transaction from BurgerKing at 12:13PM. When he grabbed a few items from the grocery store, I saw the effect on our grocery budget right away.

You can categorize your spending based on three major categories (Bills, Essentials, and Fun) and several subcategories. Honeyfi helps you set up rules, so that your transactions are automatically categorized, but you can override the rules. For example, Walmart transactions are automatically categorized as groceries, but I can override my prescription transactions as health.

Built In Communication Features

Even better than the tracking features are the built in communication features. When you’re reviewing transactions you can comment on a transaction that you don’t recognize. For example, when I see an Amazon transaction, I usually ask, “What did you buy?” My husband will respond with, “Socks” or “Bike tubes” or “Stuff for the rental property.” That makes it easy to categorize in the app, but more importantly, it makes it easy to track spending for tax time.

I assume that most couples will use Honeyfi for practical communication, but I recommended the app to a couple that needed help with tracking expenses. A week later, my friend showed me that she and her husband started sending GIFs to each other through the app. 

It Works

Whether you’re asking about a transaction or sending stupid GIFs, Honeyfi helps you start money conversations with your partner. As the money nerd, you can take 100% responsibility for signing up and connecting the accounts, your partner can just download, log in and participate.

A Few Shortfalls

Despite my love for the app, Honeyfi has a few shortfalls. For example, the auto-categorization rules are not perfect. In particular, the rules associated with Bill Pay transactions don’t seem to stick very well. You’re also not allowed to create your own subcategories; in good news, that won’t bother your non money-nerd partner. In bad news, it will drive you crazy.

Finally, I’m not fond of the budgeting system in Honeyfi. The app uses past expenditures to recommend a budget for you as a couple. However, the app isn’t a zero based budgeting system, and it doesn’t keep track of your savings buckets (which would be my preference).