With BillGuard’s help, consumers can now view their credit and debit card balances, recurring charges, and potentially fraudulent charges, all on their iPhone.
The New York-based company recently launched an iPhone app, which it calls a “Smart Inbox for Money,” to help users identify suspicious and fraudulent charges on their credit and debit card statements.
The app takes a more active approach compared to the desktop platform. The new mobile experience is a beautiful way to view credit and debit card transactions, and it uses push notifications to encourage logins. Watch the video at the bottom of the post for an overview of the mobile experience.
Here’s a quick look at my experience with the app, researching potentially fraudulent charges from an unknown merchant:
1) Users can sign up directly from the app. Since I already have an account, I was prompted to set up a 4-digit PIN. Once inside, you can add credit and debit cards by entering your account credentials.
2) An overview of one of my three card accounts:
3) The Priority section alerts me to charges that others have marked as suspicious or where BillGuard does not recognize the merchant (see below):
3) When I follow up to determine if this charge is fraudulent, I’m presented with four options. I selected, Help me recognize this:
4) Then I’m presented with four options to begin some detective work. In this case, I Googled the merchant name.
Thankfully, Google solved the mystery, but I could have also emailed or texted my friend who was with me on the afternoon the charge occurred.
5) After discovering that the charge is from Flathead Lake Brewing Company, I selected Name this merchant to add to the merchant information to BillGuard’s database.
To date, the startup has scanned almost a billion transactions.
Below is the pricing structure for BillGuard’s app, which Apple chose to feature in the App store today as New and Noteworthy.
Until August 31, BillGuard is holding a launch special that will allow users to load up to 10 cards on the platform for a one-time fee of $9.99. Beginning in September, the same service will cost $45/ year.
Aside from its direct-to-consumer offering, the New York-based company also offers BillGuard Resolve for merchants and BillGuard FI for banks which won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2012.