Acorn Australia Adds New Feature To Help Users Save

Acorns, the micro-investing app, announced Wednesday (May 3) a new feature for Australian customers that helps them understand their spending habits and take control of them.

According to a report, the new feature, dubbed “My Finances,” relies on machine learning to figure out a user’s spending patterns and provide users with personalized insight into ways they can save. The feature also lets users get an overview of how they spend, pinpoint areas of waste and provide suggestions to save more money.

For instance, the feature can alert a user if they are about to spend more on lunch in one month compared to other, which could prompt the user to brown bag it for a couple of days or weeks.

“Since we launched Acorns in Australia just over a year ago, one of the biggest frustrations we hear from customers is that personal finance is difficult to manage and plan, especially without the right tools,” Acorns Managing Director, George Lucas, said in the report.  “Acorns helps users save in a way traditional banking products can’t. My Finances now goes one step further on this education journey and brings the power of machine learning to assist individuals with personal, actionable insights into their finances. The machine learning within Acorns allows us to provide a personalised user experience and insights without additional information being entered manually — a budget for example.”

According to the report, in Australia millennial consumers are having a hard time saving. Acorns Australia found three out of four (75 percent) have had to make sacrifices at the end of a pay cycle in order to survive for the rest of the month. What’s more, nearly 70 percent say they have a budget, but only 49 percent say they actually stick to it. The new feature is also in response to demand on the part of users for a more socially responsible attitude toward finances.