Being a member of the personal finance community for over a decade, I have always been crying out for an all-in-one personal finance mobile app that can replace manual tracking. Pretty much like a super app in the personal finance domain that can do it all- savings, expenditure tracking, budgeting, discounts etc. I would say that SGFindex comes pretty close but it is still lacking some of the aforementioned functions that I require. My prayers were finally answered when Dobin, the ultimate personal finance app, came along in 2023. This review shows how Dobin has significantly improved my personal finance wellness.
What Is Dobin?
Dobin is a free mobile app developed by a Singapore-based fintech company which harnesses users’ data to unlock smarter financial management for them. I know it’s a mouthful, so let me break it down step-by-step.
Users start by granting connections from their banks to the Dobin app. As shown in Diagram 1, connections can be made to 9 major banks (coverage is still expanding) to provide a consolidated view of connected bank accounts and credit cards information. Thus far, it is the only app that allows users to connect Citibank bank accounts and credit cards for free.
Diagram 1: Bank connections on Dobin
A green ticked mark indicates that a connection has been successfully made.
Dobin subsequently uses Advanced Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence to extract valuable insights from these bank accounts and credit card transaction data to provide holistic financial trends, insights, personalised offers etc. Examples include tracking overall cashflow movement, credit card spend categories etc. Head straight to the later part of this blog post to understand the benefits of this information.
Now, let me demonstrate how to sign up for Dobin so that you can take the first step towards better personal financial management in your life.
How To Sign Up For Dobin
Sign up for a Dobin account using my referral link. (Note that it will lead you to the Apple/Play Store if you open via mobile phone. If you open via desktop, it will direct you to the website to download the app) Rem to punch in my referral code ZDZTATG
1) Once you have successfully registered for a Dobin account, start granting connections to the banks on your Dobin app right away. Remember, no connections = no data = not maximising Dobin’s potential
2) Enter your usual internet banking credentials with the bank. Notice that to ensure your data security, most connections will follow the same authentication process as when you log onto online banking. For most, this means either a two-factor authentication or SMS OTP is triggered.
3) Note that it might take some time to load when granting access to connect, so do make use of the time to add other bank accounts since Dobin allows for simultaneous account connectivity as shown in Diagram 2.
Diagram 2: Take advantage of simultaneous account connectivity on Dobin to save time
Understandably, users may have anxiety openly sharing data with a third party hence Dobin places privacy at the forefront and respects it when designing the app. Some noteworthy security features include:
- Dobin has view-only access
- Users’ data are only stored in the Dobin App and not on the cloud infrastructure.
- Unless user explicitly decides to share their transactions data with Dobin in which case only non-sensitive data (eg: payment transactions and not balances or income) are anonymously stored in Dobin’s cloud infrastructure after being de-identified. Such sharing of data will enable Dobin to enhance the recommendations the user receives.
- Finally, almost every login requires user authorisation and/or 2FA similar to the process of logging into an online banking portal.
Once connections to the banks have been made and the financial data shared, you can expect to receive personalised insights and recommendations very soon. It’s time to reap the benefits of the Dobin app.
Tips To Leverage On Dobin For Your Personal Finance
By analysing spending habits, categorising expenses, and understanding seasonal trends, Dobin tailors its recommendations to individual purchasing lifestyles, offering an intelligent financial management experience.
A) Financial Insights
The financial insights which are categorised into Utilities, Bank charges and recurring payments etc. These are derived from your credit card transactions. As shown in Diagram 3, I was surprised to see that I incurred bank charges of $196.
Diagram 3: Financial insights break down expenditure into key categories
This commanded my attention and I realised that this was a result of my credit card’s annual fee. I immediately requested for a waiver from the bank and this demonstrated the utility of Dobin’s financial insights.
If you want better financial insights, you can help the AI machine learn smarter by categorising unknown transactions. Diagram 4 is an example of me telling Dobin that expenditure on Facebook should fall under the category of Advertising.
Diagram 4: Categorise your transactions for more accurate information in the future
Other helpful insights include cashflow, expense and balances trends and having all this information consolidated into a graphical display totally speak to my analytical mind.
Diagram 5: Cashflow trend on Dobin
At one glance, I can instantly tell whether I am saving or overspending in a particular month. I was surprised to learn that on certain months, I actually spent more than I made!
Diagram 6: Breakdown of expenses on Dobin app
I can also see where the bulk of my expenses go towards and that’s very helpful for anyone who budgets their expenses accordingly.
Dobin users also have the flexibility to select exactly which accounts to track. For instance, one may have a joint account, bank account and credit card with DBS. It is possible to track just one of it by toggling the on/off button as shown in Diagram 7.
Diagram 7: Flexibility to track any account connected
b) Credit Card
Dobin has a holistic credit card management system which allows the user to see all the information related to their credit cards at one tab. This includes the total spend, current balances, available credit, due amount as well as the due date.
Diagram 8: Credit card total spend, current balance, due amount, due date and benefits at a glance
For those who sign up for credit cards to secure lucrative sign-up rewards (such as me), you will appreciate that Dobin lists the key benefits of each of your credit card. This makes for easy tracking and top of mind recall, especially when one has more than 5 credit cards! I have close to 10 so you can imagine how laborious it is for me to track.
c) Discounts
Dobin has a “Discounts” tab which displays over 30,000 discounts and shows up to 6,000 personalised discounts to your purchasing habits. As shown in Diagram 9, I am shown FairPrice and Adidas discounts because I regularly purchase groceries for my household and update my golf outfits!
Diagram 9: Curated discounts for Heartland Boy
What is truly amazing is that Dobin consolidates all credit cards discounts and promotions into 1 segment and this increases the likelihood of a discount discovery for the user. For instance, you might be about to make a purchase at merchant X and when you log into the Dobin app, you saw that bank Y is offering a discount for merchant X. This saving might not have occurred if you have not been on Dobin. What this means is that user no longer need to go on to multiple platforms to find what you want since Dobin sources your favourite offers onto the app.
Conclusion of Dobin
If anybody had asked me to design a product to aid the everyday Singaporean on their personal finance journey, Dobin’s version would probably come the closest. Dobin gets it right from the start by ensuring that its UI is intuitive and user-friendly. This makes it less intimidating for new users to come on board. After speaking to the CEO and understanding his vision, I am really looking forward to the upcoming product features and upgrades to be rolled out on Dobin. These will further help Singaporeans be more mindful about their personal finance.
The truth is that many similar apps have come and gone and I sincerely hope that Dobin has the staying power because I think their potential to uplift Singaporeans’ personal finance journeys is immense. For my household, I know with certainly that my wife loathes another day when I open my dated excel spreadsheet to track my net worth all over again. You can download Dobin now and sign up with my referral code (ZDZTATG).
This article is published on 24 March 2024.
Disclaimer: This article is written in collaboration with Dobin but the views expressed here are my own. This advertisement has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. All trademarks and logos appearing on this page are the property of their respective owners. Use of them is only for identification purposes and does not imply any association or affiliation with, or endorsement by the respective owners.
i find that storing bank account login info in the phone is still a concern, and here i need to provide all the login info for all my accounts to make it useful. Not sure if i can get past this and use the app.
Hi CK,
I think that’s perfectly understandable. Not sure if this may be useful? (https://www.dobin.io/security)
Is Dobin really safe? There are steps where the app asks us to enter our bank username and password, which are extremely sensitive. How do they handle our data? How do they secure our financial data? Do they share our data with 3rd party??
Read their security page and there’s no real explanation on that. Just a bunch of typical corporate jargons (trust us, secured google storage and etc).