Is there a Multi Currency Personal Finance App?

Introduction

There are a lot of different personal finance apps on the market these days. Most people end up using an app that is specific to their own currency, but those who have lived, worked or studied in multiple countries are left using multiple platforms. Historically, Mint.com was probably the most popular application out there for this. There are two slight problems with this: firstly, Mint doesn't actually support multiple countries. The second is that Mint actually closed down late last year. So where does that leave us?

The simple answer is that there still isn't one flexible multi-currency app out there. Mint and other Open Banking based investment tracking tools are great - some with more suitable features than others depending on your needs, but what happens to those people who need to manage assets across different countries?Unfortunately, there is not currently a mint app for multiple currencies. However, some of the other personal finance apps out there do offer this feature.If you are looking for an app that can manage your finances in more than one currency, take a look at these options to get you started:

1. Goodbudget: This app allows you to budget money in different currencies and even sync budgets between different devices
2. Trail Wallet: This app also allows you to budget money in different currencies, as well as track your net worth in multiple currencies
3. XE Currency: This app is great for tracking live exchange rates and historical data for over 180 currencies

None of these are quite a multi-currency investing or portfolio tracking app, but that's where Strabo comes in!

Learn how a multi-currency personal finance app can help with international personal finance

Although some apps allow you to select a currency when signing up and manage your account in that currency, the problem many expats and internationals face is when trying to manage their finances across a number of different currencies simultaneously. What we need, then, is a currency switcher. This doesn't come without a few challenges though.

If you're pulling financial data in one currency, using a currency switcher means that the platform will have to go back through historical data and update it based on your new currency selection, which is fine if there isn't much data, but going back through months or years worth of data is a huge undertaking. What we decided to do at Strabo, is to allow users to select a base currency. Data is pulled from their financial institutions, most of which should already be in this base currency if it's the main selection - the remainder is converted at that day's rate. When you use the currency switcher, you are changing all of these balances and transactions at today's rate, for the purpose of viewing your dashboard.

Of course, this sacrifices some accuracy - some of your accounts will be converted into your base currency, and then into the new currency you select. Two changes means more places where fluctuating rates and exchange rate margins can lead to small errors. For this reason, it's important that you select a base currency that is representative of most of your accounts, which is usually the currency for the country where the person lives.

One of the idiosyncrasies about managing money in multiple currencies is the difference in risk exposure - you are introducing exchange rate risk to your portfolio and making the international chunks subject to the geopolitical and economic risks of those nations, particularly with respect to investments that are correlated to macroeconomic factors. What does this mean? Well, it's nothing to be particularly scared of, but just means that you'll want to keep an eye on where your money is, and whether some investments need rebalancing. This is where we come in - use personalised analytics tools, suggestions and individualised risk profiling to judge when and how to make rebalancing decisions across jurisdictions.

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Taxes - is there a Mint app for multiple currencies that can help pay international taxes?

The other shortcoming of Mint.com is tax filing - although they have recently partnered with TurboTax, there are still very limited services available to pay taxes in different jurisdictions. Investments need to be filtered by country and tax year, and offer document wallets to save pertinent information for each one, particularly with regard to capital gains. Fortunately, we are also building this! With an end goal of automating international tax filing, we are starting with some basic tools to get you started.

What about money transfer?

Making transactions across currencies is another integral part of any international platform. Although Mint itself doesn't facilitate transactions, most users have a preferred FX platform to make these, and from there they can log back onto the dashboard to see the results. These include TransferWise, Revolut and GoCardless, as well as your deposit account banking provider.With Strabo, we're making this even simpler. By giving up our profit on each currency transfer, this ensures that we can offer you virtually the cheapest rates on the market, all available to transfer from right within the app. This is one of the main advantages of using a multi currency platform that is designed for purpose.

Conclusion: is  mint the right choice for you based on your needs and preferences?

Ok, so where are we up to? Is there a mint app for multiple currencies? The short answer is no. The longer answer is that there are a few substitutes, and up until now it's probably been ideal for you to use Mint alongside one of these, such as a money transfer or tax filing platform. However, if you're interested in using a new platform specifically designed for the problem of international personal finance across currencies, sign up and check out the Strabo offering. In the interim, please do feel free to reach out with feature suggestions or product feedback. We'd love to hear from you!