News – News
The top four money management apps crowned winners of Open Up 2020
13 October 2020
- Catherine Thompson
Four open banking-enabled money apps – Mojo Mortgages, Moneybox, Plum and Wagestream – have today been named winners of the Open Up 2020 Challenge.
The announcement comes as new research from Open Up 2020 finds over half of people are currently trying to prepare their finances for a winter lockdown. Three in ten are struggling to keep on top of their money each month and four in ten want personalised guidance and support to help them manage their money better.
Open Up 2020 was designed to encourage innovation to address some of the longstanding financial issues faced by society. The four apps which have secured a further £150,000 grant to help their apps reach more customers are:
Mojo Mortgages
Mojo’s MortgageScore™ combines credit scoring and open banking data to determine if a customer is mortgage ready. Once a customer’s score is calculated, the MortgageCoach™ feature provides personalised advice on how they could improve their score.
It’s absolutely amazing to be named as one of the Open Up 2020 Challenge winners. Being a part of Challenge Works’ competition has given us a great chance to explore open banking and all the opportunities that it creates as part of the home buying experience. We believe now more than ever that with this technology we can help revolutionise the mortgage industry.
MortgageScore helps to provide a level playing field for anyone looking to get on the property ladder. With the challenges first time buyers face right now, we are even more determined to help and advise as many people as we can. Open banking and Open Up 2020 has enabled us to help thousands of people get “mortgage ready”, and over the coming months and years, we intend to support many thousands more on their journey towards owning their own home.
Moneybox
Moneybox is an innovative app helps customers save and invest for their future. Users can set money aside through round ups, one off or regular deposits, and choose from a range of products including Stocks & Shares ISAs, Lifetime ISAs, savings accounts and pensions.
We are really excited to be named one of the winners of the Open Up 2020 Challenge. Open banking enables us to help existing Moneybox customers save and invest for their future in a simple and seamless way, and help many new customers to get started on their savings journey.
Plum
Plum is a clever app that sorts all the tricky parts of money management and makes building wealth effortless. Plum automatically sets aside small amounts every few days, finds better deals on bills, offers spending insights and invests the money to help people be better off over their lifetime.
We’re delighted to have won Challenge Works’ Open Up 2020 Challenge. Today, 100% of our customers link through Open Banking and over the past year we’ve launched some amazing features this year that use that data and automation to make our 1 million-strong community better off. We estimate that we can make the average person £186,000 better off over their lifetime, and the kind of financial resilience this brings has been more important than ever in 2020 as the world responds to the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re looking forward to seeing more people than ever before take use their banking data to empower themselves and break down financial barriers. When this happens, we’ll see the true impact: no more companies that overcharge people, better financial literacy and engagement and true wealth for all.
Wagestream
Wagestream allows employees to stream a proportion of their income as it is earned, save directly from their salary, track their wages and bank balance, and set smart payment reminders in real-time.
Wagestream are so pleased to have such high validation from a body like Challenge Works. We’re on a mission to bring financial freedom to workers globally and this prize will certainly help us along the way!
Using technology to help those facing financial hardship
With millions of people across the UK struggling financially, now more than ever they need access to innovative tools that help them make the most of their money.
The winners of the Open Up 2020 Challenge are all using the latest technology to help people overcome some major financial challenges including budgeting, managing fluctuating income, saving and getting on the property ladder.
And with people even more used to managing their finances online since lockdown, there is huge potential for these apps to help many more people.
The winners were selected from a pool of 107 applicants, which were whittled down to 15 finalists.
All finalists received both financial and non-financial support through Open Up 2020 and since the start of the Challenge, their collective open banking users in the UK have more than doubled.
This growth in the use of open banking is reinforced by recent data from OBIE, which reveals users of open banking-enabled products now exceed two million, doubling in just over six months.