In an email to customers, Zip announced Pocketbook will be axed effective 5 August, with the popular budgeting app claiming in excess of 800,000 users.

The company claims to have saved users more than $10 million by delivering budgeting, spending and expense categorisation insights.

It's expected Zip Co will bring some of Pocketbook's money management features to its own app. 

Pocketbook used controversial screen scraping methods to gather banking and budgeting insights from its users. 

Such methods usually require the user to input their online banking passwords into the app.

Pocketbook will delete all personal user information, and also securely delete all financial and transaction information.

Users can extract their categorised transaction data into a CSV file until 4 August.


This comes days after Zip Co increased the interest rate on its line of credit service Zip Money to 21.9% p.a. - an increase of two percentage points.

Zip also recently binned line of credit programs to small businesses, where businesses could access up to $150,000 in instalment plans.

Managing director Larry Diamond cited potential regulation and new competition from Apple Pay as headwinds for its BNPL business.

Zip reported a full year loss of $659 million in 2021, and its share price has gone from $8.78 a year ago to 56 cents at the time of writing.

A Zip spokesperson said the brand will focus on profitable areas of the business.

"Zip’s operating environment has changed significantly in the last few months and we need to adapt our strategy on the factors we can control, and accelerate our path to global profitability," they said.

"With this in mind, we have made the decision to close Pocketbook in order to reprioritise resources to focus on delivering sustainable profitability in our core Australia-New Zealand market."


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Update resultsUpdate
BankSavings AccountBase Interest Rate Max Interest Rate Total Interest Earned Introductory Term Minimum Amount Maximum Amount Minimum Monthly Deposit Minimum Opening Deposit ATM Access Joint Application TagsFeaturesLinkComparePromoted ProductDisclosure
5.00% p.a.
5.35% p.a.
Intro rate for 4 months
then 5.00% p.a.
$1,036
4 months
$0
$249,999
$0
$0
  • A high-interest online savings account with no monthly fees, easy withdrawals and award-winning digital banking
  • No withdrawal notice periods or interest rate penalties
  • Save up to 10% on eGift cards at over 50 retailers with Macquarie Marketplace
Disclosure
4.70% p.a.
5.40% p.a.
Intro rate for 4 months
then 4.70% p.a.
$998
4 months
$250,000
$99,999,999
$0
$0
  • Special offer: Savings Accelerator (Kick Starter offer).
  • For a limited time, new ING customers can get a bonus 0.70% p.a. on their savings rate on balances of $150,000 up to $500,000 for the first 4 months. T&Cs apply.
  • If your balance is over $500,000 (but less than $5 million) you will earn the ongoing variable rate of 4.7%
Disclosure
0.00% p.a.
Bonus rate of 5.50%
Rate varies on savings amount.
5.50% p.a.
$1,128
$0
$99,999
$0
$0
  • Set up your Pay Cycle and connect your accounts from over 140 financial institutions.
  • Retrace your spending steps into categories with Spending Footprint.
  • No monthly or international fees on any of your transactions.
Disclosure
1.00% p.a.
Bonus rate of 4.20%
Rate varies on savings amount.
5.20% p.a.
$1,065
$0
$99,999,999
$1,000
$0
  • Earn up to 5.20% pa by depositing $1,000 in the previous month
  • No account fees
  • Easy access to your money
0.55% p.a.
Bonus rate of 4.95%
Rate varies on savings amount.
5.50% p.a.
$1,128
$0
$99,999
$1,000
$0
  • Deposit at least $1,000+ each month from an external source
  • Make 5 or more eligible transactions. Grow your savings balance each month
Disclosure
Important Information and Comparison Rate Warning

All products with a link to a product provider’s website have a commercial marketing relationship between us and these providers. These products may appear prominently and first within the search tables regardless of their attributes and may include products marked as promoted, featured or sponsored. The link to a product provider’s website will allow you to get more information or apply for the product. By de-selecting “Show online partners only” additional non-commercialised products may be displayed and re-sorted at the top of the table. For more information on how we’ve selected these “Sponsored”, “Featured” and “Promoted” products, the products we compare, how we make money, and other important information about our service, please click here. Rates correct as of . View disclaimer.

Important Information and Comparison Rate Warning

Image by Pocketbook, (via Stockspot)





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