Budgeting with N26—helping you manage and save your money
Spending limits—you’ve got the power
Set daily spending limits, lock or unlock your card and reset your PIN anywhere in the world, 24/7 and directly from the N26 app. After all, you’re in control and it’s you that decides how much you spend, and what you spend your money on.
Master your spending with Insights
Ready for a simple and quick view of your finances? Meet N26 Insights, the intelligent feature in your N26 app that automatically categorizes your payments in real time. Instantly see if you’re spending more than usual on ‘Shopping,’ ‘Bars & Restaurants,’ ‘Groceries,’ and more—all it takes is a quick glance to stay on track with your monthly budget. Plus, with a clear overview of your upcoming regular payments, it’s never been easier to plan ahead and stay on top of your finances.
Spaces—the starting point to budget all your plans
N26 Spaces lets you create sub-accounts that allow you to easily budget and save money. These sit alongside your main N26 account, letting you transfer money between them instantly, budget wisely and put funds aside by separating your savings from expenses.
Instant push-notification—you don’t wanna miss a thing
Thanks to the N26 app’s push-notifications, you’ll always be in the know of where your money is going. Receive push-notifications immediately after all transactions, including card and mobile payments, ATM withdrawals, direct debits and transfers.
Make the most out of your money
Whether you want to set money aside for a rainy day, better understand your expenses, or take your finances to the next level, our budgeting calculators can help. Try our monthly budget calculator to better understand your money. Or, use our 50/30/20 calculator to categorize your income in a way that fits your life.
Budgeting your ideas: one space to rule them all
You can name your space after its purpose so you feel the motivation needed to save for it. Here’s how to get started:
- Go to Spaces in the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen
- Select “Create a new space” and give it a name
Buy together, save together—Shared Spaces
Shared spaces are a smart way to budget with other people. Easily share the rent, pay bills, or even just create a shared piggy bank for saving with your partner without the need to open a joint account. Each participant can transfer money between the shared space and their own N26 account, and keep track of all transaction activities and progress.
Make your space at home
Any N26 customer can be invited to participate in a shared space. However, only N26 premium account holders with either N26 Smart, You or Metal can be the owner of a new shared space. Budgeting with friends and family has never been so simple! Once you’ve created a new space, tap the “+” button in the top right corner to share it with up to 10 people.
Rules for Spaces—rule your budgeting
You can set rules for each space, allowing you to create standing orders within your spaces. This makes budgeting even faster. It works like a normal standing order but—instead of between two different accounts—you move your money between your spaces and your main account. You can create up to 10 rules for each space.
Set up a rule, then move on
You only need to set up a rule once, and then the app does the rest of the work for you. Your money will be moved automatically on set dates, making budgeting easier:
- Select a space and tap on the 3 dots
- Choose “Create a new rule”
- Tap “Repeat this transfer” and choose the frequency.
Discover Rules
Budgeting Tips from N26
How to save money fast: 17 tips to grow your savings
Whether your financial goals are big or small, these life hacks will help you save money faster.
Personal financial planning—tips on setting yourself up for the future
The best way to safeguard your future? Start personal financial planning today. Read on to learn how.
FAQ
Budgeting is the process of making and preparing your own spending and savings plan for the future. This allows you to think ahead, organize your plans and know in advance if you’ll have enough money to do what you like in the coming months or years.
It’s very important to budget as it helps keep your finances in order—so you can spend money on the things that matter most to you, while avoiding any financial stress or debts.
N26 has many saving and budgeting tools to help you to organize your personal finances. Shared Spaces can help you save and split expenses with family and friends, and you can also automate recurring money transfers between spaces and your main account with Rules. The N26 app also offers Insights, a feature where you can see your monthly spending split by category, so you’ll know exactly where your money is going.
Each space created with Spaces is a sub-account that sits parallel to your main N26 account. They hold your money but can’t be used for spending or transactions.
N26 You and Metal users can have up to 10 additional spaces active at once. You can create, edit and delete spaces as often as you like.
Shared Spaces is a new shared sub-accounts banking feature that sits within N26 Spaces—it’s accessible via the N26 app and web app. It lets you create a sub-account and share it with up to 10 other N26 users. Shared Spaces lets you invite your partner, friends, roommates and family as participants to add and spend together from the same Spaces sub-account. Each participant can easily transfer money between the shared space and their own N26 account, and even keep track of all transaction activities just by viewing the space details.
With traditional joint accounts, two people open the account together, and then have equal legal ownership of it. The difference with Shared Spaces is that the N26 premium user who creates the space is the sole owner of the space. This means that anyone the owner invites to join is merely being given ‘Power of Attorney’ which allows them to access and/or contribute to the funds within that space.
Shared Spaces is the perfect solution for those looking for a simple, flexible and secure solution for handling a collective pool of money. N26 premium customers can save and share expenses with up to 10 people per shared space. You can do this with anyone you know and trust, and that has an N26 account—this includes partners, family members, friends, roommates and colleagues. You can also remove a participant at any time. Read more about how it works here.
Using the ratio 50/30/20 is always a good rule to start with when determining your budget. On a tight budget, try to set aside 50% for the essentials, 30% for the additional treats and comforts, and 20% toward savings or an emergency fund. If this split is still too tight to live on, try to reduce the treats and comforts until you’re in a better financial position.