BNZ has announced an update to YouMoney – the intuitive banking app that’s designed to make it easier for Kiwis to manage their finances – by adding a new feature that enables users to add accounts dedicated to specific items via a smartphone.
This means that when Kiwis see something that they find appealing, they don’t necessarily have to reach for the credit card immediately. Instead of incurring debt and the interest that follows, app users can now attach a savings goal to a recently added account and intermittently transfer money until the objective is reached.
“The update is about empowering users,” says BNZ’s head of Digital Stephen Bowe. “Now, if people see something in the street, they still have to wait, but at least they can take a positive step towards it.”
Since BNZ first launched YouMoney, the app has been updated 15 times and Bowe explains that this is all part of a progressive process.
“This is only the start. We look at what is important to customers, and change the app to bring it in line with these needs. We always aim to evolve and improve what we offer. We are actually working on another update right now that allows users to attach specific cards to certain accounts, but it will still be a while before that one is released,” says Bowe.
By further enhancing the user-friendliness of the app, BNZ hopes to continue making online banking more accessible to its customers, regardless of their computer proficiency.
The new “see, snap, save” update is true to the BNZ’s “the more the merrier” approach to accounts, because it now makes it possible to create a new account whenever the need arises.
To promote the update, the blue bank has also launched a ten-day competition that gives entrants a chance to win $250 worth of vouchers every day between 8 and 17 January.
To enter the competition, Kiwis simply have to take a picture of something they’re saving towards, upload it to Instagram or Twitter with the tag #SeeSnapSave and then wait for BNZ to draw the winning entry.
In many ways, the competition alludes to the utility of the app because it shows that very little effort is required to stop, snap a picture of something and then upload it onto the web.
“The competition is about aligning customer behaviour and promoting the usefulness of the app,” says Bowe.
Thus far, Kiwis have responded well to the competition, posting pictures of everything from iPhones and PlayStation consoles to guitars and wisdom tooth extractions, and new entries keep streaming in.
Thor Bostelmann, the BNZ external relations consultant, says that this is one of the most popular cross-platform social media competitions that the bank has run to date, with 52 percent of entrants sharing their pictures via Twitter, 27 percent via Instagram and 21 percent through Facebook.
