In terms of app technology two of the Belgian banks are part of the top worldwide. Worldwide Revolut is considered the best banking app, however on the second spot we have Belfius a Belgian bank and on the fourth spot we have KBC.

At one point I want to review the Belfius App but in this blog I would like to shed some light on how I use the Kbc Touch webapp to track my expenses.

Unfortunately this can only be viewed from the web application “KBC Touch” right now, but that’s really okay as I am usually in front of my laptop when I track my expenses.

I am not affiliated with KBC, I write this just because I really enjoy to use KBC touch.

Getting in the application

To get into KBC touch you first need to log in using the sign app on your phone.

Once logged in you can click “Inkomsten & Uitgaven” (translated: income & expenses) to view your expenses.

Once you are in the application, its very easy to see what you have been spending your Money on the last months.

Checking your income and expenses

In the bellow screenshot I have selected the month of January, but you could also select a few months or even an entire year

As you can see the majority here went to living (= Wonen) and 365 EUR went to Holidays ( = Vakantie).

You can also use it to see your income.

What you can see here is the money coming in. So about 3431 EUR came in in total in January, that includes mostly wage, but also some people or shops / bookings that have paid me back for some reason.

You can also put these numbers in one chart, so you can see how your income compares with your expenses. This shows that I am actually not doing so well these months as investments are seen as expenses in this app, so my expenses should equal my income.

What is quite handy also is that my expenses from my Mastercard (I have with KBC) are also going in these trackers. Its convenient although it does make me dependent of KBC and I am sure it is not the best creditcard outthere as it offers no actual benefits.

Why still track in excel?

When I report on my saving rate I still do use excel, because of course these numbers do not tell everything. Remember this 300 EUR you saw as expenses for holidays? Actually I only paid 1/3rd of that and the rest was paid by friends. This is then later deposited back so it arrives as income, but in my excel I see it as an expense of just 100 EUR instead, which makes total sense.

Additionally keeping track of expenses in Excel also makes me less dependent of my bank if at some reason I do decide to use a different bank.

Ever wondered what my excel looks like?

I really kept it quite simple with similar catogories

Unknown categories

Occasionally you can get an expense called unknown categories, in this case it just means the app has not seen such a type of payment earlier.

If you click the question mark you have the option to assign this to a different category

You can also make this a permanent category for similar expenses.

The only thing you cannot do is add your own category and this is really a shame. I can only assume they keep the same categories for internal reporting. I bet KBC is as interested as I am where I am spending my money on.

I have mailed them in the past to get a category on Business Expenses but they have not added it as of yet.

What other features does KBC Touch offer?

Apart from the classics where you can see your account, and see what money is going in and out you can also see all your insurances.

Belgians are known to be very cautious with money and get a lot of insurances. I myself have a fire insurance (inside and outside), theft insurance, family insurance (in case of accidental damages to someone else property). Additionally I have a car insurance and hospital insurance from work.

Under the “living” tab I can also see my loan. How much I paid off so far and how much I still have to pay.

You can also see your investments if you have any with your bank.

As you know most of my investments are with DEGIRO (read here why) but I do have one pension fund that I have with KBC. I can see this inside the KBC touch application.

I remember when first having to decide on what plan I would want I chose the riskier plan. I now know this was the right decision. This plan was the first time I would be buying something on the stock market myself, even if it was very indirectly.

I was raised to be very conservative with money, my mom had lost a lot of money in stocks. Her tactic was to find the one stock that could beat them all so she only had about 5 stocks in her portfolio and two of them completely crashed. Its one of the reasons why I invest purely in ETFs.

Some will argue this is not a good investment. There is quite high costs with such a fund and its barely worth the tax incentive of 30% you get for this. At the same time it did increase 20% over time, so I can’t say it has been a bad investment either and it is only a small amount yearly I put inthere.

Communication & flexibility

Another item I like is the communication & flexibility KBC Touch offers.

If you are not in a rush you can write easily messages to the KBC Touch support crew.

They usually answer in 24 hours (on workdays). Additionally you can contact them also directly trough a chat.

Its easily to make appointments for loans and you can even make those over Skype.

The KBC App

KBC also has two apps. One is called Mobile and the other one is called Sign. Sign is used mainly to log into the KBC Touch Web application.

Mobile can be used to transfer money, or to pay by phone. KBC is integrated with payconic so you can use your KBC app to pay for payconic expenses.

You can also use it to transfer money, but there is usually a limit to this, for the bigger money transfers you need to use the Web application (and even there is a limit I noticed!).

Conclussion

To conclude I am really a fan of KBC Touch. I have been with KBC pretty much all my life. I have used other banks as well such as Keytrade and also PSA bank for investments or when the interests you got was higher there. Now the interests is so small everywhere that I rather put my money in the stock market as you can see in my portfolio updates.

But there is some things you just need a bank for and KBC can offer these from a very user friendly GUI. I do feel I should try out Belfius and Revolut as well at one point.

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