If you want to understand where your money is going, you need to keep track of your spending.
You can review each individual purchase in turn, but it’s much easier to use spending tracking tools to help you identify trends. Does most of your grocery budget go to groceries or restaurants? Do you keep subscribing to new streaming services that you might not use in the long run?
The more you know about how you use money, the better prepared you are to make smart choices about budgeting, savings, and long-term financial planning.
Some people use apps like Mint or You Need a Budget (YNAB) to keep track of their spending. Others use the budgeting tools that come with their credit cards. Apple Card, for example, offers color-coded spending summaries to help you spot trends. Several major credit card issuers, including American Express, Chase, Capital One, and Citi, provide cardholders with similar spending tracking tools and tools.
How does each of these expense trackers stack up? What do the major card issuers offer in terms of budgeting tools and how can you use these charts, graphs and summaries to make informed financial decisions? Let’s take a closer look at how spending tracking tools can help you manage your money.
Why you should use spending tracking tools to keep track of your budget
How much did you spend on groceries last month? Was it more or less than what you spent two months ago? A good expense tracker makes this question much easier to answer, and also makes it easy to ask yourself if you’re spending too much money on groceries or if it’s time to increase your grocery budget and decrease your takeaway budget.
The best spending tracking tools also show you how your spending habits change over time. If you’re trying to build your emergency fund or save up for a down payment, you’ll probably want to create a budget and cut back on your expenses.
By tracking how much money you spend each month – especially if you can track your spending by category or merchant – you can see if your purchases are in line with your goals. If your overall expenses are going up each month instead of going down, for example, you’ll probably want to make some adjustments.
Use your issuer’s tool to get a better idea of what you’re buying and how often you buy it, then ask yourself if you’re happy with how you’re spending your money.
American Express Tracking Tools
American Express offers a year-end summary of expenses that you can access by logging into your account online or by opening the American Express app. To find this summary online, click Reports & Activities. If you’re on the app, you can find the year-end summary by clicking Reports and then Transactions and Reports.
From there, you can select the year-end option to view a summary of your total spending for the year by month and by expense category.
If you’d like to take a closer look at your shopping habits, American Express recently added a spending tracking tool called Your Spending Report that breaks down your spending both by category and by store. This level of detail can help you understand not only which categories make up the bulk of your spending, but which retailers claim the most of your discretionary purchases. (Please note that this view is only available on desktop, not on the mobile app.)
Chase tracking tools
Chase offers several tools to help you view and track your spending, whether you’re logging into your account online or using the Chase Mobile app.
If you’re logging in online, you can access these tools by clicking More and then Expense Report. If you’re on the mobile app, scroll down under your accounts and tap on “Expenses and Budgeting” and then “Expenses Summary”.
Once you have a summary of expenses, you can view your spending history by month or year. Both the app and the web have a line chart that tracks your spending over a period of time, as well as a horizontal bar that summarizes your spending by category.
Capital One Tracking Tools
Capital One doesn’t offer many tools for tracking expenses. In your online profile, you can sort or filter your published transactions into categories, but you yourself can use this information to create a clear picture of where your money is going.
You have the option to download a year-end summary of expenses, which you can access by logging into your online account, clicking View Reports, opening a drop-down menu that allows you to select a date and return to the previous year.
This expense summary gives you the ability to view your annual expenses by category and includes several visual tools designed to help you see where your money went during a given year.
While Capital One’s expense tracking options are fairly simple, you can still use them to get a better idea of how you’re spending your money. If you sort your published transactions into categories, it’s easy to see which categories make up the majority of your spending and whether it’s time to cut back on one of those categories.
You can also use the year-end summary to track spending trends. Aside from outliers such as vacations and holiday months, are you spending less or more each month overall?
Citi Tracking Tools
Citi offers expense tracking summaries through your online account and through the Citi Mobile app. These color-coded charts are easily accessible. Just scroll down the app until you see the expense summary, or click “Expense Summary” on the web toolbar. You can display expense data for a specific month, statement, year, or custom date range.
After viewing the expense summary, select any expense category to view a list of expenses associated with that category. This way, you will be able to determine if most of your spending on “Products” went to grocery stores, clothing stores, or shopping on Amazon.
The more you know about your daily spending habits, the easier it will be for you to decide if you need to change the way you spend money.
Budget Management Alternatives
If your credit card issuer doesn’t offer expense trackers, you still have plenty of ways to manage your spending and your budget.
Popular budgeting apps like Mint and YNAB pull information from your credit cards, bank accounts, and investment accounts to give you an overview of your finances. The Goodbudget app uses a proven envelope system to help you plan your money and track your spending. Some consumers even build their own budgets in spreadsheet programs such as Excel or Google Sheets.
There are many different ways to budget and track your expenses. A credit card expense tracker can give you an idea of where your money is going and help you adjust your spending habits. A budgeting app or spreadsheet can help you develop a detailed plan to cut costs, pay off debt, or save up for your next vacation.
Regardless of which you choose, the simple act of opening and browsing the financial management tool should give you more insight into how you’re spending your money right now—and how you might want to spend your money in the future.
Editorial disclaimer
The editorial content on this page is based solely on the objective judgment of our contributors and is not based on advertising. It was not provided or ordered by credit card issuers. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to our partners’ products.
