Birch Finance 4+

Getting Better Everyday

First off this team is great to work with and provides the customer service of a high end car dealership on a daily basis even though they are not charging for the app. While the app as a few shortcomings right now there seems to be a new update every week making the tool more powerful and useful. At the end of the day this is a game changer for credit card rewards and gives visibility to money left on the table which can change your behavior in a manner to benefit your financial future. 1-2% cash back may not seem like a big deal but over a 30 year period it can add up to retirement a year earlier so be sure to use this program to help you get there.

Vague Categories

I can see how this might be useful, but so far it hasn’t really been useful for me because the categories do not accurately reflect my purchases. For example, the app categorized my rent payment as “home improvement” (gee I wish I could spend $940 a month on home improvement) and then told me I was missing out on cash returns. Except for the fact that I specifically transfer my rent directly from my bank account to avoid the $15 fee for using a credit or debit card, which is probably more than any potential cash back I might earn and which I’m pretty sure I really wouldn’t since it’s not home improvement or anything reward eligible. This happens for other transactions too; many are too vague to be sure I could actually have earned rewards. I realize it would be asking a lot to expect the app to take this sort of thing into account, I’m just expressing why it’s not that useful for me, and as a suggestion, maybe have an option to exclude certain categories/transactions from your score?

Developer Response ,

Hey there!

A couple of quick things:
1 - You can definitely change the category for purchases. We're reliant on what the banks send us back and so sometimes the categorization gets goofed up in the process
2 - If you sign in to your account on web you can choose to not include certain purchases in reward calculations, like this rent payment, for example. We're adding the option on the iOS app soon.

Please send us a chat in app if you have any issues!

Nice but needs tweaking for Bank of America

It can be hard to find your BOA cards because they are listed under odd iterations of BankAmericard Bank of America, etc. Also, if you are a member of the preferred rewards program it does not calculate the bonus rewards and as a result miscalculates what you are actually earning.

I do not believe they have the Bank of America premium rewards card either.