MyBudget is an Australian financial services company based in Adelaide, South Australia, which provides personal budget management services.
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Tammy Barton |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | Tammy Barton |
| Services | Personal Budgeting |
History
editMyBudget was founded in 1999[1] by Australian entrepreneur and personal finance expert Tammy Barton. During one of her first jobs at a legal firm, Barton noticed a lack of assistance for people struggling with the damaging effects of financial stress. Using this as inspiration for MyBudget, Barton decided to help them herself and built the business from her kitchen table from the southern suburbs of Adelaide.[2] Barton’s main motivation was to help individuals improve their financial position by formulating a tailored budget and by managing their finances on their behalf.[3] Their first office was located in Adelaide, South Australia.
Product
editMyBudget provides a personal budgeting service which analyses a client's finances, including income, expenses and debt. The budgeting system works by ranking each bill in order of priority categories, from those which are the highest, such as living expenses and mortgage repayments, to those with a lower priority.
Criticism and malware
editIn December 2013, MyBudget was named in a national current affairs television report as "profiteering at the expense of people who are struggling with debt".[4] MyBudget issued a statement responding to the report, claiming that "the segment was an unbalanced attack on our industry and that many of the comments made are inaccurate".[5]
In 2017, MyBudget was the object of a class action due to withholding interest accrued by clients.[6] In September 2018, the courts dismissed the proceedings, with Judge Lee stating that "MyBudget obtains and suffers the pluses and minuses of the bank accounts necessary to discharge its obligations to provide the services," and, in addition, "The Provision did not cause an overall detriment, financial or otherwise, to clients".[7]
In May 2020, MyBudget was the confirmed target of a cyberattack. As a result, the company quickly moved its employees into work-from-home arrangements amid the coronavirus outbreak.[8] Automatic transfers were interrupted, but progressed manually. Customers expressed concerns as to whether the significant personal data held by MyBudget had been leaked or hacked.[9] Later, hackers claimed to have stolen data from MyBudget using ransomware and threatened to publish it unless paid.[10] During the ransomware attack "users were unable to view their account balance for at least seven days."[11] In a statement to the media on 15 May 2020, MyBudget stated that there was "no credible evidence that significant data was accessed or will be misused [h]owever we can't rule this out and are taking all cautionary measures".[8]
References
edit- ^ Blacher, Gali (26 October 2018). "How Tammy Barton built a $34 million a year business". Dynamic Business. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
- ^ http://www.afr.com/business/financial-freedom-just-a-budget-away-20120509-jyzl4
- ^ http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/south-australian-tammy-mays-mybudget-business-aimed-at-helping-people-budget-is-making-an-impact-in-different-ways/news-story/2dc8b758510104f36de7ca6d9c1fc676
- ^ The businesses cashing-in on people under financial stress 7:30 Report, ABC TV, 9 December 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
- ^ "ABC 730 Report Response From MyBudget :: MyBudget". www.mybudget.com.au. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015.
- ^ "'Debt vultures' 'preying' on the financially vulnerable, lawyers say". ABC News. 5 April 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ "Judge dismisses MyBudget consumer class action – Lawyerly". Lawyerly. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
- ^ a b Siebert, Bension and Krishnan, Shuba (15 May 2020) MyBudget blames ransomware hack for system outage affecting thousands of customers ABC News. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
- ^ Slessor, Camron; Martin, Patrick (13 May 2020). "MyBudget system outage leaves thousands of Australian customers in financial limbo". ABC News. ABC.
- ^ Martin, Patrick (2 June 2020). "Hackers threaten to release data stolen during MyBudget cyberattack". ABC News.
- ^ Collett, John (11 October 2022). "Budgeting apps share your financial data, but how safe are they?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 October 2022.