MyBudget: How does it work and how much does it cost?



How does MyBudget work?

MyBudget is a personal budgeting service that can manage paying your bills, saving toward your goals, and renegotiating debt repayments on your behalf.

MyBudget helps their clients develop a plan for their money based on their lifestyle, debt obligations and savings goals. The initial planning step is free. At this point, MyBudget will inform the client of their service fees and the client can then decide whether they want to hire MyBudget to implement the plan for them.

If the client decides to proceed, MyBudget will:

  • create a MyBudget account where the client’s money will be managed
  • negotiate payment arrangements with creditors (if client in hardship)
  • pay client’s bills using the funds in their MyBudget account
  • transfer living expenses into the client’s personal bank account
  • set the client up with access to their budgeting app and website

How much does MyBudget cost?

MyBudget doesn’t publish their fees as they indicate their fees depend on the "…complexity and level of support you required".

This lack of transparency is a bit of a red flag for me. I feel consumers should be able to find out this information upfront, so they can make an informed decision and not waste their time.

Here are the typical MyBudget fees reported by MyBudget clients in recent years (last updated February 2025):

  • Establishment fee: $1,200-1,800 typically paid over 6-8 months
  • Administration fee: $45-60 per week, which adds up to $2,300-3,100 per year

This means that most clients will pay over $3,000 in fees during their first year with MyBudget.

These client-reported fees seem believable based on the overall figures reported by MyBudget. MyBudget reported $60 million per year of revenue and 13,000-20,000 active clients, which implies average fees of over $3,000 per year per client.

If there are any MyBudget representatives reading this article, we’d be happy to update these figures if you’d like to be more transparent about your actual fees charged.

Advantages of using MyBudget

  • Helps you sort out your finances if you’re feeling overwhelmed
  • Helps you reduce unpaid bills, late payment penalties and impact on your credit report
  • Negotiates payment plans with your creditors on your behalf if you’re in financial hardship
  • Displays all your cash flow in one place using their app or website

Disadvantages of using MyBudget

  • Expensive compared to alternative options (see MyBudget alternatives)
  • Doesn’t focus on helping you learn to take control of your finances yourself, so you may remain dependent on them for many years and need to keep paying their significant administration fees of over $2,000 per year
  • They take their fee first before paying your creditors, so you won’t be getting on top of your debts as fast as you could doing it yourself
  • Their “no lock-in contracts” claim fails to mention that the significant establishment fee remains payable if you cancel the contract before it has been paid off
  • You remain ultimately responsible if your bills aren’t paid and debt collectors will still chase you if you fall behind – you’re outsourcing the administration not overall accountability
  • MyBudget keep all the interest earned on your money, which could be significant if you start to accumulate a decent amount of savings in your MyBudget account
  • You’re reliant on MyBudget’s system for managing your money, so you could temporarily lose access to your money if they have a system outage (like the major outage in 2020)

Most common issues raised in MyBudget reviews

We've analysed hundreds of MyBudget reviews online and here are the most common issues raised by customers (ordered by frequency):

  • Expensive fees ("The fees they charge are massive!")
  • Unable to access own funds for multiple days during hacking incident in 2020
  • Bills not paid on-time - customer comments suggest this is may be caused by a combination of MyBudget taking their fee first, MyBudget not handling variable income and expenses well, and MyBudget admin errors
  • No dedicated budget specialist - different person every time you contact MyBudget
  • Too quick to recommend bankruptcy as the solution
  • Poor communication, especially the long wait/response times
  • Unable to transfer money on weekends as they only do transfers on business days
  • Unprofessional staff (e.g., condescending, judgmental, etc.)
  • No interest paid on savings
  • Extra fees for contacting MyBudget "too often"

Can I avoid paying MyBudget's establishment fee if I’m not satisfied?

If you’re still in your two-day cooling off period

If you only signed your MyBudget contract in the last two days, then you’re still in the cooling off period for the agreement and should be able to cancel without having to pay the establishment fee.

If MyBudget indicate they need to send you a link to cancel the agreement, then demand they send it to you immediately, so you don’t miss out on cancelling the agreement during the two-day period.

If you’re outside of your two-day cooling off period

If you signed your MyBudget agreement more than two days ago, then you’re outside of the cooling off period and you can’t simply cancel the agreement and avoid paying the establishment fee.

However, if you believe their budgeting service has not been “fit for a particular purpose”, and it can’t be fixed, then you could try to cancel the contract based on consumer guarantees under Australian Consumer Law.

For example, if MyBudget indicated during your free initial planning session that you would be able to achieve your savings goal by using their service, but then it turned out that your savings goal is not actually achievable because they failed to account for several foreseeable expenses, then one might argue their budgeting service was not “fit for a particular purpose” (see client case study on pages 28-29).

In that case, I would be calling MyBudget to request they cancel my agreement and waive the remainder of my establishment fee as I don’t believe their budgeting service has been “fit for a particular purpose” as per Australian Consumer Law.

What are the alternatives to using MyBudget?

There are many alternatives to using MyBudget. The right option for you will depend on whether you feel like you could build a budget with just a couple tips and tools, or whether you’re feeling overwhelmed and need personal support to get your budget in place. The extra support tends to comes at a cost though.

Your alternatives to using MyBudget, ranked from lowest to highest cost, are:

Option Description Cost
Moneysmart Check out the Australian Government’s Moneysmart website, which has a range of articles and tools about how to do a budget, tracking your spending, managing on a low income, saving for an emergency fund, simple ways to save money, etc. Free
National Debt Helpline If you’re in financial hardship (e.g., unable to make debt repayments), then you can access free financial counselling via the National Debt Helpline. They’ll help you manage your debts and get your finances back under control. Free
Budgeting books Read a budgeting book, like the Barefoot Investor, then complete the activities to develop your own budget. You can even borrow it for free from your local library. $0-30
Budgeting apps Sign-up to a budgeting tool like YNAB that comes with a heap of helpful articles and online training sessions about budgeting. $100-200
Financial coach Hire a financial coach, like Afford a House, to help you get clear on where your money is going, clarify your goals, develop a realistic budget, then support you in implementing your money plan and putting your savings on auto-pilot. This should get you to a similar point as MyBudget without the ongoing administration fee of over $2,000 per year. $400-700
Budgeting specialist Hire a different personal budgeting service, like Sort My Money, who offer a similar service to MyBudget, but advertise that they charge a lower weekly fee and no establishment fee. $1,500-2,000
Financial advisor Hire a financial advisor to help you with budgeting. They’re an expensive option if you’re only seeking help with budgeting, but the advantage of using a financial advisor is that they can also provide you with financial product advice at the same time. $3,500-4,500

Keen to take control of your finances, but don't want to pay thousands for MyBudget?

We would love to help you take control of your finances and smash your financial goals!

Our financial coaching program costs a fraction of MyBudget's service while also being more sustainable in the long-run.

Book a free 15-minute call today, so we can discuss how financial coaching could help and answer any questions you may have.