How do bill reminders work?

A bill reminder is a quiet heads-up before a recurring charge, in time to change or cancel it. Nothing is sent until you turn it on.

Bill reminders are included with Grow and up. Getting them by text is included with Thrive and Thrive Duo.

Turn on bill reminders

1. 1

   Open Reminders

   On Recurring, choose Reminders at the top. On a phone, it's the bell button. The same settings are on your Profile, under Reminders.

2. 2

   Switch on Bill reminders

   Turn on Bill reminders. Under Coming up, you'll see the charges you'd hear about and the day each reminder goes out, worked out from your own charges.

3. 3

   Choose when to be reminded

   Under When to remind you, pick Smart, 1 day before, 3 days before or A week before.

4. 4

   Choose which charges (optional)

   Under Remind me about, keep Every charge or pick $5 and up, $10 and up or $25 and up. The line under it names the charges your choice leaves out, and Coming up changes to match right away.

5. 5

   Choose how to reach you

   Under How to reach you, turn on Email, Text message or both. Every change saves as you make it; in the dialog, choose Done when you're finished.

Smart gives more notice for charges that come less often: 3 days before a monthly charge, 5 days before one every 3 months, 7 days before one every 6 months and 10 days before a yearly renewal.

Which charges get a reminder

• Money going out, charged monthly or less often: monthly, every 3 months, every 6 months or yearly. Weekly charges and income are left out, so reminders don't pile up.
• Charges we're sure of: ones we've seen come back a few times, or ones you confirmed or added yourself.
• Once this cycle's charge has come in. If your transactions are behind, for example a statement not uploaded yet or a bank that stopped syncing, we wait rather than remind you about money that may already be gone.

To check one charge, open it on the Recurring page and choose Remind me. Its line says what will happen, like "3 days before each charge · next one Oct 28", or why it gets no reminder.

How often you'll hear from us

At most one message a day. Heads-ups are bundled, so one message covers everything due in the next few days. For most people that's once a week or less.

Email or text

Emails go to the address on your account. For texts, verify your mobile number first: on your Profile, open Text messages, or choose Set up texts in the Reminders settings. See manage emails and text messages.

While a reminder is on, at least one way to reach you has to stay on. To see what a reminder looks like, choose Send a test email or Send a test text.

Stop reminders

• All of them: switch off Bill reminders in the Reminders settings.
• For one charge: open it on the Recurring page, choose Remind me and switch off Heads-up before each charge.
• Emails: choose Stop these emails at the bottom of any reminder email, then Stop reminder emails. Texts, if you have them on, stay as they are.
• Texts: reply STOP to any text. Texts stay off until you text START to the same number.