My Gains App review: what is Gains and how does it work?

Gains is a money-management app that helps you keep a closer eye on what’s coming in, what’s going out and where your money is being spent.

You can connect your bank accounts through Open Banking, which brings your transaction information into one place and organises your spending into categories. From there, you can see where your money is going, set budgets, create savings goals and get a clearer picture of your day-to-day finances.

It also lets you earn cashback. Gains does this by having you purchase digital gift cards from participating retailers, and Gains will reward you with a percentage of that gift card purchase as cashback in your Gains wallet as soon as the gift card payment has been confirmed.

That means the same app can help you track your spending while also giving you the chance to earn something back on purchases you were already planning to make.

I’ve been testing the Gains App through Gains Pro and have connected several of the accounts I use for personal and joint household spending. I’ve found the spending categories and monthly targets particularly useful because they show me where my money has actually gone, rather than where I thought it had gone.

I’ve also tested the cashback side with Tesco gift cards, although for me the budgeting and money-management tools are still the main reason I use the app.

How does the Gains App work?

Once you connect an account, Gains imports the transaction information you’ve authorised and starts organising it for you. The bank connection is provided through TrueLayer, and access is read-only, meaning Gains can see the account information you choose to share but can’t use that connection to move money from your bank account.

Your transactions are then grouped into categories, giving you a running picture of where your money is going without having to enter everything manually into a spreadsheet or budgeting software.

A lot of the work is done automatically, which is what I find useful about this type of budgeting app. Gains can show your spending by category or retailer, compare different periods and highlight recurring payments, so it’s much easier to get an overall view of what’s happening across your accounts.

Gains Pro gives you more bank connections and a longer spending history, while the free version includes the main budgeting tools but limits you to one connected account.

Having all that information in one place can also help you spot areas where you may want to make changes. You might notice that one spending category has crept up, or see a recurring payment you’d forgotten was still coming out each month, giving you the chance to decide whether you still need it.

That’s where the extra information available through Pro could start to justify the cost: if it helps you identify and cut unnecessary spending that's worth more than the subscription, the upgrade could effectively pay for itself.

What happened when I connected my bank accounts?

I’ve been testing Gains using the Pro plan and have connected several of the bank accounts we use for personal and household spending. That gives me a much better picture than looking at one account on its own, because our bills and day-to-day spending come from more than one place.

The connection process worked without any problems for me, and once the accounts were linked, the transaction information appeared in Gains very quickly.

Automatic spending categorisation is probably the feature I’ve used most. I can look at a category such as food, see what we’ve actually spent, and compare it with previous months, rather than trying to remember where the money went.

I can then use those actual figures as the starting point to set a target for the following month, rather than simply guessing what we should be spending.

That’s been much more useful than just seeing a chart showing what went out last month. Having the figures broken down properly gives me something I can actually work with when I’m planning our spending and trying to keep certain areas under control.

If you’re trying to get a better handle on your finances, having that information in front of you can make it much easier to see where changes might be worth making.

Can you set budgets and spending targets in Gains?

Yes, Gains lets you set a monthly spending budget and keep track of your spending by category. The free version includes the main budgeting tools, while Gains Pro currently provides 12 months of spending history instead of 2 and supports up to 8 custom categories. Having that longer history gives you much more to work with, since spending can fluctuate widely from one month to the next.

I find it useful being able to look back at what I actually spent and use that as the starting point for the next month. Food is a good example because, as I write this, we’ve just come through the summer holidays and spent time camping, so our food spending was much more erratic than usual, with more impulse buys and meals out.

Seeing that clearly means I can understand why the figure was higher, decide whether it was a one-off and then set a more realistic target for the following month.

That can have a knock-on effect elsewhere too. If I know we’ve had an expensive month, and money is going to be tighter, I can look at what we already have in the cupboards, fridge, and freezer and try to use more of it before buying anything else.

Gains can’t make those spending decisions for me, but it gives me real figures and patterns to work from, which is far more useful than trying to remember what I think we spent and setting a budget based on guesswork.

How do savings goals work in Gains?

Gains includes savings goals and challenges, so you can set targets and track your progress. The free plan lets you set one savings goal, while Gains Pro lets you set up to 5, which is useful if you’re putting money aside for several different things at the same time. That might be a holiday, a new car, an emergency fund or simply something you know you’re going to need to pay for later.

Talking of emergency funds, Gains also has an emergency fund calculator that uses your monthly expenses, current savings and how much you can put aside each month to help you work towards a target. I’d use it as a planning tool rather than treating the figure it gives you as a hard rule, because the amount you need will depend on your own household, income and expenses.

My guide to why emergency funds matter looks at this in more detail, and having recently had to buy a new fridge at a time when I’d rather not have spent the money, I can definitely see the benefit of having something set aside for those unexpected costs.

I also like having day-to-day spending and savings goals in the same app because it makes the connection between the two much easier to see. If I can cut £30 from one spending category, I can then decide whether that £30 would be better going towards a savings goal instead.

Gains doesn’t move the money for you, but it gives you the information you need to see where your spending and saving may not quite match, and then make changes to suit what you’re trying to achieve.

What is the Gains net worth tracker?

The net worth tracker is a Gains Pro feature that brings together information about your assets and debts to give you an overall picture of your finances. In simple terms, your net worth is the value of what you own minus what you owe. The tracker can include items such as cash in the bank, investments, property, and pensions, as well as any debts or other liabilities you have.

That gives you a much wider view than simply checking the balance in your current account. You can use it to see whether your debts are decreasing, whether the value of your assets is growing, and whether your overall financial position is moving in the right direction over time; think of it as a personal wealth-tracking tool.

The figure is only as useful as the information you give it, so you do need to include all of the relevant assets and debts for it to mean anything. If something important is missing, the total won’t show the full picture, and some values, such as property, can change over time anyway.

For me, it works best as a way to keep an eye on the direction of my finances and to spot whether things seem to be improving or whether I might need to make some changes.

What is Worth the Work?

Worth the Work is probably one of my favourite tools in Gains, despite being quite a simple idea. You enter the price of something you’re thinking of buying and your hourly take-home pay, and it works out how many hours you would need to work to pay for it. That gives you a very different way of judging a purchase than simply looking at the price tag.

I tried it with a £1,000 phone and an hourly rate of £12, which worked out at around 83.3 hours of work! A £1,000 phone sadly doesn’t seem particularly unusual these days, but being told I would have to work for more than 83 hours to pay for it makes me look at that £1,000 rather differently; it then becomes a question of whether that phone is really worth giving up that much of my working time for.

Someone once gave me a way of thinking about this that has stuck with me ever since. Think back to a really horrible day at work, then imagine having to do another 83.3 hours of that job, on that horrible work day, purely to pay for the thing you want to buy! If that doesn’t feel like a fair exchange for what you’re getting, that’s a pretty strong sign to me that I probably shouldn’t be buying it.

For me, as someone with ADHD, this pause before buying something can be particularly useful because it forces me to look at the purchase in a completely different way, rather than just reacting to the price in front of me. The answer might still be yes, and if I genuinely think the thing I’m buying is worth those hours of my time, that’s fine.

But for such a small, free tool in the app, Worth the Work is probably one of the Gains features I’ll remember and use most.

What other calculators does Gains include?

Gains has a pretty substantial financial toolbox alongside the main app. The current tools cover areas such as take-home pay, hourly wages, debt repayment, budgeting, emergency funds, compound interest, house affordability, mortgage repayments and cashback.

There are salary comparison tools too, which can help put your earnings into a wider UK context.

I’d treat these as useful planning tools rather than something that tells you what financial decision to make. A mortgage calculator, for example, can show what a particular loan amount, interest rate and term might mean for your monthly payments, and you can adjust things such as the deposit to see how the figures change.

It won’t tell you what a lender will actually offer you or whether taking out that mortgage is the right decision, but it can give you a useful idea of what the monthly cost might look like.

The same applies to the calculators for debt, investing and general affordability. They can help make the numbers easier to understand and give you a clearer idea of your position, but they can’t replace proper advice where you need it. The debt tools also point people towards free support from StepChange and Citizens Advice, which is where I’d go if I needed help dealing with creditors or working through a difficult debt situation.

For me, that’s the best way to use this part of Gains. Use the calculators to understand the numbers and get some context, then speak to the appropriate support service or qualified adviser if you need help making a more serious financial decision. The tools can give you useful information, but there are some situations where you’re always better off speaking to an expert.

What does the Gains AI money assistant do?

Gains includes an AI financial assistant that can help you answer questions about your finances using information from the bank accounts you’ve connected to the app. The idea is that you can ask questions about your spending in normal language, almost as if you were asking another person, and the AI will use your transaction information to give you an answer. Free users get limited AI access, while Gains Pro currently includes unlimited AI chat messages and agents.

I’ve played around with this feature, but I haven’t used it in enough depth yet to say how much extra value it adds over the normal budgeting screens. I’ve asked it a few basic questions about my own spending, and the answers made sense, but I haven’t pushed it much further than that. I do plan to use it more, particularly for more detailed questions, and I’ll update this section once I’ve had more time with it.

I’d treat the AI assistant as a useful way to explore your own spending and get the information back in an easier-to-understand format, rather than as a place to get professional financial advice. Gains quite correctly states that its tools are for general information and guidance and don’t constitute regulated financial, investment, or legal advice.

As with any AI tool, the answers may not always be perfect, so if you’re making an important financial decision or need proper advice, I’d still speak to an appropriate qualified professional rather than relying on the AI alone.

How does Gains cashback work?

Gains cashback mainly works through digital gift cards that you buy before shopping. You choose a participating retailer in the app, select the gift card amount, and pay for it; then Gains credits cashback at the rate shown for that purchase. You use the gift card with the retailer afterwards, subject to that retailer’s rules about where and how the card can be spent.

The gift card cashback is available instantly once the payment is confirmed. Gains says the cashback is normally credited to your balance within 60 seconds, so you aren’t waiting for the retailer to track and approve the purchase, as you often do with traditional cashback sites. In my own Tesco test, the cashback appeared as part of the gift-card purchase, which is exactly what I’d expect from this type of cashback.

I’d still use it on spending I was already planning to make. A 5% cashback rate doesn’t save me money if it convinces me to spend £100 that I otherwise wouldn’t have spent. I decide what I need to buy first, then see whether a gift card can knock something off the cost.

What cashback have I actually earned with Gains?

I’ve used Gains to buy a Tesco gift card, and like most gift-card cashback services, the cashback is instant. Once you buy the gift card, whatever cashback you’ve earned from that purchase is added straight to your Gains wallet rather than sitting there waiting for the retailer to approve it, as a conventional cashback service might.

When I bought mine, Tesco was paying 3.5% cashback, which was pretty similar to the rates I was seeing elsewhere at the time.

Once you’ve built up £10 in your Gains wallet, you can withdraw the cashback to your bank account, although Gains currently charges 20p to cover the banking cost. You can also use your cashback towards another gift card inside the app, and there’s no withdrawal charge if you do that.

So, if I were going to withdraw the money and then spend it at Tesco anyway, I’d probably use the cashback to buy another Tesco gift card and save myself the 20p.

As with any cashback service, I’d still compare rates before buying because there’s no guarantee any one app will always pay the most. I regularly check my JamDoughnut review, TopCashback review, Quidco review and Rakuten review, and my wider UK cashback apps and websites guide explains how the different types of cashback work.

That said, if one app is paying 3.6% and another is paying 3.5%, I’m not going to spend ages chasing the extra 0.1% because, quite frankly, it probably won’t bring my retirement date forward by much.

What is the Gains Cashback Streak?

The Cashback Streak is an extra reward for people who buy cashback gift cards regularly through Gains. If you make at least one qualifying gift-card purchase of any value each week for 4 consecutive weeks, you unlock a Cashback Boost. The same happens again at 8 weeks, 12 weeks and later multiples of 4, as long as you keep the streak going.

The Cashback Boost is a single-use reward that increases the cashback rate on a single eligible digital gift card purchase. You choose which eligible retailer you want to use it with, so it could be useful for somewhere you shop regularly, such as a supermarket. Once you unlock a boost, you have 28 days to use it before it expires.

If you miss a qualifying purchase for a week, the streak resets and you start again. So, if you’ve made qualifying purchases for 3 weeks and then miss the fourth, you’re back to the beginning rather than carrying those 3 weeks forward. That means the feature is likely to be more useful if you already buy gift cards regularly.

I still wouldn’t use Gains purely to protect a streak if another cashback service was paying a meaningfully better rate. I’d compare first, and if Gains is competitive, the streak becomes a useful extra. If the difference elsewhere is tiny, I probably wouldn’t overthink it, but I wouldn’t make an unnecessary purchase to keep the streak alive.

How much does Gains cost?

Gains has a free plan, while Gains Pro currently costs £5.99 per month or £49.99 annually. The free version includes one bank connection, 2 months of spending history, one savings goal, cashback and limited AI use. Pro increases several of those limits and adds features aimed at people who want to bring more of their finances into the same app.

The main differences are easier to compare side by side. These were the limits Gains was publishing when I checked the review, so I’d still look at the Gains Pro page before paying in case anything has changed. The table also makes it easier to see whether the features you actually want are already included for free.

Feature	Gains Free	Gains Pro
Price	£0	£5.99 monthly or £49.99 annually
Bank connections	1	Up to 6
Spending history	2 months	12 months
AI chat	Limited	Unlimited
Savings goals	1	Up to 5
Custom categories	Standard categories	Up to 8 custom categories
Net worth tracker	No	Yes
Gift-card cashback	Yes	Yes

I’m testing Pro, and the extra bank connections are useful for me because my spending isn’t all coming from one account. If you mainly use one account and want the budgeting and cashback features, the free version may already give you enough to see whether Gains suits you. I’d start with what you want the app to help with and only pay if the Pro features solve something the free version doesn’t.

Is Gains Pro worth £49.99 a year?

From my perspective, Gains Pro is worth considering if you’re actually going to use the extra bank connections, longer spending history and additional tools. I find being able to connect several accounts useful because it gives me a better view of household and personal spending together, rather than looking at one account and potentially missing money going out elsewhere. Being able to set spending targets across more of my finances is one of the main reasons Pro works for me.

If you only use one main bank account, you may find the free plan already gives you everything you need for budgeting and cashback. Even if you have several accounts, nothing is stopping you from starting with the free version first to see how useful you find the app before paying for Pro. If you keep hitting the free limits or find yourself wanting the extra features, you’ll have a much better idea of whether the £49.99 annual cost is worth it for you.

For me, the value comes down to whether the information helps me make better decisions about my spending. If Gains helps you spot unnecessary spending, stick to budgets or save more than the £49.99 annual fee, then Pro could pay for itself fairly quickly.

It never hurts to have a clearer picture of where your money is going, but I’d still start with the free plan and only upgrade once you know the extra features are genuinely useful to you.

Can you withdraw Gains cashback to your bank?

You can withdraw cashback from your Gains wallet to a UK bank account once you reach the £10 minimum. Gains currently charges 20p for a bank withdrawal to help cover the banking cost, although you can avoid that charge by using your cashback towards another gift card instead.

If I were going to withdraw the money and then spend it somewhere like Tesco or Argos anyway, I’d probably buy the gift card and save myself the 20p.

Cashback can expire 12 months after it’s awarded if you haven’t redeemed it, so I wouldn’t use the Gains wallet as somewhere to leave money sitting indefinitely. I’ve spoken to plenty of people over the years who build up cashback for Christmas, only to forget that some services put a time limit on how long it stays available.

If you’re saving it up for something later, I’d set myself a reminder and make sure I use or withdraw it before any expiry date catches me out.

You can also use the cashback towards a gift card for somewhere you know you’ll spend it. That could be useful if, for example, you’re saving towards a purchase at Argos or another retailer available in the app. I’d still check how that particular gift card can be used before buying it, because some are in-store only, some work online, and gift cards can have their own expiry terms too.

I also wouldn’t leave a large cashback balance sitting in any app for longer than I needed to. A cashback wallet isn’t the same as a savings account, and if a company ever ran into financial problems, accessing the money or rewards held in it could become more difficult.

That applies to cashback services generally, no matter how big or established they are, so once I’ve built up a useful balance, I’d rather withdraw it or use it for something I was already going to buy.

What are the drawbacks of using Gains cashback?

One thing I’ve learnt from using gift card cashback over the years is to check the retailer’s gift card terms before buying one, particularly if you’re loading a large amount onto it. Different retailers have different rules about whether gift cards can be used online or in-store, how long they last and what happens if you need a refund. Those details might not matter much on a £20 shop, but they can become a much bigger issue when you’re spending hundreds or even thousands of pounds.

I found this out myself after buying an expensive sofa using gift cards to earn cashback. I later decided I didn’t like the sofa and returned it, but because I’d paid with gift cards, the refund was issued as a credit to the same retailer rather than as money I could spend elsewhere. I didn’t actually want another sofa from them, but I ended up having to choose one because the refunded money was tied up there.

I’m also more cautious about using gift cards for expensive purchases where Section 75 protection could be useful, such as furniture, electrical goods or holidays. MoneyHelper’s Section 75 guidance says that if an individual item costs more than £100 and up to £30,000, paying even part of the cost directly by credit card can give you legal protection if something goes wrong.

You don’t have to put the whole purchase on the credit card, but using gift cards or other payment services can complicate the payment chain, so I’d check the protection in place before relying on them for a large purchase.

For example, if I wanted to use gift cards for an expensive purchase but still wanted Section 75 protection, I’d consider paying part of the purchase directly to the retailer by credit card rather than putting the entire amount on gift cards. MoneyHelper confirms that you can still receive Section 75 protection when only part of a qualifying purchase is paid by credit card.

There are a few smaller things to remember with Gains too, including the 20p bank-withdrawal charge, the 12-month cashback expiry and the separate retailer specific terms attached to any gift card you buy. Gains isn’t the only cashback service to charge a small fee for moving cashback into your bank account, so I wouldn’t see the 20p charge as a reason not to use it. I’d simply avoid it where possible by using the cashback towards another gift card instead

None of those would stop me from using Gains, and they aren’t problems unique to Gains either; it's the same with all cashback services. They’re simply things I take into account whenever I’m using any gift-card cashback service, particularly when there’s a large amount of money involved.

Is Gains safe to connect to your bank?

Gains uses TrueLayer for its Open Banking connection, which is the same setup used by many other finance and money-management apps. The access is read-only, so Gains can see the account and transaction information you choose to share, but it can’t use that connection to move money from your bank account. You can also revoke the Open Banking access later if you decide you no longer want the account connected.

I know this side of money-management apps can make people nervous, because handing an app access to bank information sounds more dramatic than it actually is. The key point for me is that Gains isn’t being given control of the account; it’s being allowed to read the information you’ve authorised so it can analyse your spending. I’m comfortable using it, and I wouldn't recommend something that wasn't safe!

Gains Money App Ltd is a registered agent of RiskSave Technologies Ltd under the Payment Services Regulations, and RiskSave is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Gains itself isn’t a bank or financial adviser, and its terms make clear that the information and tools in the app aren’t regulated financial, investment or legal advice.

I’d use the app to help understand my own spending and finances, but if I needed professional advice about something more serious, I’d still speak to the appropriate qualified adviser.

Who is the Gains App likely to suit?

Gains could suit quite a wide range of people, because the useful part is really how much information you want it to give you. If you mainly want a clearer view of where your money is going, the free version may already be enough. If you want to connect several accounts, look further back through your spending and use more of the analysis tools, Pro starts to make more sense.

For me, the strongest part is still the money-management side. The spending categories, targets, savings goals and calculators give you a better picture of your finances than simply opening your banking app and checking the balance.

If your money is spread across several accounts, being able to bring more of that information together can make the Pro version more useful.

The cashback is then an extra on top. Anyone who follows me will know I talk about cashback a lot, but I’d still describe Gains as a money-management and budgeting app first, with gift-card cashback built into it. That combination is what makes it useful to me, rather than treating it as just another cashback app.

As with every cashback service I use, I’d still compare rates before buying a gift card. Different services can be paying different percentages at the same retailer, and spending a couple of minutes checking can sometimes make a worthwhile difference. If the rates are almost identical, I probably wouldn’t overthink it, but if another service is paying noticeably more, I’d use the better rate.

What do I think of the Gains App so far?

My Gains App review is positive so far, and I think that comes across quite clearly by now. I like how easy it is to look at my spending, see where my money is going and set targets without the whole thing feeling overly complicated. Being able to bring information from several accounts together has given me a much clearer picture of my spending than simply checking individual bank balances.

Worth the Work is probably my favourite feature. I’ve used this way of thinking about spending for years, asking myself how long I’d have to work to pay for something and whether that feels like a fair exchange for my time. Seeing that calculation laid out in front of you can be quite sobering, particularly with a bigger purchase.

If the amount of time I’d need to work doesn’t feel worth what I’m buying, that’s usually a pretty good reason for me to reconsider it.

The cashback side works much as I’d expect from other gift-card cashback services, and I like having it built into the same app. As I say with every cashback app I use, it’s worth spending a couple of minutes comparing rates before buying a gift card to see whether the rate you’re being offered can be beaten elsewhere. Still, overall it does what I'd expect from a cashback gift card service.

There are still parts of Gains I want to spend more time with, particularly the AI assistant, which I think has a lot of potential. If the budgeting features sound useful to you, I’d start with the free account and see how much you actually use it before paying for Pro. £49.99 is still £49.99, but if the extra tools help you spot unnecessary spending, improve your budgeting or save more than that over the year, Pro could end up paying for itself fairly quickly.

Want to try Gains?

This review isn’t a paid partnership with Gains, and whether you use my referral code or not hasn’t changed what I’ve written about the app. Everything in this review is based on my own experience and genuine opinion of using Gains.

If you’d like to try Gains after reading this review, you’re very welcome to use my referral link to download the Gains app and then enter referral code GSGNAA when you sign up.

Using my referral code will give you a £2 bonus once you meet the qualifying cashback requirement, and The Penny Pincher will receive the same bonus as you. Referral offers can change, and Gains occasionally runs boosted promotions with higher rewards, so check the offer shown when you sign up. Bonus cashback can also expire after 12 months if it isn’t redeemed, so it’s worth keeping an eye on the balance and withdraw it/buy a gift card with it, rather than leaving it sitting there indefinitely.

If you decide to download Gains, use referral code GSGNAA during sign-up. I’d still suggest starting with the free version to see how useful you find the budgeting tools before deciding whether Gains Pro is worth paying for.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Gains App?

Gains is a UK money-management app that combines Open Banking spending analysis, budgeting tools, savings goals, financial calculators and gift-card cashback. You can connect a bank account, review transactions, and set spending targets, while earning cashback by buying eligible digital gift cards. There is a free plan and an optional Gains Pro subscription with higher limits and extra features.

Is the Gains App free?

Yes, Gains has a free plan with one bank connection, 2 months of spending history, one savings goal, cashback and limited AI access. Gains Pro currently costs £5.99 a month or £49.99 a year and increases several of those limits. I’d try the free version first unless you already know you need the extra bank connections or Pro tools.

How does the Gains App work?

Gains uses Open Banking to bring authorised account and transaction information into the app, where it can be categorised and used for budgets and spending analysis. TrueLayer provides the bank-data connection, which Gains says is read-only. Cashback sits alongside those tools and is primarily earned by buying gift cards from participating retailers.

How does Gains cashback work?

You choose a participating retailer inside Gains, buy an eligible digital gift card and receive cashback at the rate shown for that purchase. Gains cashback is credited as soon as the gift-card payment is confirmed, usually within 60 seconds. You then use the gift card with the retailer, subject to its rules about online or in-store use.

Can you withdraw Gains cashback to your bank?

Yes, available Gains cashback can be transferred to a registered UK bank account once you reach the minimum balance set in the app. Gains has a £10 minimum withdrawal amount, and a 20p bank-transfer charge is deducted from the withdrawal amount. You can also use the available cashback towards another gift card purchase.

Is Gains safe to connect to your bank?

Gains says its bank-data connection is provided through TrueLayer and is read-only, so it can’t use that connection to move money from your account. Gains Money App Ltd is a registered agent of FCA-authorised RiskSave Technologies Ltd under reference 775330. You can also remove the Open Banking connection later if you decide you no longer want to use it.

Is Gains Pro worth paying for?

Gains Pro is more likely to be useful if you need several bank connections, 12 months of spending history, more savings goals, custom categories or the net worth tracker. I’ve found the extra account connections useful because my household spending is spread across multiple accounts. If you mainly use one account, I’d test the free plan before deciding whether £49.99 a year is justified.