Money Donuts® Episode 1: All About Those Apps

Steve:
All right. How do you guys think that we should say Money Donuts? What does Money Donuts sound like to you?

Cooper:
I think we should all sing in unison, like an acapella band.

Steve:
All right. Three, two, one. Money-

James:
Money-

Steve:
Donuts.

James:
Donuts.

Cooper:
Money Donuts. Yeah, kind of like that.

James:
Money, money, money, donuts.

Steve:
Ooh, I like that.

James:
Steve, you got the bottom. I'll do the middle. You want to start-

Steve:
Did you give me the bottom?

James:
Yeah.

Steve:
You're like, "Money Donuts, you do the bottom, Steve."

James:
Sorry.

Steve:
"Okay, James, I'll do the bottom. Money Donuts." That's a good start to this first ever episode of Money Donuts from Royal Credit Union, a podcast all about money and donuts. I'll introduce, first of all, James, our content guru.

James:
Marketing content coordinator. But, oh, except sir.

Steve:
I usually just call him MCC. James on the MCC is a father of three, an avid bike rider, street, not mountain. So don't get that confused. I won't make that mistake again. And just overall a great guy. James, thanks for joining us.

James:
Yeah. Thanks for having me, Steve. It's a pleasure to be here today. With us today, we also have Cooper Larson, one of Royal's Community Financial Education Coordinators. Cooper is a self-professed dog-lover and thinks of herself as more of the coffee to the donut side of the podcast. Thanks for being here with us today, Cooper.

Cooper:
You're welcome. I live on coffee, so I'm happy to be the coffee of this podcast.

Steve:
Why name this podcast Money Donuts?

James:
There's just this vision, maybe it's just coming from working in an office, but there's the vision that a doughnut day is a good day. Donuts equal happiness. If you're eating a donut, there's nothing bad that can happen to you. Even if you spill your coffee all over the place, you're still having a donut. It's still a good day. I think for me, that's what Money Donuts, a little bit of positivity. It connects back to Royal Credit Union's core purpose to create a positive impact in the lives we touch. That just goes with donuts. It's perfect.

Cooper:
And they're easy. You walk into the office, there's a box of donuts in the break room, you can grab one, go to your desk, do your work, but you have an easy portable snack, breakfast, whatever it is, similar to a podcast. Take it in your pocket, listen wherever. It's easy. It's easy to get that fun information.

James:
So for our first ever episode, we wanted to pick something that would make people wake up and think about new things that are happening in the world of banking and the first thing that came to our minds was apps. Specifically mobile phone apps, smartphone apps, the little things that you have on your phone that's in your pocket that lets you do banking in new and different ways. And there's been a lot of change in this space lately, so we wanted to talk about some things that you can do to make banking easier for yourself and to find new opportunities to manage your accounts and your money better.

Steve:
What is the donut that represents this episode?

James:
The donut that we picked for this episode is the maple glazed Long John.

Steve:
I love maple glazed Long Johns.

Cooper:
Are we talking the maple glazed Long John with the bacon on top or just maple glazed?

James:
I was thinking just maple glazed, but if you want to sprinkle bacon on it, you absolutely can.

Cooper:
I think bacon makes everything better.

James:
That's a meal donut. That's a good idea.

Cooper:
Yeah.

Steve:
I have to disagree, though. When it comes to donuts, I think that bacon should just, it doesn't add much to it for me.

Cooper:
What? How does it-

James:
Bacon doesn't add much to it?

Steve:
It overpowers the donuts. It's like a really annoying mobile app. What would be a really annoying mobile app?

Cooper:
One that closes all the time. I'm trying to think of an example.

James:
One that sends you notifications when you don't even want them.

Cooper:
Yes. Like the fitness apps that, like your Apple Watch app that says, "Please stand right now," or, "Take a deep breath." I don't want to.

James:
You can do better.

Cooper:
Yes.

James:
Just do a brief 27 minute walk and you're there. No. No. No thank you.

Steve:
So bacon on a donut is a lot like a fitness app is what you're saying.

Cooper:
A fitness app that tells you what to do or tries to make you fitter.

James:
I'm definitely motivated by bacon on a donut in a way that I am not motivated by a fitness app, so there's that.

Cooper:
I would agree with that. I'll do a lot more for bacon than I will for a 20 minute walk.

James:
All right. Let's bring it back around to the topic mobile apps. The reason that we chose the maple glazed Long John with or without the bacon on top is because it's the perfect breakfast doughnut. It's the ideal donut to wake up with. And so that fits in with our theme of waking up to the world of mobile apps and how banking can be better with them.

Steve:
Let's talk about the Royal mobile app. What are some of those wake-up features that people, our members or non-members might not know that we have out there?

Cooper:
I will tell you my absolute favorite part of the mobile app still to this day. It's pretty basic, people probably know, but the whole being able to deposit a check thing. You don't even need to step into a branch. You can be at a restaurant when grandma gives you your birthday money and boom, it's in your account, right there.

James:
That's pretty much the only thing I still get checks for, is when the grandparents give my kids the birthday money. That resonated with me. I really do use it that way.

Steve:
I agree. That's such a great feature. And now after having it on the app, you start to realize, for me personally, how many checks I do still get. And every time I take a picture of that check, I'm just like, "Oh yeah, I didn't even have to leave the house. I'm just chilling out at the house and I don't have to do anything."

James:
It's that dopamine hit that does it for you same as a donut? Yeah. I could see that.

Steve:
Yes, exactly.

James:
My favorite mobile app feature is the real-time alerts. That gives you a notification of account activity or lets you know if your balance is low or high within seconds of that happening on your account. It's not like you have to keep logging in to online banking. You don't even have to keep the app open. It sends you that message or notification right away when something happens on your account, and I really appreciate that because then I know if my wife has been doing too much online shopping, she knows if I've been to the grocery store or not yet. Stuff like that.

Cooper:
I agree. I have a smartwatch that gives me the alerts and it's super convenient. If I'm at the store and they think it's fraud, I get a notification that I'm spending too much on shoes at DSW because I went over the typical limit that they have for me. So it's pretty cool. It's very useful.

Steve:
Cooper, do you ever get those real time alerts and it's almost like a negative reminder of all the money that you might have been spending?

Cooper:
Yes. It's a good reality check to say, "Okay, did you really need to spend money on three new pairs of boots? Probably not. Let's think about maybe returning those and putting that money into savings." So yeah, definitely a good reality check. Makes you feel a little guilty.

James:
I think they're also useful for doing online shopping. If you place an order and the merchant doesn't charge you right away and then later on you get that notification that you're being charged, you're like, "Okay, great. Things are moving along. My order is being processed." I think that's probably a more typical notification for me. I don't often go to DSW. They don't really have my size.

Steve:
One of my favorite things about the app is a face and fingerprint login. Just how easy it is. You can just grab your phone, look at it and then, hey, you're in your app and you're checking your balances. And the fact that you can just transfer from savings to checking really easily just makes the whole process simple.

James:
Yeah. And when you have your real-time alerts set, then you know, when you need to pop in there and make that transfer too, because you'll get the notification like, oh, my balance is less than 50 bucks or whatever you have it set to. So that's awesome.

Cooper:
I am a big fan of being able to set up automatic transfers within the app. It's super quick. You can change them on the fly. If you decide you want to add more to savings, you can just go and increase it. If you decide you want to start making your car payment bi-weekly instead of monthly, you can go in there and do that too. It's super easy and really helps that budget stay on track.

James:
Yeah. I think that's a great reminder that it's like the most basic feature, but it's those building blocks that really can help set you up for managing your money more effectively in the future. I really like that about the app. It just puts all that stuff in your pocket. It's not the flashy stuff. I mean, yes, I said I love real-time alerts. I'll say it again. Real-time alerts are amazing, but the building blocks are where it's at, I think.

Steve:
All right. Let's change gears and talk about another type of financial app. Aggregator apps. Can you tell me a little bit about what those apps are all about

James:
The aggregator app lets you see all of your accounts at different financials in the same location. So instead of logging in to two or three different spots and your credit card company, if you have a separate credit card company, it shows you everything at a glance. It's a really easy way to keep track of your balances and make sure that you're staying on top of stuff.

Cooper:
And you can actually do that in your Royal Credit Union online and mobile banking apps with the Money Management feature that's included.

Steve:
What's that all about?

Cooper:
Money Management is a budgeting tool built right into your app. It connects all your Royal accounts, but then you can also connect your external accounts just to make sure you're keeping tabs on everything. You can categorize your spending, all sorts of different fun stuff. So it's a great tool for starting that's free and accessible to you.

Steve:
Okay. How about mobile wallets? Cooper? What do you think?

Cooper:
I just discovered that I like digital wallets.

Steve:
What do you like about them?

Cooper:
One, I like that if I forget my card at home, which, I tend to be a forgetful person. So if I forget my debit card, it's in my wallet. And I can actually connect my car insurance card to my wallet, so if I get pulled over, which does not happen often, I can just whip out my phone and say, "Here you go."

Steve:
Were you hesitant at first about using a digital wallet?

Cooper:
Yes, absolutely. I was super scared that, what if they don't work? If I'm at the store and that's all I have, what if I can't check out? How embarrassing.

James:
Yeah. There's definitely a trust factor.

Cooper:
Yeah. And it's kind of weird to have all your information right there on your mobile device. With fraud and all those things that happen to people, it can be a little, make you feel uneasy.

James:
Doesn't it just feel cool when you do get to use it at checkout? Because you're just like, ping, and it's done. I think that's-

Cooper:
Yep.

James:
We talked about the satisfaction level of using the app already a little bit. I think digital wallets have a similar satisfaction.

Cooper:
If you've ever dreamt of living in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you get that feeling by using a mobile wallet at the store. You're magic.

James:
Okay. So meanwhile, I'm thinking Harry Potter Land, right? Okay, whatever. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. They're still using hard cash. Like they have galleons, sickles and knuts, right?

Cooper:
True.

James:
Think of how a mobile banking app would totally revolutionize the world of Harry Potter.

Cooper:
Think of how many chocolate frogs you could buy.

James:
He does not even have to go to the vault because Gringotts is an app. That's mind-blowing.

Cooper:
And think of how safe it would be having the goblins run it. Very similar to the ones we have now.

James:
Do they have dragon ID or something to...

Cooper:
Fire ID? Oh, well.

James:
Magical finger, Patronus. It'd be Patronus ID, clearly. You'd have to project your Patronus and then that would identify you to them. Right?

Cooper:
That's true. It could be wand ID, because, you know, they're all unique too.

James:
I've heard the wand chooses the wizard.

Steve:
I always knew that that this was going to turn into a Harry Potter podcast. I just didn't know it was going to be the first episode. So that's good to see.

James:
I would look for that in every episode from here on out.

Cooper:
It's a perfect excuse to rewatch and read Harry Potter.

Steve:
Okay. So let's go into this question. What are three apps on your phone that you can not live without? Cooper, you go first.

Cooper:
My Peloton app because I like to be fit. Instagram so that I can see all the new things that come to Aldi and Target because I follow the Instagram people who share those things. And TikTok. I love TikTok.

Steve:
So you're not going to call anybody. You're just going to watch videos, learn about products, and what does the Pelotom app actually do? Is it just a tracking app? Or...

Cooper:
No, it has workouts for me to do. It has running workouts and biking workouts and yoga workouts. All the things I like to do at my fingertips, similar to the Royal mobile banking app. My phone's already a phone. Do I really need an app for that? Does that have to count? That's standard.

James:
When we were talking about this earlier, we arrived at the same question, I think. The built-in apps on your phone count as apps? Or if there's two things in one-

Cooper:
No, because I can't delete the phone feature.

James:
Like is Camera and Photos, do those go together? Do they only count as one? Because if you took the picture, you'd obviously have to be able to see the picture, right?

Cooper:
You can remove the phone app!

Steve:
See, that's what I was going to say.

James:
No, you can remove it from down there, but you still have it. Right?

Cooper:
I don't think so. Should I delete it?

Steve:
What happens-

Cooper:
I'm scared.

Steve:
Well, you don't want it. You said you can live without it, so yeah, delete it.

James:
Thinking about the phone app, some days I wish I could delete the phone app, especially lately. The next time someone calls me to ask about my car insurance policy, that's the time of day that I wish I deleted the phone app.

Cooper:
Huh. Okay, fine. Let me rethink this.

Steve:
We'll give you some time to think and James can answer the question.

James:
If I had to pick just three apps to have on my phone, besides the normal stuff that a phone comes with or do the normal phone ones count, too?

Steve:
Well, we just had this conversation. I would say that the normal, well, Cooper is doing some research now to figure out whether the phone can be deleted. For now I would say the phone feature would be an app itself.

James:
I would have to say Messages, Facebook, and the camera app. I don't want to call people. I don't want to talk to them using voice. I just want to text them or send them a message. Facebook. I guess Facebook messenger is technically a separate app, right? So that could be a problem for me, but at least I'll know what they're doing if I'm following their news feeds and stuff. And then the camera, I just like to take pictures of the kids.

Steve:
That makes sense. But you can use that messaging feature in Facebook's app, so I think you'd only need one app. I know they want you to use a separate app for it, but I don't think you really need to. And then this goes back into the original point of does Instagram use just the camera on the phone or does it use the camera app?

James:
Does it count as Camera or not? Is that what you're saying? I get it.

Steve:
Right.

James:
Meanwhile Cooper's actually deleted her phone. She's now holding a brick. Like it doesn't do, it just plays music. It's actually an iPod now, is what happened. She's actually not on this, she's gone. She's not with us anymore.

Steve:
I know.

James:
[crosstalk 00:16:56] remotely, she's left-

Steve:
We can't even talk to her anymore.

James:
Hello?

Cooper:
Okay. Update.

Steve:
This went poorly.

Cooper:
You can remove the app from the home screen, but it does stay in your app library, therefore the phone app does not count in my list of three. I win.

James:
I don't know if I follow that logic, but I'll go along with it.

Steve:
I'll concede.

Steve:
All right. I think that'll do it for this episode of Money Donuts. Hopefully that you enjoyed a couple of bite-sized tips and tricks of using mobile apps, using our Royal mobile app. Or maybe you just figured out that the phone app can't be deleted from your phone and, hey, that's something. I appreciate you listening. If you liked it, please share and review wherever you're listening. What do you guys say? Should we try to harmonize out of this one more time with Money Donuts?

Cooper:
Are we harmonizing-

Steve:
Money.

Cooper:
Money.

James:
That was weak.

Cooper:
Are we harmonizing-

Steve:
Well, you didn't join us. You're the bass.

Cooper:
... both words? Money and donuts, or just money?

James:
Money donuts.

Steve:
Money donuts.

All three:
Money donuts. Money donuts. Money donuts. Money donuts. Money donuts. Money donuts. Money donuts. Money donuts. Money donuts.

James:
Money Donuts!

Steve:
Money Donuts!

Cooper:
Money.