Tandem - Living Together

I was influenced to download this app because of the concept of being able to split expenses easier than using payment apps. Upon launching the app, I could not bypass anything without purchasing first. Since I had been promised an app that would make splitting expenses easier I decided spending the $60 was worth it. However, I quickly realized that it is hardly any different from splitting costs through payment apps such as cash app. I like that I can see my own expenses, but I would have to manually add the person I want to split with, designate the amount, and then still use a payment app to split it anyways. The only thing that is interesting that I could maybe use is shared to do lists and wishlists…but I can do that for free in my notes tab in my phone. Overall, this might be good for new couples or divorced parents that prefer to split all costs down to the dime or those who don’t trust each other financially (I.e. instead of saying dinner costed $50 the app has the specific charge down to the dime)…but it won’t be beneficial to me as someone who needs to move large sums back and forth for rent and other expenses. Why my review is so low: Since I have no need for it and haven’t used the service once—I contacted support within several days of my purchase and requested a refund. I never heard anything back. I wasted $60 for absolutely nothing—especially since I’ve never used the function at all. Really disappointed but mostly by the lack of response. Further, the cost of the app is overall just way too high, especially when apps like Rocket Money exist that offer many of the same features for free.

The app itself is great but there were some things that I wish were better. I think it’s great that you can select the specific charge and split and even do reoccurring charges but I wish that there was more customization especially since you have to pay for the app. With reoccurring charges it would be nice to have a two week option rather than just weekly or monthly. Being able to make your own categories for the charges would be awesome as well. I don’t know if it was my bank because it’s a pretty well known bank but not as big as navy fed or truist but it took multiple days for my charges to show up. I’m talking like 5-7 days after I made a purchase which made it difficult to really keep track of what was being spent and what needed to be split between my husband and I. I did really like the idea but the execution is a little flawed.

I tried out a number of apps for keeping track of split expenses after my divorce but they all had major shortcomings. Tandem works very well for us. I love that you can connect it with directly to your credit cards and split something easily with a swipe. We have 3 kids and our decree mandates that all extracurricular-related costs and all medical costs are split 50/50, with a few odd items being reimbursable by my ex at 100%. This makes things SO easy for someone like with a very forgetful brain. 3 things I would add that would really make this app perfect: 1) ability to attach a picture of a receipt (even low res) for documentation/proof, 2) ability for the other person to see the notes I add to specific expense to help explain what it’s for, and 3) ability to customize the categories. Things like “bills”, “entertainment” or “food” don’t help me. In my case it would be extremely helpful to be able to add categories like medical, school, and extracurricular. All in all, though it’s not perfect, it’s the best I’ve been able to find at this price point.