Privacy Policy

Who we are

BankMate (“we”, “us”) runs bankmate.app, a free Australian comparison site for savings accounts, credit cards, home loans, term deposits, personal loans, super, share trading and crypto exchanges. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, and what you can do about it. We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

What we collect

When you use the site without an account

Your questionnaire answers and compare-page preferences are stored in your browser (local and session storage), and so is a portfolio you build without signing in. These can include a balance, a loan amount or property value, what you spend on a card, how you invest, your age, your salary for the super projection, your postcode, electricity use and solar, your NBN connection, your household, income band and the extras you use for health insurance, and the products you currently hold. They are used on your device to filter and price the lists. We don't receive them.

If you add a smart-meter file to price electricity plans, it is read on your device and never uploaded. Only a summary of it is kept in your browser (how much power you used and exported, by month and hour, and the highest demand in each), so the results remember it; removing the file on the page deletes that summary. Your electricity, gas and health insurance answers stay in your browser even when you're signed in: they aren't saved to your account.

When you sign in

• Your account. Sign in with Google and we receive your name, email address and profile picture from Google. Sign in with an emailed code and we receive only your email address.
• Your name, if you give one. We ask for a name only when you post your first note, and you can change it under Account.
• Your email choice. When you sign in we ask whether you'd like emails when rates move and when we add something new. We keep your answer, when you gave it, where (signing in, Account or a link in an email) and the words you were shown, each time it changes, so we can show you agreed.
• Saved preferences. Your answers for savings, credit cards, home loans, term deposits, personal loans, super, share trading and crypto exchanges are saved to your account.
• Your portfolio. The products you add, any product or figure you enter yourself (such as the rate a term deposit was locked at), the dates you give (such as when a fixed rate or term deposit ends), and each product's figures when you added it and at your last visit, so we can show what changed since then. Which products you've asked us to stop watching, and your portfolio's history: what we suggested and what you did about it, such as setting a gap aside (with the reason you chose, the amount or date it comes back at, and the figures it was set aside at), bringing it back, going to a provider's site or telling us you moved.
• Notes and likes. Notes you post on bank and account pages, and the notes you like.
• Learn progress. Which Learn modules you've opened, the furthest page you reached, the page you were last on, whether you answered each module's question and when you first finished it.

Anything saved in your browser before you sign in (preferences, portfolio and Learn progress) is copied into your account when you sign in.

When you contact us

• Corrections and feedback. What you write, the product and figure it's about, any link you include, and your email address if you choose to give it.
• Waitlists. Your email address and the category you want to hear about, such as NBN or mobile plans.
• Email. Whatever you send to bankmateapp@gmail.com.

Automatically

• Google Analytics records the pages you view and what you do on them. It is explained in full below.
• Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights count page views and measure how fast pages load. They don't use cookies.
• Server logs. Our hosting records IP addresses and request details, which we use to keep the site running and to limit abuse (for example, how many feedback reports one address can send a minute).

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how BankMate is used: which pages people read, where they stop in a questionnaire, and which products they click through to. It helps us fix what isn't working. It runs on bankmate.app only.

What it records

• The pages you view, and how you arrived: a search engine, another website, an AI assistant or a direct visit.
• Each questionnaire step you reach, and when you finish (with how many questions you answered, not the answers).
• Opening a compare page: which category, how many products it listed, whether you had set preferences, and which view it opened on (cards, table or chart). Switching view is recorded too.
• Clicking “Go to site”: the provider, the product, the link, and where on the page you clicked.
• Opening sign-in, whether you chose Google or an emailed code, and whether it made a new account.
• Using the portfolio: adding or removing a product, opening its details and setting a gap aside (the category and the reason you chose, never which product), how many products you hold, and days since your last visit.
• Your device type, browser, operating system, screen size, language and an approximate location (city level).
• If you're signed in to a Google account that lets Google link your activity, Google's estimate of your age group, gender and interests (see Google signals).

What it doesn't record

Your questionnaire answers, balances, loan amounts or other figures, the products you hold, your name, your email address or your account ID. We don't connect Google Analytics data to your BankMate account.

Google signals

We have turned on Google signals, one of Google Analytics' advertising features. When a visitor is signed in to a Google account and has allowed Google to use their activity for ads personalisation, Google adds its own estimate of their age group, gender and interests. We see these only as totals across many visitors, and Google hides any group too small to show. We never see them for one person, and they aren't linked to your BankMate account. We use them to understand who reads BankMate, never to show ads or to rank products.

Cookies and Google's role

Google Analytics sets two cookies, _ga and _ga_*, which last up to two years. They hold a random ID so a returning browser can be counted as the same visitor. Google collects this data for us and processes it on its own servers, including in the United States. It uses your IP address to work out an approximate location but doesn't store the address. Google explains its own use of this data in How Google uses information from sites that use its services. Detailed event data is kept for no more than 14 months.

Turning it off

Block cookies for bankmate.app in your browser, use a content blocker, or install Google's opt-out add-on. Everything on BankMate works the same without it. To stop Google adding the estimates above, turn off personalised ads in My Ad Center. You can see and delete what Google holds in My Activity.

What we don't collect

BankMate reads the product information banks publish under the Consumer Data Right. It does not connect to your bank accounts, and it never asks for bank logins, account numbers, card numbers or tax file numbers. We don't take payments, so we hold no payment details.

How we use it

• To filter, sort and price products using the preferences you set, and to compare them with the products you hold.
• To run your account: sending your sign-in code, and keeping your preferences and portfolio in step across devices.
• To show your notes with your name and picture.
• To check and fix the data you report, and to reply when you ask us to.
• To tell you when a category you joined a waitlist for opens.
• To understand which parts of the site work, and to keep it secure.

We send marketing email only to people who said yes, and every one carries a link to stop them. Saying no, or not answering, changes nothing else on the site. We don't use your information to advertise to you or to rank products differently for commercial reasons.

What other people can see

Notes you post are public. Anyone visiting the page sees the note with your name and profile picture. Nothing else about your account is shown to anyone, and your preferences and portfolio can only be read by you.

Who we share it with

We don't sell, rent or trade personal information. We share it only with the services that run the site, and only for that purpose:

• Supabase stores our database, handles sign-in and sends sign-in codes (privacy policy).
• Vercel hosts the site and provides Web Analytics and Speed Insights (privacy policy).
• Google provides “Sign in with Google” and Google Analytics (privacy policy).

We may also disclose information when the law requires it or to protect people from harm. If BankMate is ever sold or merged, the information would pass to the new owner, bound by this policy.

When you click “Go to site”, you leave BankMate. We don't pass your details to that provider, and what happens next is covered by its own privacy policy. A referral link tells the provider the visit came from BankMate, so it can count referrals; it carries no details about you.

Information held overseas

Our site runs on Vercel's Sydney region. Supabase, Vercel and Google may still store or process information outside Australia, including in the United States, as part of providing their services. We use them because they protect information to standards comparable with the Australian Privacy Principles.

How we protect it

• Information is encrypted in transit and stored with encryption at rest.
• Database rules mean a signed-in person can read and change only their own preferences and portfolio.
• Sign-in uses Google or a one-time emailed code. We don't store passwords.
• Only BankMate's operators can reach the database and admin tools, and they look at account information only to answer a request you make or to fix a fault.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

How long we keep it

We keep account information, preferences, portfolio and notes for as long as your account exists, and delete them when you ask us to delete the account. We keep feedback reports as a record of corrections made to the data, and waitlist entries until the category opens or you ask to be removed. Analytics data is kept for the period set in Google Analytics and Vercel. Information in your browser stays until you clear it.

Cookies and browser storage

• Sign-in cookies (Supabase) keep you signed in. The site needs them to know who you are.
• Google Analytics cookies (_ga and _ga_*) count returning visitors. See Google Analytics for what they're used for and how to turn them off.
• Local and session storage hold your preferences, a signed-out portfolio and its history, the gaps you set aside, which portfolio news you've already opened, your Learn progress, and small conveniences such as whether you last used cards or table view and which hints you dismissed.

BankMate sets no advertising cookies, shows no ads and has no ad networks on the site. Google signals (see above) works from your Google account's own settings, not a cookie we set.

Your choices

• Use it without an account. Every comparison works signed out.
• Change your details. Edit your name and email under Account, and your preferences in any questionnaire or preferences panel.
• Stop our emails. Turn off Emails from BankMate under Account, or use the unsubscribe link in any email. It takes effect at once, and sign-in codes still arrive when you ask for one.
• Clear what's on your device. Clearing your browser's site data removes the preferences and portfolio stored there.
• Ask for a copy, a correction or deletion. Email bankmateapp@gmail.com from the address on your account to get a copy of what we hold, to correct it, to remove a note, or to delete your account and everything in it. We'll reply within 30 days.

Questions and complaints

Email bankmateapp@gmail.com with any question or complaint about how we handle your information. We'll respond within 30 days. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Changes to this policy

When what we collect or how we use it changes, we update this page and the date at the top. The Terms of Use cover everything else about using BankMate.