From Clarity to Marcus
If you were a Clarity user or looking for a money app, here’s what you should know about Marcus. Clarity was a fantastic app for minimal budgeting & spending overview. When they got absorbed into Marcus, there were a few changes.
The main differences is that the app keeps the general UI and categories from Clarity But other than that, most of Clarity’s overview panels like credit score overview, active notifications, and more nuanced budgeting functions have since been hidden or redacted.
The main difference seems to be that Marcus upped the security of the app, which in turn creates less active notifications and more login steps to see your general overviews that you typically want to reference quickly. They also seem to be pushing for the use of their other services (which probably gets seen in the app) and has the ability to access all that Marcus has to offer as a banking business. It’s a shame since Clarity was so convenient, company neutral and user friendly.
Bottom line: if you’re a Marcus customer, then this app probably works well for you. If you’re coming from Clarity or want a quick & organized way to see your general economic habits, then you may want to consider other apps outside of Marcus.
The main differences is that the app keeps the general UI and categories from Clarity But other than that, most of Clarity’s overview panels like credit score overview, active notifications, and more nuanced budgeting functions have since been hidden or redacted.
The main difference seems to be that Marcus upped the security of the app, which in turn creates less active notifications and more login steps to see your general overviews that you typically want to reference quickly. They also seem to be pushing for the use of their other services (which probably gets seen in the app) and has the ability to access all that Marcus has to offer as a banking business. It’s a shame since Clarity was so convenient, company neutral and user friendly.
Bottom line: if you’re a Marcus customer, then this app probably works well for you. If you’re coming from Clarity or want a quick & organized way to see your general economic habits, then you may want to consider other apps outside of Marcus.
Show less
Response from developer
Thank you for your review. We strive to provide the best experience, so we have passed your feedback along to our team.
No App Support
I’ve had an account with Marcus for about a year. I opened my account with the App and did all my transactions with ease up until a month ago. I’m no longer able to login with the App. I type in my login in credentials and an window pops up indicating Marcus’ products and services are only available in the US. When you close the window it goes back to the login on screen. It never advances to my account. It’s stuck there. My VPN is set to USA as always. This window used to pop up before and I would close it, then it would take me to my account. I’ve contacted customer service and no one can resolve this. A ticket was put in, but I have not received a response, but was also told by customer service that there’s no guarantee I will be contacted. I hope the App developer can fix this. This is really an inconvenience not being able to use the App on my phone. Please fix it.
Show less
Response from developer
Thank you for letting us know. Would you kindly get in touch so we can ensure we understand your request fully? Visit marcus.com/contact to find out how.
Botched updates; Privacy invasive
This app typically works fine until there is an update. Then you’ll be signed off and asked to sign in again. As of Mid April 2021, there have been quite a few updates in the past two weeks so you can imagine the headaches that ensue.
The App Privacy disclosure in App Store also suggests the Marcus app collects a wide arrange of data that can be used to directly track or link to you, something unusual for a simple bank app. None of the other major banks’ apps collect as much data as this app.
So everyone is probably way better off to just delete this app and use their website in the browser instead.
The App Privacy disclosure in App Store also suggests the Marcus app collects a wide arrange of data that can be used to directly track or link to you, something unusual for a simple bank app. None of the other major banks’ apps collect as much data as this app.
So everyone is probably way better off to just delete this app and use their website in the browser instead.
Show less
Great app
I love this app—the pie charts are helpful for visualizing where my money is going and I like being able to adjust my spending categories accordingly in case they weren’t correctly placed.
One improvement I hope to see in the future is the ability to split transactions into “me” and “others” because I will put my card down at dinner and get paid back by others which is calculated correctly dollar-wise, but distorts the amount that I actually spend eating out because my part of the bill was only $35 but I paid over $100 for the whole thing.
One improvement I hope to see in the future is the ability to split transactions into “me” and “others” because I will put my card down at dinner and get paid back by others which is calculated correctly dollar-wise, but distorts the amount that I actually spend eating out because my part of the bill was only $35 but I paid over $100 for the whole thing.
Show less
A few ideas for spending tracking
Overall love the app- clean look, easy to use, and makes it easy to see how my balance has changed over time. I just have a few suggestions on the spending tracking features. Why do I need to manually enter one number for monthly income? You can see my paychecks come in, so i would like to see the app calculate my average monthly income (taking into account the last 3 months or something) and base the snapshots on that. I would also like to be able to split up a transaction for cases like where I paid for an Airbnb or dinner and am getting paid back by a bunch of people - so I want the $100 that I paid to be factored into my snapshot/ metrics, but not have my spending get totally skewed by a $600 transaction.
Show less
Response from developer
Thank you for your review! We strive to provide the best experience, and we have passed your feedback along to our team for consideration.
Snapshot
The Snapshot section on the mobile app is broken. It never refreshes from month to month. It says I’m -$22,000 because for some reason it listed a $1000 deposit into an investing account like 20 times as a transaction.
The mechanics work fine on a desktop and I love the look and feel of the app. Doesn’t have tons of adds and isn’t crowded with a bunch of other stuff. Still, since there the app is pretty slimmed down and only has 3 or so major features, it would be nice if those features actually worked.
They REALLY need to make it so you can edit transactions. If the app duplicates or lists tons of duplicate transactions, there’s no way to edit them.
The mechanics work fine on a desktop and I love the look and feel of the app. Doesn’t have tons of adds and isn’t crowded with a bunch of other stuff. Still, since there the app is pretty slimmed down and only has 3 or so major features, it would be nice if those features actually worked.
They REALLY need to make it so you can edit transactions. If the app duplicates or lists tons of duplicate transactions, there’s no way to edit them.
Show less
Please bring the monthly line graph back!
I switched over to Marcus because I used Clarity and loved it. It’s basically the same app with some extra features but Marcus has some differences graphics wise that make it not as useful as clarity. The monthly spending graphic used to have a line graph where you saw the trajectory of your spending for the month based off your current spending rate. Please bring the line graph back!! The pie chart is the same as every other money tracking app I’ve used, in fact this one is worse because it’s not even different colors to see a quick representation of what you spend each month, it’s just different shades of each color which is a cool gradient but not practical. If they fix both of these, I’ll be happy to use it. If not, I’ll try and find something else or just make my own line graph.
Show less
Response from developer
We truly love hearing feedback like this. If you have anything else to share, please let us know.
Well it ain’t Clarity, that’s for sure
I can’t imagine how one could say “we kept all the best features of Clarity” when there is no monthly spending line graph or weekly budget in Marcus Insights. Those two features were the only reason I used clarity. It’s why I opened my Marcus account. It’s nice we can still track all expenses under one roof but any budgeting app can do that with ease. The way Clarity presented the weekly budget and monthly budget information was unparalleled.
The monthly spending donut chart makes no sense as to why that would be more valuable information than the line graph. Knowing what percentage of your expenses went to food and dining is interesting, but it’s not going to keep you under budget.
For some reason the pie chart is telling me I have over $2,000 left in my budget yet it’s January 30th and I know for a fact I’m within $250 of my monthly budget so that’s looking to prove even more useless than the wheel chart.
This is very disappointing. “Don’t fix what isn’t broken” has never applied more.
The monthly spending donut chart makes no sense as to why that would be more valuable information than the line graph. Knowing what percentage of your expenses went to food and dining is interesting, but it’s not going to keep you under budget.
For some reason the pie chart is telling me I have over $2,000 left in my budget yet it’s January 30th and I know for a fact I’m within $250 of my monthly budget so that’s looking to prove even more useless than the wheel chart.
This is very disappointing. “Don’t fix what isn’t broken” has never applied more.
Show less
Great app.
I love the app and I think it’s great. My only problem that I have is that I think the app could do better with the quotes. This morning as I was checking my account I saw a quote by Buddha. Why don’t you put up quotes by Jesus the one who actually conquered the grave and gives eternal life to anyone who believes in him. He had a lot more to say about money. Or why don’t you put up more quotes by Benjamin Franklin and other great people who were wise with their money. The app could really do better with the quotes but other than that it’s a great app and I enjoy it.
Show less
App is awful & service is no good
I’ve been a Marcus client for a while, but my experience during this pandemic has been terrible. I’m unhappy because their app is not functioning properly on my phone, not to mention their rates are not so great anymore. When I log into the app I can only see the balance on my account. I cannot see the transaction history. I’ve contacted Marcus multiple times about this issue. The first rep I spoke with told me it was my phone that was the problem. THAT’S NOT A GOOD ENOUGH ANSWER BRO LOL. All my other banking apps work just fine except for this one. I don’t think my phone is the problem. The second rep I spoke to said that he escalated my case to their tech department and that they would reach out to me. I’m still awaiting a response weeks later... not great service.
Show less
Response from developer
Thank you for your review. We strive to provide the best experience, so we have passed your feedback along to our team.
