MyBudget

MyBudget

Type	Private
Industry	Financial Services
Founded	1999
Founder	Tammy Barton
Headquarters	Adelaide, Australia
Key people	Tammy Barton
Services	Personal Budgeting
Website	MyBudget.com.au

MyBudget is an Australian company based in the financial services industry. The company focuses on providing budget management service to its clients. MyBudget was first founded in 1999 and its headquarters are in Adelaide, Australia on North Terrace. The company was founded by Tammy Barton (then May), who went on to win various awards in Australia following the success of the company.

History

Tammy Barton founded MyBudget in 1999, with its headquarters located in Adelaide, Australia. From 2007 onwards, the company received a number of awards across Australia for their achievements in the financial services industry. The company's founder Barton, also received a number of awards for her achievements as founder.^[1]

In 2007, BRW magazine announced that MyBudget had grown at an average rate of 50 percent each year since the company was founded. It also said that the service provided aided a variety of Australians from differing backgrounds.^[2] The company's founder Tammy Barton was the winner of the Ernst & Young's Central Region Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Australia in 2008.^[3]

The financial services company featured four years running as part of the BRW Fast 100 list. The BRW Fast 100 comprises the fastest growing companies in terms of turnover in Australia. The company featured in the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, with their positions 52nd, 37th, 41st and 61st respectively for the four years.^[4][5]

MyBudget was included in 9th position as part of the Bibby Financial Services list, FastMovers2012 with a turnover for the 2011/2012 financial year of $16 million AUD.^[6] The company founder Barton was also recognised as one of Australia's 100 Women of Influence by The Australian Financial Review also in 2012.^[7]

Since MyBudget's popularity has risen in Australia, the company's representatives have featured regularly in the media discussing common financial issues. Following the announcement in Australia that the five-day grace period before late bill payments appear on a person’s repayment history record looks set to be extended to 14 days, Barton featured in the Herald Sun discussing how it would affect people's budgeting.^[8] Barton also discussed other debt issues, such as credit cards,^[9] budgeting^[10] and cost cutting.^[11]

In October 2014 BRW magazine ranked Barton 82nd on the 2014 BRW Rich Young 100 List, and the third richest woman in Australia aged under 40, although she disputed her inclusion in the list at the time,^[12] she later conceded that their estimate of her personal fortune was "probably not too far off the mark".^[13]

Financial services

MyBudget is a personal budgeting service. The service analyses a client’s finances, from income to debts and finally their expenses. The budgeting system works by ranking each bill in order of priority, from those which are the highest, such as loan and mortgage repayments, to those with a lower priority. Once this information has been collated, MyBudget then creates a complete working budget for the long-term for an individual or entire household.^[14]

Criticism

In December 2013 MyBudget was named in a national current affairs television report as "profiteering at the expense of people who are struggling with debt".^[15] MyBudget issued a statement responding to the report,^[16] and lodged a complaint with the Australian Media and Communications Authority (ACMA). After an investigation by ACMA, the national current affairs program was found to be in breach of standard 5.3 of the ABC Code of Practice 2011 (fair opportunity to respond), but not in relation to standard 2.1 (accuracy), standard 4.1 (due impartiality), standard 4.5 (unduly favour one perspective over another) or standard 5.1 (participation).^[17][18]

As of 2017, MyBudget is the object of a class action due to withholding interest accrued by clients.^[19]

References