Tangerine has a budget tracker built into its app, called Tracker, and a net worth view called Wealth. Tracker sorts the spending in your Tangerine chequing and credit card accounts, and Wealth adds up your Tangerine accounts plus the outside items you add. Those outside items become information Tangerine has about you, and its privacy code says it customizes its offers based on information it has about you.* If you also bank or carry cards elsewhere, NBU sorts all of it together from the statements you download yourself, once a month.
Does Tangerine have a budget tracker?
Yes. Tracker is a tab at the bottom of the Tangerine mobile app. It groups your spending into categories like groceries, entertainment and transportation, and shows your average monthly spend in each. It reads your Tangerine chequing and credit card accounts.*
What it can't read is everything else. A Rogers card, a Wealthsimple account or a second bank's chequing won't show up, because Tracker only sees Tangerine.
What does Tangerine's Wealth view add?
A net worth number, if you invest with Tangerine. Wealth needs a funded Tangerine investment account. Your Tangerine savings, investments, GICs, credit card balances, mortgages and lines of credit are counted on their own, and you add outside assets and debts yourself, like a car, a home, a mortgage elsewhere or a student loan. It also projects how your net worth might grow over the next 10 years.*
Tangerine's FAQ describes adding those outside items, not signing in to your other banks, so plan on keeping their values current yourself.
Why I download my Tangerine statements instead
I've downloaded Tangerine's CSV exports for years, next to my other banks and cards. I move between banks depending on who's paying a bonus, so I treat Tangerine as just the bank and do my tracking somewhere that sees all of them. For years that was a Google Sheet, and it took me about an hour a month. Now it's NBU, and it takes under 15 minutes. The longer story is in why I built my own YNAB alternative, and the privacy side is in budgeting in Canada without giving an app your bank password.
I also don't want to type my other accounts into a bank's app. Whatever you add to Wealth becomes information Tangerine has about you. Its privacy code says it customizes offers based on information it has about you, and that it may share your information with other Scotiabank companies so they can send you marketing offers. You can opt out of its marketing messages, and of that sharing with Scotiabank companies, at any time.* With NBU there's nothing on the other side trying to sell you something: no bank account, no referral fee on the cards, and your data isn't for sale.
Is NBU a good alternative to Tangerine's budget tracker?
Yes, if Tangerine is one bank among several. Your Tangerine CSV goes in with every other bank's file, and Valerie sorts all of it into one set of categories, getting better with each correction. You don't need a Tangerine investment account to see your net worth. At the close, you confirm each account's balance, and when a PDF statement prints one, NBU shows it so you can accept it in one click.
Then NBU helps you read the month. Each category shows this month against last month or your typical month, with a budget mark only if you want one. If you're chasing a credit card welcome offer, NBU fills in the progress from your statements and, when it suggests a card, only counts a bonus your normal spending can reach. You can ask Valerie about any of it in chat. The monthly ritual is free, tracking one card's welcome offer included, and Plus covers all your cards for $6 a month, or $60 a year if you switch at checkout. Prices are in Canadian dollars on the pricing page.
What NBU doesn't do yet
NBU doesn't project your net worth 10 years out. Tangerine's Wealth does. NBU shows where your net worth has been, month by month.
NBU also doesn't update during the month. Tracker reads Tangerine's own accounts directly, while NBU sees a purchase when you import that month's statement. Sync is on our list to look at, as an option. If it comes, it will run on Canada's regulated open banking and never ask for your banking password.
Using Tangerine and NBU together
Keep Tangerine for what it does well, and treat its statement as one more file you import each month. Tracker stays handy for a quick look at your Tangerine card between closes. NBU holds the full picture, with Tangerine in the same categories as your other banks.
* Tracker was read on Tangerine's Budget Tool page, and Wealth, including the investment-account requirement, what's counted automatically, manual outside entries and the 10-year projection, on its FAQ, What is Wealth?, and its marketing practices in its Privacy Code. All read on 2026-10-19. These pages change, so check them before you decide.