1. Turn on purchase alerts once
Choose email alerts for credit card purchases in your bank app and set the lowest available threshold. LiveSpend walks you through the setup for each bank it works with, while the alert settings stay under your control.
2. Connect the inbox that receives them
Choose Gmail or Microsoft email and approve read-only access through Google or Microsoft. LiveSpend looks for supported bank alerts and uses the merchant, amount, and date to create each purchase. It cannot send, edit, or delete email.
3. Pay as usual
When the bank alert arrives, the purchase appears in LiveSpend. Your running total updates without waiting days for the charge to finish posting in the bank app. You can also compare three ways to track credit card spending sooner.
4. See where your spending is heading
LiveSpend brings your cycle total, recent charges, categories, targets, spending pace, and forecast together in one clear view, with multiple cards, deeper analysis, and weekly insights. Spending tracking requires a LiveSpend subscription, billed monthly or yearly. Subscribe only in the iPhone app, then sign in on the web with the same account.
Built for credit card spending
LiveSpend is deliberately focused on one job: helping you understand credit card spending while it is still happening. It does not try to combine income, debit purchases, bills, transfers, investments, or every account into one financial dashboard. That focus keeps the experience quick, clear, and useful between purchases and your next statement.
What LiveSpend does not do
LiveSpend is a spending-awareness tool, not your card issuer. It does not replace your statement, determine the amount due, initiate payments, or provide the final transaction record. It can only show the alerts your bank sends, so a delayed or missing alert can make an entry late or missing. For payments, disputes, and final amounts, use your bank's official account activity.