Questions, answered.

Surplus is in beta on iOS and all 50 founding places are taken. Join the waitlist on the beta page and we’ll email you if more places open. Surplus is free to use during the beta and testers who give us useful feedback keep Surplus Pro free for life.

Not yet - Surplus is iOS-only for now, built for iPhone. There’s no Android version on the roadmap at this stage, though that could change as Surplus grows. Leave your email on the beta page and we’ll let you know if it does.

Surplus is free to start - connect one account and see your live safe-to-spend number, no card needed. Paying for Surplus Pro unlocks the full copilot: an auto-built budget, goal pacing, payslip checks and the AI that does the maths for you. Our aim is to leave more money in your account at the end of each month - and we do it by closing the loop: spotting when a cost creeps up, setting the lever to fix it and confirming when the saving actually lands in the bank. It’s built to save you more than it costs.

Any time. Surplus Pro is billed through your Apple account, so you can cancel whenever you like from the iPhone Settings app - tap your name, then Subscriptions - and you’ll keep your benefits until the end of the period you’ve already paid for. No emails to send and no retention hoops.

Yes. Surplus connects through regulated, read-only Open Banking via Yapily, with bank-grade encryption. We never store your bank login and we can’t move your money. You choose what to share and can disconnect any account at any time.

Because it’s independently tested, not just self-certified. On top of read-only Open Banking and bank-grade encryption, Surplus has a full penetration test every year - security specialists actively probing the app for weaknesses so anything can be fixed before it becomes a problem. The most recent test was completed on 19 June 2026 by WorkNest Secure, an independent firm with CREST-certified testers that’s assured under the National Cyber Security Centre’s CHECK scheme, and it found no high or critical issues. Any lower-severity findings are reviewed and addressed as part of keeping Surplus secure.

Surplus connects to your bank through Yapily Connect Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for Open Banking account information services. Surplus operates as an agent of Yapily. Surplus helps you understand your own money - it isn’t regulated financial advice.

Not on a read-only connection. UK open banking separates two permissions: account information services, which read your accounts, and payment initiation services, which move money. Surplus connects for account information only, through Yapily - so the connection carries no payment permission and Surplus can’t move your money. Read the guide on open banking safety

Never. Your information is used only to build and pace your plan and it’s protected under UK data-protection law. It’s never sold - and never used to train AI models.

You’re always in control of your data. You can delete your account at any time from the app’s settings, which removes the data tied to your account from the app and our systems. If you’d rather not delete everything, you can simply disconnect a bank instead - because access is read-only, disconnecting immediately stops any further data being shared.

No. Surplus gives you clarity and a plan built from your own numbers, but it isn’t regulated financial advice.

The best way to reach us is by email at support@surplusapp.co.uk - whether it’s a question, a problem or an idea, we read every message. You can also report a bug straight from the app: go to App Settings → Report a bug, where you can attach up to four screenshots and a description. The more detail you give us, the faster we can help.

It’s the money you can spend today without putting your bills, commitments or savings goal at risk - calculated from your real accounts, not just your balance. See our Safe to Spend explainer for the full breakdown.

Yes - it’s cleared cash minus three things: committed outgoings dated before your next payday, spending already decided on and a buffer for surprises. Surplus automates the same subtraction from your real transactions, but the working fits on the back of an envelope and is worth doing once by hand. Read the guide on safe to spend

Surplus works with UK current accounts through Open Banking - including Monzo, Starling, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Halifax, Nationwide and more.

Yes. You can connect as many of your UK accounts as you like - current accounts across different banks, plus credit cards - and Surplus pulls them together into one clear picture. It even spots transfers between your own accounts and nets them off, so moving money around doesn’t distort your real income and spending.

Open Banking rules mean the consent you give your bank lasts 90 days, so it needs renewing from time to time - that’s a regulatory safeguard, not a Surplus choice. Surplus makes it painless: it reminds you before the 90 days are up and, where your bank supports it, refreshes the consent in a tap so the timer simply resets. If a full reconnection is needed, you re-authorise securely with your bank, just like you did when you first connected.

Automatically. Surplus refreshes your accounts each time you open the app and keeps updating live while you’re using it - there’s nothing to import or upload yourself. Because it reads your data through Open Banking, how quickly a brand-new transaction shows up can depend on when your bank releases it.

Surplus reads your historic income and spending and builds a starter budget for you - a balanced plan sized to your real cash flow, not a blank spreadsheet. You can edit it freely to reflect what’s coming, like a pay rise or a change in your regular spending. And if your spending regularly outruns your income, you can switch on Balance the Budget - a recommended setting that steadily nudges your plan back into surplus, so you’re earning more than you spend again.

No - Surplus builds your budget from your own income and 12-month spending history rather than an imported percentage split. You can still read your numbers that way: the categories map onto commitments, discretionary spending and surplus, so the three shares fall out of your plan without becoming a pass mark. Read the guide on the 50/30/20 rule

Surplus runs on a real budget and UK-tax engine built by a chartered accountant, so the AI explains your numbers rather than inventing them. It works within a fixed framework and set of tools, using trusted model providers to turn your financial picture into plain-English answers and actions. Your data is never used to train AI models.

Yes. You can rename a transaction and change its category, then choose whether the change applies to just that one or to every match. You can also mark a transaction as a bill, so Surplus keeps tracking it and watches for it in the months ahead.

Yes. Surplus handles the major currencies, including GBP, EUR and USD, so you can edit and reconcile transactions from travelling or earning abroad without the mental maths.

It reads your payslip and checks the maths - income tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan - then tells you what take-home to expect and flags anything that looks off. The analyser is available free and Surplus Pro adds full reconciliation against your real pay plus month-to-month pay-change tracking. One thing to know: it works from a modelled payslip, so because of how PAYE, benefits and other adjustments work, it’s directional rather than penny-perfect - we only flag a difference once it’s past a sensible tolerance.

Yes. Salary sacrifice reduces the pay your Income Tax and National Insurance are worked out on, so the analyser models your deductions against the post-sacrifice figure your payslip reports rather than your headline salary. It reads the sacrifice line where your employer shows one, and flags anything that looks off. Read the guide on salary sacrifice

Surplus can’t see HMRC’s reasoning, but it shows the effect: the payslip analyser models your deductions each pay cycle, so a code change surfaces as a measured shift in expected take-home rather than a mystery deduction. Only HMRC can explain or correct the code itself - the analyser tells you where to look. Read the guide on what your tax code means

Usually one of five things: a changed tax code, an emergency W1, M1 or X marker, a change in gross pay, a deduction line starting or jumping, or two employers paying you in one month. The payslip analyser models each pay cycle and shows which line moved and by how much. Read the guide on why take-home pay drops

They are instructions to one employer or pension, not a verdict on your whole year. BR taxes that source at the basic rate, 0T removes the tax-free allowance but keeps the normal bands, and K adds untaxed income to your taxable pay. The payslip analyser shows what each one does to your take-home. Read the guide on BR, 0T and K tax codes

Priorities are the recommendations Surplus surfaces as it analyses your financial picture - clear actions we think will improve your position, whether that’s trimming a category that’s crept up or just finishing a bit of setup in the app. Tap the … on any priority to hide it or mark it ‘not relevant’, which also sends us feedback. Commitments are the recurring costs and plans you’re actively tracking - the bills and levers Surplus paces through the month and reserves before it shows your safe-to-spend.

When you move money between your own connected accounts, it can look like spending leaving one and income arriving in the other. Surplus spots these interbank transfers and nets them off, so they don’t distort your real spend and income figures.

Net cash is what you’d really have if everything settled today - the money across your accounts minus what you owe on credit cards and other creditors. It’s the honest starting point for everything Surplus works out.

A few days after each month ends, Surplus sends you a wrap - a clear reconciliation of how your actual spending and income compared with the budget you set. It comes with next steps: how to adjust your upcoming budgets and what to do with any shortfall or surplus against your targets.