How deben works
deben reads the payment messages your bank already sends you, on your phone, and turns them into one calm number: what you can safely spend today. Nothing about it is complicated, and nothing you do ever leaves your device.
From a message to a number, in four steps
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Install deben and let it read your messages
Install the app and allow it to read your SMS. That one permission lets deben see the transaction alerts your bank, wallet, or payment service already sends you. Reading is optional and you can turn it off at any time.
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deben reads each payment as it arrives
When a payment message comes in, deben works out the amount, the merchant, the date, and the account, right there on your phone. There is nothing to type; you glance at it and confirm.
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It works out what is safe to spend today
deben takes your income, sets aside your bills and savings, and subtracts what you have already spent. What is left is your safe-to-spend number for today.
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You get one calm number, and stay in control
Open deben to see that number any time. Add anything by hand, correct a reading, or adjust your bills and goals, and the number updates.
What you need to start
An Android phone on 8.0 or newer, and the payment messages you already receive. Setup takes about a minute. There is no account to create and nothing to sign up for.
What if deben does not know your bank yet?
deben recognises many banks automatically, and when it meets a message it has not seen before, you teach it once: point out the amount and the merchant, and it remembers that format for next time. So it works with any bank through this one-time teaching, and you can always ask the team to add yours. See Banks and countries for how coverage works and how to request a bank.
How safe to spend today is worked out
The arithmetic is plain: start with your income, set aside your bills and savings, subtract what you have spent so far, and show the rest. That remainder is what is safe to spend today. It is a plan, not your bank balance, so it never pressures you and never pretends. There is more on this in what "safe to spend today" means.
Where your data goes (nowhere)
All of this happens on your phone. deben has no account and no servers, and it declares no internet permission at all, so nothing it reads or stores can ever leave your device. You can read the full picture on Security, or the reasoning in why deben has no internet permission.
That is the whole idea: your money, seen clearly, kept quietly yours. See everything deben does on Features.