FAQ

Fabit supports you in managing your money better.

To do this, we combine event-related financial education, active financial assistance in everyday life, and a behavioral approach to support you in the long term with your goals. The free app includes a budget book and budget function, the possibility to store debts and creditors including related communication, prepared financial knowledge, and over 100 tips and challenges that help you question and optimize your financial habits.

Fabit supports you with a playful, motivating, and behavioral approach to reduce costs and debts while still having a high quality of life.

The name Fabit is derived from the English “Financial Habit”.

Since our goal is to help you build healthy financial habits for the long term, the name fits perfectly 😉

Money and the right way to handle it are hardly ever discussed in Germany. And certainly not about debt.

Fabit wants to break this taboo and finally talk about how people can learn to handle money properly and acquire healthy financial habits. After all, no one taught the majority of us how to do that.

In school, topics like insurance, taxes, and budgeting from available income don’t come up. If we were lucky, our parents gave us some knowledge. But in all likelihood, no one ever explained to us how to handle money in a structured way. And that’s surprising because it’s one of the essential things in adult life. What’s more, help is available for all kinds of topics. From fitness trainers, nutritionists, and dog trainers to language learning apps and couples therapy. Only when it comes to money are we suddenly supposed to know everything ourselves.

Don’t you think that’s right? Neither do we. That’s why we developed Fabit. An app that helps you manage your finances better and develop healthy financial habits. To do this, Fabit combines event-based financial education, active financial help in everyday life, and a behavioral science approach to help you achieve your goals in the long run.

Fabit is the app turned vision that everyone can manage their own finances.

Fabit makes the right way to handle money simple and straightforward. Sustainable money management is more important than ever to become financially healthy in the long run and to avoid (further) debt and build wealth. Fabit helps you to reduce financial worries and stress that can lead to serious health problems.

The best thing about Fabit is that you can start at any time. No matter when and where you decide to improve your financial situation. With Fabit, you don’t have to wait for appointments or dig through files and sort through mail. Fabit gives you the opportunity to start anytime, in small steps and at your own pace.

Fabit is currently available for download in Germany and Austria. The app is downloadable for Android from Google Play and for iOS from the Apple App Store.

No. Currently, Fabit is only available as an app for iOS in the Apple App Store and for Android smartphones on Google Play.

Fabit does not offer individual investment advice. If Fabit provides suggestions on possible investment products, savings goals, rescheduling loans, and their parameters, these serve only as support for an independent and informed savings decision.

We are a team of people who believe that financial education and self-determination are important. Everyone should have the chance to live a healthy life financially as well.

Unfortunately, the knowledge that is taught about finances in schools and families is often not enough for this. For young people in particular, this often makes for a financial false start in life. It takes a lot of effort to iron out these financial mistakes. With Fabit, we want to help change that. Fabit enables you to take your finances into your own hands.

Learn more about the Fabit team on our “about us” page.

The basic version of Fabit is free of charge for users.

However, some of Fabit’s functions (such as the bank account connection) can only be used with Fabit Premium. Among other things, this is because we have to pay money for each connected account, in addition to the developer costs. Fabit Premium costs 4.99 euros per month.

Did you know that your employer can also cover the cost of Fabit Premium? More and more employers are including Fabit in their employee benefits programs to help their employees stay financially healthy. Why not speak to your employer about it?

In general, Fabit is available to you free of charge. You can download the app for free from Google Play and the Apple App Store.

With the free basic version, you can create budgets, document your income and expenses in the budget book, exchange information with other users in the Fabit Community, and improve your financial knowledge.

In addition to the basic version, you can also purchase the premium version of Fabit for 4.99 euros per month. With Fabit Premium, you can link checking accounts, credit cards, and other payment services such as PayPal to your Fabit account. This way, your income, and expenses are automatically transferred to the budget book. In addition, you can analyze your spending behavior and discover savings potential even more easily.

You can find more information about Fabit Premium in our list of prices and services.

No, your Fabit account does not affect your SCHUFA score. This also applies if you link your checking account to Fabit.

You can find more information about SCHUFA and how the SCHUFA score works in our articles “The SCHUFA: What they do and why you don’t have to be afraid of them” [link] and “Credit score? What’s that?”.

Motivation is an important factor if we want to change our behavior in the long run. Whether you want to get out of debt, have more money available each month, or change your financial habits.

It’s scientifically proven that people need to experience success on a regular basis in order to stick with something. That’s why, for example, when it comes to tackling debt, there’s the Snowball Principle. With the Snowball Principle, debts are paid off from smallest to largest, so there is a regular sense of achievement. This motivates you to keep going and become debt-free in the long run.

Unfortunately, there are also low points in every process. Fabit accompanies you through these emotional lows. Buddies and the Fabit Community help you not to lose heart and to lead a healthy financial life in the long run.

Do you wish for certain features, discovered a bug, or want to give us feedback on Fabit in general? Great. We are always happy to receive feedback from our users because this is the only way we can adapt Fabit to your needs.

You can either email us at support@fabit.app or fill out our feedback questionnaire in the app under settings (gear in the upper right corner between the bell and your profile picture). You are also welcome to schedule a personal meeting with us. Please use this link.

Budgets help you get an overview of what you spend money on each month.

To set up budgets in Fabit, click on “Budget Book” in the bottom menu bar. On the screen, you will see your available money, which you can assign to the budgets, as well as the budget groups and budgets we have set for you, which you can adjust to your situation.

First, adjust your available money. To do this, tap on the “info icon”. In the pop-up that opens, you can use the “Correction” button to adjust the amount. Back on the budgets screen, you can now assign the available money to the budgets. The goal is to distribute the available money completely among the budgets. Just click on the budget and assign an amount to it.

If you have already entered expenses, such as your rent, into the budget book and added them to the “Housing” budget, you will see how much money you need to allocate to the budget in order for it to be balanced.

You can find a full explanation and video tutorial here.

To reset budgets, simply click on the respective budget. In the “Budget” tab, you will see the entry with which you assigned money to the budget. If you click on it, you can delete it. The previously assigned money will be added back to your available money, and you can redistribute it.

You can easily adjust your available money by clicking on the small “info icon” and making a “Correction”.

When we’re going through something difficult and trying to change our habits, for example, it’s good to be able to talk about that change process. It’s just good to know that there are people who are or have been in a similar situation to you.

You know the principle from apps about dietary changes, sports, and addictive behavior. And there are also various groups on social media for sharing experiences with financial difficulties. Fabit offers you a protected place not only to manage your money, but also to ask all your questions and share difficulties and successes with others.

Only members of the Fabit community can see your posts. You have the option to restrict this access even further.

Buddies are people who are with you on your journey to financial health.

People who successfully manage their financial problems and debts often have someone in their private circle who helps them. This person can be a partner, a friend, a family member or a debt counselor. In Fabit we invite exactly these people to accompany you. You can ask people in your life to support you in Fabit, ask your debt counselor to support you, or find a buddy from the Fabit community.

Missions are tasks, tips, and food for thought that will help you improve your money management and financial habits.

In total, there are over 100 missions in the categories of “Avoid Expenses”, “Short-term”, “Save”, “Easy to do”, “Long-term”, “Overview”, “Sustainable”, “Habit change”, “Earn”, “Food”, “Free”, and “Reduce debt”. You can take on multiple missions at the same time, though we recommend that you do no more than three at a time. Because changes need your attention. If you take on too much, you may lose track and lose interest. For behavioral changes to succeed in the long term, however, you need between two and three months. That’s why it’s better to make one change after the next. Success will motivate you to keep going.

Financial education is important for making self-determined financial decisions. Unfortunately, the subject is given far too little attention at school. And even in the family, the topic is often not treated in a structured way. Fabit has set itself the task of providing you with financial knowledge that is relevant to everyday life. In the knowledge section of the app, you’ll find content on various topics. You can go through these at your leisure and thus acquire knowledge that is relevant to you.

If you see the error message “Connection failed” for the “Budget book” and “Accounts” on the app’s start page, there may be several reasons for this.

You can usually fix this by closing the app completely and then opening it again. If this does not work, please log out once and then log in again. Logging out works as follows:

• Please click on Settings (“gear”) in the upper right corner of the app.
• Then click on “Account”.
• Here you have the option to log out.

Registration is necessary to protect your data from unauthorized access (see our privacy policy).

In addition, registration protects you from losing all your data if your smartphone is broken or lost. By registering, you can also log in to your Fabit user account on another device with your credentials. In addition, we are required by law to implement an app authentication (PIN/Face ID, etc.), which you can find in the settings and use optionally. We recommend setting this because your data is then better protected in case of the loss of the device.

No problem! You can reset your password by clicking the “Forgot password” link on the input screen. You will receive an email from us to your verified email address with a link to set a new password.

Resetting the app is unfortunately not possible at the moment, we are working on changing that.

To reset the app, you (unfortunately) have to delete your Fabit account and then register again. You can delete your Fabit account on your own within the app. To do so, please click on the gear wheel in the upper right corner of the app. Then click on “Account”. Here you have the option to delete your account directly.

It’s a pity that you don’t want to use Fabit anymore. Would you like to tell us why? If so, just drop us an email at support@fabit.app. We would be very happy about your feedback.

You can delete your account yourself. Go to the app settings. Under “Account” you will find the option to delete your account.

After deleting your account, you will receive an email with a link to confirm the deletion. Please click on this link within 5 minutes, otherwise, it will no longer be valid for security reasons.

No, you can use Fabit without a bank account.

When you connect your checking account to Fabit, all entries are automatically transferred to your budget book and your budgets. This way, your budget book and your budgets are always up-to-date. Fabit also automatically checks if your transactions are as you planned them in Fabit. Furthermore, Fabit recognizes when an expense is missing or an unexpected expense occurs and helps you to adjust your plan in case of discrepancies.

In general, you do not need a checking account to use Fabit. If you use Fabit Premium, you have the option to link your current checking account with your Fabit account, among other things. For this, we work together with our partner Tink. Tink works with all common bank accounts in Germany.

The bank account connection is only possible for Fabit Premium users.

Once you have purchased Fabit Premium, you can easily add your accounts to the app. To do this, go to the “Budget Book” section and then to “Accounts”. Click on the “Connect bank account” button and then follow the instructions provided by our partner Tink.

Yes, you can. As a Fabit Premium user, you can connect all your current checking accounts, credit cards, and, for example, your PayPal account with Fabit.

No, this is currently not possible.

Yes, this is possible.

If your linked bank account is the only “checking account” specified in the app, before you can delete that, you need to add a “manual checking account” and make that your “main checking account”. To do that, scroll down and click on the “Add account” button. Here, you will select “Manual account”. Then enter the account balance, name, and type (in this case “Checking”). Then set this new account as your “Main checking account”. To do this, select the account and click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select the item “Set as main checking account”.

Now you can delete the other “Checking account” linked to your real bank account by clicking on it.

In your Fabit account, there must always be a checking account and a Wallet, because when you make entries in the budget book, you must specify from which account (checking account or wallet) the money is taken. This way, we can make sure that your account balance in Fabit is always up-to-date.

In order to use Fabit, you must verify the email address you entered during registration. You will receive a confirmation mail from us. If you do not receive an email, check your spam emails and make sure that Fabit emails are not recognized as spam.

If you have received an email from Fabit in spam, we recommend that you add the sender addresses to your contacts to prevent this from happening again.

If you still don’t receive emails from us after these measures, we’ll be happy to help you personally.

If the email you use to verify your email address did not arrive, please check your spam folder to see if it went there. If you did not receive an email verifying your email address, you may have mistyped or entered the wrong email address. In this case, please register again with the correct email address.

Fabit Premium costs 4.99 euros per month.

Sure. For example, you can ask your employer to include Fabit in its employee benefits program. This way, you, your colleagues, and your employer all benefit from Fabit.

You can cancel Fabit Premium at any time.

To do so, simply go to settings in the Fabit app (gear on the top right of the home screen). Then click on “Fabit Premium” and then on “Manage subscription”. You will be automatically redirected to the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. There you can cancel Fabit Premium.

If you have used a voucher provided by your employer, for example, Fabit Premium will automatically expire at the end of the voucher’s validity period. This will be displayed in your user account in the app. No cancellation is necessary. A voucher cannot be paused.

Your Fabit Premium subscription will automatically renew itself indefinitely until you cancel. When you cancel your Fabit Premium subscription, the cancellation becomes effective at the end of the billing period.

No other Fabit users can see your data. Only you can see your budgets and your budget book and all the data you enter in Fabit.

If you want, you can connect with other Fabit users, discuss your questions and successes in the Fabit community, and have a Fabit buddy guide your journey to financial health.

Your financial data is safe with Fabit. The app works according to German security and data protection standards. Fabit stores your data only on servers in Germany. All data is transmitted via a secure SSL connection. You can find more information in our privacy policy.

Your username and (optionally) your profile picture are visible to the entire Fabit community. If you want, you can choose a nickname as your profile name and upload a profile picture that is not you. In addition, in your profile settings, you have the option to set exactly who can see which part of your profile and also who can see your shared posts in the community. You have the following choices:

• “Only me”: only you see your own posts on the pin board. This way you can use Fabit as a kind of private diary for your own reviews.
• “Buddies”: Only Fabit users* who are directly connected to you. You can see who they are under “my buddies” and invite new buddies to Fabit with your buddy ID.
• “Community”: all Fabit users.

Your Fabit user account is protected with your personal password, which must be entered when opening the app. Fabit also has biometric authentication (fingerprint/face ID, etc.), which you can find in the settings and use optionally. We recommend setting it, because your data will be better protected if you lose your device.

You can find our privacy policy here.

You can find our terms and conditions here.

You can find our list of prices and services here.

Financial stress often leads to less motivation and energy, and thus to reduced work performance of the employees.

Several studies show the following:

• People with money worries are less productive at work. A full-time employee is distracted from work for an average of 156 hours (equivalent to 19.5 days) because of personal problems.
• According to Eldar Shafir, a psychologist at Princeton University, people with money problems are temporarily less intelligent: they lose at least 10 points in IQ.
• Employees with money worries are more likely to have poor relationships with colleagues.
• Employees with money problems are twice as likely to look for another job.

Therefore, getting help for money problems and financial stress is not only good for the employee but also important for the company. Investing in the financial health of employees often pays off quickly.

Would you like to learn more about how Fabit can help your employees with financial stress? Then feel free to write us.

Your contact person:
Dr. Ralf-Michael Schmidt
Founder & Managing Director of Fabit

Email address: info@fabit.app

We are looking forward to your message!