Frequently asked questions

What is WatsonWise?

WatsonWise is a personal finance app that helps you bring accounts and activity into one place, explore spending and trends, and get plain-language insights. It is meant to complement—not replace—your bank and professional advisors.

Is WatsonWise a bank or advisor?

No. WatsonWise is not a bank, broker, or registered investment adviser. We don't hold your money, execute trades for you, or provide personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Always confirm important details on your official bank and tax documents.

How does bank linking work?

When you connect an institution, WatsonWise typically uses a third-party data partner (such as Plaid) to link your accounts with your permission. That partner's terms and privacy policy apply to the linking flow. Connections can break when banks or APIs change; you may need to reconnect.

What data does WatsonWise store?

When you link accounts or import data, we save what the app needs to show balances, history, and insights—for example:

• Transactions (date, amount, description/merchant text, category, and similar fields)
• Accounts (names, types, and balances as reported by your provider)
• Investments (holdings and related symbols/values, when connected)
• Your settings (budgets, goals, rules, reminders, and anything you create in the app)
• Connection tokens so sync can continue: we keep a secure token from our data partner (for example Plaid)—stored encrypted—not your online banking password
• Sign-in details (email; password hash if you use email/password; identifiers from Google if you use Sign in with Google)

What do you not store?

We do not store your bank's login password or answers to security questions. You sign in to your institution through your bank or through our partner's secure link flow (e.g. Plaid Link); those credentials stay with the institution and/or the linking partner per their practices. We also do not use WatsonWise as a replacement for your bank: always verify important numbers on official statements.

What gets sent to AI?

When AI features are enabled, prompts and related context are sent to an external model provider (today, Google Gemini in production; OpenAI may be used if configured). That can include:

• Chat (“Ask”): your question; a compact snapshot of recent activity (such as trailing-period metrics and a sample of recent transactions: dates, descriptions, amounts, categories); text from recent dashboard insights; and summaries returned when the assistant uses in-app tools (those tools read your data from our database, then the model sees the results so it can answer you in plain language).
• Auto-categorization: for transactions that don't match your rules, we may send identifiers and labels (merchant/text, amount, date) to a model to suggest a category.
• Other AI text: short narratives for health or insights are generated from structured scores or summaries—not your full raw statement PDFs unless you explicitly paste content into chat.

Do not paste full account numbers, PINs, or other secrets into chat. If AI is not configured on the server, those features will not call third-party models (some parts of the app may fall back to simpler behavior). See our Privacy Policy for subprocessors and retention.

Do you sell my data?

WatsonWise is not built to sell your financial data to data brokers for advertising. Third parties involved in hosting, linking, analytics, or AI may process data under their own terms—review our Privacy Policy and the policies of Plaid and your hosting or AI providers.

How accurate is the information I see?

Balances and transactions depend on timing, how institutions report data, and sync jobs—there can be delays or mismatches with your official statements. Categories and merchant names may be wrong or incomplete; you can usually edit them in the app when supported.

What about AI answers and insights?

Even when the right numbers are used, generated text can be wrong, oversimplified, or outdated (for example, rates and product terms change). Use AI as a starting point, not as sole advice for taxes, investments, or major money decisions. For what may be sent to model providers, see What gets sent to AI? above.

Why is there a waitlist?

We may use a waitlist to approve signups, manage load, and keep support manageable. After approval, you can usually register or use Sign in with Google, depending on how this site is configured.

What is the demo site vs production?

A separate "demo" deployment may use sample or test data and different login rules. Use production for real finances; treat demo as non-binding and for trying the product only.

How do I get help or delete my account?

Contact us at support@watsonwise.com. For account deletion, email from the address on the account and ask for deletion—we'll outline what we can remove subject to legal or backup constraints.

How do I report a security issue?

Email security@watsonwise.com with details so we can investigate. Please do not use this address for general support or privacy requests—use support@watsonwise.com for those.

Where are the legal terms?

See our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and short Disclaimers.

We may update this FAQ from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the latest revision.