Morning Coffee - Monthly Stats Aren’t Enough: A UX Perspective on ING Homebank statistics

ING Homebank proposal for statistics feature improvement

I've been a digital banking user for many years, and digitalization, usability, and simplicity weigh heavily in my decision to adopt or continue using a financial product.

ING HomeBank has struck a good balance here, offering a clean, usable experience — good enough that I haven't felt the need to switch, even though Revolut is clearly ahead in terms of digital-first innovation.

ING has recently added a "statistics" feature. It's a step in the right direction — albeit a bit late compared to Revolut — but still appreciated. Unfortunately, the current implementation limits users to monthly calendar-based reporting, which doesn’t reflect how most people manage their finances.

To improve the feature's usefulness, the product should allow custom timeframes, not just month-start to month-end. Here’s how flexible statistics periods could look:

Option 1 – Standard calendar month (Start–End of month)
Option 2 – Rolling month (End of previous month to current date or day before)
Option 3 – Fixed half-month (1st–15th or 16th–End)
Option 4 – Rolling half-month periods (e.g., mid-last-month to mid-this-month)
Option 5 – Fully custom: Any Start and End date selected by the user

This flexibility would give users a more accurate picture of earnings and expenses aligned to their actual cycles — salary dates, billing periods, or personal budgeting strategies.

🎯 Benefits of Timeframe Flexibility

For users:

• Align reports with salary cycles, not just months

• Better track recurring spend vs. income (e.g. bills paid mid-month)

• Enable habit analysis — e.g., bi-weekly grocery spend or weekend expenses

• Improve budgeting accuracy for those who work freelance, get bonuses, or have irregular income

For the bank (product/UX/business):

• Increased retention: Users will feel heard and empowered

• Enhanced data quality: Insight into real behavior when users choose relevant periods

• Higher feature adoption: More users engaging regularly with financial insights

• Competitive edge vs. Revolut, Monzo, N26, etc.

• Upsell potential: Personalized offers based on improved cash flow analysis

I hope the ING product team continues improving in this direction — and I’d love to see other users share how they manage personal financial tracking. The small UX decisions matter most in building long-term trust.

Robert's laboratory - ing proposals