How to Create Transactions With Siri in Debit & Credit

One of the biggest features that I have recently added to Debit & Credit is Siri integration for iOS and watchOS. This integration is somewhat limited due to the way how 3rd party developers can interact with Siri.

Still, I believe that many of my users might find it useful. So let’s dive into the details.

Things to Do Before Using Siri

You need to start using payee locations in Debit & Credit. This is highly recommended because payee locations is what allows Siri to suggest a payee and its last used category for a new transaction. Using payee locations is easy, it does not drain your battery and works reliably for 90% of locations.

You also need to activate Siri in the app settings. Select “Advanced Settings” and then “Siri”.

Once you do that, you are ready to start using it!

How to Start Using Siri

Just say “Pay a bill for $100 in Debit & Credit”. Unfortunately, due to Siri limitations you need to ask a for a bill payment even though technically you are creating a transaction and not paying a bill.

Once Siri receives your command it will look for nearby payees (that’s why saved locations are important) and suggest them for selection. If there is a “perfect candidate” (payee that is closed enough to you) it will be suggested straight away.

The next step is account selection. The app is trying to do things as quickly as possible so by default it will analyze selected payee. If there is only one account that you use with that payee, the app will use it and skip account selection.

Once everything is in place, you will see a confirmation:

If You Don’t Want to Use Payee Locations

If for some reason payee locations is not something that you want to use, you can try specifying payee and account name right in your Siri command. For instance, you could say “Pay my ALDI bill for $55” or “Pay my ALDI bill with my Visa account”. It is up to Siri whether it will properly recognize your payee/account names.

Siri on Apple Watch

Everything is pretty much the same as in iOS except that you will need to launch the watchOS app at least once before using Siri for the first time.

Perfect Use Case Scenario

You have three petrol stations that you regularly use. Use have saved locations for these stations and you usually use your credit card when paying there.

Next time you stop at one of these stations, you tell your watch “Hey Siri… pay a bill for $45.55 in Debit & Credit”. Siri will figure out that you are at one of the previously saved patrol stations, it will also use “Petrol” as an expense category and your credit card as an account. You will need only to tap “Done” to confirm a transaction and that’s it.

I hope you will enjoy using Siri with Debit & Credit!