Terms of Service

By creating an account or using Arete Money, you agree to these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree, do not use the service.

These Terms form a binding agreement between you and John Muirhead (“Arete Money,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). We may update these Terms from time to time — see Section 11.

Arete Money is a personal finance application that helps you understand your financial activity. The service provides:

• A dashboard showing your bank and credit card balances, transactions, and spending patterns.
• Automated detection of recurring charges, spending anomalies, and savings opportunities.
• Financial health signals and trend analysis over time.

Arete Money provides read-only access to your financial accounts. We cannot move money, initiate payments, or make changes to your bank or credit card accounts.

Arete Money is not a bank, investment advisor, financial planner, tax preparer, or credit counselor. The information displayed in the app is for your personal reference only. See Section 7 for important disclaimers.

To use Arete Money, you must:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Be a resident of the United States.
• Provide accurate and complete information when creating your account.
• Keep your login credentials secure and not share them with others.

You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at support@aretemoney.com.

Arete Money uses Plaid Inc. (“Plaid”) to connect to your financial institutions and retrieve account and transaction data. When you connect a financial account:

• You interact directly with Plaid's secure Link interface to authorize the connection.
• Your bank login credentials are handled entirely by Plaid — they are never transmitted to or stored by Arete Money.
• Your use of Plaid's services is subject to Plaid's own End User Privacy Policy, available at https://plaid.com/legal/#end-user-privacy-policy.

By connecting a financial account through Arete Money, you authorize Plaid to retrieve and transmit your account and transaction information to Arete Money for the purposes described in our Privacy Policy.

Arete Money may also use other third-party services (such as hosting, email, and error monitoring) to operate the service. Our use of these services is described in our Privacy Policy.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use Arete Money for your personal, non-commercial financial management purposes.

You agree not to:

• Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the service.
• Scrape, crawl, or systematically extract data from the service.
• Use the service for any unlawful purpose.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to other users' accounts or our systems.
• Use the service to harass, abuse, or harm others.
• Resell, sublicense, or redistribute access to the service.
• Circumvent any security measures, rate limits, or access controls.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms.

Your privacy matters to us. Our collection, use, and protection of your information is described in our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

By using Arete Money, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy.

No financial advice. Arete Money is an informational tool. Nothing in the service constitutes financial, investment, tax, legal, or other professional advice. You should consult qualified professionals before making financial decisions.

Data accuracy. Financial data displayed in Arete Money is sourced from your financial institutions via Plaid. While we strive to present this data accurately, we cannot guarantee that it is complete, current, or error-free. Transaction categorization, spending analysis, and health signals are generated algorithmically and may contain inaccuracies. Always verify important financial information directly with your financial institution.

Service availability. Arete Money is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the service at any time, with or without notice.

Beta status. Arete Money is currently in beta. Features may change, and the service may contain bugs or incomplete functionality.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Arete Money disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Arete Money and its operator shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, data, use, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of the service.

Our total liability for any claims arising from or related to these Terms or the service shall not exceed the amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim, or fifty dollars ($50), whichever is greater.

Arete Money is currently offered free of charge. This limitation reflects the free nature of the service.

By you: You may stop using Arete Money at any time. To delete your account and all associated data, go to Settings within the app or email support@aretemoney.com. See our Privacy Policy for details on what happens to your data upon deletion.

By us: We may suspend or terminate your account at any time if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, if required by law, or if we discontinue the service. Where possible, we will provide notice before termination.

Upon termination, your license to use the service ends immediately. Sections 7, 8, and 10 survive termination.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Connecticut, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any disputes arising from these Terms or your use of the service shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Connecticut.

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you by email or through the app.

Your continued use of Arete Money after updated Terms take effect constitutes acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree with updated Terms, stop using the service and request account deletion.

Questions about these Terms? Contact us at:

Email: support@aretemoney.com

Arete Money is operated by John Muirhead, based in the United States.