I like how Mondo merges merchants together instead of showing individual variations. For example, Tesco Metro, Tesco Express, Tesco Esso, Tesco Extra etc. all just show up as ‘Tesco’.
However, I was wondering what the preference is when it comes to restaurants and other chains that are known by both a nationwide brand and an individual, location specific name. For example, a Beefeater or a Wetherspoons might also be known by the name of the establishment. I’ve noticed some items in my feed listed as the brand, and some as the individual location, and I’m not sure which one is “right”.
IKEA and IKEA Food also show up as the same merchants in Mondo where as they do not anywhere else (receipts, other banks, the raw name in API, etc.).
It’s a tricky one, especially with Wetherspoons and Beefeater. Ideally I’d like them to show up with the location specific names in the feed but I’d also like them to be merged in to the overall brands in Your Spending. IKEA and IKEA Food maybe split. Tesco merge all except fuel? Maybe Mondo could use these hints in the names to better assign categories for merchants that show up merged (put the supermarket petrol stations under Transport, IKEA as Shopping but IKEA food as either Groceries or Eating Out, Amazon Digital Download as Entertainment, etc.).
I think really there should probably be some kind of hierarchy where for example “Tesco esso”, “Tesco extra”, “Tesco blah”, etc. are all under “Tesco”. Then PayPal merchants would be under “PayPal”, and other merchants might be under their payment processor.
Then the app has access to all the possible details, and can make the decision about the best data to render depending on the chain.
E.g.: if the parent was PayPal or Tesco, it would probably be shown. If it was Stripe, probably not.