Cleo’s “Can You Actually Afford That Trip?” feature acts as a reality check before booking.
When a friend suggested a girls’ trip to Dublin this fall, I was more than ready to pack my bags. Traveling abroad is exhilarating, except it’s terrifying when you consider the cost. Before committing to visiting the Cliffs of Moher and drinking endless pints of Guinness, I had to face the real question: Could I actually afford it without wrecking my bank account or credit?
My vacation planning strategy used to be, “Looks affordable, fingers crossed.” Since then, I’ve started using Cleo, a free AI-powered money management app that helps me track my monthly spending and save for big adventures. It also has a cool travel budgeting tool called “Can You Actually Afford That Trip?” that acts as a reality check before I book.
While Cleo won’t magically fund my upcoming trip to Ireland, its travel feature is helping me avoid racking up high-interest debt and keeping me from sabotaging my finances for the sake of a last-minute deal. It provides the hard truth about my finances with the clarity, honesty and personality you would only expect from… ahem… a human.
Read also: I Asked AI to Help Me Travel More Sustainably. Here’s What Happened
Cleo helps me travel smarter, with fewer regrets
You might be familiar with the “fly by the seat of your pants” travel budgeting strategy: Check your balance, do some mental math, rely on your credit card and hope for the best.
Cleo flips that by considering your projected travel costs alongside your regular bills and expenses. Several of my CNET colleagues have used Cleo to improve their spending decisions, noting that the AI-powered chatbot makes overall budgeting less taxing and more approachable. Instead of giving you a thumbs-up based on your account balance alone, Cleo gets a wide-angle view of your entire financial situation.
When I first started planning our Dublin trip, I navigated to the travel section of my Cleo app and input the estimated trip costs, including airfare, lodging, food, excursions and souvenirs. From there, Cleo’s tool delved into my linked bank accounts and credit cards, analyzing my income, upcoming bills (including my rent and loan payments), recurring subscriptions and spending patterns. It then predicted my financial situation for the period before and after the proposed trip dates.
The final verdict was delivered in a part-sassy, part-supportive tone, which I appreciated. “You can swing Dublin,” it said, “but maybe cool it on the daily lattes and skip splurging on shoes this month” (I’ve been known to impulse-buy new Adidas Gazelles on Poshmark).
According to Cleo, I can afford the girls’ trip — hooray! However, if I couldn’t, it would’ve shown exactly how much I’d be in the red. That’s the real value.
In fact, Cleo customized its response and recommended that I tighten my spending for a few weeks to afford the cost. Not exactly glamorous, but freeing, honestly. I booked the flight with zero post-purchase dread, knowing that I’ll have a great time in Ireland and still be able to pay my bills and be a responsible adult and dog mom.
According to Cleo, I can afford my upcoming trip to Dublin.
My brutally honest travel budgeting buddy
One reason I stick with Cleo is because it’s intuitive and user-friendly. There’s no fancy jargon or clunky dashboards. The chatbot feels more like texting a savvy friend than using a stiff budgeting tool. Cleo respects that I like to spend money because, well, I work hard. It doesn’t judge, and it helps me budget more wisely.
The AI app doesn’t just tell you what you want to hear. It offers customized advice and guidance tailored to your needs. And instead of saying yes or no when you’re planning a trip, the tool might suggest tweaks, like delaying the trip or cutting spending elsewhere, so you’re making informed choices with real numbers to back them up.
When it comes to my global wanderlust, Cleo has helped me curb my impulses, and not by saying “don’t travel” (which would be a massive bummer). Instead, it showed me how to do it without wiping out my emergency fund or racking up a credit card balance.
Should you try Cleo for travel budgeting?
If you love to travel, but always come home from a dream trip with debt, Cleo could be worth adding to your toolkit. For some folks, a private chatbot on an app can feel less intimidating than talking about money with a real person.
Still, handing over your banking info to AI isn’t for everyone. If you’re not comfortable sharing your financial details with an app, Cleo might not be the best fit. Before signing up, always read the privacy policy and understand what data you’re sharing with the company.
Also, it’s important to remember that AI chatbots can be wrong. AI-generated answers should be fact-checked with expert sources in case the tool is hallucinating, pulling results from dubious sources or generating false information. For a real-world case study, explore this piece by CNET’s Katie Collins, who tested the accuracy of travel-specific AI services in a city she knows inside and out.
I’m counting down the days to Dublin. This time, I know I can afford the pubs and still pay my bills when I get home.
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