Saving money can be difficult, especially during times of rising inflation and household bills that leave many people short of cash at the end of the month.
Savers could also be prevented from putting cash into savings accounts as no bank or building society is offering rates that beat current levels of inflation, which hit a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in May. Arrived.
However, for those who want to take control of their savings and perhaps jump into the world of investing, there are money-saving apps that can help you with that.
Most let you see all your accounts in one place, get a free version, and can help you automatically save your additions as you make changes.
Some are for businesses and even for teenagers and children. under, I List some of the best savings apps.
plum
Plum allows you to connect all your bank accounts and credit cards in one place and is good for those who want to manage their budget.
The app identifies your regular expenses and income such as bills, rent and salary. It then analyzes your transactions and daily expenses and determines how much you can spend each week.
This remaining money will be transferred to your Plum account by direct debit every four to five days.
It also offers a ’round up’ feature which automatically rounds each transaction from the previous week to the nearest £1 and adds extra change to your Plum account every Monday.
For example, if you spend £4.50 on a coffee, Plum will round it up to £5 and transfer 50p into your Plum account.
Both auto-save and round-up features are available with a free basic Plum account that pays 0.5 percent interest.
The easy access rate on its Plus account, which costs £1 a month, jumps to 1.01 per cent, with users also being able to invest money through the app.
Plum Pro, which costs £2.99 a month, allows for ‘pocket’ or virtual accounts where you can save towards specific goals; And the £4.99-a-month Ultra has a “money maximizer” that tells you how much money you have left before payday.
more than savings and banking
Emma
Much like Plum, Emma is an account aggregator, meaning you can view your checking accounts, savings, but also investments, loans, crypto, and pensions in one place.
However, it does not offer a savings account.
It analyzes your transactions to give you a complete list of recurring payments for all your accounts, helping you track and cut wasteful subscriptions, manage budgets, schedule loan repayments, and save money.
For example, you can find out whether a certain bill is more or less expensive than in the previous month.
These services are free in the Basic version, while the Pro version, which costs £4.99 per month, lets you track your net worth over time, earn cashback and create your own custom spending categories, among other things. permitted.
piece
Chip is an AI-powered savings and investment app that analyzes your income and expenses, calculates what you can save and automatically transfers that money to your Chip account.
Customers don’t have to do anything, but they can automatically cancel or adjust the number of chips by regulating the savings level in the app and how long they can wait to save.
The features of the free version of the app also include Payday Put Away, which allows you to set a regular amount to save every time your employer pays you.
It comes with an easy-to-access account, operated by Allica Bank, offering 1.05 per cent interest on your savings, with a £85,000 limit on deposits.
The premium version, called ChipX, costs £3 a month and gives you access to a range of mutual funds and stocks and shares.
piggy bank
Moneybox is a free app that allows savers to round up their daily purchases to the nearest pound and put extra change into a savings account.
As with Chip, this is automatic, although you can fund your account weekly via flat-rate contributions or set up monthly payments on paydays.
Moneybox’s Easy Access Saver pays out 0.74 percent, with customers being able to open an account by depositing as little as £1.
It offers a 32-day cancellation account at 1.5 percent and a 120-day cancellation account at 1.45 percent.
money dashboard
Money Dashboard allows you to view all your bank accounts in one place and is free to use.
It was voted the best personal finance app in both 2020 and 2021 and is one of the most popular apps on the market with half a million users.
It allows you to set budgets, create expense categories, and send you alerts when you overspend.
It also creates charts to help you predict your future monthly expenses.
moneyhub
MoneyHub is one of the few money management apps for business and personal use.
Like other apps, it brings all your bank accounts, credit cards, investments, savings, and loans together so you can monitor your spending and set savings goals.
It also uses “nudges” to give you suggestions on how to save or spend better.
When you sign up for MoneyHub for the first time, you get six months free, but it costs £1.49 a month or £14.99 a year if you sign up through the App Store or Google Play.
It added that the reason it charges a subscription fee is because, unlike most of its competitors, it doesn’t sell your data to third parties.
The best apps for saving money for kids
go henry
Go Henry is a financial education app and prepaid card aimed at children and their parents, helping young children to budget and manage their money.
Targeting children ages six to 18, GoHenry’s prepaid debit card allows parents to set flexible spending limits and send notifications when their children make a purchase.
Parents can also set up weekly allowance transfers and even set chores for their kids that get paid if they do the chores.
It’s free for the first 30 days, but then customers are charged £2.99 a month.
Children can learn financial skills through videos, quizzes and interactive lessons on a variety of topics from spending wisely to saving and planning for the future.
Each time they complete one of the “money missions,” they earn experience points and badges “to keep them motivated and feeling fulfilled.”
Cleo
Clio is a free app aimed at the younger generation and like most other apps it goes through all your accounts in one place and works out how much you have to spend and automatically sets it aside for you. are.
But it differs from most of its competitors because you can ask it questions via chat just like you would a friend, like “can I buy pizza,” and the app will reply.
Once you sign up, it analyzes three months’ worth of transactions and sends you a special budget.
It also sends you monthly spend breakdowns, category comparisons, and quizzes to “help you see money from a different angle.”
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