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Whether you are a consumer or a small business owner, saving money is something we can all relate to. But the act of saving can be a bit daunting. That’s where automation comes in to help. The very best money saving apps will make things simple and hassle free to save anywhere from a few pennies to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. This extra money can be tucked away for retirement or an emergency fund account to actually help your family.
The decision to start saving can be challenging especially when it comes to knowing the changes that you need to make to allow you to put money away for a rainy day. Many people live paycheck to paycheck and even taking out $100 a month for saving can be scary.
Top 16 Best Money Saving Apps:
Thankfully, there are several apps that are designed in such a way to help you make better decisions about your personal and professional life. These money-saving apps will automatically fill up your savings and allow you to achieve your saving goals without much stress.
Mobile Banking, Saving and Investing Apps:
1. Chime
Chime is an iOS and an Android mobile banking app that includes a debit card and spending account that is FDIC insured to allow you to safely see the transactions, deposit funds and track your spending on the go.
This app also provides an automatic savings account that will allow you to start saving money without thinking by automatically putting aside 10 percent of your earnings.
You can also round up on your purchases and have the difference transferred into your account every time you use the Chime debit card.
Besides, it will allow you to stash away the money fast into savings account hence you will not be tempted to use it on trivial things. What’s more, they do not charge you foreign transactions fee, overdraft fee, ATM fees, or even fees for monthly minimums.
Why we love Chime: Its a great mobile only bank that offers a lot of value for low fees or free. A free checking and free savings accounts are included.
2. Qapital
If you want to add some learning components to the whole idea of saving money, then you need to use Qapital.
This app not only provides you with saving lessons but also explains the value of saving even small amounts going towards helping you to achieve your goals.
It generally rounds up the transaction to the nearest dollar and put it in an FDIC insured account. Once you’ve connected your checking account to the app you’ll be able to automate other saving strategies including putting a lump sum amount at intervals.
3. Swell Investing
This investment app offers one of the best ways to save and also learn how to especially if you’ve never saved before. If you are interested in saving money but do not have a large amount of cash, this app will provide you with a great way to start out.
Instead of investing a few thousands on stock, you can start small and upgrade. As one of the best money savings app, you can join it with just a minimum of $50 and work your financial way up.
What’s more, with Swell, you can monitor the progress of your investment, build your own mix of companies, and watch as your money grows.
Rewards, Coupons & Cash Back Apps:
4. Ibotta
This is a special saving app that will offer you cash rebates for items that you buy and even a $10 bonus for signing up.
Once you have installed the app you can browse to see the offers that they have. Some of these offers include restaurant and store purchases, regular grocery store items among others.
The good thing about it is that if you are planning to buy something you can always set some money aside for it. By just taking a photo of your receipt, you can redeem your offers and get cash in exchange.
If this is not enough, cash is deposited into your Ibotta account within just 48 hours.
Why we love Ibotta: Its a simple way to save money (get extra cash back) on everyday items that we already buy. Just click a pic of your safeway, target, walmart, wholefoods, etc. and get money added back into your account. Every pinny helps when you are on a tight budget.
5. Viggle
Viggle app will give you an opportunity to earn while sitting on your sofa. This unique app lets you check in what you are watching and then earns you points for watching it. Plus, you can get additional points for testing your television IQ and playing games.
In return, you can use the points that you’ve earned in places such as Swagbucks, Barnes and Noble and Starbucks. This means you will not be spending any extra money on magazines or coffee. Who knew that watching TV not only would entertain you, but also give you a chance to save some cash.
6. Swagbucks
Swagbucks allows you to save money by doing some simple things. For instance, if you regularly shop online, Swagbucks will give you a huge registry of online stores where you can get a cash back percentage on all your online purchases especially if you shop through Amazon, Swagbucks itself, Best Buy and Groupon.
I am an Amazon groupie and enjoy the ease of use so saving a few dollars with swagbucks makes good simple cents 😉
You can also earn some money by simply taking surveys, searching the web, playing games and watching videos.
7. Honey
This saving app takes the hassle out of searching for coupons online to help you save money. Functioning as an extension on your devices, honey will help you to uncover those sweet deals that you can use on just about anything purchased online.
You use Honey by adding it on as an extension to your Firefox or chrome browsers. Its just a simple click. As you are checking out those killer camping backpacks on REI- a little pop up will show you a coupon code to use to save extra money on that item if you purchase it. It works with many sites and an incredible number of brands to ensure that you don’t miss saving money while making purchases.
Why we love Honey: It is a totally mindless way to save money while doing your online shopping. I am fairly positive that I saved a good hundred or more just during the Holiday season alone. You never have to search for coupon codes again- they will always be right there! Try it out and tell us what you think.
8. Scoutmob
Available as an Android and iOS app, Scoutmob offers both regional and local deals and some of the major cities across the country. In the recent past, it has continued to expand beyond some of the major US cities and provide discounts at many restaurants, local stores and events venues.
Plus, it’s a major competitor to other sites such as Amazon Local, Groupon, and LivingSocial. However, as compared to these sites, it generally goes beyond the normal deals and uncovers more valuable information in a much more user-friendly way.
Personal Budgeting Apps:
9. Trim
This is perhaps one of the best free money saving apps. Trim is just like having a small financial assistant that can help you save money. It not only automates your savings but also cleans up your expenditure.
For instance, in the last month alone, it has helped users to save up to $1,000,000. Trim works by analyzing your account to know how much you are spending. Once it has found recurring subscriptions, it will take care of cancelling the ones that you don’t need.
It will also negotiate lower prices and help improve your savings. More so, with its 256-bit-SSL encryption and 2-factor authentication, it’s very safe.
Why we love Trim: This is a super easy app that really runs in the background. It notifies you if you are not using subscription accounts, paying too much for cable or found unnecessary fees. It has definitely helped us keep our bills a bit more minimal and our budget in check.
10. Clarity Money
Clarity Money is a money saving app that will help you differentiate between wise spending and wasteful saving. It generally does this by cancelling the subscriptions that you just not need or that you are not using. Its an app similar to Ask Trim but the platform is very user friendly.
It also has ways to help you negotiate your bills so that you can pay less. This money-saving app also tracks what you’ve spent to ensure that you remain on budget. In addition, it recommends certain credit cards that may fit into your credit needs and lifestyle thereby allowing you to learn how to use credit cards in the best way.
Plus, you can create a savings account with this app since you’ll need somewhere to start if you want to save money.
11. Mint
Mint is a special app that will help you stay on top so that you’ won’t be late with any of your bills. This will end up saving you the money that you might have spent on penalties and late fees.
It will also help you to come up with a budget to ensure that you maximize on what you can do with your money and even set aside some for an emergency fund, savings, and retirement while taking care of all your other obligations.
They will also give you a free credit score to monitor how your good money and savings habits can give you a chance to get a better loan rate in case you want to buy a vehicle or a home.
Why we love Mint: It helps us to simplify our budgeting. It reminds us when bills are due, tells us how much we spent (or overspent) and offers several reports to show where your money went.
Automated Savings Apps:
12. Digit
Do you want to save money without thinking much about it? If so then choose Digit. Whether you want to pay your own debts or save money, Digit will definitely make it effortless.
With this app, you can automate your saving transfers and put aside some money without missing it. This app is good for those who have never saved before and those who think that they will be unable to save. As a matter of fact, you can save even up to $2500 per year.
Once you’ve connected your bank account based on its proprietary algorithms, it will automatically enable you to build your savings.
Although it saves a little every day, when expenses fall or when income increases, it saves more or less depending on whats going on and if it takes out too much causing you to get an overdraft fee- they will pay for it.
Why we love Digit: Its very easy to use and doesn’t cause us to stress over the small amounts being auto-withdrawn from our account. Perfect for those not used to saving money on a regular basis.
13. Acorns
Acorns is a savings app that rounds up all the purchases that you link up to your credit and debit cards. The difference will automatically be taken into an Acorns accounts (part of the Acorns investing platform).
Once the difference has been transferred to the Acorns account, your savings will be invested in exchange trading funds. This means you get the chance to invest in aggressive or conservative funds depending on what you feel comfortable doing.
As a college student, you can use the app for free for even up to four years otherwise everyone else must pay a small monthly fee of $1-3. Its a good deal if you and your family shop a lot and don’t use cash.
More so, the company has partnered with Blue Apron and Airbnb to give back a percentage of your money on purchases.
14. SmartyPig
As a small child, you might have had a piggy bank to save some money for a treat or to stash in some change, right?
SmartyPig is an app that uses the same philosophy to help you save money and reach your financial goals. When you sign up with this app, you also link an external source of funds, set up your goal and start tracking your progress along the way.
You can also use it to set up recurring contributions and even fund your SmartyPig account whenever you want to. What’s more, you can use it to remain accountable as you strive towards reaching your savings goals.
This app is not only free but can also be used to accrue interest on your savings. Although it does not have a mobile app, you can still make transactions through their website.
15. Tip Yourself
When you go to a restaurant you probably leave a tip for the good service that you’ve had. However, when we do a good job we rarely pat ourselves on the back.
Thankfully, Tip Yourself is among the best money savings apps that are changing this for the better. For instance, if you make it to the gym (even if you didn’t want to go) you can always tip yourself.
The beauty of this app is that it’s all about habits and rewarding yourself by doing the good. Its a total win- win type of app situation. In addition to cultivating positive habits, you’ll also be saving some cash.
Once you sign up for an account, you’ll link it up to your checking account which will be used to transfer money into your “tip jar”. Transfer one dollar or hundred!
It also has a social feed that has a community where you can share your savings for the day and get encouraged.
Why we love tip Yourself: We like the idea of encouraging good habits. We teach our children and co-workers that good habits earn great reward- so why not carry that over to yourself. Heck if I go the gym and then use my reward money to buy wine… I can! (don’t judge me)
Investment Fee Analyzer App:
16. FeeX
This app understands that people may lose a lot of money if they don’t monitor the brokerage fee that comes with having an investment broker to manage it. Apart from linking your investment accounts, it also analyzes what you are paying for fees and some of the costs connected to other investments.Its a huge eye opener for some!
It also makes recommendations or suggests lower cost alternatives that can save you more money. The beautiful thing about it is that it’s free! It even notes that it doesn’t receive any referral fees when it making suggestions to change to some other companies. Transparency and freedom from high investments costs make us very happy FeeX fans!
Start your savings now!
These are by far the very best money saving apps, and nothing should prevent you from saving your cold hard cash now. Apart from offering incremental changes, many of these apps also help to change your thinking and provide you with continuous lessons about fiscal wellness that can keep you out of debt and save you more money in future.
This includes more opportunities to grow your business and greater financial freedom. More ways to save for an early retirement, your child’s college fund, or even a trust. Once you start to get a hold of your financial situation, saving money and making money go hand in hand and you will be hooked on the exciting things you can do to prepare for the road ahead.
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