Saving cash is primarily to prepare for an unexpected expense or financial emergency. Saving money through money saving apps is becoming increasingly popular over the past few years.
Best Money Saving Apps
A lot of apps are available to help you manage your money and improve your saving habits. The three major types of money-saving apps are those that assist you toward a goal, those that assist you while shopping, and those that assist you in cutting back expenses. Some, some, or all of these might be necessary, depending on your goals and preferences.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the array of apps that claim to earn you cash back or save you money. Others offer great services, while others are fee traps. Here are some things to look for based on your needs. Our discussion of the best money-saving apps in each category is intended to help you make the most informed decision.
Apps to Automate Your Savings
Keeping your money in the bank is important, but finding the motivation or even remembering to do so can be difficult. There are several apps that help you save money in a way that works for you. Your spare change goes into a savings account if you use apps that round-up change, for instance.
In most cases, you will need to download the app, create an account, and link your credit card or checking account.
Acorns: The best investment for new investors
You can invest your spare change in an investment portfolio with Acorns, an app that rounds up your purchases on linked credit and debit cards. When you invest in small changes, your round-ups can increase by two times, five times, or even ten times. Alternatively, you can set recurring deposits every day, every week, or every month.
Acorns ask about your financial situation, income, goals, and risk tolerance to determine the right investment portfolio for you. The system will then choose one of five ETF-based investment portfolios for you, but you can override the recommendation.
You can earn cash back when you spend with Acorns’ partners, such as Airbnb and Nike.
In the long run, you might want to upgrade to another service if you want to make bigger investments.
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: $1–$5/month
Qapital: The best tool for setting goals
Occasionally, you need some fun to motivate you to complete a chore. When you use Qapital, you can set up multiple rules to trigger savings, such as saving a preset amount when you post to Instagram or when you spend less than you anticipate. A more straightforward approach would be to save a percentage of your paycheck each pay period.
In addition, you have the option of investing the money in an interest-bearing FDIC-insured account or portfolio. It’s a solid app for setting goals because it provides so many ways to save and track progress. In an average year, users save $5,000, according to the company.
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: 30-day free trial, then $3–$12/month
Simple: The best alternative to banking
Savings app Simple offers free checking, debit card, and budgeting tools in addition to a savings account. You can use the app to help you avoid overspending by checking your available funds and finding out how much you can safely spend each week. Your savings can also be automated by rounding up every debit transaction to the nearest dollar and automatically moving the money to an FDIC-insured account.
Those who prefer smartphone banking should consider Simple banking accounts since they are mobile-first. In the event that you need in-person assistance, you might want to look elsewhere since it doesn’t have brick-and-mortar branches.
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Digit: The best option for simplicity
Digit is an app that calculates how much you can save based on your checking account balance, spending patterns, and goals you set. The money is then automatically transferred into an FDIC-insured savings account and distributed to your goals. Additionally, Digit gives you a 0.5% savings bonus every three months based on your average daily balance. Therefore, if you earn $5 a day and your average daily balance is $1000, you would earn $5 a day.
In addition to simplifying legwork, Digit is easy to use. Digit’s number-crunching can save you a lot of time and money by keeping track of your income, expenses, and spending.
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: 30-day free trial, then $5/month
SmartyPig: The best way to save money for free
With SmartyPig, you can create multiple money market accounts that function as virtual piggy banks. You can either automate your savings from your linked checking account or manually transfer money into the FDIC-insured accounts. You can attach goals with deadlines to each, such as “Europe trip 2021, $3,000′′. In addition to tracking your progress, SmartyPig also allows you to adjust your goals at any time.
The app is easy to use, and since it takes a few days for withdrawn funds to reach your bank account, the buffer can keep you from draining your savings. The best thing about it is that it’s free.
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Twine: The best option for couples
The Twine app lets you add a partner to your financial goals, such as saving or paying off debt. With your partner, you can invest the cash in a portfolio of your choosing or save it in an FDIC-insured account.
You can track your progress, receive recommendations based on your financial goals, and automate the savings process if you prefer to go hands-free.
You can share goals with another person, which makes it useful if you want to invest or save together, but you don’t necessarily share other financial accounts.
Available on: iOS
Price: Free when you save cash; $0.25 per month for every $500 you invest
Chime: Ideal for people with spotty banking records
Chime is not a bank, but a financial technology company. Stride Bank, N.A., and The Bancorp Bank, N.A. provide banking services and issue debit cards.
There is another money-saving app, Chime, that offers checking and savings accounts as well as other banking services. By using the app or a browser, you can automatically save a percentage of every paycheck. You can also ask Chime to round up your purchases and save the remainder.
The bank does not run a credit check or consult your ChexSystems report before you open an account at Chime, making it a good option for people with spotty banking and credit histories. In addition to zero overdraft fees and monthly maintenance charges, the bank’s “second chance banking” program does not require minimum balances.
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Peak Money: The best way to set goals visually
Peak is an app that helps users save money through goal-based savings. Peak keeps track of your financial progress by incrementally filling in digital mountains (“peaks”) for each goal you’re aiming for.
The return on any money you save is distributed quarterly and you can set up automatic transfers or round up credit card purchases.
In order to achieve your savings goals, Peak can help motivate you as you see how much you’ve saved.
Available on: iOS
Price: Free
Capital One Shopping: The best browser extension
Capital One Shopping alerts you to better prices for your online purchases through a free coupon app and browser extension. Capital One Shopping will send you pop-up notifications whenever you visit a site that offers discounts once you install the extension.
The app can even scan barcodes and check prices on the spot if you’re shopping at a physical store. It’s an easy way to save money on everyday online purchases.
Available on: iOS app; Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari browsers
Price: Free
Swagbucks: The best way to earn rewards
By taking online surveys, playing games, shopping, and watching videos, you can earn Swagbucks rewards. The site looks for demographic matches based on your profile survey after you register for an account and complete the profile survey.
When you complete these tasks, you earn SBs, which you can redeem for gift cards. Shop at Swagbucks partners, such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Starbucks, for even more chances to earn SBs.
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Fetch Rewards: Simplest to use
Take photos of your receipts to earn rewards with Fetch Rewards, a free mobile app. Depending on the cost of the product, you’ll earn points if the receipt contains participating brands. In addition to redeeming points for gift cards, you can donate them to charities and enter monthly sweepstakes using them.
In addition to preventing your browser from tracking your searches and purchases, it also lets you earn rewards for completing tasks and doesn’t require you to deal with coupons (even digital ones).
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Trim: The best browser service for saving money
In short, Trim helps you negotiate your bills and eliminate unused subscriptions, like those pesky trials you forgot to cancel. You’ll have to connect your bank accounts online since there’s no app.
Then, Trim helps you identify recurring expenses by analyzing your transactions. In the event that you don’t wish to keep recurring services, Trim can cancel them for you or negotiate your bills with the provider on your behalf. You will be charged 33% of your savings in your first year if you save money with Trim.
Available on: Your smartphone’s web browser
Price: Free to set up; if you use bill negotiation, Trim takes 33% of your savings
Truebill: Best app for hands-on savings
In Truebill, your financial accounts are connected, and you can monitor your spending and expenses. You can then negotiate your bills for free. There are a few key differences between it and Trim. Regardless of whether you save money, both services take a percentage of the savings. In addition to its 40% fee (instead of Trim’s 33%), Truebill provides full budgeting capabilities, along with a monthly spending report.
Truebill and Trim differ greatly when it comes to the convenience of using them: Truebill offers an app, while Trim does not.
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: Free to set up and use; optional Premium service is $3–$12/month.
Empower: The ultimate app for all your needs
The Empower app has features that combine some of the best elements of other money-saving services, such as Cash Advances of up to $250*, Automatic Savings, budget tracking, customized recommendations, and Interest-bearing Checking. The app analyses your account balance every day and transfers money to your AutoSave Account when you can afford it after linking it to your checking account. In the event that there are not enough funds in your checking account in one week, Empower will try again the following week.
In addition to analyzing your spending patterns, income, and expenses, Empower provides you with tailored money-saving recommendations. You will also be notified if your account is overdrawn, if your bill has increased, and if your payment has been missed.
Despite the absence of multiple savings goals, this app provides many other features that more than compensate for it.
Available on: iOS and Android
Price: Free for 14 days, then $8/month
Tiller: The best spreadsheet budgeting tool
With Tiller, you can customize your budget in Google Sheets and Excel. After connecting your bank, credit card, and other financial accounts, Tiller pulls that information and continually syncs it.
In addition to checking your net worth, you can divide your transactions into over 200 categories, share your spreadsheets, and more with the Foundation Template. In addition to providing a comprehensive overview of all of your accounts, this tool does not automatically trim expenses.
It shows you the percentage of your monthly budget left compared to how many days are left in the month as well as how much is allocated to each category. The spending tab lets you adjust what you’re spending or how much money you allocate to a specific category of spending based on your budget.
Available on: No app available; uses Google Sheets or Excel
Price: Free for 30 days, then $79/year
Undebt.it: The best way to pay off debt
You can create a customized debt-payoff plan using Undebt.it. Using the site, you enter the debts you owe, their interest rate, the monthly payment, and the due date. Your debt repayment plan is calculated by Undebt.it uses the information on your easy-to-read dashboard.
Debt-payoff strategies vary widely and determining which one is right for you might be difficult. You can compare several debt-payoff methods on Undebt.it, including the “debt snowball” and the “debt avalanche” to see which is the best option for you. You can also customize your plan based on your own preferences.
Undebt.it says users are paying off $9 billion in debt using the service.
Available on: Web browsers
Price: Free; $12/year for the premium version
Do You Need to Pay for An App to Save Money?
Even though paying for money-saving apps seems contradictory, they are worthwhile if they help.
Identify the app that best suits your spending and saving style first. Choose an automatic savings app that offers guidance if you want to learn how much you are spending, how to cut back on your expenses, and how to save money automatically. However, if you like to be in control, then a hands-on app is what you need.
Comparing the price of the app with the estimated savings will help you determine whether it is worthwhile. Start with a free service and then upgrade once you have some money set aside if you’re on a tight budget. A savings or budgeting app might be a good place to start, and then you can upgrade to a shopping app if you have the time and money.
The best money-saving apps assist you where you need them, so you can reach your financial goals more quickly.
