We’d all quite like to save more money.
Whether that’s down to the thrill of never overpaying for the essentials, a desire to save up enough money to buy a house, or wanting the security of enough savings to tide you over for a few months if you lost your job, it’s always nice to have a bit of extra cash.
But budgeting is tough. We know this. Excel docs can be fiddly, it’s tough to stay on top of our ‘rules’ for spending, and, frankly, we’re too bloody busy doing other stuff to invest hours and hours to keeping a close eye on our finances.
That’s where money management apps come in to make it a whole lot easier.
And now, the best apps to help you save money have been named, so you don’t even need to search the App Store and take a pick at random.
The Open Up 2020 Challenge, run by Nesta Challenges, in partnership with the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), looked at 107 applicants then whittled these down to 15 finalists for the best apps to help people manage their money.
From that list of finalists, four winners were chosen to each receive a £150,000 grant to grow their solution to help more people manage their money – on top of £50,000 awarded at the finalist stage.
That’s very nice for them, obviously, but the good news for us is that we now have a list of four money management apps that a bunch of experts reckon are worth downloading. So, what are they?
Mojo Mortgages
The MortgageScore app helps people easily understand if they are ‘mortgage ready’, then provides personalised advice on how people can go on to improve their score.
When so many of us know we want to buy our first property, but have no idea how to do this, this app is a very handy starting point to getting your head around mortgages.
Plum
A budgeting AI that helps you easily set aside small amounts every few days, meaning you can take the thinking out of saving and just let the app do it for you.
The benefit of this is that because the chunks of money aren’t massive, you don’t really notice them going, so after a couple of months you suddenly have quite a lot of money saved up without ever having really felt restrained by a tight budget.
The app also helps you find better deals on bills and offers insights on your spending.
The team at Plum are currently offering expert advice in our money series, How I Save, so we’re big fans.
Moneybox
This one’s a similar option to Plum, allowing you to set up ’round ups’ – so when you spend 80p on something, that purchase will be rounded up to the nearest £1, putting the 20p in your savings.
Again, the key to that is that you don’t notice the savings you’re making, which means putting away the pennies and pounds adds up with minimal effort.
Moneybox also lets you add one-off or regular deposits to your money pot and helps you choose other savings products.
Wagestream
This app is focused on taking a proper look at your income, allowing people to direct a portion of their earnings straight into savings, track their salary and bank balance, and set smart payment reminders.
Money management apps are fast becoming a popular way to stay on top of your finances.
According to research from Open Up 2020, the apps have been relied on heavily in the pandemic, with a quarter of people using them amid coronavirus, a number that rises to 46% among 25 to 34 year olds.
Imran Gulamhuseinwala, trustee of the OBIE, said: ‘Covid-19 has left millions of people facing financial hardships, so it’s more important than ever that the financial services market responds with innovative solutions to help people get back on track with their finances.
‘All of the Open Up 2020 Challenge finalists are taking a leading role in this, especially the winners. The judges were particularly impressed with the winners’ focus on helping their customers, particularly in this challenging climate, and their commitment to improving financial wellbeing.’
If you want more tips and tricks on saving money, as well as chat about cash and alerts on deals and discounts, join our Facebook Group, Money Pot.
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