Ah, the finance app phenomenon. You may have a few on your phone, but do you have the right one?
Since the invention of the smart phone, apps have come a long way. These days there are a huge variety of finance apps – in fact as of May 2017 there were up to 2,200,000 on the apple store. These apps cover a huge spectrum of distinct functions – a simple search will give you pages of answers making it incredibly hard to find the right app for your needs. One app category that is of particular interest to us is the finance app!
Finance apps and apps to manage budgets are an exciting emerging trend associated with the use of mobile apps. There are so many in the finance app category now, all designed to help make regular folk like you and I better at budgeting (and spending). People have identified areas where financial processes can be approved upon. In particular when it comes to having to make group expenses – thus the social finance app was born.
A finance app is typically designed to suit people’s lifestyles at different life stages. We’re about to tell you about a new finance app for your social life! It’s called Finch – and we’ve got everything you need to know about the app and how it can make your life better right here.
Additionally, we have put together a list of useful finance apps that you may like to incorporate into your life. Some apps specifically designed for saving, investing or budgeting. We’ll tell you a little bit about what their functions are and what people think of them. And you know, you may start using some of them!
Finch is, in our opinion, a very cool app, designed to make splitting the cost of bills with friends much easier. It’s basically a finance app for your social life. The aim of Finch is to help Aussie millennials become more confident with their finances. Not only does it allow you to split bills with friends at restaurants, but it is useful for shared expenses amongst house mates.
The app makes repaying money super simple by not having to share your bank details. Another good function of the app is that it allows you to set automatic reminders for people that need to pay you money. It therefore saves your having to approach them and ask them to give you the money they owe you.
So how does it work? Let’s look at splitting a restaurant bill. The way it works is you take a photo of the bill at the restaurant and the app calculates the total amount of the bill plus each individual cost. Then you use the app to help split the bill with any of your Facebook or phone contacts.
If you want to find out more about the app visit their website: www.finch.me
Some other apps that are similar to finch, are Splitr, Venmo and Splitwise.
So, now we know that Finch (and a few others) are useful apps for managing finance related to your social life. But what about the other things? There are heaps of finance apps out there can help you in all areas of your finances. We’ve composed a list of great apps that you might want to use in your life.
Spending tracker – The first basic rule for managing personal finance is spending less than you earn. But knowing exactly how much you spend is often easier said than done. When you are faced with time constraints – as we all are – you probably find that you don’t have time to sit down and write a list of everything you’ve spent, let alone keep track of slips and coffee purchases. It’s incredibly tedious and very few people have time or patience to do this.
That is where finance app Spending Track can come in handy. It’s a very simple app and it can help you to track what you have spent your money. It also allows you to set up a budget for yourself. You just need to add in your income, and specify what you would like your budget to be. Then, when you add in your expenses, it shows you how much you have left to spend that month.
The wonderful thing is, is that it has a 4.5 star rating on google play – people seem to like this app!
Track My Spend & Track My Goals – The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has a few Money Smart apps that could be useful to help keep a track of your finances. There is Track My Spend which allows you to track your everyday expenses. It helps you to find out where you can make some savings by looking at what you often spend your money on.
They also have an app called Track My Goals. It is designed to help you develop money savings goals and good spending habits. Additionally, the app helps you to monitor your progress towards achieving those goals.
To find out more about ASIC’s money apps visit their website
Expensify – This is a useful app for business travellers, accountants and small business owners. It is designed to keep track of your receipts and business travel costs. The app makes life easier by not having to use spreadsheets to manage expenses all the time. It is also useful as it helps to track travel miles and time spent on a certain project. In addition, it can convert currencies for when you travel internationally.
Reviews say that this app is easy to use and very affordable. The only criticisms are that it does not automatically sync with online portal.
Credit Karma – This is an app that was created to help you track your credit score. It doesn’t cost money, and checking your own credit score doesn’t affect your score in any way. Credit Karma gets your score from TransUnion and Equifax.
The purpose of the app is to help you monitor your credit score. It will send you alerts if there are any changes to your score. This helps you to ensure that nothing suspicious affects your score and that, if something odd does happen, you are able to follow up on it and dispute it quickly to avoid lasting damage.
Credit Karma evaluates your situation based on your score then gives you recommendations on what products you should use to help save you money.
Digit – It is another useful app that is designed to help you to save! The way it works is that it determines what amount of money you should save by looking at your income and expenses. It automatically calculates the perfect amount to save, and then it puts it aside for you.
With Digit, you connect you bank account with the app which then makes the calculations mentioned above. It works by trying to save money for you every day, though it will never transfer anything that is unaffordable.
It’s free for the first 100 days but then costs $2.99 per month thereafter.
Mint – Managing your money can seem like a headache. Particularly when you have multiple accounts, and many bills to pay for. Thus, keeping track of everything can seem exhausting – and it might just be easier to stick your head in the sand. Sure, this is one option. But there’s something better that you can do and it doesn’t require much effort. One that doesn’t cause as much stress and angst.
That is using Mint. This app is designed to help you to track all of your finances in one place. It is the one-stop-shop finance app. Through Mint you are able to keep track of all of your accounts. These include your savings, your current account and even your superannuation accounts. It helps you to stay on top of paying bills by sending you notifications for when they are due. Mint also helps you to create budgets.
BUX – This is an app designed for investing in the stock market. It is designed to make trading fun and easy! Though it is a finance app whereby you could potentially earn money, you could also potentially lose money. This is due to the fact that, as with every investment, there are risks associated. There are also fees involved with this app, so it’s important to check these out before getting involved. We thought it was quite affordable – bonus!
Nevertheless, this app helps you to learn more about trading and become good at it. Although, if you are an experienced trader you can use this app too.
Your banking app – You may already have this, but if you did not know, most banks have an app. They are designed to help you conduct financial transactions quickly and easily on your smart phone. It means you can pay bills on the go, or quickly check your balance.
Having your bank’s app can also help you get cardless cash if you ever need to. This means that if you haven’t got your card on you, through the app on the phone, you can get a code that allows you access to cash from an ATM. You can often draw out up to $500. This could be a saving grace in an emergency. The other wonderful thing about it, is that cash out is often free!
ATO app – This is the app of the Australian Taxation Office’s which allows individuals who are tax payers to submit their tax returns via the app. Some of the things that the app allows you to do is: use a fuel tax calculator, track key dates in terms of tax obligations and use the ABN lookup tool.
The other great thing about the app is that it’s free. If you want to find out more about what the ATO app can offer you visit their website
ATM hunter – This app is specifically for MasterCard’s. It allows you to find the nearest Mastercard ATM that closest to your current location. It even allows you to search for your bank so you can avoid any extra withdrawal fees.
There are helpful reviews for this app, which claim they offer more thorough locations such as in convenience stores or in restaurants. Some banks also have their own ATM locator apps which may be worth checking out too. This app is also free!
Good budget – Obviously as the name suggests is another app to help you budget. It’s an American app and its designed to help you manage your personal expenses. It works by adopting the envelope budgeting idea – whereby you have different envelopes for different expenses. The great thing about good budget is that allows you to sync your budget with others in the household.
For instance, if you and your spouse are sharing a budget and one person makes an expense it will automatically sync across devices! Finally, Good Budget allows you to save money for big expenses. Whatever your financial goals are, this pick of the financial apps on the market helps you to plan ahead and save for big future expenses. Good Budget is a free app, but they have a paid version that include some extra benefits.
Ultimately, there are so many apps out there to help you with your finances. Finch is the finance app for your social life. It helps you to manage those shared expenses amongst friends and is great for splitting bills too. This app is the best app for millennials to become confident with their finances, and to take out the awkwardness of asking friends for money. Nevertheless, this app could be useful for anyone, not just the younger generations.
There are also some great apps to help you budget. There is Track My Spend, Spending Tracker, Mint or Good budget are all different types of apps designed to help you create and manage your personal budget. Then you have other apps designed for specific functions related to finance. These include Expensify, designed for business travellers so that you can keep a track of your business expenses. There is Credit Karma to help you keep a track of your credit rating. Then you have Track My Goals or Digit which are designed to help you save.
So, if you’re interested in managing your finances is an efficient and modern way – getting some finance apps is the best way to do it!