Your smartphone is a pretty amazing tool. Not only can it help you communicate with the world, keep up with current affairs, and even manage your diet, but it’s also an excellent way to help you keep track of your finances. Thanks to the wealth (no pun intended) of apps available on both the Google Play Store and iOS App Store, there’s an absolute abundance of software up for grabs that can do everything from tracking your debts to setting up a budget and even showing you a breakdown of your monthly expenditures. Here are the best money management apps you can download for both platforms right now.
Mint (Google Play, App Store)
No matter what you want to do financially, Mint can help you to do it. Want to create a budget? There’s a function for that built into the app. Need to keep track of your online personal loans and get some help with repayment? Mint offers the chance to watch your loan repayments and even helps you to organise them. There are bespoke categories for lots of different financial statistics, and it’s all wrapped up in an intuitive, clean interface that anyone can use.
Calculator (Google Play)
You might not immediately think that the built-in calculator app on your phone is a helpful money management app, but that’s simply not true. Sometimes, when you’re working out your finances, all you need to do is perform some calculations to see where you’re at, and that’s where the calculator comes in. While you can download the Google calculator from the Play Store, the iOS calculator comes built-in to iOS devices, so you don’t need to re-download it.
YNAB – You Need A Budget (Google Play, App Store)
If you find yourself routinely swamped by debt, You Need A Budget will go a long way towards helping you fix that problem. Based on the Four Rules method – which you’ll have to download the app if you want to know more about – YNAB organises your finances, presents your budget in an easy-to-read format, and shows you where you can make improvements on a day-to-day basis. It’s much more focused on helping you to manage debt than other apps, but that laser focus really pays off (no pun intended).
Emma (Google Play, App Store)
Emma’s main focus is helping you to manage wasteful or unwanted subscriptions, but it’s also a fully-featured budget management app in its own right. If you’ve ever signed up for a 30-day trial and promptly forgot about it (as many of us do), then Emma is the app for you; it’ll show you recurring payments and let you decide whether you want to keep them up, and while it does emphasise subscriptions, that also includes direct debits and standing orders.
Moneyhub (Google Play, App Store)
Moneyhub requires a subscription if you want to get the most out of it, so this isn’t the app for you if you’re looking to save as much money as possible. However, a premium subscription isn’t too costly, and Moneyhub often runs offers allowing you to get multiple months of a Premium subscription for a low price. What you’re getting for your money is a complex but intuitive money management app that shows you all of your expenditures and helps you to gain insight into your spending habits.
Yolt (Google Play, App Store)
One of Yolt’s most impressive features is the prepaid card it offers, allowing you to control your spending in advance. Unfortunately, that money isn’t FSCS-protected, so if something does happen to it, the responsibility is solely yours. However, if you’re careful, it can be a great boon. Yolt also offers ways to track and monitor your spending, alter your habits, and see trends over time, so it’s great if you routinely find yourself spending more than you should.
Plum (Google Play, App Store)
The major selling point that sets Plum apart from its competitors is its advanced artificial intelligence. Simply put, Plum will automatically calculate a safe amount for you to spend and save based on prior habits, so it does a lot of the hard work for you. If you want to invest, you’ll need to pay a subscription fee, but it’s nominal, so it’s worth the cost. Plum also has a wealth of other features like bill management, savings recommendations, and multiple “savings spaces”.
PocketGuard (Google Play, App Store)
As the name suggests, PocketGuard is all about helping you to stop overspending. You can set up limits on various categories of spending, and PocketGuard will notify you when you’re getting close to reaching that limit. If you’re a data geek, PocketGuard also offers spreadsheet functionality, so you can export the data it provides for you and put it in a spreadsheet using any software compatible with the app’s file format. This is a great app for in-depth analysis.
Honeydue (Google Play, App Store)
Budgeting on your own can be a real worry, but when you’re part of a couple, the worry can increase twofold. That’s where Honeydue comes in. It’s an app dedicated entirely to budgeting for couples, so if you live with just one other person – even if it’s a parent or a housemate – you can use this app. It’ll categorise spending, inform you when you or your partner are close to spending limits, and send reminders to you, but it’s also got an adorable built-in chat feature.