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I’m going to cover the best personal finance apps to manage your money that pays you to shop and to save money shopping.
Oh yeah, he’s doing it!
Best personal finance apps to manage your money
- Truebill
Truebill helps people gain awareness about their spending habits and helps them manage their money better.
You can easily optimize your spending, lower your bills, manage subscriptions, and stay on top of your finances.
Get started with Truebill here.
- Billshark
?Billshark, backed by Mark Cuban, is a bill reduction platform that works on behalf of our customers to save them time and money.
They work to lower what you pay for cable, internet, and your cell phone bill.
If they don’t lower your bill, you don’t pay – so it’s a risk-free, no-brainer service to try.
Get started with Billshark here.
- Tally
Tally offers a line of credit to help you pay down high-interest credit card debt.
Tally makes it super simple to save money, manage your credit cards, and helps you pay down your balances faster. Users of the Tally app have an average lifetime savings of $5,300.
- Acorns
Acorns helps by investing your pocket change in low-cost ETF or exchange-traded funds.
Connect your checking and credit card accounts, and when you make purchases, the price is rounded to the nearest dollar, and the difference between the rounded cost and the total cost is invested.
- WalletHub
Credit score improvement is the ticket to more savings and less stress.
With WalletHub, you can track your progress toward top financial fitness with free credit monitoring and daily credit-score updates.
- Mint
The Mint app offers a real-time look at all of your finances from one centralized location.
It tracks spending, categorizes your finances, and alerts you when you’re approaching your budget limit.
- Digit
Digit helps you save money without even realizing it. Here’s how it works.
Your income and saving patterns are scanned, and then small amounts of cash are moved to a savings account managed by Digit.
- Credit Karma
Not only does Credit Karma offer free credit scores and credit reports, but it also monitors your spending habits when linked to your credit card and bank accounts.
Then, recommendations for better credit cards or loan offers are shown that improve your finances.
- Goodbudget
Goodbudget creates envelopes for categories and predetermines how much money should be put into each category. It’s not a sophisticated app, but it does what it needs to.
- Wally
Wally is an expense-tracking app that can see daily, weekly, and monthly spending habits and divides your expenses into separate categories. It can also conveniently scan receipts for you.
iOS app | Google Play store
- PocketGuard
PocketGuard connects to your bank account and always has access to current transactions and balances.
This app also analyzes your spending habits to know recurring payments to plan for and tracks your cash flow.
- You Need A Budget
The You Need A Budget app makes sure that every dollar is spent wisely, plans for infrequent expenses, and can also develop a quick plan for when you overspend.
A neat feature included is classes offered to watch online to get familiar with the app for free.
Best cash-back apps for making money
Rakuten may very well be the best-known cashback site. New users will get a $10 welcome bonus and can get their payment as soon as they reach $5.
With Rakuten, you can earn up to 25% cash back at over 2,000 online stores such as Kohl’s, Macy’s, and Walmart. The site also offers the most current promo codes and coupons, allowing you to save money on your purchases.
When you want to compare store prices, Rakuten is the way to go. All you have to do is scan the product’s barcode, and the app shows you the best prices.
- BeFrugal
Anytime you make a purchase through the BeFrugal app, you can earn a maximum of 30% cashback.
They also have a 125% cash-back rate guarantee. If you find another cashback site that has a higher rate than them, they’ll match it and add an additional 25%.
By shopping here, you can stack your savings by using the coupon codes they offer and then receive cashback on top of that. If you find a coupon that doesn’t work, they’ll give you $5 for your troubles.
Payments are made on a monthly basis via PayPal. However, you can also get your money through a check or an Amazon gift card.
- Receipt Hog
Turn those receipts into rewards by using the Receipt Hog app. The way the app works is simple – you snap a picture of your receipts and earn coins within the app.
You can also play games and take surveys to earn more coins. You can then trade those coins for a Paypal payment or an Amazon gift card.
So how does Receipt Hog make any money? They are a market research company that takes the info on the receipts and anonymously sells that data to companies.
This data is compiled into market research reports that are valuable to big companies who want to learn more about Americans’ spending habits and tendencies.
- Shopkick
If you’re more about shopping at brick-and-mortar stores, you’ll definitely want to use the Shopkick app.
There are 3 ways to earn points.
You can earn rewards when you walk into a store; then you can earn additional rewards for scanning products, and finally, you can earn points again when you make a purchase.
That’s right, you earn rewards just for visiting stores, even if you don’t make a purchase.
Best shopping and coupon apps
- Target app
If you’re a Target shopper, you need this app. The app lets you see the latest deals in the store and add special offers to your account.
Then, you can use all of the coupons you’ve selected at the register with just a simple scan of a barcode off your phone.
- Walgreens app
If you shop at Walgreens, you’re probably familiar with the coupon books they put out each month.
Instead of clipping coupons from the book, why not snag them on your phone? You’ll never forget your coupons, and you won’t waste paper tossing out the ones you don’t want.
You can clip the coupons electronically, and them scanned at the register. As a bonus, you can also manage your prescriptions through the app.
- CVS App
Similar to the Walgreens App, the CVS App allows you to view and use coupons over your phone. It also allows you to order products through an online store.
The downside is that you need a CVS card to use the app, but if you’re a frequent shopper, it shouldn’t be a problem.
- SnipSnap
SnipSnap operates like a coupon binder. It allows you to search stores for coupons and then download them to the app, where you can access them later.
It’ll even sort by expiration date and let you search your coupons later for easy access. When you get to the checkout counter, just scan the coupons from your phone, and you’ll see the savings automatically come off your total.
Best of all, the app is free, which really appeals to savvy shoppers.
- Dealnews
If you’re the type of shopper that prefers working with a list, Dealnews offers the top 300 deals in your area so you can browse and discover great savings near you. The products span a range of varieties, and the list is updated daily.
- SavingStar
If you use in-store savings cards, SavingStar can let you load coupons right onto those cards. It is a coupon app that works specifically with grocery stores, letting you clip and save coupons from the app.
iOS app | Google Play store
- RetailMeNot
If you’re a restaurant and store shopper, RetailMeNot has your back. You can browse deals from your favorite retailers and bookmark anything you’d like to use in the future.
This is a great app for people that shop in a variety of stores and are always on the lookout for coupon codes.
- Groupon
Groupon is an app that offers local items and services at reduced costs. You can use the app to participate in giveaways and to redeem your Groupon vouchers.
- Yowza
Yowza operates by allowing retailers rather than users to upload coupons to share. That results in better savings and more accurate coupon codes.
You can search the app based on your location or the retailer. You can even search for your favorite stores, even if they’re not in your immediate area.
Over 70,000 retailers participate with Yowza, making it a great way to get exclusive coupons for your favorite stores. The app is free and works with iPhone or Android devices.
iOS app | Google Play app
- Express Checkout
Express Checkout is part savings app and part sanity saver. Instead of fumbling with your keyring to find your savings cards, Express Checkout keeps all of your loyalty cards in one convenient location.
You can scan your loyalty card directly from your phone, eliminating the need to weigh down your keyring with excessive clutter.
- Coupon Sherpa
Coupon Sherpa offers a virtual wallet that you can save your coupons into. It offers a variety of savings options by retailer, brand, or other distinguishing characteristics.
You can scan the coupons from your phone, or you can print them off. The app is free and works on all operating systems.
iOS app | Google Play app
- Checkout51
Checkout51 is an effortless app that’s great for people who don’t really like to coupon.
You access the savings by scanning receipts, meaning you’ll never have to clip coupons or take them to the store.
Once you reach a specific threshold, you can have a check mailed to you.
Other smartphone apps that help you save money
If you are looking to score a deal and save money by not paying the full retail price, look no farther, the Slickdeals app is the way to go. The engine behind this app is Slickdeals.net, an website with a very active community dedicated to hunting the web for great deals.
If you are struggling to make ends meet this month, there’s hope available! Title loans can help when you are short on funds.
The app has the option to customize instant alerts to be sent to you so you will not miss a good deal on a specific item. You’ll find deals on a multitude of items from travel and electronics to groceries; you name it.
Here you can also find coupons, secrete discount codes, and as a bonus, the community is providing detailed product reviews.
This app is exactly what it says it is, a tool to help when searching for the best gas prices in a specific area in North America or Australia.
Who doesn’t want a quick app to save a couple of bucks when vacation is coming? If traveling by car, the app can instantly make you a connoisseur of an area without having to hunt for secret local deals.
Moreover, it is easy to use: the search engine by city and zip code matches the most familiar search setups, and the app is pretty clean and direct.
If in need of more help, you can refine your search and redirect the site to pay for gas or to plan a trip with a pretty accurate price estimation.
An avid traveler myself, I often prized my search skills when looking for the best prices online, and I can tell that this is a tool that checks my list: how to find the best price, for the best quality, fast.
Like it or not, we live in a world where time matters, so having a helpful tool like GasBuddy will win you some precious time and pocket money. With more time on your hands, you can enjoy a new site seeing when traveling or buy ice cream for the kids with the extra money saved on gas.
It offers real-time market data for investors in stocks, options, cryptocurrency, and ETFs. The app got big really fast, with millions of users looking to invest in the stock market.
With just a few thumbs moves, you can buy shares to your favorite company or even discover an investment opportunity in the next new Apple.
Everybody loves to check on their investments, but few people are willing to deal with the complicated graphics and the avalanche of data that other sites tend to post for accuracy.
Well, we are not all trained economists! I prefer to get a clear image of what is going on with my finances without all the guilt of not understanding complicated trade metalanguage.
Since the camera has been attached to our phones and encouraged by the social media explosion, we all became overnight photographers.
Everybody likes to take a selfie, snap a few pictures of some fancy dish, take photos while traveling, or even become a self-declared journalist.
Most of the time, we upload these images to social media sites or leave them stored in our phones, cluttering our memory.
But what if there is an opportunity to make money on those photos?
Dreamstime Companion app will help you to do exactly that. First sign in for an account joining a community of over half a million photographers.
Next, start uploading your pictures straight from your phone, adding a title, a short description, and at least five keywords. The app will notify you when the image is online and ready.
Once you upload your images with the Dreamstime Companion app, they will soon be available for people to purchase on the Dreamstime Buyer’s App.
Now a few useful tips: users can sell their images as editorial (with logos and faces visible) or as commercial content, which means no logos or people unless there is a signed model release.
One more thing, if you are witnessing an event that is newsworthy, you can snap a few pictures, upload them to this app, and your best images will be rewarded with a five dollars bonus.
The app will notify you when you have a sale and also provide you with real-time stats, sales reports, and revenue details.
Hotel Tonight is what we are all looking for when traveling and having to book a room last minute.
This app will make daddy happy to save money because it books last minute hot deals, it will make mommy happy because it avoids fights over forgetting to book the hotel, it will make kids happy because it offers good quality hotels with many amenities for the entire family through the site’s digital concierge.
This is to prove that last-minute deals could offer more for your buck than tedious long-time planning.
So, stop feeling guilty for having a busy daily schedule and not having time and patience to plan in advance. There is an app for this, and it works for so many people all around the globe.
Best Parking is the dream for any American in domestic traveling. Out in a big city with legendary parking issues such as New York, Chicago, or San Francisco, no need to worry.
This app will save you time and nerves. Gone for a conference, an emergency airplane trip, or a last-minute sport event?
No problem, the app will guide you fast to the best deals near airports, train stations, or stadiums.
The plus: it saves time, and it offers great deals; you can even use the app to prepay your spot, basically ensuring that you will have parking anywhere, anytime.
The minus for its services: it is not made for international travel, and it may redirect your search for domestic destinations or Canada while targeting big cities.
The last detail, it shows real-life pictures of the parking places offered for a certain location which may seem unimportant, but it actually helps a lot when looking for a safe location in an unknown big city.
If you did not hear about Groupon until now, I urge you to go and check them out immediately.
It saved my family and me a lot in almost any service or product, from booking hotels and travel to buying discounted tickets to shows and getting offers to my local gym. Let’s not even talk about the tones of free stuff that is daily given away by different brands.
The downside of having an app to continuously show you amazing deals is that it may trigger unnecessary shopping just because it shows deals that you cannot miss.
Another detail is the abundance of items offered on a simple local search, although it definitely saves money there where it matters, such as store memberships. This could be good for those who like to indulge in browsing and window shopping.
Finally, an app to predict the future! Hopper is designed for booking from hotel rooms and airplane tickets, the very foundation for a great vacation, to the smallest detail, such as predicting the prices at least four months in advance.
This answers to the ever-growing needs of consumers who instinctively check prices, read comments and star online reviews from previous customers.
The app promises a 95% price accuracy in booking flights, hotels while offering the possibility to pay online securely. The payment is carefully detailed, showing a tiny commission that can go up to $6 for a $400 value of buy.
Besides the easy-going layout, the app offers the advantage of being popular with millions of users and potential recent reviews, which is the ultimate purpose when consulting a review for services and discounts.
Tip Yourself is an app that found a clever way to reward people for sustaining a personal challenge.
Leading a healthier lifestyle, saving for a life event, and for travel, or simply building a psychological incentive for accomplishing difficult tasks, the app aims to reach our dreams of who we want to be.
Consumers all around liked this claim and used the app for its professional data collection and detailed, up-to-date reports on personal performance.
Dragging to organize your life savings or your daily billing information because, well, we never find time for tedious spreadsheets and financial accountability?
Tip Yourself is here to help and make it not only easy to see how you improve directly on your phone but also to plan and organize your life goals.
when it is about saving money o tracking my expenses, Mint is my absolute favorite. I have heard of Acorn and other apps, but there are at least 3 new names in there for me. Bookmarking now so that I can come back to it later and check out. Thanks for compiling this, Edwin. Cheers.