Smartphone apps are a huge part of our lives. We use them to eat healthily, stay fit, shop online, deliver food, book tickets, navigate and for multiple other things in our daily lives. And, the best part about these apps is that most of them assist us without costing anything. Now, imagine if there were free apps that would actually help you save money. Think of these apps as your personal free-of-cost financial advisers. So, here are five free money-saving apps for you.
Living busy lives, we often end up paying for subscriptions and memberships we hardly use. But, who has the time to go through the pile of bills to figure out, cancel and save a good chunk of money. Trim does just that. It goes through your purchases via encrypted connections to your bank accounts. It analyses your purchases and points out payments that can be decreased or entirely eliminated. It also highlights subscriptions that you should probably cancel. Another added benefit of Trim is that it negotiates your subscription fees for you so you no longer have to call the cable provider to get discounts on your subscription.
Trim doesn’t have a dedicated app. It rather relies on Facebook Messenger and text messages to point out recurring subscriptions that you have not been using. You can cancel the subscription from within the text or Messenger by replying “Cancel subscriptionname.” You can even set up text alerts for low balance, late fees among other things. You can sign up for Trim here.
Personal loans, from car loans to house loans, are dictated by our credit ratings. Thus, having credit cards is essential. But, how to pick the best credit cards out of the plethora of options out there? Use Wallaby. Based on your preferences, Wallaby curates a list of credit cards that it thinks are best for you. It takes into consideration your favourite brands, retailers, airlines, hotels, restaurants and interest rates before suggesting credit cards. It also goes through your transactions to suggest available rewards, discounts and notifies you if you are close to your credit limit.
It is hard to navigate through the monthly bank and credit card statements let alone figure out the break-up of the expenses. That’s where Mint comes in. You link your credit cards and bank accounts to your Mint account. It then tracks your expenses and puts them under different categories like Grocery, Phone Bill, Restaurant etc. You can even put personal monthly limits on different categories and Mint will notify you whenever you are close to the limit. It does a great job visually representing your expenses and categories which helps understand where the money is actually going.
You can’t wrap your head around the various grocery stores, supermarkets and pharmacy cards and their benefits? Download SavingStar and punch your loyalty card number in the app. SavingStar will give you a rundown of the promotions running at the stores, supermarkets and pharmacies and help you score discounts that will save you some bucks.
What if you were rewarded for grocery shopping? When an app comes with the mantra, “App That Pays You Back”, you can’t ignore it. CheckPoints give you points for your everyday grocery shopping. You simply scan the barcode of various products like Coca-Cola, Vick’s and Olay to earn points. You can also play in-app games like Paradise Slots and Jungle Lotto to win points. These earned points can be redeemed for American Airlines miles, gadgets, Amazon and Walmart gift cards.
From scanning QR codes to snapping receipts, Receipt Hog rewards you for uploading photos of your receipt to the app. Uploading supermarket, grocery store, restaurant or cafe receipts will get you points. There are other ways to earn points as well like playing the in-app Hog Slots game and taking paid surveys. You have the option of cashing out the earned points for cash via PayPal or trade them for Amazon gift-cards or magazine subscriptions. Receipt Hog also neatly stores all your receipts in one place in case you need them in the future.
