When managing your finances, it is important to make a budget and stick to it. Whether this is to reduce the amount you are spending per week or reducing the monthly amount to save up for a holiday there are a number of reasons to begin maintaining healthy finances. But with a mobile in hand and a number of applications available, your phone could be the key to tracking your spending and helping you to achieve financial stability.
Contactless payments have become a natural part of our shopping experience in 2019 and it is showing no signs of slowing down. Since the first contactless card was issued in the UK by Barclaycard in 2007, the use of contactless payments has skyrocketed with the number of monthly transactions rising from just 14 million in February 2014 to 644 million in February 2019.
Though this contactless culture has continued to make our lives easier, this payment method can put your finances at risk because you are less likely to realise quite how much you are spending. With that being said, there were 689 million contactless payments made in June 2019 which is a 14.7% increase from last year showing an increase in its popularity. In order to combat this problem of overspending, there is the option of leaving your card at home as well as only taking cash on a shopping trip. This will allow you to stick closely to a set budget as well as being able to keep track of the amount you have taken from your bank account because it is more of a physical transaction rather than a digital one.
In addition to contactless payments on our phones, it is also important to note that mobile banking in all its forms has gained popularity in recent years. With 12% of Brits now having fully converted to digital banking only, there are a number of traditional banks as well as third-party apps allowing for users to manage their finances through the use of their mobile phone. Most high-street banks in the UK now offer mobile banking for their customers to stay competitive and provide convenience to their clients, as 74% of brits prefer to opt for mobile banking. This could help us simply keep track of our spending rather than wait for a monthly statement, however these do require manual checks to be effective.
Financial applications are also making money management easier, as they are allowing users to see their transactions almost immediately in clear charts and graphs. With charts showing where the money is being spent per month, this can then be dealt with accordingly to reduce monthly spending. When using applications such as Money Dashboard, or the Cleo or Emma money apps are able to manage finances by linking their bank account directly. With an average of 71% of all banking interactions now taking place online, the use of these applications as well as mobile banking apps help managing finances easier than ever before and are set to increase in popularity. The use of mobile banking is most prominent with people aged between 18-27-year olds as 40% choose an app as their primary source of banking rather than visiting a brick and mortar banking.
With this in mind, there are a number of ways that mobile applications could help you to manage your finances as it enables you to track payments and monitor spending on a number of different levels. Whether this is through the use of a mobile app from your bank, or a mobile-first bank, there is reason to suggest that the days of traditional banking are beginning to fade, particularly for the younger generation.