If you want to get maximum control over your money, now is the time you start budgeting. It will better help you understand your incomings and outgoings.
Experts often recommend using budgeting apps as they connect all of your bank accounts and credit cards, so you have all of them in one place.
When you have a record of all transactions in one place, you will have a better understanding of your financial condition.
There are several budgeting apps, but they all have some unique features. Before you use any app, you should carefully read its features to decide whether they fulfil your purpose.
Although you must not have heard the first time that you should use an app for budgeting, a survey conducted on 2000 participants has revealed that only 14% of people use budgeting apps everyday while 38% never use them. 10% people use once a month while 4% use multiple times a day.
Millions of people struggle to manage their finances, and they eventually fall into debt. After the outbreak of the pandemic, many people struggled to cope with financial shocks in 2020, according to a report by Financial Conduct Authority.
- However, the same report also revealed only 38% of people had a worse impact on their finances after the pandemic hit, while 48% of people said they had seen no change in their financial condition.
- Since February 2020, unsecured debt has increased by 4%, while household income has decreased by 11%.
- The report by Financial Conduct Authority also revealed that 61% of adults between the age group 18 and 24 and 55% of adults between the age group 25 and 34 were those who had had difficulty in making their ends meet because of rising debt.
These key findings are enough to be encouraged to use of budgeting apps.
Tech tools to get your finances in shape
Here are tech tools to get your finances in shape:
Emma
Emma can be your best financial friend, especially when you are struggling to manage your expenses. The app will connect all of your accounts for free and help you with avoiding overdrafts and wasteful subscriptions so as to give complete control over your money. Here is what it can do for you:
- It can help you get all of your transactions in one place, making it more transparent for you to track all your recurring payments.
- You can find out all subscriptions you have been paying for, identify price changes and look out for wasteful payments.
- You can connect your bank accounts, credit cards, saving accounts, pension, and crypto accounts. Since everything will be in one place, you do not have a chance of maxing out your credit card.
- You can get to know where your money is going. It can categorise all transactions, so you know which category is eating up your money.
- The app is entirely safe for use. Your data will not be compromised, and the best part is that log on details will not be saved at all. You will get bank-level security will a read-only feature, so you cannot make any changes to your account through the app.
Moneyhub
With this app, you can know your true financial condition. It uses intelligent tools to help you achieve your financial goals. The best thing about this app that people like about it is that they can track everything and know how much money they have, which prevents them from falling into debt.
This app can help you tide over during financial emergencies, for instance, when you lose your job and take out loans for the unemployed with a direct lender.
You can avoid borrowing more than your affordability by using this app, as you will have a clear idea of how much money you have. Here are the features:
- You can bring all of your accounts together, including investments and borrowings. This is a great way to track the progress of each of your accounts in one place.
- You can set spending goals and track your progress. It will let you know the amount you spend on each category like grocery, eating out, and hobbies and how much money you are left with to spend on each category.
- Categorisation of transactions will help you know where you are spending money most so you can control it.
- It has bank-level security that keeps all of your accounts safe.
Monzo
Monzo can help you get all of your accounts in one place. This budgeting app is different from the others because you can open a bank account for free through your mobile phone. Here are the features:
- You can get all of your details, including your credit cards, so you know how much money you have spent and how much you have left to spend. This app will help you get personalised budgeting.
- You can directly pay through this app, so you do not need to slip through the cracks.
- You can receive an alert or notification if the app suspects that you are spending too fast. If you have set a grocery limit, the app will not only prevent you from overspending but will also notify you if you are spending too fast.
- The app uses Master cards. If you are travelling anywhere in the country where payments are accepted through Master cards, you can use this app.
- You can also borrow money up to £15,000 and overdrafts up to £1,000.
Revolut
If you are looking for easy money management, you can use the Revolut app. You can spend, save and send money with ease through this app. You can also get exclusive rewards. Here are the features:
- You can get all of your accounts in one place. This will make it easier for you to take the decision where you have to cut back on to allow more cash in your hands.
- Unlike other apps, this app can allow you to invest money. Create your portfolio and start investing money from $1.
- You can also invest in cryptocurrencies. You can also buy gold and silver through this app.
The bottom line
Money management is extremely challenging, but technology has made it faster and easier. In times gone by, you would have to make a manual spreadsheet, but many people find it difficult to track expenses. Budgeting apps have made it easier for you to get complete control over your money.
When all transactions are in one place, you can quickly get a clear picture of where you stand with your money. You can get to know where and how much your money is going. You can see your spending on all categories, and then you can decide where you can cut back.
Technology has made financial lives better. Yet you need to be careful about managing your money.