There are lots of services to make saving easy. Here are our favorites.
The best automatic savings apps are all the rage these days. The mobile banking age has ushered in a whole new way of managing money and tracking expenses, which makes automatic savings apps that much more appealing.
All of the apps that we’ll talk about are super convenient. They allow you to save and stick to your budget, and that’s hard to beat.
PayPal Here is an app that makes it easy to transfer money from your bank account instantly. You pay a small fee for using it, but it’s very secure and can be set up to automatically deposit your paycheck, really handy for people who don’t have a lot of time to manage their finances.
The bank with which you sign up for PayPal also has the option of using it to automate your regular payments, so this option is really one of the best automatic savings apps.
What to Look for in an Automatic Savings App
One of the main reasons to invest is to make sure you can meet your financial goals. This means you need to make sure you save what you can. But what if you aren’t in the habit of saving? What if you don’t plan to the end goal?
For this, you’ll need to get a kick in the mindset and a reminder that you need to save. This is where an automatic savings app will come in handy. You can use periodic reminders to remind yourself that you need to save. Maybe it’s the once a month, once every 2 weeks, or once a day reminder. You may use what you want, but ideally, the reminders will come regularly and consistently.
One of the nice things about these types of apps is that they will often make saving for retirement easy and painless.
For example, if you are saving for a car, you might want to start by saving a little each month. Soon, you’ll discover that you’re saving more than you thought you could.
Best Money-Saving Apps
Acorns is our top pick for those who are just getting started with saving. The app provides a simple way to invest you’re money into a diversified portfolio without having to manage separate investments.
Saving your spare change has never been easier. Acorns rounds up the change on all of your purchases and makes micro-investments.
In addition to saving, Acorns helps you create a budget and set financial goals.
Acorns fees are around 1.0% per month, the app is available in over 150 US cities as well as the United Kingdom.
Digit
Introducing Digit, the app that saves for you. Digit is a completely free app that analyzes your spending to identify ways to save.
Digit works off an algorithm to track your spending patterns. It identifies spending that could be reduced or eliminated. Digit connects to your bank account and withdraws the amount it sees as savings.
Digit is free to use and is available nationally.
Level
Level is a smart savings app that will help you build a stress-free financial foundation for the future.
Level’s smart algorithm will analyze your spending and find places to save. Level will link to your bank account and automate your savings progress.
Acorns
For Acorns, you can use your bank account, debit card, or credit cards. Acorns is generally regarded as the easiest and friendliest of the banks of investments, so this could be the first one for you.
Yellow Brick Road
Yellow Brick Road is known as the cleaner to use, especially for people who don’t speak financial terms. It’s a good choice for people who don’t want to do much.
Fifty Billion
If you want to invest with your friends, do it with an app. With Fifty Billion, you can invite others to participate in a specific savings goal.
Wealthsimple
Wealthsimple offers a simple two-step process, which some people prefer. There is no minimum amount needed to transfer and invest.
Acorns is easy to use and offers many options to grow your fortune.
Acorns is the best choice for most people. If you use your credit or debit card with Acorns, you will earn 1.5% on your portfolio and get a charge of $ 1 fee per month. If you use your bank account, the fees are $ 3 per month.
Qapital
App:
The Qapital app works by linking your debit or credit card to the app so that it can scan for the transactions. This way you can have all of the transactions go directly onto the app itself. From there, you can actually set the amount of money that you would like to save, as well as a timeframe for this saving period. You can even choose to have a portion of your money used for short term saving, and a portion of it for the long term.
This app is extremely simple, which is actually the biggest benefit of it all. With Qapital, you can set it and forget it. That is the beauty of an app like this. It’s the most effortless savings app out there. All you have to do is set it and use it, and that’s all it takes. You don’t have to worry about anything else.
There are notifications that you can enable, but even if you don’t, you will be notified when a purchase has been made with your card. This lets you know three things: 1. that you made the purchase, 2. that you were charged and, 3. that there is no money in the account to cover the purchase.
The app will work best if you are actively using your debit or credit card and you don’t close the app.
Evati
Evati is one of some savings apps for android phones. Evati uses a period of time that you can include your earning and named how much you will use each month. It calculates how much money you will left and also how much savings you will left at the month.
The app also calculates how much money you will get for every single cents that you saved, and if you put your money into a required place, the app will calculate how much it will be and how much you might be offering tax. You can track your savings progress every day. Click here to learn more about this app.
Digit
Although Digit and Qapital are both savings apps, they have very different financial goals. Digit is basically a forced savings account that is designed to help you save money by systematically tapping small amounts from your checking account each day.
The best thing about Digit is that it’s completely free and has no minimum balance requirements. You can set it up within a few minutes and begin adding to your savings account immediately.
Qapital is similar to Digit in that you can schedule automatic transfers into a savings account but the two differ in the way they actually take money out of your account. Digit takes transfers out of your checking account at a set day and time each day but Qapital gives you the choice of selecting when to make the transfers.
Also, Digit transfers fixed amounts each day whereas Qapital lets you select a monthly percentage of your available checking account balance. You can also set up transfers based on certain triggers – such as when you go grocery shopping with your bank card.
Importantly, both Digit and Qapital don’t allow you to adjust the amount of your transfers. They are fixed. If your life changes and you have a higher or lower income, the amount you save with either service may no longer be enough.
Stash
The Bottom Line: Don't Overlook Your Savings and Investments
The modern financial world is always changing, and with that changes our financial habits and attitudes. We no longer save money in our piggy bank. We have other ways to invest and manage our money. We spend less and we save more. Our money is more accessible.
But it’s also harder to manage. Since many of us don’t have a lot of money in the bank, even trying to keep track of it can be a huge challenge. You can use an app to stick to your budget, but you need to also make sure you stick to the savings plan. Saving money is important, especially in today’s economy.
Automate Your Savings
Savings apps allow you to automate your savings from your checking account. You can set up a specific amount to be transferred into your savings account every month, every week, or every day. You can set them up so that it only happens automatically if you have enough money to transfer, or you can set it up for an amount so that if you need to, you can transfer when you have insufficient funds.
These savings apps allow you to save money for the things you want over time, rather than all at once. It keeps your spending in check, and you always have a specific savings plan for your money.