APPY SAVER
The best 8 apps to save you money, including Chip, ATM finder, Vouchercodes and TopCashback
FEELING the pinch? We've picked our top apps to help you save money.
From automatic savings to finding the best deals and discounts, we've rounded up some of the best ones.
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All the apps we've selected are free to use and are available on IOS and Android devices.
The Sun's digital consumer editor Tara Evans first shared her top picks during an appearance on Channel 4's Steph McGovern show earlier today.
Never pay to withdraw cash
ATM Locator - LINK
A quarter of cash machines charge you money to withdraw, it means we spend £100million annually on using cash machines.
And the average machine charges £1.50 - don't get caught out.
This app will help you find your nearest one for free, by displaying which ones are paid for.
If they are purple then there is a charge, while the green ones are free.
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Auto-savings apps - Save £100s a year
Save money without even having to do anything. I've picked my top three:
Chip
You give your bank access to your accounts and it assess how much you spend and works out how much you can save.
It then moves the money into a savings pot in the app.
You can set goals for how much you want to save.
If you invite a friend to sign-up they will get £5 free.
Cleo
Another automatic savings app where you connect your bank accounts.
It then assess how much you spend and what you could do to save more money.
You can set it up so that it puts money into a savings pot, rounds-up your spending or even set a "swear jar".
This means that Cleo will fine you for spends you want to avoid. For example, I've set one up for UberEats so that I get fined £1 for every takeaway I order.
Plum
This auto-saving app alos allows you to round-up any purchases you make or set up an amount to move into a pot on the account on your payday.
It works if you're in an overdraft, while some of the others wont.
This means you could start using the savings it find to pay off your overdraft.
This is good because overdraft's are one of the most expensive forms of debt, with some charging up to 30% interest.
Is your money safe?
YOUR money isn't protected in auto-savings apps, so if any of these went bust you could lose cash.
With most of them you are giving banks read-only access to your accounts, so if they were hacked then scammers wouldn't be able to transfer money out of your accounts.
You also need to check if your bank is compatible. I really liked Cleo but it doesn't work with my bank so I wasn't able to give it a true picture of my spending/saving.
It's worth noting that money doesn't earn interest, so it might be better to stash cash in a savings account.
Although, Chip has started rolling out interest accounts paying 0.90% to some customers.
It's fairly competitive, but the best easy access cash savings rate at the moment is NS&I paying 1% - and you can start with as little as a £1.
Money management apps - Save £100s a year
Add all your bank accounts to one place so you can keep track - and it stops you from cheating on one bank and using another.
YOLT
This app is really easy to use. The dashboard is really clear and it displays what you've spent.
It also analyses what you're spending money on.
You can see all of your current, savings and credit cards in one place using open banking.
It also helps you set a budget or savings goal.
MoneyDashboard
It's available on desktop as well as an app. You can link your accounts (bank, credit card, investment, pensions and store cards), to see them all in one place.
You can categorise your spending so you can keep a track of where your money is going.
What I really like about this app is that it tells you how long you have left in the month and how much you've got according to your budget.
To do this you need to set up your pay cycle (so the day when you get paid) and also any scheduled payments that you have (like mortgage, rent, bills).
Voucher apps - save £100s a year
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You can use the app to search for online discount codes and high street offers. It includes big brands like Argos, Amazon, John Lewis and Just Eat.
You need to do this before you go to the shops.
If you forget then you can use it to find the nearest offers to you, based on your location.
For example, I got £10 off a £60 shop at Sainsbury's - but you need to be a new customer to get the discount.
Cashback apps - Save £1,000s a year
TopCashback and Quidco
I love cashback sites - you get free money for shopping or signing up to new products.
Whenever I want to buy anything or sign up for a new financial product, like broadband or a mobile phone contract, I find the item I want to buy and then look for cashback.
If you're shopping on your phone then these are must-have apps.
You click through them and then the cashback is usually paid within 30 days.
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I would only buy something if I was going to anyway. The sites claim that people save thousands of pounds a year using them.
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If you want to know more about saving money, then read our 50 ways to save money.
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