Do you need help reassessing your finances? Want to know how you can make some savvy savings? We’ve taken a look at the best tools around that will help get your finance back on track.
Plum
Driven by Artificial Intelligence, Plum is on a mission to make users financially better off by helping them to save via a Facebook chatbot. It connects to your bank accounts and its algorithm analyses your spending patterns to work out how much you can afford to set aside each month.
Bank grade secure and able to connect to and analyse any UK current account, the Plum algorithm understands spending patterns, identifies income and bills and creates a unique profile for each one of its users. Then, every few days, it will calculate a small and safe amount of money to save, which is transferred to an individual’s Plum savings account.
In addition to savings, Plum offers an investment tool as well as a solution which spots when you are paying too much for things like credit or utilities – a common problem among millennials in particular. As part of this, it offers an energy switching solution, in partnership with green energy company Octopus, to initiate the switch on your behalf and make the whole transition totally seamless.
Emma is of the leading banking apps, targeted primarily at for millennials, designed to help them avoid overdrafts, find and cancel subscriptions, track debt and ultimately save money.
The London-based company closed a £420k seed round in July last year.
The free app enables users to manage their bank accounts, set budgets and track recurring payments, and users can benefit from additional services through Emma Pro for a small monthly subscription fee.
The app’s ultimate aim is to “democratise the private wealth manager”. It’s a competitive, saturated market though – competitor financial aggregators include Cleo, Yolt and MoneyDashboard – Emma has done well to stay ahead of the curve through bringing complete transparency to the lives of millennials.
Amidst a plethora of money management apps hitting the market at the same time, Bean has decided to differentiate itself by focusing on helping users effectively manage their bills and subscriptions to save money.
Once connected to your bank account, Bean tracks and manages your bills and subscriptions – such as water and energy – and will let you know if there are better deals available with other providers. It can even help you to cancel a contract for a service you no longer require – often a laborious process.
Bean describes itself as “the future of household budgets”, letting you compare deals on all of your household bills, cancel any unwanted subscriptions and track your payments across every account, all from within one clear, easy to use dashboard.
You can’t write a summary piece like this without including MoneyBox. The company announced a £14m Series B round in July 2018, bringing its total raised to £21.3m – truly a market leader.
Moneybox was set up in recognition of the fact that traditional wealth management is predominately only suitable for those who have sizeable wealth already. The younger generation are growing up without any knowledge or support on how to grow their own financial future through savings and investments.
In short, Moneybox rounds up your everyday purchases to the nearest pound and invests the spare change for you. Where the money goes can be anything from an investment account to a tax-efficient stocks and shares ISA, Lifetime ISA or Junior ISA.
With as little as £1 to get started, your spare change can be invested in stocks and shares across the globe via index tracker funds, offering a tailored approach based on the risk profile you set yourself – cautious, balanced or adventurous.
The Chip app uses artificial intelligence to analyse your spending and save a small amount of money each week.
Chip is putting an end to ‘boring’ saving habits like putting aside a set amount of money each month just for the sake of it…instead, Chip wants you to focus on saving for something you really want to buy, e.g. booking a holiday or saving for a wedding.
The clever part is that Chip uses AI to analyse your spending and make relevant savings for you and, crucially, put aside the right amount of money in response to the reality of your everyday spending habits.
By automatically calculating how much you can afford to save each week, Chip is turning the UK into a nation of savvy savers without them even realising it.
Squirrel describes itself as ‘the simple way to create then stick to a budget’. Ideal for those of us who are intent on starting January as we mean to go on.
The app sets up a second bank account for you – with Barclays – which you pay your salary into. It then splits your incoming cash into three categories: commitments, spending and savings.
To help you pay your bills on time, the app releases the money back into your account the day before each bill is due – meaning that essential money for bills is kept safe until needed.
While all of this is happening, your spending money is drip-fed into your account in weekly instalments. You can also set budgets for other commitments, such as travel, each week.
Unsurprisingly, such a compressive management tool isn’t completely free – you get two months free and then pay a £9.99 monthly fee for continued use.
Onedox describes itself as the smart way to manage all your household bills, securely, conveniently, for free.
The London-based company is on a mission to revolutionise the admin of paying and managing bills for households across the UK.
In December 2018 Onedox announced an exciting partnership with Starling Bank, which has integrated the solution into its in-app marketplace.
Starling Bank customers can now view their household bills, set reminders and receive personalised opportunities to save on household bills within the Starling app.
Also known as ‘the digital PA for households’, Onedox has already helped more than 16,000 families (there are 54,000 household accounts linked to Onedox) manage their bills more effectively.
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