Top 10 apps that will help you save money
Reinvent the way you save with the best money apps on the market.
If you're trying to get your finances under control, the tool to do this could be your mobile phone or your tablet. Here's our pick of 10 of the best money management apps on the market to help you get your money situation sorted.
Pocketbook Personal Finance Expense Tracker
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
This Australian-grown app syncs easily with your all your financial needs including bank accounts, credit cards and loans. Pocketbook categorises more than 80% of your transactions after it searches for your regular payments such as bills. Its features include:
- An activity feed updated with the latest insights on your money.
- Single view of your budgets, recent transactions, balances and upcoming bills.
- No manual entry needed thanks syncing of your Australian bank accounts.
- Get upcoming bill reminders and track recurring payments.
- Safely Spend tracks and limits your discretionary spend beyond your bills.
- Weekly summary warns you about upcoming bills.
Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
The ATO app organises tax and super help so it's easy to access. This is a relevant app with useful tax and super tools for individuals, small businesses and super trustees. Use the features to:
- Record all your expenses which may include work-related travel or family vacations using myDeductions.
- Do a financial health check-up for your business with Business performance check.
- Use the tax withheld calculator.
- See the level of return you're getting.
- Lookup an Australian business number (ABN).
- Check out additional resources like videos and checklists to gain more insight to SMSF for trustees.
In order to use the online services, it's imperative that you link a myGov account to the ATO.
TrackMySPEND by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
Track your personal expenses wherever you are with this app from MoneySmart. It gives you an easy-to-read download describing how you spend your money. It's good for people who struggle with budgeting. Here are the features:
- Control your spending when you use the tracking bar to check your disposable income against your budget.
- Set up a "favourites" module for your more habitual transactions.
- View your expense history.
- Backup all your financial information for free.
- Export your financial information to CSV (Excel).
- TrackMySPEND can be used interchangeably on any compatible device.
The app is designed to help you set and stick to a realistic spending goal. TrackMySPEND can help you save through the use of savings categories which help distinguish between "needs" and "wants".
Splitwise by Splitwise Inc
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
Splitwise is quite useful for people that have shared housing, like students leaving at college. The app is organises the household income and spending. It works out who has spent what and who you owes people money. It's a handy tool for keeping track of debt and runaway spenders.
- Keep track of apartment bills, group trips and random IOUs.
- Everyone can log in, see their balances and add new expenses.
- Get notifications with every update or just when important bills are due.
Australian Salary Calculator by Vijayanto Vyakulassamy
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
Calculate your Australian income tax from your annual salary, or see how much that new job offer will really pay for. This app makes it easy to calculate how much tax you'll be paying from your wages in Australian dollars. It includes the Medicare levy and Low Income Tax Offset. A slider lets you enter the salary. The app instantly calculates the "after tax" wages as you slide.
My Currency Converter Australia by Milad Fakhr
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
My Currency converter Australia is an app designed to help people work out currency conversions. The app has the following features:
- Real-time currency conversion.
- Every major currency with over 94 countries available.
- Refresh and save rates for offline mode when travelling.
- Calculator and list view designed for retina display (only in the full $0.99 version of the app).
Wallet+ by CobbySoft Media Inc
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch - not available for Android
If you're looking for a wallet that isn't the size of a brick, Wallet+ could be the app you need. It backs up all your credit and debit cards to your phone. Wallet+ is ideal for:
- Frequent travellers who want to leave some of their cards at home.
- Online shoppers who don't want to search all day to find that one speciality card they rarely use.
- The super-saver who has a rewards card for every store.
- People who never clean out their wallets.
Savings - Personal Finance, Budget Planner by Yi Lin Productions
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac - not available for Android
This personal finance app is designed for use on Macs and iOS devices. It has everything you need to get your finances under control. Here are some of the features of the app:
- Bank accounts, credit cards and cash are all handled by this app. All of the world's currencies are natively supported.
- Enter transactions, complete with splits and notes, effortlessly.
- Import and automatically reconcile transactions from your bank. OFX, CSV and QIF formats are all supported.
Bill reminders. Create a list of scheduled and upcoming bills so you'll never forget a payment and won't have to enter the same payment information over and over again.
- One-click charts. The app shows you the most useful charts without any configuration on your part. The Breakdown chart shows you where your money goes by category. The Trend chart shows you whether your balance and expenses are going up or down.
MoneyPad by Haiying Li
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch - not available for Android
If you're looking for an easy-to-use financial app to use on your iPhone or iPad, MoneyPad could be the one for you. Manage your income and track as many accounts as you want with this app. Check out some of the features:
- Get real-time statistics for spent vs remaining budget. Based on last month's budget, the rollover is automatically on the first day of the month.
- Create, add notes and organise recurring events by expense, income and transfer.
Acorns AU by Acorns Grow Australia Limited
Compatibility: Available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
Acorns AU encourages you to save and redirect loose change from everyday transactions into a portfolio that consists of a wide range of stocks. This is a good tool if you want to begin investing but don't know where to start or how to navigate the complex waters of investing. Here are some of the features:
- Acorns makes it easy to invest regularly while optimising your investment through diversification. In other words, it gives you an automated system to help you follow good principles of investing.
- This app protects your information, prevents unauthorised account access and notifies you of unusual activity.
