Six Money Apps You Should Download Right Now

Money apps are hugely popular at the minute. People are thinking about their finances in more detail and are quickly realizing how apps can help them take control of their money. 

We’ve rounded up the best money-saving and money-making apps that you need to know about. These apps can give you a helping hand with your first investments. They can make managing your pension x100 easier. And they can even help you sell your old clothes.

Read on to find out which money apps you should download right now. 

Best for Investing: Nutmeg 

Nutmeg: Nutmeg is a low-cost online investment platform. If you’re thinking about investing for the first time, then picking an investment app like Nutmeg might be sensible.

They manage your investment portfolio for you, based on how much risk you’re willing to take. This means the experts at Nutmeg will pick the best investments for your specific needs. They’ll even monitor your portfolio, and adjust your investments to make sure you achieve your investment goals. 

Price: Nutmeg is free to download, but you’ll have to pay management fees after investing

Availability: IOS and Android

Referral Scheme: If you refer a friend to Nutmeg they’ll pay no management fees for six months. You’ll also be rewarded with a £100 gift voucher of your choice, from retailers like John Lewis and Currys PC World. 

*Tip: Link your Nutmeg account to Emma to view your investments, current accounts, savings, and loans in one place. 

Best for Cashback: Airtime Rewards

Airtime Rewards: Cashback apps are an excellent way to save money when you shop.

Connect your bank cards to the Airtime Rewards app to receive cashback any time you shop with selected retailers (in-store, and online!). Some of our favorite retailers available on Airtime Rewards are Boots, Argos, Just eat, Harvey Nichols, and New Look.

Any money you’ve earned through cashback is then added to your Airtime Rewards account. Tell the app what mobile network you’re with and you can then use this money towards your phone bill. It works for all the big networks like Three, Vodafone, and EE, as well as some smaller networks so check their site before downloading. 

Price: Airtime Rewards is free to download

Availability: IOS and Android

Referral Scheme: Invite a friend to join Airtime Rewards and you’ll both get 50p when they join. If they spend using one of the connected cards in the first 7 days you’ll get an extra £1. They occasionally offer higher rewards, so follow them on social media to be kept in the loop. 

*Tip: Did you know Emma also offers cashback? Open the Emma app, click on more > cashback to see all our deals from top brands like Apple, Boots, B&Q, and Missguided. 

Best for Budgeting: Emma

Emma: Having a budget gives you greater control over your money. It also gives you a better chance of reaching any financial goals you’ve set for yourself.

Emma is one of the best budgeting apps on the market right now. It’s an account aggregator which means you can view your current accounts, savings, investments, loans, crypto, and pensions all under one app.

You can use the app to set a total monthly budget, or you can even set individual budgets by category. Like a food budget, or a bills budget. The app will then track your spending throughout the month and will make sure you don’t spend too much money.

Find out more about Emma and its different features here.

Price: Emma is free to download, but there is also a premium service that charges a yearly or monthly fee for more advanced money management features

Availability: IOS and Android

Referral Scheme: Emma has a referral scheme that rewards you with £15 for every person you invite to join and subscribe to Emma Pro. On occasion, the reward is increased to £50, so follow them on social media to be alerted of any changes.

Best for Pensions: PensionBee

PensionBee: If you’ve had multiple jobs throughout your life, then it’s likely that you’ll have multiple pension plans. Tracking down each of these pension plans by the time you retire isn’t easy work. Plus, you probably have no idea how much money you’re paying in management fees, and how your current pension is invested.

That’s where PensionBee can help. They combine and transfer your old pensions into one new plan. That new plan is then managed by some of the world’s largest money managers. We love PensionBee because you can even choose how you want your pension invested, by picking from one of nine plans. These plans range from higher-risk options that invest in fossil-fuel-free and eco companies to safer options that only invest in more traditional, creditworthy companies. 

Find out more about the benefits of consolidating your old pensions into one plan here. 

Price: PensionBee is free to download. You can use it to locate your old pensions for free, but it does charge an annual management fee if you then choose to invest your pension. Depending what investment plan you choose this is between 0.5% and 0.95%. 

Availability: IOS, Android and Web app.

Referral Scheme: If you invite a friend to join PensionBee you’ll both receive £50 when a pension has been transferred. To get this referral scheme, you’ll just need to log in to your Beehive account and share your custom referral link. 

*Tip: Head to the Save Money tab in Emma and click “combine pensions”. You can then sign up to PensionBee through Emma, which will allow you to view your pension directly in the Emma app. 

Best for Making Money: Streetbees

StreetBees: There are lots of money-making apps right now, but one of our favorites is Streetbees. Streetbees is an app that sends you short tasks and surveys to complete, in return for a small sum of money.

It’s pretty simple to set up. All you need to do is log into the app and check out which tasks are available to you. There are a variety of tasks, but normally you’re asked to either share an opinion, speak with a chatbot, answer questions or take photos. Tasks pay £1 upwards, although there have recently been tasks that pay £10.

This isn’t necessarily a huge sum of money, but if you’re looking for a relatively easy way to get some extra cash then this isn’t a bad option. Plus, you normally receive the money into your PayPal account within a week of completing the task so it’s a nice way to get extra cash, fast. 

Price: Streetbees is free to download.  

Availability: IOS and Android

Referral Scheme: The app lets you share a referral code, but it is not entirely clear what the current rewards are. 

Best for Selling: Vinted

Vinted: Selling your old clothes is a great way to earn some extra money. Spend some time decluttering your home and we bet you’ll find tonnes of items to sell – you could easily be sitting on a small fortune without even realising.

One of our favorite apps to sell unwanted items is Vinted. Their app is simple to set up and use – all you need to do is click “sell an item”, upload photos, add a description of the item you’re selling, and list a price.

It’s fairly similar to other seller sites like eBay and Depop, although in our opinion Vinted is better because it lets you sell on their app without any fees. 

Price: Vinted is free to download

Availability: IOS and Android

Referral Scheme: You can invite your friends to join Vinted by clicking on your profile and pressing invite friends. You can then earn up to £15 for every person that signs up, lists and completes a sale. (£5 if the person you invite lists 3 items within 7 days, and £10 if a friend completes a sale via the buy now button in their first 30 days). 

Summary:

These apps are a great tool for making and saving money. Integrate these into your everyday lives and you’ll soon find that you’re saving and making more money than ever before. You’ll be better at budgeting, you’ll be in more control of your pensions and investments, and you’ll be earning some extra cash. What’s not to love?

Have you used any of these apps before? Join the Emma Community and let us know what you think about them!

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