Smartphone Apps to Save Your Money
Almost each and every smartphone or tablet owner knows a few tricks to save money on telephone calls. It's easy as pie if you've got a wi-fi spot around and Skype, Whatsapp, Viber or any other messaging app. Searching for a wi-fi hotspot to get in touch with someone is an extremely useful strategy, especially when you are roaming. But is there anything else that can help us keep an extra dollar or two? Naturally, the answer is yes, but with millions and millions of apps on playmarkets, it's a hell of a difficult task to find the ones that actually do the job. This article will save you the effort, featuring some of the best money-saving solutions. All the apps below are absolutely free and some of them might even help you earn money.
Mastercard ATM Hunter
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This one is especially helpful for travelers. Imagine you want to buy a souvenir from a street vendor, but don't have any cash on you. You start searching for an ATM, but you can't see any that would accept your card without a fee. Here comes ATM hunter - a simple and straightforward app that will find the closest cash machine and save you from paying fees. In addition to auto search, you may also specify the bank you need or select a specified area if you don't want the app to track your location. With the latest update, the app also allows to locate merchants that accept PayPass, so if you're planning a trip, make sure you have this one installed on your device.
iBotta
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How often do you go shopping? No, not to buy an iPhone 6, but just to fill your fridge. According to Gallup, an average American spends about $150 a week on groceries. Most of the shops are offering loyalty cards or coupons to their regular customers providing them with discounts. And sometimes our desk gets filled with those cards and coupons so we can't have them all in our pocket. iBotta is a handy digital alternative to paper and plastic discounts. This app will help you cut the amountof money you spend while shopping(both offline and online) without refusing from your gastronomic preferences or making your purse filled with plastic. All you have to do is just launch the app, make a photo of the receipt and confirm your purchase. You may also link the loyalty cards of iBotta's partners (check the full list here) to the app so all you'll have to do is tell your phone number to the person at the counter and the rebate will be applied. There are also a lot more features like daily tasks, which you do to get extra bonuses which can be further exchanged for real money and transferred to your bank account via PayPal. All this may sound a bit complicated, but you will surely grab everything as soon as you start using this app.
Mint.com Personal Finance
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Keeping track of your spending has always been one the most efficient ways to make sure you don't waste too much. But writing everything on paper, or typing all the info into an .xls file takes too much time and effort, that's why most people give up budget planning pretty fast. Mint Personal Finance is probably the best no-nonsense app to plan your budget as it combines diversity of features with a straightforward interface. After you synchronize the app with your bank accounts, credit cards, investments and mortgages, the app will automatically create a budget for you to keep track of money flows. And, naturally, you may still enter other transactions manually. No need to worry about privacy as you may easily block your account on the website in case you lose your device. The information on your spending is represented in explicit charts and diagrams. The app can also notify you whenever it's time to pay the bills. These are just the basic features of this app, so if you are searching for an efficient budget planning solution, be sure to see more about Mint Personal Finance by following the download links.
Onavo Extend
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This one is extremely helpful for those who spend loads of money on the Internet and need to stay online constantly. Onavo Extend is an application that silently works in the background to compress and save your data while you are surfing the web or chatting in social networks. All your data traffic goes through Onavo servers where it gets compressed and then saved to your smartphone. So whenever you open a page or someone's Facebook profile, the images are downloaded from your phone, saving tons of excessive traffic. You can easily adjust the amount of storage space that the app can use and monitor the amount of data you saved with the help of the app's widget. There are a lot more functions that allow you to take your data plan to the extreme. Hit the links below or check the Referenced Programs for more details. Note: works only on Android 4.0+
Swagbucks
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What do you usually do while waiting for someone? As a rule you've got just a couple of minutes - not enough for having a cup of coffee, but too much for just idling around. Yep, you take out your smartphone to kill time playing 2048, checking your Facebook feed or something like that. How often does that happen to you? I would be a millionaire if I had a cent for each minute I've spent waiting for my girlfriend to finish her makeup, and I'm sure you've also got a person who constantly keeps you waiting. Ever wondered how you could make a better use of those spare minutes? The answer is Swagbucks. This app actually allows you to earn by simply surfing the web. So the idea is: you've got a number of daily tasks (like watching videos, searching the web, answering polls, etc.) that usually take around five or ten minutes; after you complete them you get a certain amount of in-app currency (Swag Bucks) which can then be exchanged for $5 - $25 gift cards for Amazon, PayPal, Target, Walmart, and Starbucks.
And just as a reminder, remember that we are always glad to receive any questions, alternative suggestions or any other feedback in comments below.
