Money Saving Apps - The best Savings Apps UK

Money Saving Apps

What is the Best App for Saving Money? There are a few UK Money Saving Apps, here are the best savings apps to help with money saving in 2024.

money saving apps

Saving is something we all know we should do. More often than not, however, we find it hard to stick to saving goals, which is why Money Saving Apps are so popular. There are apps for just about everything these days and saving is no exception.

Money Saving Apps

savings apps 

 

What are the Best Saving Apps in the UK?   

Sometimes, saving just seems so unachievable that we don’t even bother trying, but there is a solution, and the answer is – use a savings app.

There are so many different apps out there to help you with your saving, and they all bring something unique to the table. This means you can find exactly the right app for you!

 

All in one Money Saving Apps

Many of us have multiple accounts that we spend from - bank accounts, credit cards etc – and because of this, it’s often hard to properly understand your spending habits and how to change them in order to save. These next apps are not only saving apps, they also break down all your spending and highlight where you can make some savings.

 

Yolt

yolt

Yolt connects all your accounts, whether a bank account or credit card, to one simple dashboard, pulling in all your transactions across all your cards. The app then automatically breaks down your spending into categories so you can quickly and easily see where all your money goes each month.

Understanding your spending means you can then utilise their excellent saving functions like setting specific saving targets for big events, holidays, or just to create an emergency savings pot.

And, if that isn’t enough, it also has a fantastic function called ‘Money Jar’ that automates your saving for you.  The way this works is that every purchase you make Yolt will round the amount up to the closest pound and save the difference.  For example, you buy a coffee for £2.5, Yolt rounds that up to £3 and saves 50p automatically for you.

You’ll be surprised how quickly your savings can add up this way.

What we love – It’s a fantastic money saving app that helps you understand your spending across all your accounts and make automatic saves.

Join Yolt

 

Emma

emma app

Emma also gathers all your accounts into one clear dashboard so you can see your spending in one place and automatically categorises everything.  

Emma also lets you set budgets for each of your spending categories and sends you weekly spending reports so you can see how well you are sticking to your budget.

What Emma also does particularly well is it helps you take control of your overspending. The app analyses your transactions and gives you the full list of recurring payments across your accounts. The app then helps you identify and cancel wasteful subscriptions that you no longer need or use.

What we love – Emma lets you sync your budget to your payday which is great when trying to get on top of your finances and save.

Join Emma

 

Snoop

snoop

Snoop is a money app with a bit of a difference.  Similar to Emma and Yolt it allows you to connect all your accounts to be able to keep track of your spending in one place.  They, however, focus on where you spend your money and look at ways to help you save.  

They keep track of all your regular monthly bills and are constantly checking the market to see if you can get a better deal elsewhere to save. So, if you’re car insurance has crept up, or you’ve had the same phone bill for years, Snoop will notice and help you find a cheaper deal elsewhere to save those pennies.

The app also looks at what shops you regularly use and lets you know of clever ways to help you save on your everyday spending – like the latest deals, discounts at the stores you shop at, loyalty schemes, etc.

What we love – helping you make sure you’re not overpaying for your monthly bills like your phone or broadband is fantastic.

Join Snoop

 

Automatic Saving Apps

If working out how much you can save each month feels like too much hassle.  Or you find that you never think about saving until the end of the month when all your money has gone anyway, then automated money saving apps are probably for you.

 

Chip

chip app 

Chip is an automatic savings app that connects to your bank account and siphons off a little every few weeks by looking at your spending and working out how much you can tuck away.

Unlike Plum, auto saving with Chip isn’t free (anymore!). They do only have one subscription level, however, and it’s not very expensive considering what you get - £1.5 every 28 days.

Chip’s primary advantage is that it has the highest interest rate for any savings account (by some measure!) at 1.25%. They are also starting to roll out their investment plans, through Black Rock, giving you the chance to invest your savings and potentially earn as much as 8% per year. Please do remember, however, that investments are different from savings and that your money will be at risk.

What we love – highest savings interest rate on the market.

Join Chip

 

Plum

plum app

Plum is an app firmly focused on saving. Its clever software connects to your bank account and then every few days it works out how much you could save and moves that amount automatically to a savings account.

The money is tucked away safely in an interest-bearing account (up to 0.4%) too and can be accessed quickly and easily.

Plum is free to use, but if you want some fun extra features like cashback on spending (and their highest interest rates) then there are other plans you could upgrade to – Plus (£1 per month), Pro (£2.99 per month) and Ultra (£4.99 per month).

What we love – automatic saving is free and a fantastic way to stack up the £££ without you having to think about it.

Join Plum

 

Cleo

cleo

Cleo is a budgeting and saving app with a big difference – she has a sassy attitude and tells it like it is!  Seriously. What does that mean?  Cleo is an AI driven app that allows you to set personalised budgets.  And if you overspend the app will give you a good roasting for it!

It also has some really useful functions like - If you’re wondering whether you can afford something, you can just ask the app and she’ll answer.  The app will even adjust budgets for you based on your spending.

There are auto save functions and goal setting for specific saving targets too.

Cleo is free to use, which is great!  Similar to the others, there is a plus membership that costs £5.99 per month but comes with some awesome benefits (including an interest-free payday advance of up to £100 if you really need it!)

What we love – putting a bit of personality and sass into your finances.  There’s a reason it’s been voted best budgeting app of 2019 and best money management app 2020

Join Cleo

 

MoneyBox

moneybox

Moneybox is geared around the idea of saving your spare change (like your grandparents used to do in glass jars).  The way it works is every time you make a purchase, Moneybox rounds it up to the nearest pound and saves the difference.  Yes, the same way Yolt does, but Moneybox then helps you focus your savings in the most tax-efficient way with ISA’s and pensions.

You can save for a new house with the Cash Lifetime ISA (which gets a 25% bonus from the government!), focus your savings on your retirement with a personal pension, or you can even put your saving to work investing in stocks and shares ISAs.

What we love – saving your spare change means you’ll barely notice the savings, but they will add up quickly.  Saving in a tax-efficient way is even better!

Join MoneyBox

 

Bank Accounts

If having completely separate money saving apps sounds like a bit of extra clutter on your phone’s home screen then you could look at switching your bank to an online, app based, bank.  These banks have been changing the banking world in a big way.  The features they offer are all about taking your finances in hand and reaching the budgeting and saving goals you have.

 

Starling Bank

starling bank

Starling was one of the first in the new wave of app based banking and is one of the most well-loved for a reason.

For us savvy savers it has a great function within the app called ‘saving spaces’.  You can think of them as virtual piggy banks. The money is still in your bank account but is kept separate from the main balance so you can’t accidentally dip into your savings.

Best of all, they also have the ‘saving spare change’ function where they will round up your spending and add the difference to your saving spaces.

What we love – controlling all your savings from your banking app means you’re not cluttering your phone with lots of apps!

Join Starling Bank

 

Monzo Bank

monzo

Monzo is another great online and app-only bank with over 5 million users.  They also allow you to manage your saving within the app.

Automatic saves and the ‘saving spare change’ function are both available, which is great, and they also keep your savings in separate pots to avoid accidentally overspending.

If you take out their Monzo plus subscription (£5 per month) they’ll also let you sync all your other accounts and credit cards so you can manage all your finances from one account.

Monzo does it all!

What we love – it’s a one-stop-shop that incorporates all of this above!

Join Monzo

 

Whatever your saving goals we are confident that these saving apps will help you achieve them.  We’d love to hear if you’ve used any of these apps before and how you’re getting on with your saving goals.  Please do leave a comment below and let us know how you are getting on.

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Claire Roach Founder & CEO @ Money Saving Central

Claire Roach Money Saving Central Founder

Claire is the UK's #1 'Online Shopping Expert', she is best known for creating sale date tracking to reveal UK sale dates so her followers are first to know when the next sale is due to land for their favourite stores - making her unpopular with major UK retailers!

Featured in major news outlets and TV shows such as 'This Morning', 'The Times Money Mentor' 'Closer magazine, 'The Guardian' and many more for posts such as the viral 'Kids Eat Free' and 'Supermarket 25% off Wine Deal Dates' promotions she features. Read More