7 Best Save Money Apps With Spare Change

We spend a lot of money via credit cards, and a best spare change app comes in handy to help us cultivate a saving habit. Be it shopping, going to the movies, or making significantly bigger purchases, most of use swipe our credit cards. But wouldn’t it be nice if we could save some money while we spend on our credit cards. We’re not talking about savings in addition to cashbacks and reward points that are accrued on your credit card.

There are apps today that help us save big by taking the spare change from our spendings and transferring them into a fund, which will then grow into a little savings fund of your own. These apps charge a small fee for letting you do this, but compared to the money you will end up saving, this isn’t a whole lot. If you make a lot of spendings on credit cards and want to save just that extra penny every now and then, then these apps are definitely meant for you.

1) Acorns

One of the most popular spare change savings apps, Acorns links with your credit card and rounds up each purchase you make to the nearest dollar. The difference required is then taken from your checking account. The accounts are managed automatically in exchange-traded funds or ETFs, helping you see your money grow magically overtime. There are some retail partners (Jet, Airbnb, and Hulu) who will deposit their cashbacks directly into your Acorns account, helping you accrue more savings in the process.

It’s a pretty sweet service overall, especially if you’re heavily reliant on credit cards. Unfortunately, if you use your credit cards sparingly, this service might not be meant for you. That’s because the developers charge a $1 convenience fee per month for accounts holding under $5000. If it’s over $5000, you will be charged 0.25% per year.

If you’re a college student, however, you can get the service free for four years. There are some obvious benefits of getting an app such as this one, and it’s no doubt going to help you save a lot of money in the future. There’s an Android app for this service as well, which is handy if you want to get a quick glimpse of your savings.

Download it now: here

2) Coinflash

This is pretty much like Acorns in terms of functionality, although it uses a slightly different method of saving your spare change. Coinflash uses a Coinbase account and invests your spare change on the cryptocurrency of your choice. You can either choose Ethereum or Bitcoin, it’s entirely up to you. The investments can be made either every week or each month. The service only reads your transactional data when you offer credit card details, which will then be kept for two months before being deleted.

As for the fee, each user is expected to pay $1 per month. Payments will have to be made either via Bitcoin or Ethereum, and they will be automatically deducted from your Coinbase account. However, if you stop using Coinflash, the $1 will stop deducting and you can continue using Coinbase without any fees from the developer. This makes the app an excellent stepping stone for those who have been looking to get into the world of cryptocurrency but never knew how. Coinflash makes the entire process easy and convenient for everyone. There’s no best spare change app for android for this service, so you will be limited to using the web version.

Download it now: here

3) Stash

This is yet another app similar to the first app we talked about, and shares some of the same features. You can choose to automatically withdraw a predetermined amount of money from your account at preset intervals. Funds will increase in value depending on the investment, and it’s pretty convenient overall.

There are a bunch of portfolios with catchy names to appeal to those who are not well versed with financial talk. These portfolios will help you decide which funds to buy.

Stash offers three flat price plan options for customers to chose from. I have included the run down of the pricing options below. Additionally, STASH offers customers the opportunity to invest and build their portfolio with over 250 investment options, including single stocks and ETFs.

Stash is ideally suited for those who are new to investing and/or don’t have enough capital on their hands for a full blown mutual fund investment. It’s definitely a stepping stone for a bigger thing and can teach many of us a very good lesson on how to invest wisely. There have been some complaints that the funds offered by Stash have a relatively high expense ratio, so be sure to choose them carefully.

STASH’s 3 Plans:

• STASH Beginner ($1/mo.) helps customers learn the basics of saving and investing with a personal brokerage account and access to banking services, including Stock-Back™ rewards.
• STASH Growth ($3/mo.) helps customers build the foundation of a healthy financial life with a personal brokerage account, retirement account and access to banking services, including Stock-Back™ rewards.
• STASH+ ($9/mo.) helps customers maximize the value of every dollar they make with a personal brokerage account, retirement account, two custodial investment accounts for minors, a metal STASH Debit Card with 2x Stock-Back™ rewards, and a monthly market insight report.

Download it now: here

5) Qapital

Designed to be an all-in-one banking app, with Qapital you should be able to spend money intelligently, save, and invest comfortably. That’s the tagline, at least — but overall, Qapital works really well! It’s an excellent app that helps you save and invest your money, actually helping its members save an average of $1500 per person last year.

However, the downside to Qapital, like many of these “spare change” type applications, is that they have to pay the bills, too. That means that, a percentage of your savings — or a subscription — is going to Qapital for the “service” of helping you save money.

Download it now: here

5) Robinhood

Robinhood might not be a “spare change” app, but it is a great way for the average person to start investing. If you have a couple of bucks left in your bank account, you can invest them in single stocks through Robinhood. Sure, some companies cost hundreds of dollars for a single stock, but there are plenty on the Robinhood list that just cost a couple of bucks.

This investment app is entirely free to use as well — you don’t have to pay for many of the fees that you normally would have to in single stock trading like this — there are no fees and no commission costs.

Download it now: here

6) Debitize

This is probably the most innovative of them all, as it basically converts your credit card into a debit card. As soon as you make a payment using your credit card, Debitize will use the linked bank account to pay off that charge right there. This means you won’t have to pay the full amount at once as you’re chipping away with each payment.

This could be the app to get debit card users on board with the idea of credit cards. Thanks to this app, you won’t have to worry about late payment charges or any other overages related to delays in payment. Sadly, Debitize only has an iOS app with no Android app available at the moment. Android users can use the web version of the best spare change app, however.

7) Qoins

This is a slightly different take on the other services we’ve mentioned here. Qoins basically takes the spare change from your expenses and pays off your debts with it. It’s really that simple. A best spare change app option like this is particularly useful if you have outstanding loans with relatively higher interest rates.

It always makes sense to pay your debts more often to avoid interest to add up. Since we usually wait till the due date to pay off the loans, Qoins will do all the job for you behind the scenes. The amount paid won’t be too great since it only adds up on your spare change, but it’s still something.

Verdict on the best spare change app

Here we’ve shown you seven of the best applications that you can use to save money with. These are all great ways to squirrel away a couple dollars or pieces of change at a time, but ultimately, it’s better to just integrate better saving habits into your lifestyle. These are a great way to get started, but eventually, it’s better to just learn to save ten percent of your paycheck, and without all of the fees or subscription costs that some of these apps have.

How do you save money? Let us know in the comments section below.