The use of budgeting apps is gradually increasing across the world, and why not? These apps are designed to help all individuals plan their budget, have emergency funds, control their expenses, and keep away from financial storms at any point in their life.
The research conducted by Attest clearly indicates that the majority of UK people who are under 30 use budget tracking tools for a better grasp of their budget and savings. The demand for these apps is likely to increase in the upcoming years.
With a user-friendly interface and safety features, a budget tracking tool has become an integral part of daily life. Let’s learn about the top-tier features that users must seek in a budgeting app for the best outcome.
Free Vs Paid Budgeting Apps: Which One Should You Prefer?
Before delving into the key features of a wealth app, we will bring the focus to the most common query of the users. Paid or free: which budgeting tool is more fruitful? Well, the answer is pretty simple. When you opt for the paid apps, you can unlock several pro features, like creating unlimited budgets, syncing more than one bank account, and more.
If you are a beginner using the app for the first time, start with the free version. Once you get accustomed to it and start noticing a positive outcome in your budgeting, you can upgrade to the paid version.
Features That Your Chosen Budgeting App Must Have
When making your choice between budgeting apps, make sure to consider the following features:
1. Bank Sync
The first and primary feature that you ought to check in your budgeting tool is whether it allows syncing your bank accounts. At the same time, you need to assess whether the app complies with the safety standards and ensure the privacy of your personal and banking credentials.
Manually entering financial data always leaves the chance of errors. But when you sync your bank account with your wealth app, the app automatically pulls correct financial data and ensures accurate budgeting.
2. Availability of Free Trials
Note that, budgeting apps involve providing your banking and income details. So, frequently switching between different apps is not safe. So, you need to stick to using a single budget tracking tool. But deciding which app could be your perfect fit and getting a membership is a challenge in itself. So, you should try the free trials first. If the app seems all alright get the membership and enjoy easy budgeting.
3. Customization of Spending Categories
The built-in spending categories of the budgeting appsare well and good, but having them customized is even better. Not every individual has similar spending habits. Thus, customization is the key to effective expense tracking! The paid version of the top-tier budget tracking tools lets you create different categories and name them accordingly.
In case you want to settle with the free version of the budget-tracking tool, make sure it has at least 4 different spending categories, such as food, transportation, rent, and entertainment for better assessment of your monthly expenses.
4. Automatic Money Transfer
To avoid any type of financial storm, having your rainy day or emergency fund is a must! The best budgeting apps have the auto money transfer feature where you can fix a date and time when the money will automatically be debited from your synced bank account and transferred into your emergency fund.
5. Set Expense Limit
Do you have a bad habit of overspending? If you want to control your unnecessary expenses, don’t forget to check this feature in your chosen budgeting app where you can set a weekly or monthly expense limit. Whenever you are almost on the verge of crossing the preset limit, the app will notify you.
6. Security Measures
Before linking your active bank accounts to a budgeting app, you need to check the to and fro of the tool. Check all the safety features your chosen app comes with. If it has multi-factor authentication, biometric app lock, etc., you can trust it.
Are Banking Apps Similar To Budgeting Apps?
Often users confuse banking apps with budgeting apps, but both are completely different. While banking apps help you check your balance, transaction history, total balance, pay bills, and transfer money, a budgeting app tracks all those activities and data in one location for better understandability, You can check your total financial activities into your wealth tracking tool and take better financial decisions.
Wrapping Up
The above-listed features make budgeting apps reliable. During the initial days, you might find it troublesome, but when you familiarize yourself with the app’s functionality and interface, you will never have to experience any financial burden in your life anymore! The app prepares you for all the unforeseen financial challenges, keeping you and your loved ones safe from the potential financial struggle. You just need to choose a good app and learn how to use it properly.