Hello everyone! As we’ve continued to expand this site more and more one thing that has proved consistently popular are our reviews of the UK’s personal finance apps.
I’m a huge believer in apps – people have come up with such clever ways to help you manage your finances better, and increasing it’s simply become worth downloading apps for reward programmes to make sure you’re getting the best out of it.
Today I’m flagging what we think are some of the best UK Personal Finance Apps in 2023 where we’ve written in-depth reviews to provide our thoughts, divided into different categories.
We won’t cover apps providing basic utility such as for managing your bank account here (much as we think those are worth having) – more ones that you might not have thought of but provide a little extra to your personal finance life!
Best UK Apps for Budgeting and Saving
There’s tough competition in the budgeting app space! These apps all use open banking platforms in order to help you understand your spending better and ideally identify where you can make improvements.
We don’t think any app is perfect as they all provide some limitations without a premium plan, but here are three we think are worth investigating:
Money Dashboard Neon
Money Dashboard Neon App Review – A great app which is very budgeting focused and allows quite a lot of customisation in a standard package. It’s relatively simplistic and no-frills, but great for it.
Emma
Emma App Review – Emma is a graphically impressive app allowing not just budgeting but also investments and payments as well. The budgeting element is build around calculation your net worth of savings minus payments.
Snoop
Snoop App Review – The Snoop app works a little differently to the other two. Beyond basic budgeting it also features “nudges” to make suggestions on changes you can make to your personal finance habits to gain an advantage.
Plum
Plum App Review – Plum is a savings based app which analyses your spending via open banking, and suggests a figure to save using it’s AI. It’s helpful if you’re someone that has good intentions when it comes to saving money but doesn’t quite make it happen. Investing options are also available through the app.
Best UK Apps for Cashback
These apps are generalist apps which can provide benefits when spending on products you’re buying anyhow (and don’t be tempted to buy extra because of them!)
TopCashback
TopCashback Review – TopCashback is one of the UK’s leading providers of online cashback. It’s very quick and easy to use, as you simply click through to underlying retailer on the site and get paid what would have been cost of an advert. You can also buy gift cards for supermarkets (and others) through the TopGiftCards scheme which we reviewed separately. A TopCashback app is available to download through your phone to connect you to cashback.
QuidCo
QuidCo Review – QuidCo are the UK’s other main cashback website, and follow a very similar approach to TopCashback above. The site also regularly features boosts and extra rewards when spending. A QuidCo app is available through the app store.
(We think it’s worth signing up to both QuidCo and TopCashback by the way, to take advantage of whoever has the best offer).
Airtime Rewards
Airtime Rewards Review – We love Airtime Rewards because it’s a cashback app that works on in-store spends and can be used in conjunction with the above cashback apps for even more value. It’s targeted at providing money off your mobile phone bill, and from the same team that brought you the “Orange Wednesdays” promotion for those of a certain age.
Cheddar UK
Cheddar UK App Review – Cheddar works very similar to Airtime Rewards above, where you link your credit or debit card to the app and receive a percentage reward for spending at certain retailers.
Virgin Money Back Cashback
Virgin Cashback Review – If you have a Virgin Money Credit Card or Virgin Money Debit Card, they’ve added a cashback service within their app which frequently has some good offers on and also allows you to accumulate cashback when spending on their cards. You can also stack this with TopCashback and Quidco.
Bonus mention: Cashback Angel
Cashback Angel Review – Ok, we’re cheating a bit here as this one isn’t an app, but it’s a great website which acts as a quick way of identifying which website has the best cashback payout.
Best UK Apps for Freebies
Apps in this category feature those where you’ll get something extra for free for using them (and we think it’s worth it rather than something bitty and small!)
O2 Priority
O2 Priority App Review – If you’re an O2 Customer (or are a Virgin Media customer as they can now get access) we’d absolutely recommend downloading the O2 priority app. It provides quite a lot of freebies such as Cafe Nero coffees and breakfasts from Greggs, whilst also providing access to priority tickets for gigs at the O2 alongside competitions with some excellent prizes.
Shopmium
Shopmium App Review – Shopmium is a great app that provides you with offers to try out new products when shopping in supermarkets, with most being heavily discounted and quite often coming for free.
Best UK Apps for Loyalty Schemes
The below are apps which are connected to loyalty schemes for different brands, but we’ve identified that accessing them through the app provides extra benefits above and beyond using the standard card.
Boots Advantage Card
Boots Advantage Card Review – at a 4% per pound payout, a Boots Advantage Card is one of the best high street loyalty schemes out there. Via the app you can opt in to offers which boost your earning power.
Lidl Plus
Lidl Plus Review – Of Supermarket loyalty schemes, we really like Lidl Plus. It’s focused towards higher spenders but offers consistently good rewards at a range of price points as well as regular vouchers each week.
Asda Rewards
Asda Rewards Review – Asda Rewards is a particularly rewarding supermarket shopping loyalty app, where you are rewarded into a “cashpot” for buying particular products, or completing missions from particular sections.
Nectar Connect
Nectar Connect Review – Nectar can be a little variable in terms of how much it rewards you, but it’s pretty unmatched in terms of ways to make extra points. One of these is through the Nectar Connect scheme, letting you opt it on earning Nectar points from other places when you opt in to offers.
MyWaitrose
MyWaitrose Review – The MyWaitrose app isn’t without it’s problems, but where it really excels is having personalised vouchers
MyMcDonalds
MyMcDonalds Rewards Review – A guide to McDonald’s new loyalty scheme which offers continued rewards when eating at McDonald’s.
Tesco Clubcard
Tesco Clubcard Review – We review the Tesco Clubcard app, looking at how to extract the best value from the use of Tesco Clubcard vouchers on your grocery shopping.
What are your favourite UK Personal Finance apps?
We really enjoy trying out personal finance apps for ourselves and getting a sense of the clever ways people are finding to help make our money go further. If you think you’ve got some ideas on some other great apps please do send us a note or leave a note in the comments below so we can check it out!
And that’s it!
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