Smartphones were once a luxury. Since their evolution, they’ve become in-disposable tools with so many uses. Not the least of which is saving money.
Apps abound that propose to save you time and money. With this list, you’ll have 5 top programs for your phone putting saving money at your fingertips. Use them wisely and you’ll feel the difference in your wallet.
Without further ado, your top 5 Smart Saving Apps for Smartphones:
1. GasBuddy puts an end to circling around searching for the cheapest gas. With this app you’ll find the gas closest to you and at the cheapest prices. It is a community of users that updates the prices and you can earn rewards toward their giveaways every time you report them in your area. They’ve earned a 5 star rating on iTunes with over 9,000 reviews. Don’t drive around guessing anymore. Use GasBuddy to save time and money.
2. Mint, named Best Mobile Personal Finance Tool by LifeHacker, helps you keep track of your balance. No more guessing. No more waiting for to get home to check online. Check your balance before you decide to spend on that beautiful cashmere sweater and save yourself the heartache of overdraft charges. So useful, it’s received 4.5 stars; the biggest complaints being there’s no sync with the desktop app. Use Mint to stay on top of YOUR mint.
3. Skype is a free app that allows you to talk overseas for free. Yes, for free. Download Skype and make free video calls from anywhere. You’ll no longer be chained to your desk when you call friends and family across the waters. The ratings on this last version, however, aren’t up to par with the earlier ones. But as an experienced user, I can say that I haven’t had any problems (outside of an occasional connection issue. that are existent no matter what service you use to call overseas anyway).
4. KiK Messenger let’s you say good bye to overseas text charges. Tired of being charged up to $1.25 for a text message any time you’ve wanted to just say hello. How many times have you opted NOT to say anything because of the international text fees? With KiK Messenger, you can text and never sweat another international fee. Go ahead! Text your cousin Jo in UK and tell her how much you miss her! Keep in touch with your friends and family with this 4.5 star rated app that even lets you send and share pics!
5. GeoQPons let’s you find and use coupons via your smartphone. You can now keep that $2.00 off coupon for diapers instead of having to remember to haul it around! This app has a 4.5 star rating and even includes local stores. They, too, have a rewards program that will allow you to earn a $10 Amazon gift card if you recruit a local store to start advertising on their site. Never sweat another lost clipping again.
That’s the top 5! With these apps, you’ll save in the places that matter most to you.
What apps do you know and love and can’t live without?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Here are some apps I have found extremely valuable:
Accounts2 – Manage your money. Sync records with Dropbox.
FlightBoard – Instantly see up-to-the-minute arrival and departure boards for airports worldwide. If you travel this app is Indispensable.
FlightTrack – Works seamlessly with FlightBoard. Shows you exactly where a plane is, including its altitude, speed and the time it will take to reach its arrival airport. Beautiful map display also shows area weather.
Trover – Share your photos and make new friends with people all over the world. I live in upstate New York, and people in as far away places as Nepal and southern Argentina responded to my photos within minutes after their first being posted. Impressive!
Netflix – Turn your cellphone into a movie display! I watch movies late at night at work when nothing is going on. The app links with my home Netflix account. Using headphones or a small, portable external speaker like the iPop by Satechi is highly recommended. Good sound makes up for the small screen of the cellphone.
Dropbox – At present I’ve found this app to be the best way of sharing, storing and retrieving data from various apps with your home PC and other devices.
Password Safe – This easy-to-use program securely stores all of your password info. You can sync the info with Dropbox, too. Allows for tagging. Provides one-touch access to the web sites you are using directly from the app. Works very well. Highly recommended if you have too many passwords to retain by memory.
QuickPic…better, easier gallery display for photos than stock Android app, and you easily control when to send to Picasa, Facebook, etc.
Business Calendar…far better than stock calendar app.
Swiss Army….has a lot of tools, flashlight, etc…most valuable to me is the magnifier, so I can read small print on vitamin bottles, etc and freeze the picture with having to take a picture.
Folder Organizer…so I can organize my icons in frames with long names. e.g. I have one called “Apps needing Internet and location”…and it is a frame so I don’t need to open a folder (but can if desired).
Widgets…some are on the phone, but some are in the app store…Wifi to turn on/off with one button, “Mobile” to turn on/off with one button, USB Debug if you turn that on and off for teathering, etc.
And of course a few “shopping” apps to save money. There are numerous ones out there. I like Google Shopper, ShopSavvvy, Barcode, and Craigslist Notifier.
Almost forget…ANDROID LOST. Easy to use tool to find you android if lost or stolen, you can sign on to website on your desktop to remotely turn on the internet and GPS via text message to track it….or make phone sound an alarm (even if volume turned down), take pictures remotely, wipe your phone so sensitive info won’t fall into wrong hands, etc.
Thanks for these lists from the article and other commenters. I use Skype alot and like the idea of tracking my lost phone. What about a good QR code reader?
Skype is alright, but I’m not a big fan of it since it likes to crash most of the times. Dropbox is awesome, its definintely something I would recommend to anyone that needs a sky drive to store images or files that they need access to on a daily basics. Box is also pretty good, same features as Dropbox I believe, only difference is space. With Box I have 50 GB, while Dropbox I’m limited to 2GB unless I decide to upgrade, which I doubt I will. Another great app would be GoSMS Pro. Overlays your stock SMS with themes and extra added features such as blacklist, sms spam blocker, encryption, and lots of other great perks.
I use Zahdoo – Smart Assistant app which is calendar based app with voice actions. I can attach my events and ToDos to a context such as home, office and school and get recommendations such as news, weather, quotes etc. Extremely useful app.
The “TOP APPS” will be an everchanging list because people’s needs are so diverse plus new APPS are being created every day.
One problem with APPS has been pointed out by a previous commenter – some are NOT reliable. In order to be an APP, there should be some type of reliability standard. If it is to be a TOP APP – the reliability better be bulletproof.
A new app called IDpro has Voice Caller Id and Voice Caller Id while in call waiting. It also announces the incoming caller’s names, and helps you screen the incoming calls. The app works with earpiece/Bluetooth/speaker too. IDPro also announces the incoming caller name when you receive a waiting call.
Be careful with Mint.com. You must provide mint.com with your bank ID and password. Every bank will tell you the moment you do so, you are in violation of your bank user agreement and you render any kind of protection you have from unauthorized charges to your bank account to be VOID, even if the unauthorized transaction has nothing to do with mint. AND, you bank knows you’re giving them your ID and password, because every time mint.com logs into your account, that activity is captured by your bank. So mint.com may be nice, but is it worth rendering the protection you may enjoy against fraud at bank as useless? I won’t. You shouldn’t either.
I don’t see whatsapp on this list.
Here’s one that nobody knows about…Larky. Helps you get all the discounts you deserve from your memberships (like AAA, AARP, Costco, USAA, etc). Great site too. larky.com.