I'm Donny. I'm a world traveler, investor, entrepreneur, and online marketing aficionado who has a big appetite to compete and disrupt big markets. I thrive on being able to create things that impact change, difficult challenges, and being able to add value in negative situations.
Saving money is just as crucial to your long-term health as getting sleep or eating a healthy diet. Micro-savings apps give you the ability to automatically save small amounts of money each day without ever thinking about it.
Acorns also you to invest your spare change and paychecks automatically on the go. Learn why it is my #1 recommended micro-investing app.
Empower app helps you manage your money with a personalized financial coach in your pocket to help you earn, save and spend more wisely.
Saving money is one of those things that are so important to our short and long-term health. However, in a world where so many things need attention, there are still things that we can do without even thinking about it.
Thanks to the creation of micro-saving apps, we can now save money automatically and even invest those savings into working for us to create wealth. Choosing the right micro-savings app is your ticket to making the process of automatically saving money progressive and easy.
Here are essential things to consider when looking for the best money-saving app:
- User ability
- Your Goals
- Perks and freebies
- The cost of using the app
The Best Micro-Saving Apps of 2024
Comparison of the Best Automatic Saving Apps
Easy. Invest spare change with Round-Ups™, invest a piece of every paycheck, earn more, and get money tips on the go.
Empower app helps you manage your money with a personalized financial coach in your pocket to help you earn, save and spend more wisely.
Current is a mobile banking app and Visa debit card that gets you paid up to two days faster with fee-free overdraft up to $100.
Qapital is an award-winning app designed to let you save, invest, and spend with any goal in mind.
With Digit guiding money to your goals each day, you'll hit them faster and feel at peace along the way.
Chime provides fee-free mobile banking services with a network of over 60K+ ATMs and overdraft protection.
Detailed Reviews of Micro-Investing Apps
Let’s take a look at 6 of the most popular micro-saving apps right now. Not all apps are made the same, and there are some key differences to pay attention to between them.
1. Acorns - Best Overall
Acorns is our best overall automatic savings app because it allows you to round up to the nearest dollar from purchases and lets you take advantage of recurring transfers. You can use the money to fund investment accounts.
Acorns also lets you automatically deposit a percentage of your paycheck to invest with their smart deposit feature. Another great feature of acorns is that they educate users on building wealth.
They partner with CNBC to provide helpful content to their users on personal finance tips and tricks.
Acorns charge its users three dollars per month to use their service. Included in this subscription are their retirement and savings account, their debit card, and bonus investments.
They also offer a family deal that is only $5 a month to create investment accounts for your children.
Pros
Cons
2. Empower Finance - Best Checking Account
Empower finance ranks at the top in our best checking account automatic savings app because it gives you the power to manage all of your finances in one place. They are a member of the FDIC and work to help enhance the quality of your budgeting.
Empower’s main benefit is that it features an autosave feature to help you save money each week. However, if you have a short week, you never have to worry about deposits.
The app analyzes your income and spending habits to ensure that your account does not get overdrawn.
When you sign up for Empower, you also get a free visa debit card that gives you the ability to earn up to 10% cashback when making purchases. The price for Empower is $8 per month.
Pros
Cons
3. Current - Best for Mobile Banking
The Current App is our choice for best mobile banking because, as the slogan reads, “they’re not a bank. They are better.” The Current app offers all the perks of a regular checking account without the cons.
You get a debit card that allows you to earn 15 times the points on purchases that you can redeem later for cash. It is one of the best money-saving apps because it does not charge overdraft fees or require you to have a minimum balance.
Another fee that we all can do without is ATM fees which Current does not charge. You can even transfer money to other members with Current accounts for free.
Current charges $4.99 per month after a 30-day free trial and promises to give you early access to your paycheck when you register for direct deposit with them. They also offer accounts for children. However, the price for those accounts is $36 per year.
Pros
Cons
4. Qapital - Best for Goal Setting
Qapital is our choice for the best goal-setting app because it gives you multiple options to save. You can set up Qapital to save the change from your purchases, set up automatic recurring transfers, or elect to have a percentage of your paycheck moved to savings.
What I love about Qapital is that it has pre-built portfolio options. This means that whether you’re new to investing, a balanced investor, or a more aggressive investor, there are always portfolios that are pre-made for your goals.
Qapital offers subscription tiers to its users. The cheapest plan is $3 per month. The complete plan comes in at $6 per month. Last, their master plan is set at the price of $12 per month.
The master subscription is ideal for individuals who share accounts with their spouses or partners.
Pros
Cons
5. Digit - Best for Simplicity
Digit is our choice for simplicity because it takes the guesswork out of saving money. Digit automatically chooses when and how much to transfer to its savings account based on your account analysis.
You get to keep your current checking account as well. All you have to do is connect your checking account to Digit and let it do the rest of the work. The app guarantees that there will be no overdraft as a result of auto savings.
Digit gives you the most freedom to customize your goals and even offers you a 10 percent savings bonus every quarter. It charges its customers $5 per month to use its services.
Pros
Cons
6. Chime - Best for Banking
Chime is our selection for the best banking service app. You can do all of the regular transactions that you would typically do with your bank account, such as pay your bills, transfer money, and deposit checks.
Chime offers automatic savings by rounding up to the nearest dollar when making purchases with their debit card. It also offers direct deposit and, most importantly, the ability to build your credit history.
Chime has a built-in credit builder that increases users’ credit scores by up to 30 points when they pay their bills regularly using their debit card.
There are no minimum deposit amounts that you have to keep in your Chime account.
Pros
Cons
What are Money Saving Apps?
The best money-saving apps work with you to help you save money, budget better, and discover hidden costs.
They give you the information you need to lower your monthly spending to save money towards a specific goal, such as to make a major purchase, investments, or to create an emergency fund.
How Do Micro-saving Apps Work?
Micro-savings apps work by analyzing your spending habits daily and transferring small amounts to your savings account. The goal is to increase your net worth and create financial stability to live life on your terms.
Micro-savings apps work so well because they don’t require you to save significant amounts of money at one time. This is one of the reasons that many of us have trouble saving money.
Many can’t save $50 every time they get paid.
However, we can afford to save the difference in change rounded up to the next dollar when we make a purchase. The best micro-savings apps take the guesswork out of saving money while helping you automatically save and create wealth for yourself short and long-term.
How to Choose The Right Automatic Saving App
If saving money has always been a challenge for you, you can rest assured that you are in the right place.
Choosing the right automatic savings app can be daunting because there are so many available apps to choose from. The best money-saving apps always have features and benefits that make them stand out from the rest that perfectly fits your lifestyle and goals.
The first and most important thing to consider when choosing a micro-savings app is user ability. What’s the point of selecting the best-priced app if it’s difficult to use and understand?
While the app is doing most of the work for you, it is still vital for you to clearly understand how much you’re saving, how often you’re saving it, and where the money is going.
It gives you the ability to make accurate decisions that better align with your goals.
The next thing to consider is the fees associated with using the app. Believe it or not, you can have the benefit of the best money-saving app and not have to pay a monthly fee to use it.
This is not only part of using the app, but it’s life-changing if you are very tight on funding and can’t afford a monthly subscription.
As you save more money, you can eventually upgrade to a better app. As for now, start with where you are in your financial journey.
Depending on your goals, you also want to look for how easily you can access your funds and investment options. What if you are saving for an emergency fund and an emergency happens?
This is the time when you will need immediate access to your funds.
When it comes down to investment options, you would like to know where the money goes, how it’s managed, and how much interest it’s earning. It goes hand-in-hand with user ability because it is something that you would want to check on regularly.
Next Steps
The best money-saving app allows you to accumulate savings and build well without sacrificing user ability and your personal goals.
Acorns, Empower Finance, Current, Qapital, Digit, and Chime are all micro-saving services and/or Robo-advisors that can effortlessly help you reach your goals.
If you are new to investing and want to begin doing so, Qapital, Acorns, and Digit are excellent services to try.
If you are looking for services that operate more like a bank, that still gives you the ability to create savings as well as other perks such as cash back on purchases, give Current, Chime, or Empower finance a try.
No matter what your goal or needs, one of these apps is sure to meet and exceed it.
Acorns
Acorns’ spare-change savings tool and its cash-back rewards program make investing easy. But the management fee on small accounts is steep.
FAQ's
A rule of thumb to live by when saving money is to have at least 3 to 6 months of living expenses saved.
It helps you create a nice cushion if you get injured and cannot work, lose your job, or decide to take time off for your mental wellness.
Opening a savings account is a straightforward process. Once you’ve chosen the bank or service you want to use, you simply apply online by inputting your information and accepting their terms and conditions.
The only other thing to do at that point is to deposit their minimum requirement and select where you want your debit card sent, if applicable.
Money-saving apps are safe. However, it is still your responsibility to use safety measures to protect your money and information further. While apps do their part of protecting you and your information, they don’t compensate for bad cyber hygiene.
I'm Donny. I'm a world traveler, investor, entrepreneur, and online marketing aficionado who has a big appetite to compete and disrupt big markets. I thrive on being able to create things that impact change, difficult challenges, and being able to add value in negative situations.
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