Consumers all over the world turn to money management apps to help them retain control of their finances, according to research by App Radar. The fintech app market is booming, with 5 million new Android users signing up to money management services in the first and second quarter of 2022 alone. This was a 46 percent increase on the same period the previous year.
Silvio Peruci, managing director of App Radar, explained that the cost-of-living crisis impacts everyone, making people more careful about how they spend their money. From Chime to Zelle, here are six groundbreaking fintech apps that were created to help users manage their finances, budget, and build wealth.
1. Chime
Chime is a fintech company that offers an alternative to traditional banking in a single, simple to understand package. Chime provides each user with one checking account, one secured credit card, and one savings account that can all be managed via a single easy-to-navigate app.
Spending accounts offer appealing perks such as a $200 fee-free overdraft, and acceleration of regular direct deposits by up to two days. Other key features of Chime include automated savings tools and market-competitive interest rates on savings accounts, with no minimally required balance.
2. Revolut
Revolut has a reputation for disrupting the traditional banking ecosystem. It offers customers a robust spectrum of features, from budgeting tools to international money transfers. Revolut was launched with the mission of simplifying all things money. Its goal is to remove the friction that stands in the way of customers in terms of making their money goals a reality.
The fintech company has created a seamless, borderless platform that enables users to balance their family’s budget, send money abroad, or scale the family business. Revolut allows customers to spend, save, invest, borrow, manage, and more in just a few taps.
3. Acorns
Acorns rounds up everyday purchases and invests that spare change in a diversified portfolio of ETFs and shares, helping users to invest and save on autopilot. Available only in the United States at the moment, the app is ideal for those who looking for an easy way to get involved with stock market trading. It facilitates automatic investment contributions from hands-off investors, and enables anyone to effortlessly build a portfolio by turning their spare change into investment savings. It doesn’t offer a breadth of services, but it accomplishes its singular goal with aplomb.
4. Nubank
Having established itself as one of the biggest online banks in the world, Nubank is also one of Latin America’s largest fintech companies. Although it currently doesn’t Serve As the US, it provides services to more than 40 million customers across Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Nubank launched its first product in Brazil in 2014, presenting a zero-fee credit card delivered to customers in just two days.
The company has gone on to expand its financial products, enabling customers to enjoy free personal and business accounts, along with free instant money transfers. Its convenient mobile app, attractive savings rates, and competitive loans rates, the fintech company also furnishes customers with a sleek metal credit card that provides some useful benefits, including baggage insurance and VIP airport lounge access.
5. Cash App
Unlike some of the single-purpose apps like Acorns, Cash App offers a range of financial services within a single interface. Cash App is a peer-to-peer payments and banking app that allows users to transmit funds from family and friends, get paid for freelance work, get a Cash App Credit Card, receive direct deposits for pay checks, and buy and sell Bitcoin. Fast and easy to use, the app enables users to do more with their money, sending and spending, banking, and even buying Bitcoin or stocks, enabling inexperienced investors to invest in stocks via its brokerage services.
6. Zelle
Zelle is a US-based P2P money transfer app that facilitates quick and easy money transfers, even between different banks. A fast, secure, and fee-free peer-to-peer money transfer app, Zelle is integrated into many banking apps. Because the banks are Zelle’s main customers, they pay to integrate the app into their system. As a result, the service is free for everyone who uses it. It also makes transactions seamless and convenient.
The only information that users need is their recipient’s US mobile phone number or email address. With that, they can transmit funds within minutes with no sharing of account numbers. This app offers a fast and easy means of sending and receiving money with friends, family, and other trusted recipients. Like Acorns, it is laser-focused on a singular use, but widely available and superb at its intended purpose.