Gone are the days when you had to go to a brick and mortar branch to withdraw cash, deposit a check or chat with a teller for other banking needs. Now, banking apps offer many benefits to help you manage your finances at home.
But there are other money management tools you may want to use alongside your banking app to get an overview of your full financial picture. Here are three additional apps to consider.
1. Budgeting apps show the ‘why’ of your spending
Banking apps will show you how you’ve spent your money. You can find deposits, withdrawals, card transactions and bill payments, and sometimes they’ll show how much you’ve spent in each category. However, budgeting apps go even deeper when it comes to organizing your spending into categories like groceries, entertainment and transportation, and can help you change your spending habits.
These apps can pull information from your accounts at multiple institutions to identify patterns and provide personalized insights that can help you reduce spending. Platforms often allow you to set usage limits and savings terms. You can also set alerts on your smartphone that are more detailed and informative than low balance alerts.
While budgeting apps aren’t enough to cut spending, they provide a solid framework and steps you can use to make more room in your budget.
2. Credit monitoring tools explain what your banking application may not be doing
Credit monitoring tools allow you to see your credit score at all times, but you can also check the key components that affect your credit score. Seeing changes in how your payment history, credit usage, account history, new credit combinations and credit affects your score can help you take action to improve your score.
Credit monitoring apps can also help you stay alert for any suspicious activity, such as when someone tries to take out a loan in your name. You can then act quickly to keep fraudsters away from your credit.
You can get more information by requesting a free copy of your credit report. This report contains your financial history, and disputing any incorrect items can lead to high consequences. If you are looking for help with your credit score, you can consider these top credit monitoring services.
A bank’s app may display a credit score if the bank offers that feature, but dedicated credit monitoring tools can provide more context about credit reports, score changes and suspicious activity.
3. Cash flow and bill planning tools help prevent surprises
Most buyers have fixed monthly expenses like utilities and subscriptions, but a few surprises can stretch the budget and trigger bills if you’re not careful. Cash flow tools can predict future income and expenses, so you know what to expect.
While most banks alert customers when they have a low balance, third-party tools can provide a more comprehensive calendar of your spending. That way, you know what could be causing a low balance instead of just getting a notification when your balance gets low and then having a few options to navigate emergency expenses.
