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We've compiled a list of the best automatic savings apps in the UK. These are open banking auto-savings apps that help save spare change by regularly moving small amounts of money into a separate savings account or rounding up your purchases and automatically saving the difference.
All the apps listed here are available on Android and iOS and are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Compare the best automatic savings apps in the UK:
Kroo is a new fully-licensed UK bank offering an exciting current account that pays customers interest like a savings app. With Kroo, customers can earn a competitive interest rate on the balance in their current account up to £85,000. Customers can also access 24.9% EAR/APR on overdrafts, manage bill splitting and group expenses seamlessly in-app, take advantage of zero fees on purchases at home or abroad, enjoy speaking directly to a UK-based customer support team and stay on top of their money with up-to-date notifications, spare change round-ups, expense categorisation and real-time budgeting. Kroo has ambitious plans to plant one million trees in 2023, so it currently plants two trees for every new customer that joins the app.
The Kroo app is free to download on Android and iOS. There are no monthly fees with Kroo, so it can serve as a great savings app for UK residents looking for interest on savings.
Plum calculates how much you can afford to set aside and automatically saves it for you. The app gives you an overview of your finances and analyses your spending to help you keep track of your money. Plum also identifies if you're overpaying on bills and can switch you to a better supplier automatically to help you save extra. If you feel the app is putting away too much or too little, you can always adjust the save amount. You can also withdraw your money from the app whenever you want. Plum has some fun deposit features such as Round Ups, Pay Days, 52-Week Saving Challenge, and Rainy Day Savings Rule.
If you're interested in automatic investments or want to earn interest on your savings, Plum Plus or Plum Pro might be for you.
Revolut is a personal finance and money management app that allows you to budget, save, invest and withdraw your cash instantly. With Revolut, you can fund your account with one-off transfers to fund as you go or make it effortless with scheduled deposits and spare change round-ups. With the round-up feature, Revolut rounds up your card transactions to the nearest pound and saves the difference. Money deposited in Revolut Savings Vaults is protected by the FSCS up to £85,000 and deposited with a trusted partner bank. Revolut also allows you to stash your cash in 30+ currencies, including cryptocurrencies and commodities, and you can get 1% cashback stored with your Vaults when you upgrade to Revolut Metal.
It’s free to start saving with Revolut. However, to access more advanced features and cashback, you need to upgrade to Plus, Premium or Metal for £2.99/month, £6.99/month and £12.99/month, respectively.
Moneybox's Round Up feature allows you to save spare change by rounding up your card transactions to the nearest pound and saving the difference. (e.g. if you spend £2.30 on a coffee, Moneybox automatically saves 70p for you). You can choose to save your money in either a 45-Day Notice Account or a 95-Day Notice Account. If you want to take a break from saving or feel the app is putting away too much, you can always turn off Round Ups. You can withdraw your money from the app once a month.
Moneybox also offers automatic investments.
Monese allows you to save money in two ways - savings pots and interest accounts. Saving pots are a great way to put money aside, keeping it separate from your main account, but you do not earn interest on them. You can create pots in multiple currencies and withdraw money from them whenever you like. You can also round up your spare change and save the difference into up to 10 different pots per account. If you’re looking for a savings account with interest, Monese has a marketplace partnership with Raisin that allows you to open interest-bearing accounts. These interest accounts have FSCS protection, so you can rest assured that your savings are protected. All you need to open a Monese account is your ID and a selfie photo. No credit checks are required.
Monese also offers travel money, international money transfers and multi-currency accounts.
Monzo Bank has a Savings Marketplace within the Monzo app where you can pick from an ever-growing number of providers and competitive interest rates to suit your savings goals. With the Monzo app, you can set savings goals, round up your spare change and automatically save the difference into a savings pot.
An auto-savings app helps you save small amounts of money regularly by estimating how much you can afford to save and moving it into a separate savings account or wallet for you.
These "save the change" apps will also round up your purchases to the nearest pound and automatically put the change into a savings account on your behalf.
You usually have easy access to the money in an automatic savings app, and if you choose one of the standard savings accounts on offer, most of the apps will provide full FSCS protection.
The apps we feature on Koody are open banking auto-savings apps that help save spare change by regularly moving small amounts of money into a separate savings account or rounding up your purchases and automatically saving the difference.
Banks such as Barclays and HSBC have the full £85,000 Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection, which means that if you bank with them, you can get your money back up to £85,000 per financial institution if they go bust.
Automatic savings apps are quite different. They only have FSCS protection on the money you keep in a standard savings account with them, not an e-wallet or electronic money account.
This doesn't mean your money in an e-wallet isn't protected. Instead of the FSCS protection, your money is held in a bank account ring-fenced from their operating cash - this is normally with a big bank such as Barclays or HSBC. Should the automatic savings app go bust, your money will be protected since it's held separately from the firm's own money.
Apart from FSCS protection, these apps also claim to use the same encryption technology as all major banks to protect your personal information. They are also regulated by the FCA, so you can rest assured that their activities are monitored by the financial watchdog.
Yes, automatic savings apps are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Most importantly, all the apps listed on Koody are regulated by the FCA.
There are two ways to automate your savings:
You should automate your savings if you:
Here are some of the best apps for saving spare change:
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