Mobile banking is a popular trend with millennials. To keep up with their banking needs, banks have come up with many streamlined approaches and innovations in mobile and instant banking.
From analyzing total spend behaviors, to giving you savings advice, or figuring out your monthly or annual budgets, some of these new gen banking apps are combining the best digital banking features with personalized experiences.
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Here are a few apps that are revolutionizing the ways millennials are managing their money.
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Venmo
Venmo was founded in 2009 and is presently owned by PayPal. The company that began as a text message-based payment delivery system is today a P2P payment app that allows smooth exchange of money directly between two people. Apart from being a digital wallet, Venmo is also partly a social media feed. The app asks for comments on every transaction, and these comments are posted in the form of feeds for friends to browse. Though if the user wants to hide some transactions, there is a feature in the privacy settings to control which transactions should be visible. Venmo is not meant for businesses and is meant only for personal use between any two individuals.
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Chase Mobile
The Chase Mobile app helps you manage your Chase bank accounts, pay bills, or transfer money from the comfort of your mobile phone. Some other features available in the app include getting an overview of your accounts, finding a physical branch or ATMs, deposit checks, Chase QuickPay for sending money, Chase QuickPay and more. To ensure the safety and security of the users, the app uses strong 128-bit encryption for all data and messages to ensure secure transactions. It also sends you a temporary security code if you are using the app for the first time and logs you off automatically if not in use for 12 minutes.
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Intuit Mint
Intuit Mint has attracted millions of users, it helps manages all aspects of a person’s finances with a click of a button. Mint gives an overview of saved money and bills, creates budgets with customized tips, gives access to unlimited free credit scores without harming your credit. Mint also shares prompts when bills are due, sends you payment reminders and also notifies you if you’re approaching your budget limits. Based on your spending habits, it also gives you advice to gain more control over spending. The app is free and can be connected to most of the major financial institutions in the US.
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Acorns
A unique feature that makes Acorns very popular among the millennia’s is its simple way of saving and investing money in the stock market. The app rounds up the purchases from your debit and credit cards to the nearest dollar and invests the difference in the stock market. The app costs $1 per month if your balance is under $5,000 and .25% per year if it’s over $5,000 but for the age 24 or under, it’s free. Acorn is said to have more than 7 million users. The app provides three investment options – Invest – This option costs $1 per month, Invest+Later- Priced at $2 per month and also has tax advantages, and Invest+Later+Spend: This is the most expensive option at $3 each month and comes with its own Visa debit card.
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You Need A Budget – YNAB
YNAB is like no other app you’ve used before. The app is built with a focus on helping with debt recovery. The app encourages the users to have an active share in their finances than relying on algorithms, which means you cannot create budgets around money you don’t have. Instead, it compels you to live with the money you have and if you go off track it advises you on how to save your money better. YNAB also provides you with online classes with a live instructor for any budgeting related questions. The free version of the app can be used for 34 days after which the monthly plan costs around $11.99 a month and $84 for the year.
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Digit
The Digit app is perfect for millennials who are very good with budgeting. The app works by syncing with your account and analyzing your spending to ascertain funds that are not being used. If the app observes some spare funds, it automatically transfers them to a separate savings account. The app also provides a weekly status report. If you need money from another savings account, it only takes one day to transfer. Some pros of using Digit are that maintaining a balance in your Digit account for at least three months, earns you an extra 5 cents for every $100 you save. Also, the app does not come with an over-draft facility so it never can take more out of your budget than you can afford.
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Wally
Wally is known to be built by millennials for millennials. Wally promotes security and does not require any of your bank details or passwords to function. The app is totally free and gives great insights about your expenses. Wally comes with a feature that lets you take a photo of your receipts and upload them on the app to save the time from manually entering those expenses. It breakdowns your daily and monthly budgets, allowing you to set your budget target for certain categories. These budgets help you track and cut down on excessive spending.
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Moven
Moven provides a complete mobile banking experience to millennials. The app combines banking services like debit card and mobile payments with real time digital receipts, and money management tools. It also combines insights with personalized interactive comparison tools, which gives the user an engaging experience. The app lets the users link their cards and checking accounts to a smartphone to monitor.
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Freshbooks
Freshbook app is a must have for any millennial who is a part of the gig economy or owns a small business and wants to avoid the cost of a full time accountant. The cloud-based accounting software is a boon for anyone who owns a business as it helps them in managing their invoices, monitor their expenses, helps with basic management of their projects. The app offers versatile payment options and automated accounting functions which makes it perfect if you don’t have any complex financial transactions to handle. Some other features include – reminders and notices, mailing services, reports, and also app integrations.
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Robinhood
With a mission of – Investing for everyone, Robinhood, a California based fintech company, was created to popularise trading among the millennials. It gives the users access to a commission free trading of stocks, EFTs, options, and ADRs directly from their phone with no minimum amount required. It also helps you buy and sell crypto currencies with Robinhood Crypto. Robinhood lets you invest any amount, builds you a balanced portfolio and trades in real time so the users are aware of the share price. To be able to trade on margin, view market depth data, and access research on high volume stocks, Robinhood customers need to opt for gold that is free for 30 days and later is available for $5 a month.