Best Apps for Managing your Budget

Modern Travelling

Thank goodness for travel apps. With them, we can say goodbye to the days of tracking holiday expenses with pen and paper, keeping mental mind-maps of what you've spent and using calculators to add up your daily spend.

All you need these days to track your travel spending is a smartphone and a handy app. We’ve done our research and listed below some of the best travel money apps you can use now and on your next trip.

Travel Money Nz App

The Travel Money Nz App® is a digital travel wallet that can be used anywhere in the world, 24/7. With the app, you can manage your:

• Travel itinerary
• Foreign currency prepaid card
• Travel insurance
• Overseas phone and data.

If you’ve purchased a Travel Money Nz Cash Passport through one of our stores, or from a participating store, you can connect your travel budget to your card. Then you can use the app to see your balance and transactions, as well as add more funds if needed.

It's a quick and easy way to keep track of your travel money, while keeping it separate from your everyday bank account.

Available: iOS, Android, Web

Cost: FREE

Mint

It won’t freshen your breath, but the Mint app will be an all-round money management tool for your travels. With very little input from you, you can:

• Track your bank account in real-time
• See a bird’s-eye view of your finances
• Stay on top of your transactions
• See your income and expenses
• Follow the progress of certain goals (e.g. saving for a holiday).

Primarily a tracking tool, it’s mostly handy as a pre-holiday tool, helping you reach your holiday savings goals. While on holiday, you can then use it to track your spend, but there are some limitations in this area as you can only track by category.

Available: iOS and Android.

Cost: FREE

Concur

After using the app, you’ll concur with us that it’s a good one. Concur isn’t the best app for leisure travel, but if you travel frequently for business, it’s definitely recommended. The app lets you keep track of all of your expenses, so that you can show your company what you're spending and claim a refund (if you're owed one).

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You can upload expenses reports, take photos of your receipts and attach them to the report, and then submit the report from the app to your expense approver. It helps you keep track of your businesses expenses, taking the hassle out of organising little paper-receipts in lots of places.

Available: iOS and Android

Cost: FREE

Pocketguard

This isn’t Kevlar for your pants. Instead, this app connects directly to your bank accounts – so while you're travelling, you can always have access to your current transactions and account balance. From the home screen, you can immediately see how much money is in your account, your income and your expenses.

If you're using your regular bank account for your holiday spend, you can connect the app to that account to keep on top of what you're spending on the go.

Available: iOS, Android, web

Cost: FREE

Trail Wallet

Follow the trail this app leads you on and easily keep to your budget. Working as a travel budget and expense tracker, Trail Wallet makes it easy for you to keep track of your daily budget. For example, if you're going to New York for 7 days and have a budget of US$100 per day, you set that daily amount into the app and add your expenses as they happen (in categories). The app will then tell you how much of your daily budget you have spent and which categories you may be over or underspending in.

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If you're visiting multiple countries, you can divvy up your budget by country, or keep it simple and stick to categories. You can also convert your expenses to your own currency to have a better idea of what you're spending in NZD.

Available: iOS

Cost: Free for the first 25 items (in-app purchases available)

With apps to help you reach your money goals to apps that track your daily budget, you can manage your travel budget with ease. All you need to do is download them and commit to logging your expenses regularly – it’s all worth it when you finish your trip with a happy bank account.

If you’re after more travel budget tips and information on the Travel Money Nz Cash Passport, chat to our FXperts at your local store today.

This blog is provided for information only and does not take into consideration your objectives, financial situation or needs.  You should consider whether the information and suggestions contained in any blog entry are appropriate for you, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs.  While we take reasonable care in providing the blog, we give no warranties or representations that it is complete or accurate, or is appropriate for you.  We are not liable for any loss caused, whether due to negligence or otherwise, arising from use of, or reliance on, the information and/or suggestions contained in this blog.