1 Azimo
Works on:
iPhone and Android
Cost: Free
Azimo lets
people transfer money from the UK to more than 100 countries at a fraction of
the rates charged by banks or money transfer services.
To send
money, users need to register and enter the recipient's bank account details.
Azimo charges about 1% of the value of the transaction, up to a maximum of £15
per transaction.
The app
claims big savings versus other money transfer methods. For example, sending
£500 from the UK to Poland would cost £42.50 at a typical high street bank,
£20.90 with Western Union, or £19.70 through PayPal. Amizo would set you back
just £6.25.
Most banks
and mobile phone networks have developed mobile money apps, most of which work
across all networks. It's also worth considering O2 Wallet and Barclays'
Pingit. Both are free and open to anyone.
2 WhatsApp
Works on:
iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Nokia
Cost: Free
for first year
Already
used by a huge number of under-25s, WhatsApp is a cross-platform app that
allows you to text people without paying.
To achieve
this, WhatsApp sends messages across the internet using either Wi-Fi or the
data plan you use for email and browsing the web. The big money savings come
while travelling abroad using free Wi-Fi. WhatsApp is so popular there are
rumours (regularly denied) that Google is on the verge of paying $1bn to buy
it.
But it does
not have the market entirely to itself. Other services, such as Viber, allow
you to make free calls and texts to other Viber users through 3G or Wi-Fi.
3 RedLaser
Works on:
iPhone, Android and Windows Phone
Cost: Free
Owned by
auction site eBay, RedLaser enables shoppers to scan barcodes while out
shopping and compare the price of an item with both offline and online stores.
You can also read reviews, ratings and information about searched products.
Once you
find the cheapest price you can buy the item via the app, have it delivered to
your home or arrange to pick it up from a local retailer. RedLaser can also
scan food labels and barcodes and alert you to any ingredient to which you
might be allergic.
There are a
number of other comparison shopping apps that do similar things. Idealo also
lets you scan the barcode on a product and search for the cheapest place to buy
it.
Google
Shopper also works on Android and iPhone.
4 08 Wizard
Works on:
iPhone, Android and Windows Phone
Cost:
iPhone 69p, Android 99p, Windows Phone 99p
Calling
"free" 0800 numbers or premium rate 0845 and 0870 numbers from a
mobile phone can cost a small fortune. O2, for example, charges contract
customers 20.4p a minute to call 0800, 0845 and 0870.
08 Wizard
works by replacing 08 calls with an 01 or 02 landline number. This allows you
to make the call using your free inclusive minutes if you're on a contract, or
at a lower rate if you're on pay-as-you-go.
To use,
simply input the 08 number and the app will come up with the corresponding 01
or 02 number and redirect your call.
5 Loyalli
Works on:
iPhone and Android
Cost: Free
Instead of
having your wallet weighed down by numerous loyalty cards, Loyalli combines
them into a smartphone app. Already, 600 retailers use Loyalli as their loyalty
reward scheme. Each has a "QR code" which the customer scans with
their phone in order to add a "stamp" to their "card".
However, it is still early days for this app and others like it, such as
stampme, and few of the big-name coffee chains are members.
6 Redeemia
Works on:
iPhone
Cost: Free
There are
numerous "daily deals" sites available now including Groupon,
Wowcher, Living Social, KGB Deals and Secret Escapes. They all work in a
similar way by negotiating discounts with retailers and service providers and
passing on savings to consumers.
Redeemia
saves you the hassle of trawling through each individual website or app each
day by capturing the best deals from each site based on your preferences and
location. So if you're looking for a spa day in Bristol, for example, it lists
all the deals from the different providers.
7
MyVoucherCodes
Works on:
iPhone and Android
Cost: Free
The app
from the website of the same name, MyVoucherCodes uses GPS to send you the best
money-off deals for eating out, shopping, health and beauty, travel,
entertainment etc, wherever you are.
Instead of
printing a voucher off the internet and taking it to a retailer, you simply
show the voucher on your phone screen at the store to get your discount. Handy
if you're in Pizza Express and realise you're the only one about to pay your
bill without a money-off voucher.
8 Trivago
Works on:
iPhone and Android
Cost: Free
Whereas
other apps and websites compare the cost of hotel rooms, Trivago goes one step
further and compares room rates on the main hotel booking websites such as
booking.com, hotels.com and lastminute.com. So if you want to stay in a
particular hotel it can tell you the cheapest site to book it through.
Alternatively,
if you need a hotel bed for tonight it can also use your current location to
find a nearby hotel with availability and, again, the cheapest agent to book it
through. Kayak runs a similar "search one and done" service for
comparing hotel websites.
9 AA
Parking
Works on:
iPhone, Android, Nokia and Windows Phone
Cost: £1.99
(£1.50 for Nokia)
The AA
Parking app promises that you'll never need to waste time and petrol looking
for a parking space again. It directs drivers to nearby available parking
spaces (where car park data is available) and enables them to compare the cost
of each car park.
It's also
worth taking a look at the Park-Up app, which claims to find the cheapest
parking spaces in most major British cities.
10
Mycarcheck
Works on:
iPhone
Costs: Free
(but with in-app fees)
Admittedly
only useful if you're buying a secondhand car, but spending a few quid on this
app could save you a lot of money in the long run.
For £2.99
you can check a car's history and see if it has been stolen, was an insurance
write-off, is registered as scrapped or any other signs that mean you should
steer well clear.
If the
listed mileage seems too good to be true, a further £2.99 will bring up records
from the DVLA, garages and dealers that will reveal if it has been
"clocked".
For another
£1.79 you can get a valuation check and find out the forecourt, private sale, trade-in
and auction prices for the vehicle.
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