From The Guardian
There is now a vast array of apps and online services that allow us to manage our money – whether that means saving it, spending it admiring it or fretting about the lack of it – and they are dramatically changing the way we engage with the financial services companies looking after our cash.
Pingit: launched by Barclays and free to use, but you don’t have to be a customer. Photograph: Ben Phillips /VisMedia
1 The end of cash?
You can now pay your friends and family back using just their mobile number. Launched in April 2014, Paym is a servicebacked by most major UK banks that lets you send and receive payments directly to a current account. You have to register your mobile number with your bank or building society. To make a payment, log in to your banking app as normal, and then instead of entering someone’s current account number and sort code, you select the contact you wish to pay or manually enter their mobile number. The app will ask you to confirm the recipient’s name and the amount. Once you’re happy, just press “send”. Banks are already on board include Barclays, Halifax, HSBC and Santander (with RBS/NatWest set to join by the end of this year).
2 Is Barclays leading the way?
Barclaysgot in there early: it launched a mobile payment service called Pingit in February 2012. It’s free to download and use, and you don’t have to be a customer of the bank. The average Barclays customer is said to visit a branch less than twice a month, and since, the Barclays mobile banking and Pingit apps were launched in 2012, they have been downloaded more than 5m times and are being accessed more than 17.5m times each week, with almost £5bn in payments and transfers being made each month.
3 Never too young …
Osper is aimed atthe UK’s seven million eight- to 18-year-olds and their parents. It consists of a prepaid MasterCard debit card and a mobile banking app. Parents load money from their debit card on to their child’s Osper card account, with the app enabling them to monitor transactions. Its main rival is goHenry, which is aimed at the same age group and comes with a prepaid Visa card and an app. But there are charges: though free for the first year, Osper costs £10 a year per card, while atgoHenry, after a month’s free trial, membershipcosts £1.97 a month per child.
4 How much do you really earn?
UK Salary Calculator 2014-15 is a free app designed for iPhones and iPads that calculates take-home salary from your annual, hourly, daily, weekly or monthlywage. It also allows you to see the difference between an old salary and a new one, and can help people work out what that pay rise or promotion will really mean for them financially. It is based on UK tax rates and also takes into account things such as national insurance contributions, student loan repayments and pension contributions.
5 Not just for eBay obsessives …
The free PayPal app is highly regarded by many. As well as allowing you to transfer money between friends, so you can pay back a pal for lunch or collect some cash for a gift you can use the app to pay with your phone in certain stores, cafes etc. “Look out for many more locations coming soon,” claims the company.
Read the full article HERE.
