Updated! Popular since we first published this list of some of the best financial iPhone apps in early 2009, we decided to refresh our original picks. With hundreds of apps new coming onto the market every month, we are sure we missed some good ones, but this collection will definitely get you started using your iPhone to manage your money. -DW
| 1. Mint.com | |
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A long-time leader in personal finance management, Mint.com provides efficient and user-friendly budgeting tools. This mobile version, which securely connects to your bank accounts to track and categorize expenditures, optimizes the budgeting program. The mobile software allows you to manually enter pending and cash transactions on-the-go, meaning that your accounts are always up-to-date. Mint’s app will let you quickly check how much you have remaining in, say, your food budget, so you can smartly decide to grab a can of beans or splurge on a nice cut of meat while standing in the grocery-store aisle. Free from iTunes but you’ll need a free Mint.com account first. |
| 2. Balance | |
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While automatically updating apps are nice, manually entering your purchases can make you feel more accountable for what you spend. Balance is a basic app to help you manage the balances on all of your accounts. Whenever you make a purchase, pay a bill, or deposit a check, you simply enter the transaction into the app. It then recalculates your new balances. The app also supports recurring transactions—like that monthly gym membership—and enters them automatically. Just the exercise of writing down all of your purchases might make you spend less. With this app, you’ll really learn how quickly those three-dollar lattes add up. Plus, you’ll avoid overdraft fees by always knowing how much is in your accounts. Free from iTunes. |
| 3. BillTracker | |
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With this handy app, you’ll never pay a bill late again. BillTracker tracks due dates, amounts owed, and confirmation numbers for payments. You can set up reminders so that your phone will alert you when a payment is due soon or overdue. It also lets you set up recurring bills and view bill history to confirm when you sent a payment. Use the app for all of your payments, from water and electric fees to cell phone bills and insurance expenses. The company also makes a free, lite version, but it does not handle recurring bills. $1.99 from iTunes. |
| 4. Debt Minder | |
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If you’re struggling to pay credit card debt and student loans, Debt Minder will help put you on the debt-free track. The app tracks debts for big purchases—like cars, houses, credit cards, and student loans—and monitors how you pay them off. It even creates personalized plans, including highest interest and smallest balance, to help you pay off debts when and how you want. With color-coded graphics and charts, the app lets you visualize where your money is going and how you are handling your overall debts. $0.99 from iTunes. |
| 5. freecreditscore.com | |
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Your credit score can make the difference in many of life’s biggest moments, from buying a house to getting a new job. This app tracks your score in real-time so that you can be in charge of your financial future. To use the app, you must be a member of freecreditscore.com—which costs $14.95/month—but the immediate updates and alerts provided by the app may pay for themselves in terms of your peace of mind. The app provides detailed information about what’s hurting and helping your score. If you pay a credit card bill late, for instance, the app will track how your credit score responds. It also includes a Score Estimator to help to make smart financial choices. Free from iTunes. |
| 6. Mortgage Calculator Free | |
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iTunes contains a handful of mortgage calculators, but this one is the most popular because of its ease of use and simplicity. The app provides multiple mortgage options to figure out whether you can afford to buy your dream house. You can also use the app to configure monthly and yearly fees, including private mortgage insurance and home insurance. It will calculate property taxes using a variety of settings, including how frequently taxes are paid. Whether you’re in the market for a new house or just interested in learning whether you could afford that condo down the street, this is the app for you. Free from iTunes. |
| 7. Expensify | |
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While compiling expense reports is typically an annoying and unorganized process, this versatile app makes it a breeze. Expensify syncs with your various credit cards and bank accounts to track business-related purchases. It also collects digital receipts from merchants and lets you send copies of paper receipts using your phone’s camera. Simplifying organization, the app sorts expenses by customized categories like meals, mileage, and company. When you’re ready to send in an expense report, Expensify will compile all necessary purchases and email a PDF to the appropriate contact. You can even be directly reimbursed to an online checking account. Free from iTunes. |
| 8. Gas Cubby | |
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If you own an automobile, car maintenance and gas expenses are probably taking their toll on your wallet. Download this app to save money and keep your car in tip-top shape. The app uses your phone’s GPS to chart car mileage and how much gas you’re using. It also tracks gas prices at different locations so that you can get the best local deals. In addition to recording gas usage and mileage, the tool has customizable service updates. Use it to get reminders about when to change your car’s oil and other maintenance needs. By keeping up with basic automobile upkeep, you’ll save money on larger expenses and your car will run for years to come. Free from iTunes. |
| 9. iTrade | |
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If you want to learn more about the stock market without putting your finances at risk, look no further than iTrade. The app lets you manage a virtual stock portfolio, compete with information from other members, and research stocks with news and history graphs. Although just a game—at the end of the month, the app calculates top players—iTrade looks and feels like a real trading platform. It only operates during actual trading hours and even includes virtual broker fees. Practicing on the app will prepare you for the real stock market while eliminating risks—even the app is free. Free from iTunes. |
| 10. Real-Time Stocks | |
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If you already have investments in the stock market or are looking to join in, check out Real-Time Stocks. While there are many stock-tracking apps for the iPhone, Real-Time Stocks is probably the most basic and easiest to use. The app displays real-time quotes and charts for most U.S. stocks. It even lets you monitor multiple stocks at once. Using the app, you can create a watch list for stocks most important to you and track global indices. It also allows you to manually enter stocks in non-U.S. exchanges. Even if you don’t have a stock portfolio, the app is an excellent way to track the market and learn more about its ups and downs. Free from iTunes. |
| 11. Wikinvest Portfolio | |
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Wikinvest Portfolio |
| 12. iSlick | |
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iTunes contains tons of apps for sales, freebies, and group-based coupons, but iSlick combines all of these categories into one smooth interface. The app lets you track sales from shopping and deal websites, like Amazon.com and Groupon, to get the best prices on everything from electronics and household products to spa services. It also lets you choose from specific deal-types—such as freebies—and enter keywords. On the hunt for a new laptop? Use the app for up-to-date deals on the best machines. Free from iTunes. |
| 13. Ask Dave Ramsey | |
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With this app, Dave Ramsey’s popular financial radio show is at your fingertips anytime, anywhere. The app has a database of hundreds of popular calls made to the show with real-life money questions and answers. You can read a short summary of the question or listen to the actual radio clip. Financial concerns are sorted into categories, like taxes, insurance, and budgeting. You can also choose to listen to a random clip to deepen your knowledge about all things money. Want to learn more about how to save when unemployed or how much you should budget for pet emergencies? Grab this app for answers to these and many more money predicaments. Free from iTunes. |
| 14. PayPal | |
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PayPal’s app is one of the most popular financial apps available for the iPhone, and for good reason. The app lets you send money to people as gifts, collect funds for a group gift, and receive payments. You can also use it to create and manage fundraising campaigns. The app’s “split bill” feature is particularly convenient when dining out with friends—it even has a tip calculator. Download this straightforward app to save time writing checks and trekking to the ATM. Free from iTunes. |
| 15. Your Financial Institution’s App | |
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Mobile banking makes it easy to check balances, transfer funds, and pay bills from anywhere. Almost all major banks now offer banking apps that make managing your money simple and convenient. Some of these apps, like the one from Chase, even let you take deposit funds by taking pictures of checks with your iPhone’s camera. You can also use your bank’s ATM-finding tool to locate the nearest cash machine, saving you extra dollars in fees. Here are a few of the major banks with apps in the iTunes store: Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, ING, SunTrust, Wells Fargo. |
Rebecca Kutzer-Rice is a freelance technology writer living in Brooklyn.
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I'm David Weliver. At 26, I had NO savings and NO financial plan. I was maxed out, stressed out, and fed up. Then, I changed. I repaid $80k of debt, tripled my income, and bought a home. I'll show you how to get similar results. 
Perfect timing on this post!
I just got an iPhone the other day, and can really use some of these programs.
-Dan Malone-
I love mint.com. I don’t know if everyone has this issue, but transactions seem to take many days before they post and mint can see them. Also, it doesn’t seem like the mint iphone app will directly access your accounts like the website does. It seems the app only gets its information from mint.com, so if I haven’t logged in to mint.com for a while, the iphone app doesn’t get updated. Maybe mint.com will automatically access my accounts every so often without me logging in (and hence the iphone app gets updated information), or maybe I am checking on my finances far too frequently. Is daily too much?
That’s an interesting problem about Mint, Grant. It goes along with one of my biggest complaints about Mint.com…I get a weekly financial summary email that is always so out of date that it’s useless. The first few weeks I freaked out when I got it and had to immediately check directly with my banks to make sure the account balances Mint was showing me were wrong. Hopefully it’s something they’re working on…and hopefully they’ll find a way to update transactions when you log on via iPhone too!
+1 on the Quicken App…that’d be quite handy. I’d love the ability to tie it with the full-blown data from my home PC (not just the online “lite” version). Not quite sure how that’d be accomplished, but I can dream, right?
I love my bank’s iPhone app. I use USAA (my husband is military) and it’s fantastic. I can transfer funds, pay bills, check balances, etc. all from my phone. I’ve had my iPhone 3G for almost a year now and it’s probably the best investment I’ve ever made. I use it for pretty much everything. If I think, wow there should be an App for that…pretty soon there is! I love it!
Tara, USAA now gives you the ability to deposit checks using your iPhone! I use to have to get a local account when I moved so I could deposit checks (mailing them in to USAA was considered inconvenient to me but it was available). Now with my iPhone I just take a picture and they instantly make the money available. I know it may sound crazy, but I love my banking/insurance/investment management company. If you are military or military family, you can’t go wrong with USAA.
Good to know, Tara! Chalk another one up for USAA. I hear nothing but GOOD things about every service USAA has to offer…course, they’re only available to military and families…but if you are one of the two…use them!!!
I also use USAA and have their app. Their financial products/services, insurance and customer service are TOP NOTCH. Its not often that I can say such good things about a company without any hesitation. I recommend becoming a member to anyone in the military. I didnt know about USAA when I served but luckily my father had me on his account and I was able to start my own membership. Remember to put your spouse and children on as members as well as membership can be passed on.
Some of those are weird: like LoanShark. Are you really so desperate for a loan that you need to have mobile access to a loan? Neat, maybe, but if you’re shopping around for a loan, doing it at your desktop probably makes more sense.
You might want to add Allpoint to this list it will save people Money since most of the MasterCard ATMs will charge fee’s. Over 1000 Banks and credit unions participate in Allpoint with over 35,000 in the US.
Search on the App store for Allpoint or click this link.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=307308511&mt=8
You guys missed PortfolioLive … easily the app I use most often on my iPhone. I checked it at the gas station, at the grocery store, at the doctor’s office. Nothing is faster, more stable or gives me a better view of my Portfolio of stocks. Real time data, unlimited portfolios, customizable views, multiple lots, and so easy to use. This one definitely should have been on there … I mean how many Tip calculators do you need?
You missed BudgetCare app for tracking personal expenses. It is really great and I recommended it you my fellows who use iPhone. It has great interface and it is very easy to use. I’ve put in all of my recent purchases and look at the pie charts and it give me a good overview of what I spent.
Hey Adam, David,
First, thanks for this roundup, David. When I saw it the other day I wanted so badly to let you know your wish would come true soon!
Check out Quicken Online Mobile, Quicken Online’s first native iPhone app. It’s now available for free in the App Store.
Here’s an early review: http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/30/quicken-online-strikes-back-at-mint-with-iphone-app/
Thanks,
Chelsea, Quicken Online
Fantastic! Thank you Chelsea…I’ll be checking that out!
A recently introduced finance App Dough is quite interesting.
Dough combines money management with Budget and Bill paying in an elegant easy to use interface.
Its a good choice for people not wanting to store their data online and find products like PocketMoney and SplashMoney hard to use.
http://dough.codebeyond.com has screenshots and details.
-Augustus
Am I missing something here? I’ve never found a way to request money on the PayPal iPhone app. Just send money.
Take a look at WealthCalc.. It calculates your wealth based on annual compound interest in several ways, yet very easy to use.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=335856099&mt=8
Hi David,
Maybe you’ve posted about it before, but what is it you have against Bank of America?
Adrienne, as for BofA, I just don’t see the benefit to them (or any really huge bank, for that matter) other than having branches everywhere.
My wife has BofA checking and every time she needs the smallest little thing done, it’s a huge process. Big wait on the phone, etc. In fact, she recently tried to change her name with them after we got married and, after 20 minutes on the phone, they seem to have forgotten. It’s been over a month and no new debit card, confirmation, etc.
Meanwhile, I’ve banked with a credit union and now, a small regional bank. They pick up the phone right away, every time, I can walk into a branch down the street and talk to a manager anytime. Their loan rates are lower, and they refund ANY ATM fee anywhere in the world.
So given the choice, I stay away from Bank of America.
David
I bank with Citibank (their iPhone app is actually pretty good) but I’m thinking about switching to a small local bank or credit union. Have you written or do you know of any good articles on what to look for, what the pros and cons are of going small?
Thanks
Mike
Hey Mike, You kind of inspired me to write up something new about why I recommend small banks and/or credit unions, here:
A Case for Small Banks and Credit Unions
Hope it’s helpful!
How can you not consider iCompta (http://www.lyricapps.com/iCompta/) ? Definitely the best pick among all the apps you reviewed. Many features, clean interface, easy to use, import/export and it has a FREE desktop application for MAC to synchronize with.
Um, iBank is made by IGG Software http://iggsoftware.com not Pullets Forever. Pullets Forever just did some contract work for IGG on the first version of iBank Mobile.
Stock Tracker Pro is the best app track portfolios:
http://www.app007.com/?page_id=563
it’s at all well known, but i use ‘balance forecasting’. you type in your bill and income and it computes what your future finances will look like. i have like 20 bills to pay each month, so this is really useful.
I use BudgetCare for recording my expenses. Pretty user-friendly.
For fast and transparent calculations I use CalcPad with a correctable tape roll.
I just got “Sales Tax Lookup and Money Saver”. It gives advise on how to save money on sales tax. Real nice!
I found a great budget app is called Budget & Bill tracking. they have a really cool calendar view to see your balance in the future. check it out
Etrade also has great banking! That’s my main bank. Everything can be done via the app.
Consider adding our iPhone App from ERATE.com.
It provides current mortgage rates and credit cards.
Unlike LendingTree’s app you can get access to the lender’s website without giving up any personal info.
ERATE Mortgage Rates and Credit Cards
i couldn’t find quicken app on my iphone… can someone tell me the name of the app?
I really love to give mint.com a try, but too bad I can’t download it from my Malaysian iTunes account.
Any way to get this application other than creating a new US account?
If you own stocks or ETFs and are interested in hedging them, you may want to take a look at my financial iPhone app, Portfolio Armor. That app uses an algorithm developed by a finance Ph.D. candidate to find the optimal put options to give you the precise level of protection you want at the lowest possible cost.
Thanks very much for the list David. I agree that Mint is a great app for being able to get a consolidated view of all my accounts in one place. But lately I’ve found that helps me be a little more productive only when I’m looking at my account balances. Now I use a product called Lifetopix that combines finance with all the other things I track that relate to it, like shopping, projects, travel, etc.). It exchanges data across multiple areas to make me much more efficient – I only have to enter common data once.
Hi there, I used to love my old PDA QuikBudget and never been able to find anything quite as easy and useful through iphone. Do you know which of the mentioned (or other) apps also has the ability to reconcile your transactions eg. against your bank statements and check off when reconciled?
Read entire article including all posts and I have a question. What app (iPhone) do you recommend to track balances, create monthly, weekly or ytd graphs of spending habits by account type (ie, auto, utilities, entertainment etc), remind me of upcoming bills on their due dates, and have the ability to enter transactions (such as cash transactions)? Thx
@NycAntnee, probably Mint. It’s not strictly an iPhone app, but it does all you’re looking for for free.
Hi David – Our firm just launched an app for iPhone & iPad where we answer financial questions of users. We realized most people don’t have a personal CPA and may have specific questions from time to time. Wanted to make you aware in case you wanted to share.
Best Regards,
Martino
I think you should consider adding ‘ What’s My Stock Worth?’. It is the best iPhone out there to determine the true value of a stock. It also has great training materials for those new to investing. Find out more about it at whatsmystockworth.net.
iReconcile is one of my favorite apps for staying on top of all my personal finances. It comes packed with a ton of great features including a built-in check register, extensive reporting and an online backup and sync service ($1.99/mo or $19.99/yr).
I’ve been using a stock app called Talk Penny Stocks its got a lot of useful features like and it cost me only 3.99
-Daily Updating Stock Penny Picks
-24-7-365 LIVE Investor Chat Room
-Symbol Lookup Tool
-Portfolio Tracker
-Gain Loss Calculator
-Top 10 LIVE Updating Picks
Its been really useful as i’ve gotten into the stock trade market.
I liked two financial stocks, I am more into stock research than bills and stuff.
Stocks Live. This is really amazing tool on the iPhone, I like its charts, because it is very fast (pre-rendered already) and what they call Markets Activities, kind of filters that run live on the market. They have in the US market (they have lots of international coverage as well) like 100 market activities and filters, really interesting. I also like TDAmeritrade to do the actual transactions.
Thanks for the article.