Alternatives apps to Plum

It’s payday and you’re probably thinking about finally finalising the order that’s been in your Amazon basket for weeks… not about how much of your salary can go into your savings account. Still, you do need to put money aside for the future. Doesn’t an app that calculates how much you can afford to save and then just moves the money for you sound absolutely brilliant?

You can either use Plum for that (it’s a chatbot that works as a financial assistant; learn more about it on our full review) or look at this list of possible alternatives we’ve put together for you.

Apps like Plum to automate your savings

If you only look at apps that analyse your spending and automatically put a sum aside for you every few days, Plum doesn’t have a lot of direct competitors. However, there are a bunch of alternative ways to automate your savings. You can have a look at the following:

• Save automatically with Chip. Chip is Plum’s main competitor and also uses an algorithm to analyse your spending and then automatically set money aside for you. All in all, Plum has more features (for example, you can invest your savings and it connects to more UK banks) but, like Plum, Chip allows you to set specific savings goals in its app.
• Save with Tandem. Tandem has also recently launched a savings account that figures out how much you can afford to save and does it for you. Tandem also does credit cards and fixed-term savings accounts.
• Save every time it rains in London with dozens. dozens is fairly new and is an app that combines multiple money features, including a savings account, and allows you to automate your savings through integration with IFTTT (If This Then That). IFTTT can be used to trigger an action on dozens (such as “save £2”) every time something you decide happens (such as “every time the International Space Station passes over your house” or “every time it rains in London”).
• Save every time you don’t walk 10,000 steps a day with Oval Money. Just like with dozens, with Oval Money you can set up saving rules to put money aside automatically in a dedicated account. With Oval, the rules can be based on your social media activity (“every time you post on your Facebook wall”), on your spending behaviour (“every time you spend money on food”) or on your physical activity (“every time you don’t reach your 10,000 steps a day goal”).
• Round up your spare change. A (slightly) more conventional way of saving money without having to think about it is using the round-up feature offered by some digital current accounts these days. If you activate it, the spare change of every transaction you make will be moved into a separate sub-account that will act as a savings account. So for example, if you spend £29.20 on your grocery shopping, £30 will be taken from your current account, £0.80 of which will be put aside into a savings pot. Monzo and Revolut both offer this feature in their apps.

Alternatives like Plum for budgeting

Plum also gives you a series of insights into your spending, categorising your transactions automatically and sending you periodic budget updates. However, acting as a budgeting app is clearly not its main job and there are a bunch of dedicated options that will serve the purpose better.

Money Dashboard, Cleo and Emma are all suitable apps you can have a look at, but in this case, our preference is for Yolt. Yolt is a clean budgeting app that, unlike its competitors, can be used to move money between different your accounts.

Yolt won’t automate your savings but if you’re the kind of person who likes to have more control over your finances, it’s great. You can use Yolt’s budgeting features to figure out how much you should be saving each month and then move the money into a separate account yourself.

Alternatives like Plum for investing

If you want to make your savings profitable by investing them, the most obvious alternative to Plum is to look at the selection of share dealing platforms available. Some of them have very handy apps and a whole lot of information for beginners.

However, if what you want is an app that both helps you save and then invests what you’ve saved (the investment option costs a minimum of £1 a month through Plum), your alternatives are a bit limited.

Of the apps mentioned above, Oval is the only one offering a free investment option. With Moneybox, you can connect a card to the app, round up your spare change and invest it for £1 a month plus a 0.45% platform fee. Meanwhile, dozens also has an investment option, but this involves applying for one of its fixed interest bonds (there’s a limited number available), which pay 5% per year and require a minimum investment of £100.

The bottom line

Plum is a solid choice if you’re looking for an app that will help you put money aside and then invest those savings for you. But if you’ve decided you want to try an alternative to Plum, then there are other apps out there that will help with your saving, budgeting or investing goals.