The top 12 free apps that can save you a fortune

With an app called Red Laser you can find out if something you’re about to buy in a shop is being sold cheaper elsewhere. Click the button, hold your phone over the item’s barcode (if it won’t scan you can manually type in the code), then compare the price online and High Street stores. 

Find the cheapest deal and you can buy the item via the app, and either have it delivered to your home or arrange to pick it up from a local store.

Sick of collecting vouchers and discounts, only to forget to take them with you? Vouchercloud searches for discounts at retailers and restaurants when you’re out and about.

For example, Italian restaurant chain Strada currently offers 40 per cent off pizza, pasta and risotto at some branches. You can also browse through top offers available online and in store.

BECOME A WINE BUFF

Know your 2005 Bordeaux from a bottle of Blue Nun? Wotwine can give you the know-how of a top sommelier while you are trying to choose your latest tipple.

An expert tasting team gives each wine a price it believes to be fair value. Just scan the barcode on the bottle and see how Wotwine’s price compares with what you’d pay. You can also look up reviews. You’ll never pay over the odds for a bottle of plonk again.

TRACK THE CHEAPEST DEAL

The price of some items on Amazon can move wildly. CamelCamelCamel (a website) ensures you don’t buy something when it is at its most expensive. It tracks prices and will tell you if they are going up or down.

You can put together a watch list and get an alert the moment it falls in price or becomes available. When you search for a product, it will also pull up a graph of its price history.

SHOP ON A BUDGET

With so many supermarkets and so many offers, it can be a challenge to keep tabs on whether you are paying extra for your weekly shop. The Mysupermarket app and website lets you click through to the store where you usually shop.

Load up your trolley as normal, and when you come to pay, Mysupermarket will tell you if it’s cheaper to switch to Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco or Waitrose. The app will also help you find the best deals while you’re wandering round the store.

Its ‘savvy buys’ section, for example, highlights items that are at least 30 per cent cheaper than their average price this year.

FREE TEXTS…

Download Whatsapp before you or a friend or relative goes on holiday. It will let you text someone anywhere in the world for free. The cost of texting someone in the U.S. can be as high as 20p normally.

You need to be connected to the internet and the person you are texting also needs to have the app, so ensure you are using wi-fi. The app is free, but you’ll have to pay a one-off fee of 69p after the first year.

… AND FREE CALLS

Most calls to 0800 numbers from a mobile cost a standard rate, and are not free.

But the 0800 Wizard app helps you dodge hefty charges.

Open it and type in your 0800 number and press call. A message then pops up saying ‘magic happening now’ and it finds an alternative landline number to call.

It won’t cost you anything extra and will count as part of your contract minutes. You can also ask the app to intercept calls you make normally in case you forget to use it.

CASH FOR ANSWERS

The Swagbucks website pays you for your opinions. Complete a survey, watch a video or use the search tool and you will earn points called Swagbucks. When you have earned enough, you can exchange them for gift cards to spend at major stores.

Right now, you can exchange 849 swagbucks points for a £5 Amazon voucher or 3,699 for a £25 iTunes voucher. Sign up using your email and set a password. Depending on how much time you dedicate, you could earn £20-30 a month.

BE A SHOP SNOOPER

Another app that pays for your views is called Fieldagent. With this you will be transformed into a market researcher. The app may ask you to nip to your local store and check the prices of Jaffa Cakes for a company that was doing research on them. You may need to take photos of products and write a review. It is all perfectly above board.

The firm will score your work — the higher your score, the more likely you are to be given more jobs. For your work you could earn around £2 to £10. You will need to check your jobs regularly and you must have a PayPal account for the money you earn to be paid into.

RECYCLE A MOBILE

Mazuma Mobile is a website that pays cash for your old mobile phone. You just select what phone you want to trade in and state if it is broken or working.

The website will then quote you a price for it. You could earn up to £150 if you have a new-ish model. You will even be sent a free post bag to post off the phone.

TRAIN TICKET CHEAT

TicketySplit is a great app and website for anyone who regularly books train tickets. It will tell you the cheapest fare to your destination. Because of the crazy way train firms price tickets, it can often be better to get two tickets to one destination, instead of a straight single.

For example, it’s cheaper to pay for a ticket from Swindon to Stoke-on-Trent and then another from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester rather than one ticket from Swindon to Manchester Piccadilly You won’t even need to get off the train.

You have to be at the station when you use this app — it doesn’t work for advance tickets, which are often the cheapest way to travel. You can either use the website splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com or download the free TicketySplit Lite app.

MAKE DELAYS PAY

And finally, Train Refunds is a new app, launching on Monday, that will help you claim compensation for a delayed train.

It tracks ten train lines. If you are a season ticket holder, type in your regular journey details and it will monitor the line when you travel. If a delay occurs that you can claim for, it will notify you.

And if you were travelling on that train, you simply press ‘claim’ and the app will fill in a form with all the details and email it to you. You just then need to print it out and post it. The app is free, but it charges 69p when it first fills in a claim form for you.

Source: The Mailonline

UM– USEKE.RW