Debt isn’t always a bad thing, and there are smart ways to use debt to your advantage. If you accumulate too much of it, however, debt can become overwhelming.
Paying off debt can seem almost impossible if you don’t know how to manage your finances. Not to mention you most likely have other expenses to worry about, whether it be saving for a house, paying regular monthly bills, or just dealing with day-to-day expenses. All these financial responsibilities, plus your increasing debt, can leave you with a mountain of bills, scrambling for solutions.
Lowering your monthly credit card payments or working to cut down your spending habits can help you manage your debt. But we found an easy and instantaneous way to get your debt under control: debt managing apps. We compiled a list of these apps, Android and iOS, that can help you organize and manage all of your debts in one place. No more fighting to conquer your mountain of debts; now you can input all debt data into your phone and manage them there. Let your fingers do the climbing.
Debt Book – AndroidDebt Book is an app for borrowers as well as lenders. It allows you to track and update your debt in a “Master Book,” which shows your borrow/lend amount, how much has been paid/collected, and how much remains. The app also gives you options to view this data in a statistical chart for a more visual representation of your current debt situation.
The convenient benefit to Debt Book is that if the borrower and lender are both on the app, they can communicate and send payments through the app. This makes it easier to stay in contact with one another and to stay on top of existing debt.
Debt Manager and Tracker – AndroidDebt Manager and Tracker is similar to Debt Book in that it shows either what you owe or what is owed to you. There are visual features that include graphs of your current debt settlement, as well as tracking abilities to monitor all of your payments and get updates on your current debt balance. You can also upgrade to the Pro version for $0.99. The upgraded version includes no ads, messaging capabilities, and PIN/fingerprint security.
My Debts – AndroidMy Debts is an application that focuses on debt organization as well as overall finance management. The app includes a visual representation of revenue and expenses. The side by side comparison helps you see your money situation at all times.
You can also set alerts on the app to remind you of pressing debts and deadlines so you never have to worry about missing a payment. You can even set up recurring debts, such as paying rent, so a calendar event will reappear every month and will disappear after you pay it. This is an efficient way to keep track of all of your bills, not just your outstanding debts. Overall, My Debts enables you to synchronize all of your finances, debts, and bills in one place.
ReadyForZero: Pay Off Debt – AndroidReadyForZero’s purpose is to enable users to track their debts. An additional feature also allows you to keep track of your credit score. The app shows you graphs of your debt progress, and it helps you focus on your “target account,” which is the most urgent debt you need to pay off. You can create a personalized pay down plan to get your debt organized and under control, and you will even get personalized recommendations and alerts based on your debt situation.
There are upcoming payment alerts as well to make sure a debt never goes unnoticed. ReadyForZero also ensures bank-level encryption technology to ensure your information is safe because you have the option to link the app with your bank account and other applications.
Debt Tracker – AndroidDebt Tracker focuses on tracking your debts and debts owed to you. The landing page of the app has a visual representation of each current debt and how much you have paid off in relation to the total. Or, if you are a lender, it shows how much the borrower has paid by showing a percentage of the total amount paid. For example, if 25 percent of the debt has been paid, ¼ of the circle would be colored in. It also includes a fraction comprised of how much you have paid and the total amount of the debt. For example, if you have paid $125 out of $1,000, it would read $125/$1,000. Both features represent the same data, but users can visualize the debts in different ways.
Debt Tracker also includes places to track all of your payments, penalties, and interest rates, and there is an additional section to track your savings. This is especially convenient if you like to keep track of vacation money, a car fund, or other miscellaneous things. To ensure your information is never lost, you can sync the information in the app to Dropbox so all of your data is backed up on the cloud.
Debts Break – Debt Payoff Plan and Snowball Method – iOSDebts Break specifically uses the Snowball Method to help you pay off your debt. The Snowball Method is a debt strategy championed by Dave Ramsey, a financial expert, to manage multiple debts. Its purpose is to create a debt reduction strategy that isn’t completely overwhelming. The idea is that you pay off debts in order from smallest to largest. After the smallest debt is paid off, the previous payment amount for that debt is rolled over to the next smallest balance. Eventually, you can combine all of the small amounts you were paying on your debts and put them toward your largest debt. Thus, it is a snowball effect.
Debts Break updates remaining balances automatically, so you don’t have to worry about inputting the data each time you make a payment. The app includes payment logs and marks them paid or unpaid, giving you a visual of where your attention should be. You can also enable alerts to notify you of certain debts. If you don’t want to use the Snowball Method, the app allows you to turn this function off, and you can focus on other features such as pie charts to visualize your debt or a personal plan of your own.
Debt Free Calculator – iOSDebt Free Calculator shows all your debts, the full amount, the rate amount, the pay off amount, and the pay off date. It also includes a debt schedule, showing you a side-by-side total of your overall debt balance, the total interest, and the total amount repaid to date. This feature includes date, payment, interest, principal, and balance of each debt.
Debt Free Calculator also has a graph of all this information. It focuses on the Snowball Method, but you can choose to opt out and go with your own strategy or none at all.
Debt Free – Pay Off Your Debt – iOSDebt Free – Pay Off Your Debt gives you a debt summary, including your total debt remaining, your debt free date, your payoff strategy, your interest savings, and your early payoff date. Pie charts help you visualize your progress. The app also features the Snowball Method, but you can choose not to use this method.
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A passcode lock ensures your information is secure even if someone has your device, and enabled backup features keep all of the app’s information safe.
Debt Manager – iOSDebt Manager uses your debt information to create progress bar graphs to help you see how far along you are in paying off each debt, how much debt is remaining, and your interest rate. The application specifically focuses on the Snowball Method to track and pay off all debts quickly and efficiently.
The interactive app gives hints and tips based on your debt situation. You can also track monthly payments within the app manually or automatically. Additionally, it allows you to sync other devices, so you can access it anywhere. Another feature we didn’t see with many of the others is you can test “What If?” scenarios. For example, you could see all of the statistics for your debts if an interest rate were to change or if you were to increase your monthly payments.
Debts Monitor – iOSDebts Monitor is also focused on the Snowball Method. The app gives an overview of the total debt status, allows you to track payment transactions, and notifies you of upcoming due dates. There are three calculators you can use within the app: Payoff Date, Loan, and Mortgage.
The application breaks down each debt, including the month of each payment, the principal, the interest, and the remaining balance after each payment. It also shows a debt free date and the total amount of interest you will pay for all of your debts. Finally, you can see how much you will save if you pay off your debts early.
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Regardless of what approach you prefer to manage your debt, these apps have options for everyone. We suggest taking a look at which app works best for you and personalizing it to fit your needs. If you want additional help and are worried about your credit, check out other options like credit repair companies.
Lastly, don’t feel confined to managing only your debt through these apps; most of the apps have additional functions that allow you to track regular bills, revenue, and savings.