Smartphone is a blessings of the modern technology. With smartphone we can do almost all kinds of things, which were impossible more than 10 years ago. With your smartphone you even can make money. But to find out how.
1. Strike a deal
If you want to dabble in the stock market but don’t know what you’re doing, eToro lets you ape the deals made by the City’s top traders. Of course you have to forget about the financial crisis and trust that they actually do know what they’re doing. Four million users are currently signed up to the platform which calls itself a "social trading network", and the UK base is in Canary Wharf. eToro takes a percentage of each trade made, and Israeli founder Yoni Assia has secured almost £50 million backing.
But if Brexit-fuelled uncertainty means the stock market seems more risky than the average fairground rollercoaster, take a look at Mansion House-based Property Partner, just featured as one of Wired magazine’s London start-ups to watch. It’s a crowdfunding site with almost £16 million in funding, including from the backers of Zoopla, with users investing in a share of a buy-to-let house or flat. You don’t get to live in it but invest £50 or more in a residential property of your choice and you can earn rental income from it — founder Daniel Gandesha, who quit his job running Sky’s commercial development to launch Property Partner, estimates returns will be 10 per cent. The start-up takes a 12.5 per cent fee on all rental income and you’re not entirely escaping the banking sector: PP’s "director of property", Robert Weaver, used to run residential investments at RBS.
2. Trade it in
Instead of Netflix and chill, do Netflix and bill: get paid for testing apps, watching ads and answering surveys. It’s usually small sums but they all add up. Tech City business AppXpert pays users Amazon vouchers or PayPal funds for answering surveys or testing apps, while new app Citizenme blasts over a few questions from brands in exchange for payments (about 25p for three questions, or £1 for 10.)
And if Auntie Doris keeps buying you M&S gift vouchers, when you’re really more of a Topshop gal, check out the Zeek app: it’s a marketplace for buying and selling gift cards. You exchange, say, a £20 gift card for (slightly less, depending on the rate you offer) cash. And if you’re splashing out on something pricey from a chain store, visit the site too: you might find someone’s selling a £50 voucher for £40 or less.
3. Clean your wallet
If you’ve got more bank accounts and credit cards than socks and have a sinking feeling everytime you hear a PPI jingle because you’re one of those "I can’t remember if" types, download Pariti. Founder Matthew Ford, part of the team behind personal finance app OnTrees, which was snapped up by listed giant MoneySupermarket, has created a one-stop download to monitor your accounts, and budget how much you can safely afford to spend. The Holborn-based fintech firm’s app can also set (agreed) spending limits on bank and credit accounts, warn of looming financial holes and help avoid debt.
On the subject of debt, if your flatmates’ IOUs would single-handedly wipe out your own, download free apps PayFriendz and Dashboard immediately — and make your chums do the same. The latter calculates and splits up household bills then does the dirty work by emailing reminders about who owes what. Then connect the (free) PayFriendz app to your bank account and, whether you’re paying communal energy bills, splitting a restaurant bill or collectively buying a wedding present, you can use it to send and receive sums using your phone — there’s no need for BACS details or the 18-step online banking log-in process, it’s like WhatsApping cash. Nearly 12,000 monthly downloads have seen Shoreditch’s PayFriendz jump to the top of Apple’s App Store finance chart.
If you’re the kind of person who buys something for £27 and mentally thinks "that’s £30 gone", then South Bank-created app MoneyBox is another app to add to your armoury. Rather than setting aside a lump sum for a nest-egg each month, this app — which you link to the debit or credit card that you shop with most — rounds up your purchases to the nearest pound. It then shifts the extra pennies into one of three tracker investment funds, according to whether you’ve described yourself as a cautious, balanced or high-risk investor. It creates a savings habit the easy way.
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