The Moneybox App: What is it and how does it work?
Investing your money can be a great way to see returns on your savings long term. But investing often feels like something for people with thousands of pounds to spare, and the complicated terminology can put many of us off! But, the Moneybox app has revolutionised investing, making it accessible to everybody, no matter how little you think you can afford to stash away.
It’s important to point out that investing is a long term method of saving money. If you want to save up money for the near future, then you should look at other methods of saving money.
What is Moneybox and how does it work?
The Moneybox app is a smartphone app that allows you to invest small amounts of money.
Moneybox uses a round up method on your purchases. It connects to your bank account and tracks all of your spending. When you make a purchase, the app will then round up the amount you’ve spent to the nearest pound. So, if you spent £19.80 in the supermarket, Moneybox will then add 20p to your investment pot, rounding the total cost of your purchase up to £20.
This video from Moneybox explains exactly how that process works.
https://youtu.be/w6p4y_OQA7E
You can link all of your bank accounts and cards to your Moneybox account, so that every purchase can be tracked and rounded up. You can also make manual payments into your investment account.
If you decide that you don’t want to invest at any point, you can stop the payment really easily by swiping left on a purchase within the app. It’s really easy to use.
Your payments are collected from your bank once a week and then invested.
Benefits of using Moneybox
- Moneybox is an easy, low cost way to start to learn about investing.
- Moneybox offers a long term savings plan.
- Saving little and often means you don’t notice the money being put away.
- The app is incredibly user-friendly.
- No major financial risks as you’re only saving a little amount each time.
- You can choose how you want your money to be invested when you set up your account – choose from cautious, balanced or adventurous!
- Moneybox invest your money in big name companies, including Apple and Disney.
Fees
As with most investment products, there are fees involved with Moneybox. Here’s what they have to say:
Is Moneybox safe?
Perhaps one of the most important considerations when we’re moving our money around, is whether it’s safe to do so.
Moneybox are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, a UK based financial regulation body who ensure that they meet certain standards and that your money is held safely.
Your data is protected by 256-bit, bank-level encryption for the transmission of sensitive financial and personal data.
Other great ways to save money
Money saving apps are huge at the moment, and I use a combination of apps every day to get the most from my savings. I love apps that automatically save for me, because it’s just one less thing to worry about.
As well as downloading Moneybox, I also recommend:
Chip – available on both Android and Apple, and if you use my referral code UR8YZU, you’ll start off on 1% interest. You can earn a whopping 5% interest with Chip!
Apple: https://bit.ly/chipIOS
Android: https://bit.ly/chipAND
Plum – A clever Facebook messenger bot that keeps an eye on your savings and calculates how much you can afford to stash away.
Cleo – Works in a similar way to Plum, monitoring your spending and putting money away little and often.
Moneybox is a great introduction to investing your money, but with the fees involved and the risk that you won’t see a return on your investment, it may not be the best way to make the most of your spare cash. But, having said that, if you’re already putting money aside with one of the other methods mentioned above, then Moneybox would make a really good addition to your savings methods. As and when you have more money that you might want to invest, you will have a good understanding on how the investment process works.
