For most people, a mobile phone is a great convenience device that lets them package several other gadgets into one, while still being able to make phone calls. In fact, for some people mobiles have even replaced the computer as their device of choice for web browsing. However, there’s another great use for mobile phones that most people don’t consider, and that’s saving money. Because your mobile is essentially a little computer that’s more or less always connected to the internet, you’ve got the power to do a number of things that you couldn’t ordinarily do with a laptop.
For instance, you wouldn’t carry your laptop with you into a club or a concert, but you will almost always have your mobile with you. By thinking about your mobile more like a computer and less like a phone, you can extend its use from convenience to money saving device relatively easily. You just need to set up and manage the necessary accounts, and make sure you are syncing data properly across any other devices you use. It’s just that easy to start saving money with your phone, as we’re going to show you in the steps below.
5 Ways to Save Money With Your Mobile Phone
1) Wi-Fi Connectivity: You can and should set your phone to only send data over your plan when it’s not connected to the internet by Wi-Fi. This way you cut down on the total usage costs you’ll spend on your mobile. It’s just one of the ways you can get your monthly mobile plan costs lower than they might otherwise be. Structured carefully, you can sometimes even save enough that you’ll be able to change your plan to the next usage tier down, saving even more.
2) Eating Out: There are a number of great apps you can get for smartphones that will help you to know the best spots in town to grab a bite, or the cheapest places where you can fill yourself up without emptying your pocketbook or wallet in the process. One of those apps is Foursquare, which works on either Android or iOS, and gives you not only a set of reviews about different places, but also an overall price rating. When you’re there, you can also add your own reviews and comments – indicating whether you liked the place or not. Because the application requires you to actually be there to leave a review, it limits the ability of other companies to make fake reviews. That means you’ll usually get very accurate information on where to eat – while also saving a few quid on food costs in the process.
3) Getting a Taxi: There’s a ground breaking set of apps that have recently been released, which will let you save money on a taxi by using someone other than the standard black cabs. While the regular drivers aren’t necessarily very excited about it,there are a lot of people who are excited about it and the money they can save. Obviously you need to be a little careful about how you use the service, but as a general time and money saving tip, it’s a great way to cut down on your taxi fares while still being able to get around town.
4) Grocery Shopping: Many top stores in the UK, including Tesco, offer mobile apps that will let users basically shop online. The advantage of this is that you can actually get your entire shop done over the Internet, even down to seeing how much it will cost you when you check out. Then you can remove things you might not want, or look for sale items to replace them with. There are also other apps that will let you scan products and items, cross checking them against a database of similar products. Some of these apps also feature delivery – meaning someone will do the shopping and deliver the food for you too.
5) Cash Back: There are also a number of great cash back apps. These smartphone apps let you use your mobile’s camera to scan item bar codes before you purchase them. Once you do that, you can see what is on sale or will give you a discount. From there you purchase the item, and then send in a photo of your receipt to the vendor. They then either pay you in cash, or by spendable cards such as Amazon, PayPal and others. This is a great way to combine store savings with third party savings – and you can often save across a range of things, including holidays, car rentals, gifts, movies, concerts, food and more.
While not everyone considers his or her mobile as a way to save money, the trend to do so is rapidly gaining traction. There are more and more apps appearing every day that will allow you to scan bar codes and save, while there are others that help to offset data loss, or work across different types and styles of plans to help you get the most from your data use without being charged extra. By taking a few extra minutes with your phone, you can end up saving quite a bit of your money. All it took was reading this article and downloading a few new apps. You can thank us in the comments section.
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