Cashing it in: Personal finance apps – the best and the rest

Mortgage Mentor

Since April, there have been new UK government mortgage lending criteria in play, so you’ll want to know exactly where you stand. If you’re on the hunt for a good deal on a mortgage or just about to renew a mortgage, this app goes into a level of detail that gives you the bottom line figures.

Mortgage Mentor quickly calculates what you pay off each month and, more importantly, allows you to add fees that banks now love to dish out. These include the arrangement fee, booking fee and suchlike. These fees are added to give the overall amount to be paid.

iOS only for now but Android and Windows Phone versions are in the pipeline

While Loan Calculator What if is terrific for loan calculations, it doesn’t include the option of interest-only mortgages. For those lucky enough to hang on to this type of mortgage, getting the best deal based on the interest-only payments and not repayments is needed.

Mortgage Mentor is helpful from the off with instructions to touch the + symbol to start adding details of mortgage offers. Get the figures by tapping the graphic ball for summary of what any mortgage will cost by month and overall. You can choose to view interest-only payments or just repayments and then email the info directly from the app to save.

It’s a really useful app but you’ll need to be aware that there are two interest inputs – the first is for the interest deal you’ll eventually fall back on and the second, for current fixed rate or tracker deal offered. Otherwise, this is the Ronseal mortgage app to have and the developer MH Riley told us he has plans for Android and Windows Phone versions in the New Year.

PayPal

Apple Pay won’t be in Europe until 2015 at the earliest, and you’ll need the latest iOS kit too, so here’s an alternative you can use right now on Android, iOS and Windows Phone. For regular PayPal users, it’s an obvious choice, but newbie and less frequent users of PayPal could also make use of this app.

Not only does the app offer the benefit of transferring money safely from email to email address, but included in the new PayPal armour is identification of a user through their photograph, to pay by app on the high street.

Feeling hungry? Local PayPal friendly eateries list (left), recent transactions (right)

Like many voucher apps, it works by GPS – locating where you are to show restaurants, cafes (and many takeaways) plus retailers like JD Sports, Karen Millen, Office, Oasis and many more which offer PayPal payment.

If a PayPal user fires up app to see where to eat locally, a list of nearby restaurants and cafes is shown instantly. Choose one, take a seat and a couple of simple swipes allows the app user to be identified to the shop – as well as showing they’re good to pay with pic identity on the app too.

It's early days for sure, but a great addition to the existing useful feature of sending payments securely using a mobile phone to email address. And having the app does make it handy for accessing latest balances and transactions. PayPal says you can forget your wallet with this app, but what if your phone battery dies? We're not quite there yet, are we, PayPal? Still, it's another scary step closer to a future cashless society.