It wasn’t all that long ago that we got paper checks from our employers that needed to be deposited into the bank and we had to hand cash to our friends if we wanted to split dinner. Finding time to go to the bank during open hours and always having the right change was always a challenge—but not anymore!
Thanks to technology, the way we deal with our finances has gotten much easier.
Get a Loan Online
Getting a loan can be stressful. Whether you need the money for a personal or professional reason, it used to mean going to the bank with your personal information and discussing how much they are willing to lend you under what kind of terms.
Today it can all be done online. If you’re a small business looking to grow and expand, you can find unitranche financing options online. If you are shopping for a house, you can compare mortgages online. You can even find personal loan options online to remodel your home or consolidate your debt.
It’s true that getting loans online is easier than doing it the old-fashioned way, but more importantly, it gives you more choices. Instead of going to just one or two banks, you can compare rates for multiple loans to make sure you’re getting the best deal.
Get Paid
It used to be the case that you would pick up your check with the attached pay stub every other Friday when you went into work. For quite a few years, most businesses have instead been enrolling their employees in automatic deposit programs so you can wake up to money in your account without having to make a trip to the bank.
More recently, businesses have also been making it easy to access your pay stubs online. That way, you can compare amounts between checks, make sure you were paid the right amount of overtime, and check out other important information that is vital to your finances.
Send Money in an Instant
We will always need a way to pay friends and family. Whether we’re paying a sibling for child care, splitting lunch with a coworker, or paying for a ticket to a concert after your friend bought enough for everyone, there are many situations in life where paying someone back is important.
That used to mean having enough cash in your wallet, but not anymore! There are some great money transfer apps out there that enable you to send cash in seconds that will arrive in another account within a day or less.
Some of the best money transfer apps include:
- WorldRemit allows you to send money to over 150 countries
- Venmo makes it easy to send money to friends
- PayPal is perfect for transactions that require an invoice
- Western Union allows you to pay from a bank account, card, cash, or Apple Pay
Save Money
We could all stand to save a little more money. Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Unless you make your savings automatic, you’re likely to get to the end of the month and realize you don’t have any money left to save.
Apps can help you save without you having to think about it. For example, Acorns rounds up purchases and puts the money into an investment account, while Digit helps you calculate exactly what you can save based on your bills and automatically rolls over that amount into a savings account.
Keep Track of the Details
Keeping track of the transactions in your bank account is extremely important. It ensures you have enough money left to pay the bills, and it ensures there are no fraudulent charges to your account. It used to mean waiting to get your monthly statement in the mail. Now you can check your account every day and see payments being made in real time.
It’s not just your bank account you can keep track of. You can keep track of all your accounts online when it’s convenient for you. That might mean tracking loan payments to see how many you have left until your vehicle is paid off, trying your hand at the stock market online, or comparing savings accounts to see which ones give you the best accrued interest.
Dealing with finances isn’t always very much fun, but today, it is at least convenient! From loans to paychecks, savings accounts, and more, you can do almost anything from the comfort of your couch at home.
