American consumers have an average of around $94,000 in overall personal debt, according to a study by major credit bureau Experian. If you have a mortgage, car loan, personal loans and credit cards, paying off all that debt can be intimidating.
Whether you racked up too much credit card debt or added to your overall debt with a home mortgage or auto loan, you’re probably eager to pay off some – or even all – of that debt as quickly as possible. That’s where debt management apps can help, by guiding you to decide how much to pay on each debt and which balances to tackle first.
Click or swipe to learn about 5 debt management apps that can help you pay down debt.
1. Qoins
If you want to top off regular monthly payments on credit cards or loans with extra payments, this round-up app can help you pay off debt more quickly. Qoins, which you can download from the App Store or Google Play, rounds up spare change from purchases you make and then automatically applies an extra payment to the selected debt every month.
Qoins requires access to your checking account but uses bank-level encryption and doesn’t store your banking information. There’s no monthly fee for the app, but there is a $2.99 fee for each payment made. On average, customers save from three to five years on their loan term and thousands in interest, according to Qoins.
2. Debt Manager
Debt Manager for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch uses the “snowball method” — paying off select debts first and then applying those additional payment amounts to the next targeted debt — to knock each debt out faster. You can download Debt Manager for .99 from the App store.
This app lets you choose from multiple payoff strategies, including lowest balance first, highest interest first, highest balance first or prioritize debts with your own customized order. Meanwhile, Debt Manager displays a progress bar displaying your debt-free date and interest/time savings.
3. ChangEd
ChangEd, which you can download from the App store or Google Play, is a debt repayment tool aimed at student loan borrowers. This app, which costs only $1 a month, rounds up purchases from your checking account or linked credit card to the next highest dollar. Then ChangEd transfers rounded-up amounts based on the round-up savings speed you select to your FDIC-insured ChangEd account starting at $5 increments.
When your balance reaches $100, ChangEd automatically sends a payment to your student loans. To pay loans off even faster, it’s easy to make extra payments and track progress with ChangEd by, which keeps track of when payments are made and projected interest savings.
4. Unbury Me
If you’re unsure whether you should first knock out your smallest loan (snowball method) or target the loan with the highest interest rate (avalanche method), the unbury.me online loan calculator can help you choose which strategy will pay off loan debt faster.
Once you input loan amounts for your mortgage, auto or other personal loans, unbury.me lets you compare progress you can make using either the snowball or avalanche method. You can even experiment with different payment amounts to see how payments over several months would affect the percentage going towards principal, remaining principal and interest.
5. Debt Payoff Planner
With Debt Payoff Planner, which you can download from the App Store, Google Play or Amazon app store, you create a free account to input all your debts and loans in one place. Then the app breaks down your debt repayment strategy into easy-to-follow steps.
Debt Payoff Planner shows you a detailed month-to-month plan for how much you need to pay on each debt to become debt-free and amounts for additional monthly payments above the minimum payment that can get you to a zero balance faster. You can also look up details of each debt individually on the app’s By Debt pie chart and keep track of current balances.
