5 Apps That’ll Help You Avoid Awkward Money Situations When Travelling With Friends
Splitting bills can feel like pulling teeth — uncomfortable and a little bit awkward. But finances are the last thing you want to be thinking about when you’re supposed to be relaxing.
[related_articles]15737,13482,1285[/related_articles]Foreign currency maths is never a fun game, but luckily, some very smart people have created some apps that are bound to make your life a while lot easier while you’re away from home.
#1 Venmo
Venmo makes it super easy to transfer those funds you owe your pal, and vice versa. All you do is send (or request) money with an attached message or emoji combo of your choice. Then, you’ve got the chance to like or comment on all your favourite splitting moments.
Just link your debit card or chuck in your bank account deets and you’re good to go. You can find your mates automatically using their name, username, QR code, phone, email or even Facebook profile — so long as they’ve downloaded the app, too.
[related_articles]30958,57599[/related_articles]#2 Splitwise
Splitwise organises all of your shared expenses and IOUs in one place, so that everyone can easily see what they owe and are owed.
According to its website, it focuses on fairness: “Most people want to be fair to each other, but sometimes they forget, or can’t decide on what fair is.”
They also offer “fairness calculators” that can be applied to different situations to save an argument, say if you’re travelling with a mate who’s snagged the bigger room or may have even been generous enough to shout your flights — you can subtly repay them by paying a larger portion of the bill.
[related_articles]27216,40878[/related_articles]#3 Google Wallet
Like the others, Google Wallet lets you to send money, but lets you do it in a number of different ways, including in the app, through your Gmail account or on the web via the website, meaning you don’t need the app to receive or send cash.
Just set a default payment method and then any money that is sent to you will slide straight into your account. The data encryption and fraud protection is top-notch, meaning your funds are safe wherever you are.
#4 Divvy
Divvy makes splitting the bill as easy as snapping a picture — literally. All you have to do is take a picture of the receipt, drag each item to the person who ordered it, and see how much everyone owes.
It uses state-of-the-art optical character recognition so you don’t have to type each item in. You can add guests from contacts and, once everything’s split evenly, hit them up for that cash.
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#5 Snapchat
An app that most of us probably already have on our phone, Snapchat, allows you to transfer to and receive funds from your mates. They’ve teamed up with payment-processing service Square to develop an easy way to split bills.
All you’ve gotta do is add a debit card for your first transaction, but once you’ve done that you’ll be able to type any amount of money into Snapchat’s text-chat feature and hit the green pay button to instantly send money.
Snap responsibly.
Check out Qantas flights and begin your next adventure.
(Lead image: Dan Gold)
