The TravelSpend app is our choice to review for this week. it is still July when we are reviewing travel and vacation apps that would help make your vacation plans as seamless as possible. To review the TraveSpend app, we will be looking at the app design and ease of use, app unique offerings, pricing, users feedback and finally give ur verdict.
TravelSpend helps users to keep track of their spending while travelling around the world. It will come in handy for those planning their next trip or are already on vacation.
The TravelSpend was founded by Ina Wortmann and Jonas Luthke in 2018. The app is built to cater to all kinds of travellers, from solo travellers to backpackers, it is the perfect budgeting companion for digital nomads, groups of travellers, or families on vacation.
According to the founders:
“Simplicity has always been our main concern while working on TravelSpend. Entering expenses is quick and easy. Currencies are converted automatically, and all your spending data is visualized in clean charts. You can even sync and use the app together with friends to split costs.”
TravelSpend’s design and ease of use:
The design of the travel spend app is best described as basic. The app focuses more on functionality. The design colour is a simple shade of red with white-coloured fonts.
The most exciting part of the design has to be the expenses feature which comes with different colours for different expenses. e.g when you click on the expenses icon, the app displays different areas you can track your expenses with different colours like the restaurant icon is green, transportation is orange, groceries blue, general expenses is purple, and so many others.
This colour separation of different spending categories is a nice touch and can make tracking your expenses a little bit more fun even though there is nothing fun about tracking money spent.
Considering the ease of use, the app is very straight to the point which makes it very easy to use. The spend tracker app focuses on its core function which is to help you keep track of your spending and it gets right down to business.
The app is simple, the basic offerings are out there on display, just follow the signs and icons on the app and in no time you’ll have it all figured out.
TravelSpend’s unique offering
Below are some of the unique features the app makes available to its users.
Track your expenses
TravelSpend helps users by tracking all the expenses they make. Using the app keeps the user conscious of their spending, and sees their spending habits and what they spend the most on to enable them to know what to cut back on so they can ultimately save more money.
This feature is easy to use and also works offline so users have access to it anywhere and anytime.
Stick to your budget
The TravelSpend app promises to help users stick to their budget. while keeping track of expenses is realistic, I do not see how an app can make users stick to their budget.
well, except for seizing their cards or blocking their bank accounts I do not see how this can be done.
The app can encourage users to stick to the budget they set for themselves on the app by alerting them when they exceed the set budget but that’s the best they can do. So, rather than say helps users stick to their budget, the right thing to promise would be to alert users when they exceed their budget.
Budget and track expenses in different currencies
The TravelSpend app allows users to budget and record expenses in different currencies. users can add expenses in any currency and the app will automatically convert the amount to their home currency. This eliminates the need for currency calculations and conversions as the app easily does that for the user.
Split costs
The TravelSpend app can also be used by a group of friends or family to budget and share costs and expenses when travelling. using the app, users can create a group travel budget, and keep track of who owes whom. Split bills, settle debts, check your balances and track expenses all within the app.
users can also invite friends and family to use the app to plan a budget together with the data syncing across platforms and available to all in the group.
Spending data visualised and transferable
Users can have their spending data visualised and made into a graph to show users their spending patterns and habits.
If you are one of those people who after spending money begin to wonder where the money went, you’ll love this app as it creates a visual chart of the user’s expenses, stating what and where money was spent.
This spending data can also be used to create a spending report, a feature useful for those who may be travelling on an official assignment sponsored by a third party and may have to submit an expense report. This data can be used in creating an expense report on the app and the report can be transferred to a CSV file.
Pricing
Most of the products, features and tools available on the TravelSpend app are free except for creating a CSV file which is only available to those in the paid premium plan which cost N1,350 for a 1-month plan, N6.020 for a 1-year plan and N11,500 for a lifetime.
Users feedback
A Google user
I am studying abroad and needed a simple app to track my expenses -- this app is perfect. At first, I used the free version and loved how quick it is to add each purchase. The statistics for the spending are incredibly helpful at the end of the month as well. I ended up purchasing the premium because I wanted the ability to track each month as a separate "trip" and the automatic save for currencies was much easier. There isn't much I would change about this app...I highly recommend!
A Google user
Really like the app but it has two issues I'd like to see fixed. One is the fact it doesn't allow you to backdate your expenses. If you want to log a dinner expense after midnight, for example, the app won't allow you to set it for the day before, which screws up your budget for the next day. The other issue is if you log something by mistake and then delete the record the app doesn't recalculate your budget for that day, which is annoying. Maybe it's a bug or something, not sure if this only happens to me. Thanks!
Conclusion
The TravelSpend app is great budgeting and expenses tracking tool travellers will find most useful in this vacation season.
While they may have overpromised in the area of helping users stick to their budget, it is a very functional app which has lots of features that can help you budget and keep track of your spending while on vacation.
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