If you’re anything like me, you have various old gadgets around the house you no longer use. 

These may include mobile phones, tablets, laptops, cameras, games consoles, and even desktop computers. They may still work, but have been replaced by new and (hopefully) better products.

There’s a natural tendency to hang on to old products for a while, in case a backup is required if its replacement fails. Modern brands are generally very reliable, however. And once you’ve established that a new product isn’t faulty, there really isn’t much reason to hang on to the old one – certainly not for months or years on end.

You might think the only thing to do with an old gadget is take it to the tip – sorry, council recycling centre. Before doing that, though, it’s worth noting that there are various ways you can make money from old tech, even if (in some cases) it’s no longer working.

The High Street

There are various shops that will pay for old technology of all kinds. For example, CeX will pay for smartphones, satnavs, cameras, speakers, headphones, laptops, games consoles, and even TVs in some cases. The device needs to be working but doesn’t have to be in its original packaging. Buy-and-sell stores like Cash Converter and Cash Generator will buy your old tech too.

eBay

Whatever you want to sell, the online auction house eBay is worth considering. It has a huge audience, and there will always be potential buyers looking for any item you want to dispose of.

Of course, you will have to spend a little time preparing your listings for your old gadgets, taking photos, writing a description, and so on.

However, eBay make this as easy as possible for sellers by showing you similar items that have sold on the site recently. This will help you prepare your own listing and assess the likely amount you may be able to get. Bear in mind that eBay does impose charges for sellers, which will reduce the amount you receive.

Facebook and Other Community Sites

Facebook local pages can be a great way of selling larger items that may be difficult to post. You will need to include a photo and write a description stating the price you want. With a bit of luck someone living nearby will want the item and collect it from you for the price asked.

Other community websites may be worth trying too. One is NextDoor. This is mainly a forum for discussing local news, seeking and sharing tradesman recommendations, publicising local events, and so forth. However, you can also advertise items for sale there. 

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Specialist ites

There are also specialist sites that want your old gadgets and will pay for it. This can be a quick and hassle-free option, with the advantage that you know exactly what price you will be getting (the sites quote a price online and it is up to you whether to accept this).

Most will also take products that are no longer working, though of course they will pay a lower price for them.

One well-known site that buys phones and tablets is Music Magpie. They also buy consoles, tablets, smartwatches, Kindle e-book readers, and more. Other options include Mazuma and Sell My Mobile. 

My best advice is to try these and similar sites and see who offers the best price. When I wanted to dispose of my old Samsung J5 (2016) smartphone recently, I was surprised by how much the offers I received varied. I was offered between £25 and £40, and naturally opted for the £40 (which happened to come from Music Magpie).

When using these services you will need to post the item to them in a padded envelope or box. You will have to provide this yourself, but the postage is normally free.

• If you have any very old tech gathering dust in your attic, it could have ‘antique’ value. The classic Nintendo Game Boy can fetch up to $3,000 (£2,350), while an original Apple iPod in pristine condition can rake in as much as $20,000 (£15,680) [source:Yahoo Finance].

Data security for your old gadgets

Before disposing of any old gadgets that may contain sensitive information it’s important to erase any personal data, ideally by performing a factory reset. 

All the specialist companies perform a data wipe on receipt anyway, but it’s clearly advisable to do this yourself as well. If you are selling privately – perhaps via eBay or Facebook – it is essential to ensure that any personal data on the device is permanently erased and can’t be restored.

I hope this article has inspired you to gather together any old tech you no longer need and turn it into useful cash. As always, if you have any comments, please do leave them below.

Nick Daws writes for Pounds and Sense, a UK personal finance blog aimed especially (though not exclusively) at over-fifties.

Photo by Davide Boscolo on Unsplash

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Technology is giving young people a kickstart into saving, but so is the confidence to discuss money.

It is pretty difficult to avoid technology. We use it every day – from communicating with loved ones, shopping for clothes, booking flights and accommodation and managing our finances.

While there are negatives relating to technology, such as the rise of online scams and the fact that it is so easy to throw away money online, it has also given young people access to managing their cash, and this can only be a good thing.

I’m currently travelling Australia and for me, much of my travel admin has been handled on my phone. 

Whether that’s communicating with travel agents, booking and paying for various trips and finding freelance work.

More importantly, I approve payments on my phone and I manage my savings via different banking and money apps – I think without these, I wouldn’t have nearly as much a handle on how much I’m spending each day.

MRM and Mouthy Money’s latest report on financial freedom revealed that young people are using a variety of financial products, and what’s more is that they’re pretty happy with the ones they use.

Of the 500 18-30 year olds that were surveyed, 32% use a credit card and that same figure have a cash savings account.

One-fifth (20%) have a cash ISA, 15% a workplace pension, 14% have home insurance and 12% have a mortgage.

A huge five out of six (83%) said they were fairly happy with the products they use for their finances.

Two-thirds (60%) said they were happy because the products were simple, while 40% listed ease of access and being well-priced as other impressive reasons.

A quarter (25%) admitted that these products were easy to access via technology and 27% therefore said it helped them to achieve their financial goals.

The great thing about technology and money is that you can see what you’re spending or saving right on your phone, from anywhere at any time. It’s tangible and visible and I believe that these apps hold us to account.

There are so many initiatives from banks and other money companies that encourage people to begin their savings journey.

Starling or Monzo give customers the option to create pots which they can put lumps of money into to track their spending. I had several which included bills, rent, travel, food and social.

You’ll even get monthly or weekly updates from banks about whether you’re spending more or less from a certain pot. 

Many banks and other apps also offer people the chance to round-up payments and put them away into a savings account.

I opened my savings account all through my phone, as it was with an online-only bank. I monitor how it’s doing each month too, all via an app.

I manage all my spending on my phone and use simple, yet effective apps to do so.

MRM’s and Mouthy Money’s report also found that half of respondents said they felt comfortable talking to others about their money. 

A further 23% were unconcerned in doing so while only less than a quarter (22%) were uncomfortable in doing so.

In terms of who they go to for advice and support, 51% said their family and 30% said they talk to friends showing a growth of these conversations in young people’s social groups.

Only 15% said they don’t look for any financial advice so it’s nice to see it is on the radar of the majority. 

It’s positive to see that a number of young people are being active with their money and it’s something I’ve seen while travelling.

When I’ve told other backpackers I’ve met that I write about money, most people respond with something like “oh please teach me about saving” or “I’ve just started investing in XYZ.”

One girl I met was even reading a beginner’s guide to investing-style book, while we were on a boat tour of the Whitsundays – if that isn’t dedication then I don’t know what is. 

It’s refreshing to see that people care about what their money does and where it goes. 

Read the full results of the Young Money report 2023

Photo credits: Pexels

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Expert deals finder Will Pointing shares five of his top food and drink loyalty apps that you need to download now to save big bucks

While shopping, are you getting rewarded for your loyalty? Many don’t realise how easy it is use loyalty apps – just download to your smartphone and off you go. 

Even if you use it as a one-off the opportunities for a freebie are huge – and participating regularly in some retailers’ apps can lead to some great deals. 

Here are some of our favourites – which could bag you free coffees or even cold hard cash with our offer codes. 

1. Caffè Nero App

The Caffè Nero’s loyalty app rewards you for buying hot drinks. It also helps you find your local Caffè Nero branches and lets you pay for your drink using pre-loaded funds. 

The generous loyalty scheme works by rewarding one stamp per purchase. Get a free coffee after your first purchase and then every 10th coffee will be a freebie too.

For a free coffee, just download the app here on Google Play or the App Store and use code odBRF4wmp3.

2. Shopmium

The Shopmium app rewards you cashback on a number of products at most supermarkets (from Sainsbury’s to Asda). 

The app encourages you to turn your shopping trip into a “find the free stuff” game. In the process, you can save pounds off your shopping bill – up to £50 a week if you are a heavy supermarket shopper. 

Gone are the days when you need to bring in those old paper coupons to claim your discount. Now you just scan the offer items from your phone when you are at home.

Download the Shopmium app on Google Pay and the App Store and get a free can of Pringles with the referral code ga8yq3. Once registered you can tell your friends too and receive £3.

3. Airtime Rewards

This is the lowest energy spending loyalty app out there. Your favourite retailers pay for your smartphone bill by automatically giving you credit for spending at their shops (no need to select a store). 

Get up to 10% in credit back from your shopping bill, with no effort.

Spend a few minutes downloading the app, then watch the Mobile credits roll in. 

Download the Airtime Rewards App on Google Play and the App Store. Use the code PQU98BNA, to get a free £1 bonus (if you spend within 7 days). 

Once £5 is reached, you can request for this be taken off your pay monthly/PAYG/Contract bill.

4. Greggs Rewards

Home of the vegan pasty, Greggs, now offers free hot drinks, a birthday present and the 10th category item on them free, when you buy items with their loyalty app. 

You also get to participate in their monthly draw to win £50. Download it on Google Play and the App Store.

5. Lidl Plus

Lidl has evolved over the years and now offers high quality food that even a Waitrose customer would eat. Their new loyalty app is also of equally high quality. It offers at least £10 of savings every week off your bill. 

If you spend a £100 in a month, you get £2 of free credit, whereas £200 would earn you £10 of credit. After each shop up, you also play a spin the wheel game, where you can win Lidl store credit or gain a discount code. 

Download the Lidl Plus app on Google Play and the App Store and you’ll be welcomed  with a generous £5 off your first £25 shop (not including alcohol). 

Bonus tip

My final words on loyalty: If you shop somewhere frequently, just type the retailer name on Google Play and App Store and see if they run a loyalty app.

A few minutes of life admin and you’ll be set for saving money and getting freebies from your favourite shops.

Photo by Chevanon Photography from Pexels

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I have three boys and the two eldest have been playing Fortnite for the past three months. I can see a change in them, and I must agree with Harry.

In January of this year I finally gave in and downloaded the game. I had been wary for around a year and had refused to let them have it. I had attended a talk from the charity Freedom from Abuse, which warned of how easy it was for strangers to access your children on games like this to start grooming them.  

But the boys wore me down. Most of the boys in my eldest’s Year Six class (aged 11) were playing it and most of the children in my middle son’s Year Four class (aged 4) were playing it, despite the recommended age limit of 12.

So I relented and spent some time watching them play, asked questions, and tried to understand how the game worked and what its security settings did.

It seemed okay. They play online with their friends joining battles together and chatting online.

The game itself is pretty harmless. You wander a world, which does look very impressive graphically, looking for chests that contain weapons. You use these weapons to eliminate others until you are the last man/woman standing.

Immediately I saw how addictive it could be. When my sons were eliminated, they would be frustrated and would want to start another game immediately. There is a clever, addictive part of the game.

As you play, you rise through the tiers and get things like new skins (outfits) and new dances (just look at how any 10-year-old dances and it probably comes from Fortnite). Moving through the tiers qualifies you for each new season and you receive a game pass every 60 days.

The children are rewarded for length of time playing. There is also a big sales element where children can buy v-bucks to own even more skins, dances and weapons.

The addiction element is scary. If we had a rare day at home, they would quite comfortably sit on the Xbox all day long playing. And the moment I asked them to come off, I was met with anger, disappointment and moans of boredom. Their mood then dampened for some time.

It was parents evening this week and we talked to the teachers about Fortnite. They are concerned and can see its impact on our children. It is a big area of concern in schools across the country, so we are taking a stand.

I really believe that this game has impacted the behaviour and emotional well-being of my boys, so it is gone. The Xbox cable has been hidden for a period of time.

It’s been three days without the game and, of course, they are fine. They are finding other things to do. Their moods are happier and lighter.

Will I relent and let them play it again? Maybe – but with a strict time limit. One hour a day is plenty of time playing the game.

What do you think of Fortnite? Have you noticed a change in behaviour of your children?

The post I agree with Prince Harry: Fortnite should be banned appeared first on Mouthy Money.

Wombat Invest, which is available on both iOS and Android devices, allows investors to choose from up to 15 carefully curated theme-based portfolios that appeal to a wide range of interests.

They include:

●      Social Media Guru: for people who spend their days worrying about Instagram filters and staying within the 280-character limit on Twitter. The brands in this fund continue to find new and fun ways to connect us to the world and the things we love.

●      The Robo: aimed at those who are interested in the rise of the robot and how it continues to improve the way we live and work. The companies in this fund are pushing robotics, artificial intelligence and machine-learning to a whole new level.

●      The British Bulldog: iconic raincoats, medical breakthroughs, on-demand entertainment, and cutting-edge telecoms all form part of this fund, which celebrates British firms. The brands it invests in are among the top 100 UK companies.

●      The Groodies: designed with the environmentally conscious in mind, this fund backs some of the leading green companies from around the world that produce energy from solar, wind, and other renewable sources.

Wombat Invest allows budding investors to trade for free up to £1,000, making it by far the most accessible route into investing currently on offer.

Once an investor’s portfolio reaches £1,000, they are charged just £1 a month plus a highly-competitive platform fee of 0.45% a year.

Investors can choose to auto-invest a certain amount each month and can tell the app to round up their spare change and invest it regularly.

London-based fintech start-up Wombat has attracted lots of interest from backers since launching in 2017, attracting more than £260,000 from more than 500 crowdfunders.

Kane Harrison, co-founder and chief executive at Wombat, said: “If you’re new to investing, it can be nearly impossible to know where to start. The pinstriped suits in the City have spent decades trying to make investing as difficult to understand as possible. But in truth, it needn’t be that difficult, even if you’ve never done it before.

“At Wombat, we strongly believe that the best way to approach investing is to back companies that you know, love and can identify with. By putting together a wide-range of portfolios that should suit nearly every lifestyle, set of beliefs and interests, we believe we have handed power back to a new generation of investors.”

Wombat was created with the six million people in the UK who thought about investing last year – but didn’t  – in mind.

Its founders  believe that it’s currently way too complex to invest – traditional methods of investing can seem complicated, time consuming, expensive, and are often off putting for new investors.

With Wombat, investing is free for accounts valued under £1,000. Users can build a portfolio containing themed funds and automated or one-off deposits. Savers can round up their spare change and watch their savings grow.

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The food app encourages restaurants to sell and users to buy end-of-the-day leftovers for incredibly low prices in order to fight food waste and divert one million meals from landfills in Europe to our stomachs.

This year there are 4,500 food businesses partnered with the app, having avoided in total 3,202 tonnes of CO2 emissions and saved 1,601,139 meals from being wasted, according to the Too Good To Go website.

Each restaurant lists how many leftovers they can sell for the incredibly low price.

The app is usable in Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh and London, as well as Norway, France, Germany, Switzerland and of course its country of origin, Denmark.

Each restaurant lists how many leftovers they can sell for the incredibly low price per night before closing, with a pickup time. Users pay for the meal before collection and they get a receipt that proves that the meal was purchased through the TooGoodToGo app.

In an attempt to take control of my finances, I tried the app. I found on it a Spanish tapas and Spanish wines restaurant, Pix Pintxos, down the road from where I live. I paid £3.50 and waited until my  collection time: 11.10pm – 11.30pm.

I stuffed my boxes to the brim, skilfully layering each bite on top of another to maximise space for more food.

Upon arrival, the restaurant had just closed and one of the employees told me to collect the next day. The app doesn’t take into account different closing times on different days for restaurants and so I took the initiative to check the restaurant’s closing time for the next day online with the plan of arriving half an hour before they were to shut.

[EDITOR’S UPDATE: TooGoodToGo has asked us to clarify that receipts are only valid for the day of purchase and participating restaurants are responsible for keeping their opening hours up-to-date on the app – thank you.]

The next night at Pix Pintxos, I was given two takeaway boxes and told to fill them with Spanish tapas. I couldn’t believe it: for only £3.50, I was grabbing all sorts of bites for a midnight feast. There was bread with parma ham, fried quail eggs and cheese, croquettes and interesting spreads on bread.

The staff suggested I didn’t take any fish bites since they were more likely to age quickly than most other foods. Everything I took tasted fresh and delicious.

I stuffed my boxes to the brim, skilfully layering each bite on top of another to maximise space for more food. It was delicious.

TooGoodToGo is a life changing app, not exclusive to anyone, and for everyone who wants to fight food waste. I’m moving flats next month and in order to save money, this app is going to see a lot of me!

Photo by Travis Yewell on Unsplash

The post APP REVIEW: TooGoodToGo – eating leftovers and saving a fortune appeared first on Mouthy Money.

To help those students who may have overspent and under-budgeted, here are eight of the best apps to eke out every last penny.

Bean

Bean’s mission is to help you spend less and gain more control over your spending – ideal for students juggling a meagre student loan and ever rising costs. The app helps you find, track and manage bills and subscriptions, and will instantly notify you of any changes to your subscriptions and recurring bills. Bean also recommends real-life changes such as switching your electricity bill at the end of your contract.

Grant Fairy

This newly-launched app aims to reverse the trend of rising student debt by giving students access to over 4,000 UK grants and scholarships to help them pay for tuition fees and living expenses. According to founder Myles Jardine, many would-be students are frightened off university by the thought of graduating with up to £50,000 worth of debt. But GrantFairy’s research suggests they needn’t be: 95% of students are eligible to apply for grants in excess of £40,000 and many over £100,000.

StoCard

Love loyalty cards but find them a pain to manage? Always forgetting your Boots card? If so, this could be the app for you. Stocard lets you add all your cards to the app in seconds allowing you do away with cumbersome plastic cards. Them simply present them at the cash register and collect all points and discounts.

Payfriendz

Payfriendz combines social media and payments technology to bring you an app that lets you send and request money from friends and family via direct messaging. It’s fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and boasts state-of-the-art fraud protection. Plus a very underrated benefit is that it saves you looking tight by asking for small amounts of money owed to you!

mySupermarket

This app saves you money on your shopping by scanning prices across 15 of the biggest supermarkets and finding you the cheapest items. There are a range of tools available including a shopping list and an import function which lets you find savings on your regular shops within minutes. The average shopper can save around 30% on each shop, so there are substantial savings to be made. It also offers cashback, so you stand to make even more on your shopping.

Splitwise

Ease the pain of splitting bills with Splitwise, an app specially designed to enhance harmony among housemates. It replaces the age old spreadsheet by keeping a running total of your bills and each housemate’s share over time which also gives you the option of streamlining the payment process by paying one large chunk off, rather than a bunch of small ones. It also lets you set ‘friendly reminder emails’, in case someone is ‘taking their time’ to pay their share.

Plum

Plum is part a new generation of apps, which use algorithms to help you boost your savings, by detecting patterns in your spending. It uses this data to identify when you might have underspent and automatically transfers it to a savings account. It’s also partnered with peer-to-peer lender RateSetter to offer you up to 3% interest on savings – beating many of the high street banks.

Moneybox

You’d be surprised at the amount of money you fritter away on small purchases. Moneybox app aims to take the guilt out of small purchases, by allowing you to account for every penny and automatically round up the change to the nearest pound and stick it in a savings account. Choose between three market leading tracker funds and see your money grow.

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Money Dashboard

Money Dashboard is a free app that’s available on your desktop, iOS, and Android. You log in to your financial accounts to create a personal dashboard – don’t worry, it’s a read-only service so your information can’t be used and it promises bank level security. The interface is very easy to understand as it uses simple pie charts to help you ascertain where your money is going. You can view it in categories (like household, leisure, travel, etc.), or you can see an itemised list of your spending – helping you to see where there are savings to be made! If you find yourself broke before pay day and you just don’t know where all your money has gone, this is a great app for you.

Wally

Wally is currently available on iOS and Android (the Android version is called Wally+). It is free to use, and is also ad free which is great if pop-ups get on your nerves. You can set any currency to work in – this is useful not only for UK residents (a lot of these apps are made in the States and work on US Dollars), but also good if you’re going abroad and want to keep an eye on your spending. This app allows you to set a daily budget, and shows you how much money you have left before you exceed it – very useful. It also allows you to photograph and save receipts, allowing you to track spending done with old school cash monies instead of with your card.

Toshl

Toshl is available on iOS, Android, and Windows phone, as well as desktop – so, finally other people, like my other half who has a Windows phone, can get in on the app action. Toshl has a great set up for even the biggest technophobe, with step by step tutorials on their website (with pictures!). It has some great, easy to read graphics, and has the capability to set reminders for bills. This also makes it a great app if you often forget when your direct debits are due, or if there’s a bill that you have to pay manually. This app also has little monster characters knocking around looking after your money which, I must say, I love!

Moneyfy

The Moneyfy app has both a free and a paid version on Android, and only a paid app on iOS (you know my feelings on paid apps…). This app’s USP is that you can sync it between multiple devices, so if you switch between a phone and a tablet you can have the information to hand (it uses Dropbox for this, so I assume you must also have an account with them). This also means you can track expenses with your partner – budgeting together, like budget buddies. It’s very easy to use and you can add amounts quickly. Like other apps, it displays your spending graphically, and has nice little icons, too. A great one if you are the family financial manager.

OnTrees

OnTrees is the budgeting app from Money Supermarket, so this has the added bonus of being launched by an already trusted brand. It’s available on Android and iOS, as well as on your desktop. The graphical layout of your spending is very clear and colourful, and it syncs with you bank accounts so you can always see your current balances. It’s not the most exciting budgeting app out there, but it’s completely free, comes from a trusted source, and is easy to use. It’s great if you just want something simple to help you keep track of your money.

As you can see, there are a lot of great options out there that are really easy to use and will help you keep an eye on your spending. Whether you’re saving for something fun like a holiday, or just want to feel less stressed by the time pay day rolls around, one of these apps could help you track where you’re spending and make you think before you whip your card out. Time to get your head out of the sand, and into the app store!

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However, when I got to Stormfront, the nice lady behind the counter informed me that there was in fact, nothing that they could do to help me. She then went on to explain that just a month prior to my visit, Apple had declared my five year old MacBook Pro to be ‘vintage’. This confused me, because the definition of vintage is an item that is at least 20 years old. The woman explained that, to Apple, ‘vintage’ is a product older than five years old and so they won’t make spare parts for it anymore – and it was clear that my computer needed a spare part. She told me that, although they couldn’t help me, an independent computer shop across the other side of York might be able to.

Apple had declared my five year old MacBook Pro ‘vintage’. This confused me, because the definition of vintage is an item that is at least 20 years old.

So, my mother gave me a lift over there. They charged me £300 for a new battery and a charger, before declaring that, in fact, this wasn’t the problem. The actual problem was the keyboard (as the power button was water damaged) – Apple had stopped making these so there was nothing that could be done. I wasn’t completely convinced by this, and so, promptly searching eBay for a new keyboard, I found one for about £18. I was also informed that a couple of years after Apple declare their tech to be ‘vintage’, they then proclaim it to be ‘obsolete’, which means that they will cease to provide any technical assistance to it whatsoever. You know how every time you call up Apple care you have to read out your serial code to the technician? It’s so that they can check whether they’re allowed to help you. This is definitely something to bare in mind if you’re ever thinking about buying a refurbished Apple product.

In the end, my computer was fixed, but it got me thinking – what happens when my expensive computer actually dies? Apple have made so many disastrous changes to the MacBook Pro line in recent years, should I forgo it all together and switch back to Windows?

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At Mouthy Money, we think we might have found one – in the form of apps that pay you to get fit. We explore five of the best on the market to reboot your resolve.

Bounts

Bounts incentivises and challenges users to get fit by utilising data from fitness apps and converting them into points which can be exchanged for prizes. You can earn points by undertaking challenges and checking into approved sports/gym venues. You are required to complete 7,000 steps in a single day if you’re using a device such as a Fitbit, and if you’re using an app such as Runkeeper or Strava you’ll need to complete a 20 minute walk/run above an average speed of 4km/h. If you’re feeling altruistic, you can even donate your points to Cancer Research.

Users earn 20 points for each activity, and can earn up to 180 points a day.

Available on iOS and Android.

Verdict: An accessible app that suits everyone from the casual exerciser to committed trainers.

Sweatcoin

This app draws from behavioural economics; claiming that humans are programmed by nature to procrastinate rather than to get out there and train. It tracks and verifies your outdoor steps using your phone’s accelerometers and GPS locations. Steps taken are converted into Sweatcoins.

This app is marketed very much at self-improvement aficionados and this is reflected in the prizes on offer. Sweatcoins can be exchanged for goods, services, and experiences ranging from anti-gravity yoga classes, life coaching sessions, and sports equipment to iPhones and Apple Watches. As with Bounts, you can also donate to a number of charity partners. However, earning coins doesn’t require anything too strenuous, with the app paying you one Sweatcoin for every 1,000 steps.

Currently available on iOS only, but soon to be launching on Android.

Verdict: Early days yet, but with its focus on high achievers, and a strong alignment with healthy living brands, it could be a useful tool for those targeting high to moderate level exercise regimes. This may be off-putting to those at lower fitness levels though.

Fitcoin

Fitcoin takes the concept to a new level, by tracking not just distance covered, but also intensity of workout, which makes this a useful app for gym users (particularly those who spend long periods of time in one place, such as weight lifters). After your workout, your wearable device sends the data to the Fitcoin app that is analysed to find out how hard you were pushing yourself. Your average heart rate, distance, and pace are then counted and turned into a FitCoin value.

The app pays you in Bitcoin so you do need to have a valid Bitcoin account.

Available on iOS.

Verdict: while payment based on workout intensity could be a great motivator for some, having to sign up to bitcoins could put many potential users off. A voucher system or one that pays directly into a traditional bank account could be a better option.

Dietbet

Designed especially for those wanting to lose weight, Dietbet allows you to put your money where your mouth is and bet on yourself to lose 4% of your total body weight. Your stake goes into a pot with that of other users and, if you successfully complete your challenge, you win your original stake plus a cut of the total prize pot.

To verify your weight loss, you simply need to upload ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures. This app harnesses the power of the group – as users are encouraged to post their stories and spur each other on (think Weight Watchers but digital).

Boasting a slick dashboard; charting total weight, total money earned, and % lost since last weigh-in (denominated in dollars as it’s a US based app), it takes gamification to new heights.

Available on iOS and Android.

Verdict: providing that you are committed to losing weight, this could work for you. While the initial payment may put some users off, these are capped for ‘public’ challenges and the app guarantees that you won’t lose money if you are successful.

Pact

Pact rewards you for healthy living, giving you points for exercising (GymPact), eating more fruit and veg (VeggiePact), and tracking what you eat (Food Logging Pact). Users set themselves weekly pacts where they commit to challenges, such as eating 20 portions of vegetables, or running a certain amount of times a week.

Rewards are based on the number of days committed and completed in your Pact. If you meet your Pact, you get a cash reward for each day committed, paid for by those who didn’t make it. These rewards generally range from $0.30 to $5 per week, depending on the number of activities committed. If you don’t manage to complete a Pact, the app charges you an agreed amount. So, if you don’t want to pay up, you have to take it seriously.

Available on iOS and Android.

Verdict: a must-have for those who value accountability.

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