SAVING money can be hard at this time of year when Christmas debt is hanging over your head but a new challenge could make it easier to build up a rainy day fund.

If you round up your purchases to the nearest pound and save the rest, you could put away hundreds of pounds every year without you even noticing.

If you think it sounds like too much effort to move money into a savings account every time you spend, there are plenty of apps and bank services that will help do this for you.

We've rounded up the best ones below so you can try it out in 2019.

Digital bank Revolut says its customers save £103 on average per year when using its penny-saving Vaults feature, which rounds up purchases to the nearest pound and puts the difference in a savings account.

Meanwhile research by Which? magazine has found that the average person who "skims" their bank balance in this way saves £1.22 a day – or £445.30 a year.

But naturally, you could save even more depending on how much you spend.

Lloyds Group (Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland)

Lloyds Banking Group has a feature called Save The Change for debit card customers that lets them store up their pennies.

It's available for Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Bank customers – the only requirement is you need both a current and savings account.

Some types of savings account, such as ISAs, are not eligible though so do check the terms and conditions before you get started.

The service works by rounding up your purchase to the nearest pound when you spend money – but only if you're in credit.

Your bank then automatically transfers the money to your savings account so you can gain interest on the pennies you save.

You can also choose to send the pennies you save to a friend of family member's savings account, as long as their account is with Lloyds, Halifax or Bank of Scotland.

This feature can be activated on your Lloyds account by activating it via online banking, calling 0345 300 0000, or by speaking to a staff member at your nearest branch.

Each bank has an online branch locator.

Is penny-saving right for me and how much can I save?

RESEARCH by Which? reports that by using these apps you can put away around £1.22 a day.

That may seem like a small figure, but over the course of year that would add up to around £450.

That's a fair amount considering all you did was spend as you normally would.

These apps work well if you are just looking to put away a little bit of money without having to deposit a lump sum.

But it will take a long time to earn a decent amount of cash, and you have to prioritise certain kinds of purchases.

To get the most out of these apps you need to be making lots of low cost purchases.

For instance, buying a coffee for £2.99 and buying your weekly shop for £49.99 would add up to the same amount of saving of 1p.

This system probably works best if you are looking to put aside a couple hundred pounds for a holiday or something similar, where your pennies can be used alongside regular saving towards a fixed goal.

Moneybox

Moneybox is a standalone app that will round up your everyday purchases to the nearest pound, just like Lloyds Group's Save the Change feature.

There's one key difference though.

Instead of moving the money to a savings account, Moneybox will invest the pennies for you.

All you have to do is open an investment account with Moneybox with as little as £1.

You then choose from three levels of risk: cautious, balanced and adventurous.

Your money would be invested in global companies such as Netflix and Disney via simple tracker funds, which will mirror how well a company is doing on an index such as the FTSE 100.

But like with all investing, your money could all be lost – so if you are looking for a guaranteed saving rather than a profit you might want to look elsewhere.

Moneybox says that if you choose its "balanced" investment plan, £1,000 invested in 2010 followed by contributions of £50 a month were worth £9,660 at the end of 2017 – a bonus of £5,360 on top of what was put into the savings account.

The service is free for the first three months but then costs £1 per month after that.

The app has partnered with online-only bank Starling.

When you link your Starling account with Moneybox, your purchases are rounded up and the difference is automatically invested.

Monzo

The app for online-only bank Monzo allows you to set aside money from your current account into a "pot", a virtual savings goal that you can personalise with a name and a picture.

The app will automatically save money for you if you switch on "Round up transactions" in the Accounts tab of your savings pot.

Just like other features mentioned on here, it will round up your purchases to the nearest pound and add the difference to your pot.

You can only choose to add spare change to one pot at a time.

For this feature to work you need to spend over £1.

The automatic feature could take you into your overdraft but Monzo will let you know if that happens and then you can switch off the round-up feature.

Every time you spend the app will send you a message with how much was added to your virtual savings goal.

The app is free to use and you can withdraw your money whenever you want.

But you won't gain any interest on the money you squirrel away.

Monzo says that on average, people have saved about £55 using this feature since it launched in March last year.

Since then, more than 50,000 people have used it, saving a combined total of £12.5million.

Other ways to save cash

SAVING money can seem like a slog, but it doesn’t have to be with our simple tips below:

• Open a savings account: The first steps to saving is actually opening an account that will give you the most benefits – you can find the best options here
• Download apps: There are loads of apps you can download to your smartphone, which can help you budget properly and save a fortune over the next 12 months. A few examples are Squirrel, which helps you stick to a budget as well as Chip, which works out how much money you can afford to save without it affecting your usual spending habits. You can find a roundup of the best apps to help you save money here
• Cut down on your spending: Another obvious way to save money is by cutting down on how much you spend each month. Go through your transaction history and set yourself a budget
• Plan your meals in advance: By making a list before you go grocery shopping and then sticking to it, you'll avoid picking up products you don't really need
• Pay off debts: The interests on your debts is always higher than the interest earned on your savings, so you should consider paying off any debts with your savings to be better off

Revolut

The app for digital bank Revolut is free but you can also pay £6.99 a month for a premium account.

The Vaults feature on Revolut's app works the same way as the other penny-saving features.

The main difference with Vaults is that you can choose to round up your money every week or month rather than with every purchase you make.

Or you can just round up your money whenever you feel like it and don't have to set up a standing order.

You can also automatically convert your spare change into a cryptocurrency – Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum – each time you make a round-up transaction with your Revolut card.

To activate the round-up feature, you just have to click on "spare change" when you set up a Vault savings pool.

You can also choose to "supercharge" your pennies.

For example if you buy a coffee for £2.70, you have the option of multiplying the £0.30 spare change that will be automatically saved away by a factor of two, three, four, five, or even 10.

If you choose the "10" option, a saving of 30p would become £3.

Revolut's Vaults feature – which launched in April last year – is free to use for both free and paid account holders.

You can also access your money whenever you want but you won't earn any interest on the money you save.

TSB

Bank TSB also has a bank balance skimming feature called Save The Pennies.

If you switch on the feature, the bank will round up the amount you spend on your TSB debit card to the nearest pound and transfer the difference into a savings account.

Like with Lloyds Group, only some savings accounts are eligible though so make sure you check the terms and conditions.

ISAs aren't eligible for the feature.

That means you will gain interest on what you save away.

Like with Lloyds, TSB will only transfer the money when your account is in credit.

You can switch on the feature via internet banking or by visiting your nearest branch.

TSB has a branch finder tool on its website.

More on Money

There's another simple money-saving trick that will boost your piggy bank by £1,500 this year called the 365 challenge.

We've also revealed the best-paying savings accounts around right now.

If you've found yourself in debt this month, here's how to clear it by the end of this month in nine easy steps.

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