Travelling in a group can be trying for many reasons, without having to worry about the additional factor of costs. While the theory that when it comes to money it all evens out in the end is nice – we all know some people who have a habit of ‘forgetting’ to put their hand in their pocket for costs you’ve covered.
Thankfully, this doesn’t need to change the way you travel or force you to split everything down the middle, as I recently discovered on a trip to Croatia. Enter Splitwise – the app that allows you to share bills and IOUs to ensure that no one ends up out of pocket.
With the ability to invite anyone via email, simply create a Splitwise group for your trip. All members are then able to add the costs they have covered, such as accommodation, dinner, a round of drinks or other activity.
Splitwise will then do all the calculations to work out who owes what to who, taking into account what everyone has paid, so you will only transfer the difference as opposed to sending money back and forward. The app also means you can pay each other back in one big payment rather than multiple small ones. And if someone has already paid you, you have the option of marking their debt as settled.
With the ability to add your bank details or utilise PayPal or Venmo, it takes the guess work and stress out of settling shared costs. A painless process, our group managed to sort all payments out on the last lunch before the entrée had even hit the table!
RRP: Free from the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores or available on the Splitwise website.
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