In the past few months, the number of applications for iPhones, Blackberries and Android devices that claim they could save you money has skyrocketed.

And, as long as smartphone users don’t get too addicted and end up paying their providers more for extra data, many have the potential to become day-to-day frugal finance essentials.

How to they save money?

Many apps have money saving potential just because they bring the saving potential of the internet to the high street, giving you the best of worlds.

Being able to manage bank accounts – or just see where you spent your cash this month – from a smartphone can also save cash. As every frugal finance reader knows, just keeping on top of your cash and, preferably, budgeting is an achievement.

But before we get to our top three personal finance apps of the moment, a little warning.

A warning

We recently noticed unofficial banking apps popping up on app stores and wrote to online security experts and banks to check whether they were safe for consumers.

Their response was a resounding – don’t count on it. Although many of the ‘apps’ are simply bookmarks and made by well-meaning developers (we speak to one in the article) there’s huge potential for fraudsters to steal bank details.

Warning over, on to our top three.

Our top three

1. Groupon

There are three big problems with the giant daily deals site Groupon: pre-booking; the lack of deals outside your area and having to take the time to print out those vouchers.

The Groupon app – available for Android and iPhone – solves all those issues.

It’ll find deals that are nearby while you’re out and about. You can buy when you know you’ll take the deal up – no need for pre-booking – and, finally, the vouchers generated can be scanned by the retailer on screen. No more printer ink nightmares.

2. RedLaser

We love RedLaser.

You use your phone’s camera to scan an item’s barcode and the phone searches for the product online in seconds.

It’s particularly handy for working out whether discounts on big, thought-provoking purchases such as electronics are worthwhile.

But the products don’t have to be new for it to work. Our resident bibliophile tells us she often uses it to talk herself out of, or into, purchases in second-hand bookshops.

3. 0870

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that bells and whistles smartphones are still, well, mobile phones.

A hefty bill after calling a premium-rate helpline number usually helps us remember, though.

This is the app for avoiding that forehead-slapping moment. It simply finds free versions of high-rate customer service lines.

The developers reckon 0870 saved consumers a quarter of a million pounds after just two weeks. Not a bad saving in our book.

This is a guest post by Choose, a consumer site that offers information on personal finance. Find out more on twitter here.