We’ve all been there. You’ve enjoyed an evening out with friends or work colleagues, eaten a nice meal, shared pleasant conversation — and then the check arrives. Some of you are paying cash. Some are paying with plastic. At least one of you is put out that the group is splitting the avocado and deep-fried onion appetizer evenly, and not just among those who dared to try it.
Eventually it gets sorted — and God help the server back at the register keeping it all straight.
But there’s an easier way. In fact, there are six easier ways, each as close as your smartphone.
1. Divvy
Divvy is one of several smartphone apps that employ optical character recognition to capture details such as items ordered and prices from the restaurant check. From there, you assign items and amounts to each member of your party. It calculates and divides the tip, allows you to sort guests into groups for those who would like to pay together (or pay for the avocado-fried onion appetizer they hogged) and more. When it’s done, you’ll know exactly how much everyone owes.
Available for iOS.
Cost: $0.99
[Read: 5 Ways to Save Money When Dining Out.]
2. Billr
Billr works a lot like Divvy, except Billr doesn’t rely on OCR to capture an image of the check. Instead, you enter items and amounts manually. Like Divvy, you can split items like avocado and fried -onion appetizers among several guests. Once everything’s entered, the app calculates everyone’s share. From there you can settle up at the table, or send text or email reminders to everyone.
Available for iOS.
Cost: $1.99
3. Plates by Splitwise
A much more ambitious app than a mere restaurant check-splitter, Splitwise helps groups divide and settle all sorts of bills, such as rent, utilities and groceries. Plates by Splitwise simplifies the app to suit the diner (or the bar or the food truck). The app tracks IOUs over time, so, for example, if you picked up lunch last week at the upscale bistro, while your cubicle-mate picked up lunch this week at the corner deli, you’ll both know how much you’re still owed. It will even send out a friendly email reminder to pay up.
Splitwise is available for Android, iOS and via the Web. Plates is available for iOS.
Cost: Free
[Read: The Best Ways to Split Rent With Roomates.]
4. Cover
The people who make Cover have inked deals with hundreds of restaurants in San Francisco and New York to allow users to pay for dinner using the app. Just let your server know you intend to pay with Cover, and you’re set — no waiting for the check. The app handles the splitting and calculation, too. Payments are made via a credit card you register when you install the app. If you’re splitting the check, other members of your party will have to have Cover installed, too.
Available for Android and iOS.
Cost: Free
5. PayPal and MyCheck
PayPal has teamed up with restaurant bill paying service MyCheck (much like Cover, above), to add restaurant check splitting and payment capabilities to the PayPal smartphone app. Like Cover, users inform staff they intend to pay with PayPal, and bypass the end of meal check drop-off and wait to pay routine. Users can split the check evenly, by percentage or by item. When you’re all square, pay via PayPal and manage the IOUs that way, too.
Available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
Cost: Free
6. Splittr
While Splittr is designed to share the costs of weekend getaways or other big, hard to account for events, it can also handle a night out on the town. Set up an event, enter attendees and start tracking expenses. At the end of the trip or evening, the app splits the expenses, no matter who paid for what and when, and sends all guests a report covering who owes what to whom.
Available for iOS.
Cost: $1.99
[Read: 11 Ways to Save Money at the Bar.]
What about settling up?
Most of the apps noted here simply help you divide and tally your group’s expenses. But what about settling up among your group?
The smartphone payment and money transfer market is moving fast (you may have heard about Apple Pay, Apple Inc’s recently announced payment service). Several banks now allow money transfers via their proprietary smartphone apps. PayPal will let you quickly and easily send money to another PayPal user. Google offers a transfer service, too, via Wallet, as does mobile payment service Square. All you need to send someone cash with those services is an email address.
Put it all together, and at the end of the night nobody should feel like they paid more than their fair share for that crummy plate of avocado dip and deep fried onions.
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The 6 Best Bill Splitting Apps originally appeared on usnews.com
