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SmartyPig®: February 2009 Archive

The following posts were made in February 2009. You may subscribe to the RSS feed for this archive if you would like to take your time reading through our posts.

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February 26, 2009 • Posted by Erica Adams

"SNL" on Sensible Saving

Saturday Night Live never fails to bring in the laughs. And in the clip we have here, courtesy of Hulu, Steve Martin, Amy Pohler and Chris Parnell are shown making light of a very serious personal finance situation afflicting many across the country - the old credit card mentality our customers constantly tell us they are trying to escape. Is SNL's skit hilarious? Yes. Our office was in tears. And the fact that it's obviously no laughing matter is what makes it seriously hit home.

Says Pohler while thumbing through Parnell's self-help book, Don't Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford, "Look honey, there's a whole section here on how to buy expensive things with money you've saved." To which Martin replies, "And where would you get this saved money?" At SmartyPig, we've got your answer.

From the drawing board to our launch last spring until now, SmartyPig has been, and always will be about helping people save money for specific goals - items that otherwise, most could not purchase out of pocket. We simply want to help people move away from the "buy now, pay later" credit card mindset that has gone a long way toward ensuring our rough economic ride. We understand that credit cards aren't solely destructive and not everyone abuses them, but in this post from a few days ago it shows how delinquency rates are on the rise. Average debt has increased, while credit card companies continue to gouge customers with up to 24% interest in some instances. There's no way around the simple fact we all need to work on our fiscal fitness, we need to depend less on plastic, and we need to "Not Buy Stuff We Cannot Afford."   

Says Martin at one point during the skit, "So I buy something I want and then hope that I can pay for it, right?" Parnell replies, "No. You make sure you have the money, then you buy it." We couldn't agree more.

 

Tags: smartypig   •  saving money   •  credit cards   •  snl

2 Comments | |

February 24, 2009 • Posted by Erica Adams

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Credit card companies have situated themselves smack dab in the middle of college campuses across the country and have set the bait for uninformed, sometimes naive and ignorant students, fresh on the college scene. In a recent Newsweek article, author Kurt Soller examines the effects on credit card companies' invasion on college towns. Luring uninformed kids in with small incentives such as free sandwiches or coupons, they cast a line and, sadly, far too often reel 'em in. Within months some of those kids are up to their eyeballs in debt from trying to keep up with the crowd. The credit card companies offer "freedom." What a majority of students end up with is a form of debt jail. As the old saying goes, "There is no such thing as a free lunch."

According to Experian, of all college seniors, 96% have credit cards, and the average indebted young adult spends 25 cents of every dollar paying back debt. Factor in taxes from a first job, and it's going to take you some time to simply get out from under. A survey conducted by Transunion.com stated for the third quarter of 2008 that the average bankcard borrower debt increased nationally 1.57 percent to $5,710 from the previous quarter's $5,621, and 6.0 percent compared to the third quarter of 2007 ($5,387). And delinquency is on the rise as well. Nationally, the ratio of bankcard borrowers delinquent on one or more of their bankcards increased in the third quarter of 2008, up 4.8 percent over the previous quarter. And on a year-over-year basis the national delinquency incidence rate has risen 5.8 percent. Staggering, huh? Well, just think of the billions credit card companies are raking in on late fees as the cherry on top.

SmartyPig is a solution to this debt dilemma plaguing campuses and households alike. Paying exorbitant interest, and more often than not, making only a minimum monthly payment leads to years of heartache. By saving with SmartyPig for the things you want and need, you won't encounter the problems that come along with plastic. Creating goals and contributing to them each month ensures worry-free spending once you've met those goals. Save first, buy later. Some people have labeled it "Bank 2.0." We just think it's common sense for an upside economy.

 

Tags: smartypig   •  saving   •  money   •  credit cards   •  debt   •  delinquency

0 Comments | |

February 20, 2009 • Posted by Michael Ferrari

Customers suggest, SmartyPig listens!

We are happy to announce new features to SmartyPig that came from a couple suggestions our customers made over the past few months. The first is being able to see quickly how much money is currently in all your SmartyPig goals as well as seeing the total monthly contributions scheduled across all your goals for the current month. And for each goal you have, a quick snapshot of the amount you have saved and the total goal amount.

And second, we've updated our "Features" page in the "About Us" section of the site to included a number of videos providing an in-depth look at some of the many unique features of SmartyPig.

Hope you are enjoying saving with SmartyPig. Please let us know your thoughts and if there is anything else you'd like to see on the pig.

 

Mike Ferrari, co-founder

 

Tags: smartypig   •  new features   •  videos

16 Comments | |

February 20, 2009 • Posted by Erica Adams

February Twitter Contest Winners

Did you know you can search for friends' public goals on SmartyPig? This month, we asked you to name one goal that co-founder Mike Ferrari is saving for. There were a number of correct answers, as he has 6 savings goals - ranging from 'saving to save', 'a trip to Italy', 'home improvement' and a 'family iMac'.

We had over 130 responses! The video revealing the winners is a quick one:

Congratulations to RoboJenny, rgiertz and mdcaldbeck! Please make sure to DM us your address via Twitter so we can send out your $100 SmartyPig gift card!

Here are those that made it into the top 20 - thank you for playing and better luck next time! JenniPullen, SpenceMan01, nickcooper, okaymaria, dyanysus1116, godsgeek, chewbocka, Fizzlebearsbaby, veddebra, abkadefgee, zenaburns, chriswoods85, ChrisSnider, lynndro, sfedd, daniAWESOME, chrispund.

 

 

Tags: smartypig twitter contest   •  twitter contest   •  smartypig gift cards

0 Comments | |

February 18, 2009 • Posted by Erica Adams

February Twitter Contest

Let the savings begin! SmartyPig will be giving away three $100 gift cards through our monthly Twitter contest - February 20th at 11 CST. We will tweet a question and give our followers 15 minutes to reply to us. The format:

1. After 15 minutes, we will be picking 20 random people with a number generator from the pool of correct answers.
2. We'll be bringing back a trusted method in selecting three gift card winners.
3. We'll post the process here on our blog, so everyone can follow along!

Make sure:

1. You're following us on Twitter.
2. We'll ask the $100 question on Friday, February 20th at 11am CST.
3. Answer the question correctly for your chance to win!

Remember: if you don't already have a SmartyPig account, it's free to set one up! Winner must be in the US.

Good Luck!

 

Tags: smartypig   •  twitter   •  contest

0 Comments | |