SmartyPig®

SmartyPig Blog

SmartyPig®: April 2008 Archive

The following posts were made in April 2008. You may subscribe to the RSS feed for this archive if you would like to take your time reading through our posts.

http://blog.smartypig.com/archive/04-2008.rss

April 28, 2008 • Posted by Jon Gaskell

High Schoolers, honeymooners and SmartyPig

We absolutely love to hear from our readers about how they use SmartyPig. And we especially love it when they blog about it, telling the world about this cool new way to save that helps reverse the credit card mindset of "buy now, pay later." Here are two recent posts, one by a surprised high school teacher who learned about SmartyPig reading a student's current events paper, and the other by an individual saving for his honeymoon.

Roscommon to Imogene
http://jacobregan.blogspot.com/2008/04/smartypig.html

Online Savings Blog (Written by: thriftyhomeowner.com)
http://www.onlinesavingsblog.com/2008/04/24/using-smartypig-as-a-honeymoon-fund

Tags: savings for teens   •  savings account for kids   •  reducing credit card debt

0 Comments |

April 23, 2008 • Posted by Jon Gaskell

The Social Side of Saving

We heard a story from a young lady a few weeks back who is saving for a down payment on her first home with her fiancée. They want every penny they can scrape together funding that goal - especially the presents she is anticipating receiving when she finishes up graduate school in about a month. When they stumbled upon SmartyPig, she said they had found the perfect way to save. They were really excited about the public contribution piece and the social nature of SmartyPig.

They thought the SmartyPig widget on their soon-to-be created wedding Web site - so they can furnish their home using either Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn, both SmartyPig retail partners - would draw some "serious" attention, and letting friends and family members know about their goal via emails would keep them focused. She isn't the only bride-to-be using SmartyPig. One told us she "doesn't need anything," as it is her "second time around on the wedding merry-go-round" (same with her future spouse). So in lieu of pots and pans and sheets and silverware they're telling people they are registered at SmartyPig and are going to use what they receive for a honeymoon.

Continue Reading...

Tags: smartypig retail partners   •  sensible savings   •  social savings account

0 Comments |

April 21, 2008 • Posted by Jon Gaskell

When Pigs Fly

SmartyPig is getting terrific buzz. Awesome blog reviews and national coverage have led to an extraordinary amount of interest, which has led to a surprising number of customers and a high level of deposits. Exactly what we want. Just one problem: the transaction engine that moves your money into SmartyPig has a cap on the amount of money it will move in any one 24-hour period. Good news is you are making enough transactions to hit the cap. Bad news is, well, you're making enough transactions to hit the cap.

And, as Murphy's law prevails, we hit it over the weekend (when the 24-hour period is actually bundled into Saturday and Sunday); and customer support from the company that controls the transaction engine wasn't as supportive as we needed - kind of like getting the answering service when you really need to talk to the doctor. So as some tried to open accounts, add money to their goals or had automatic deposits scheduled, the error messages started popping up and the emails to our customer support center started coming in. We have spent the better part of the day trying to contact each individual who was inconvenienced to apologize and to let them know all is back to normal.

Continue Reading...

Tags: smartypig   •  savings   •  savings account

0 Comments |

April 20, 2008 • Posted by Jon Gaskell

Update from SmartyPig Team

Due to an extraordinary response to SmartyPig, we are currently in the process of updating our transaction engine to meet the demand. This has caused some disruptions for a few customers, but please be assured your account will not be affected in any way. We really appreciate your business and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. We are surprised at the level of interest and excited to adjust accordingly. If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact us. Thanks!

Tags: smartypig   •  customer service

0 Comments |

April 20, 2008 • Posted by Jon Gaskell

Urgent Notice

Due to an extremely high level of new accounts and a large number of deposits over the past 24 hours, SmartyPig has experienced a system issue with our transaction engine. This issue only affected individuals trying to create new goals or who had monthly transactions scheduled for the 19th and 20th. We are in the process of correcting this issue as quickly as possible. Please be assured your account will not be affected in any way. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused you. Your business is important to us. We truly appreciate your patience. We will update this area soon. Please contact us if you have any questions. Thank you.

Tags: smartypig

0 Comments |