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SmartyPig®: August 2008 Archive

The following posts were made in August 2008. 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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August 29, 2008 • Posted by Michael Ferrari

New Updates on SmartyPig!

Wanted to send out a quick note on a couple new updates on the site. Thanks to some great feedback from customers over the past few months, we've gone ahead and made the following exciting enhancements:

You can now download your transaction history from the "Account Activity" section of your account. We are offering the download in CSV file format right now. We will be looking to add OFX  in the coming months so folks will be able to sync with sites like Mint and Wesabe.

You can also now mark your notifications as "read" and also delete them from the notifications section. The notification indicator in the toolbar will only display "unread" messages moving forward.

And in an effort to reduce emails into your inbox, we've combined the monthly estatement and savings goal update emails.

Please weigh in here or email our support staff with any ideas, questions or concerns.

Thanks and have a great holiday weekend!

Tags: smartypig   •  updates   •  csv   •  ofx

2 Comments |

August 25, 2008 • Posted by Erica Adams

Break Up With Your Abusive Credit Cards

Most Americans are in an extremely abusive relationship - with their credit cards. And more often than not, it's their wallets that are taking a beating. Americans have been so accustomed to putting everything on plastic and worrying about it later, that when banks recently started jacking up credit card rates and cutting back on who they would actually give plastic to try to save themselves (after bleeding you for years), it was a dose of harsh reality to people not living within their means. See, the jig is up.The days of living on cards are over, as are the days of cheap credit. No more posing or pretending. It's time to deal.

This brings me to an interesting article I came across on Fortune.com. Jeff Colvin questions readers, "Personal debt is much higher than before, and average pay is still going nowhere in real terms. So now how do we live as if our standard of living is still rising?" Quick answer: We can't. But we can change things for the better. And Smartypig believes we can help. How? By helping people save up first and begin to reverse the "buy now, pay later" credit card mentality that has gotten so many millions of us upside down financially. Save for your family trip, save for the holidays or save for a your home improvements, but just save!

When you use SmartyPig, you can put away an amount you choose every month for your big purchase while earning one of the most competitive interest rates in the country. Once you've started your goal, put to use the social networking aspect of the site, by sharing your goals with your family and friends that saving money is back and better than ever. And when you reach your goal, enjoy cash boosts of up to 5% on the things you need or want, from your summer vacation to new home appliances.

So whatever you classify as your good life, you can make it even better when you save up for it. It makes all the difference in the world when your things belong to you - not a high-interest credit card company.

Tags: smartypig   •  saving   •  creditcards   •  money   •  debt

0 Comments |

August 21, 2008 • Posted by Michael Ferrari

We've got a lot to live up to!

Just wanted to throw a huge shout out to those who spoke-out on our behalf over the past couple of weeks. We cannot say enough about the amazing orchestrated effort and the passionate tweets, posts, comments and conversations being had supporting the preservation of our brand and technology. It means the world to us.

One thing I can say is that we will strive non-stop so as to not disappoint. We come to work each day with the hopes of making SmartyPig the most innovative financial service in the world. We aim for nothing less than our perfection and your satisfaction in every way possible. And it is you, our users, who determine what we do and if we've done it right - or wrong, and that's when we really want to hear from you.

Again, hats off to our supporters and members who strongly spoke out and who continue to do so. We could not have said it any better. Humbly put, we have much to live up to. Your continued interest is greatly appreciated. Please contact me personally at mferrari(at)smartypig(dot)com for any reason imaginable that can make your experience using SmartyPig a better one.

• lavarow.com
• nerdflood.com
• BlawgIT.com
• TroyRutter.com
• GetANewBrowser.com
• mark.bockenstedt.net
• JustBrady.com
• And many many others...

Mike Ferrari, co-founder

Tags: lavarow.com   •  nerdflood.com   •  blawgit.com   •  troyrutter.com   •  getanewbrowser.com   •  mark.bockenstedt.net   •  justbrady.com

3 Comments |

August 21, 2008 • Posted by Erica Adams

August Twitter Contest Winners

Well, at the last minute we decided to do something just a bit differently than the last couple of contests. Today - instead of throwing darts to pick the names, we decided to put the 20 names that were picked randomly from a number generator (from many, many reponses!) on Ingrid's arm and had Emma ride through on her bike to pick the winners! It was a blast!

Watch the video:

Congratulatons to our three winners, MatthewDP, Kathy_L and jensir!

Also, congratulations to the 20 who made it onto the post it notes, better luck next month: frojive, nickcooper, theGlenn, bakedlaurabean, salmndr007, webboy, spacecostsmoney, JessicaV1223, amywright, dalenz, HighSociety, michpendergrass, soZealous, daniAWESOME, ChicShoppaChick, cgarrety, mikehernalsteen.

Tags: twitter contest   •  gift cards   •  smartypig   •  video

5 Comments |

August 20, 2008 • Posted by Erica Adams

Twitter Contest on Thursday, August 21, Get Ready!

It's that time again. SmartyPig will be giving away three $100 gift cards through our monthly Twitter contest. We will tweet a question and give our followers 15 minutes to reply to us. We had so much fun doing June and July's contest, that we're going to follow the same format.

1. After 15 minutes, we will be picking 20 random people with a number generator from the pool of correct answers.
2. We will then pin those 20 names onto our board.
3. While blindfolded, we will throw darts and three lucky winners of a $100 SmartyPig gift card will be chosen.
4. 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 Thursday, August 21 at 2:30pm 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: twitter contest   •  gift cards   •  smartypig   •  video   •  savings

2 Comments |