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The SmartyPig Blog
February 26, 2010 • Posted by Michael FerrariNew Home Page, Videos and More!
This week we launched a couple new updates to the site that we wanted to let you know about. First we updated the home page and included links to new video tutorials.
The new videos do a great job of highlighting the many unique benefits of SmartyPig, like how to create a new goal, share your goal and redeem your goal. The videos are also located in the “Features and Video Tutorials” page and on our new YouTube Channel.
We also included a new field in the goal creation process, that if you choose to share your goal with friends and family, you can include a goal description as shown below. For more information on how to share a goal on SmartyPig, click here.
And here is how it will look on your sharing page. Remember, friends can find your sharing page by entering your email address on the “Find Friends” page located here.
Thanks and don’t hesitate to reach out to us anytime.
Mike Ferrari, SmartyPig co-founder
@mferrari
Card Act Balancing Act And Why You Still Lose Using Plastic
Thanks to our friends in Washington, credit card companies have a new rulebook that restricts them from raising interest rates while having to disclose the amount of time it will take to pay off debt if consumers only make the minimum payments. Too bad the pundits forgot to take ridiculous fee hikes off the table when it came time to create reform, and the sharks are circling.
In this hilarious piece on how the industry works, comedian Jon Stewart explains why we at SmartyPig feel the way we do about young people getting on the wrong track with plastic. Writes Gawker TV: “Stewart first explained that the problem with American consumers is that they not only desire a Champagne lifestyle on a Busch Light budget, but will take any opportunity to act on that appetite – even when painfully aware of the consequences of doing so. If you let them, they will spend, whether they have the money or not.”
SmartyPig’s stance on fiscal responsibility and the overall evil tactics used by big banks in the form of credit cards has not changed since day one. And we truly feel that Americans are waking up. In a recent blog, we shared some encouraging numbers regarding younger people turning away from credit cards, saving up first, using products that won’t get them in a near-impossible hole to dig out of. Building up good credit is certainly a must at some point. But getting paid a great rate to save and then paid even more to spend that money when you’ve reached your goal is the best way to get started as you begin your financial journey.
Mike Ferrari, SmartyPig co-founder
@mferrari
Credit Card Use Plummeting: Common Sense Soaring!
Call them old fashioned if you wish, but the number of people who just say “no” to credit cards has taken off, leaving in its wake new credit card data that suggests people are either smarter, more afraid or banks are still shying away from extending credit. Whatever the case, whatever is happening is working.
In a recent article about the slowing of credit card usage, USA Today shows us that “Revolving credit – largely made up of credit card debt – fell by nearly 20% in November, and that through October, the number of new credit card accounts was down 46% from the same period in 2008. Those numbers are staggeringly strong. What gives? People simply aren’t up for the abuse at the hands of big banks anymore who will jack up rates at customers’ most vulnerable points.
Sandra Block, the reporter for USA Today spoke to young people who are anti-credit card. What they had to say was as educated as it was eye opening. Why the drop in card usage: It’s a “hassle.” It leads to “huge debt.” It’s not a “rite of passage into adulthood.” It’s “not worth it.” And what do they get in return for keeping the faith and staying true to themselves: “Fewer bills, headaches and fears.”
We here at SmartyPig believe credit cards should be avoided for now, that people should save up of the things they want, take the same route their grandparents did and sock money away – especially in such a troubling economy, and not just for a rainy day. Vacations, electronics, new clothes, necessities, all can be done smartly and without risk.
While credit cards can be useful to build credit, we think people, especially younger people, should probably wait. After all, the difference between bad credit now and good credit later might be as easy as saying no to credit cards until you’re ready. Or as the young Block interviewee Emily Maddox says: “I’ve known people who have had credit cards, and I’ve seen what can happen if you get behind and how hard it is to get out of debt. I don’t like owing people money.”
Mike Ferrari, SmartyPig co-founder
@mferrari
It Pays To Save With SmartyPig
One of the things we most aspire to do here at SmartyPig is to completely and utterly inspire our customers to improve themselves through our program of saving smartly and spending smartly. There is, after all, nothing more rewarding than setting a goal, working toward that goal and finally reaching that goal. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and you’ll find out pretty quickly that the word is out: There is a financial service motivated to helping its customers become better! There is a financial service that greatly rewards people for doing the right thing with their money rather than focusing on getting fat off of people who do the wrong thing! Go figure.
A few weeks back Chris Brumfield, a customer who teaches a Financial Peace University class at his church sent this email to us:
SmartyPig: I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate that you show the interest that I earn each day. I am not sure how many people actually look at that, but I love when I go onto the site each day so I can see my new accrued interest amount calculated into it. By your company having that feature it has truly opened my eyes to how much we are giving to the credit card companies each and every day. It has motivated me to pay down debt and to save money so I can watch the daily interest grow. Thanks for all you do and for assisting in the changing of my family tree. -Chris
Is Chris getting rich off the interest? No. Has he changed the way he is looking at and treating money and will that change his life? You bet – one day at a time, one penny at a time. Chris and others like him, you see, tell us often they are buried under a mountain of debt. But we think mountains are for climbing, and the only way to the top is by taking that first step.
Congratulations, Chris. And thank you for everyone who is spreading the word that it truly pays to save with SmartyPig!
Mike Ferrari
@mferrari
