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February 26, 2010 • Posted by Michael Ferrari

New 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

 

Tags: smartypig   •  new features   •  video tutorials   •  goal description

2 Comments | |

November 17, 2009 • Posted by Michael Ferrari

Exciting New Features Go Live!

We are really excited to announce some new features on SmartyPig, many of which came directly from suggestions made by you. First, the list of retail and travel companies we utilize has been updated based on their relevance to your savings goals. More importantly, the maximum cash boost offered by us to you using these retailers' gift cards has doubled from 6% to 12%, and the options for redemption have been enhanced greatly to offer more flexibility. Lastly, and due to extremely high demand, we've added a few alternatives regarding how an individual or family contributes to their goal, as well as a feature that allows you to easily move money from one goal to another. Check it out!

#1 - Enhanced retailers; cash boosts of up to 12%
Let's say you need a new living room set, you've made an initial deposit of $25 and are putting away $300 a month over twelve months. One year after creating your goal, you'll have $3,625 and will have earned approximately $25 in interest over the course of that year, bringing the goal balance to $3,650. Now, if you take your savings out on a Macy's gift card, SmartyPig will give you a cash boost of 12% (nearly $440), bringing your goal plus interest plus boost to $4,090 − some $465 more than the $3,625 you put away. Big bucks are that easy with SmartyPig!

For a complete list of retailers, cash boosts and terms, click here. We will continue to add to this list in the upcoming weeks.

#2 - Split your savings up
Before today, when you closed your goal, you could only redeem all of your funds to one redemption option. But our new redemption program offers more flexibility, allowing you to parse out your savings goal among all three options! Do you need gifts from Barnes & Noble Booksellers and GameStop, as well as a ticket on American Airlines for the holidays and want FREE cash in your pocket? No sweat. Want to put the rest on your SmartyPig MasterCard debit card for added flexibility? We've got you covered. You may also transfer all or portions of your goal electronically back to your checking or savings account. Here are screenshots from the new redemption process:

> Step 1: Overview

> Step 2: Select Retail Cards

>Step 3: Transfer to Debit Card

>Step 4: Transfer to Bank Account (ACH)

>Step 5: Confirmation

#3 - Additional recurring contribution options
The date that scheduled transactions occur has been moved from the funding source to the goal itself. In addition, we have added three new recurring contribution options. We still have the monthly option, but we've gone ahead and added "twice a month," "every 14 days," and "none." What's that all about? Well, if you want to contribute monthly for a baby on the way and every payday for an upcoming vacation, you can do it. Or if you want to use SmartyPig simply as a gift registry for your honeymoon, so you can get a cash boost for a great trip but don't want to contribute at all, just set up your goal, skip putting your own money in, drop a widget on your wedding Website and let your friends and family members carry the day!

In addition, you are free to set your own recurring amount or let SmartyPig recommend one for you.

#4 - Transfer funds from one goal to another
Have your goals changed? Have you found out that new washer and dryer set is on sale for $850 instead of a thousand? (Not including the cash boost from SmartyPig!) Have a few friends put you over the top of your goal, and you have something left over? Now you can simply move money from one goal to another without stopping and starting over again.

We hope you'll share in our excitement as we continue to strive to be the leader in smart saving and smart spending. Over the next few months we'll make even more announcements regarding further improvements and partnerships. In the meantime, though, please keep letting us know how to make SmartyPig better. And please tell your friends.

Thank you!

Michael Ferrari, co-founder
mferrari@smartypig.com
@mferrari

 

Tags: smartypig   •  new features   •  redemption   •  monthly   •  twice a month   •  every 14 days   •  transfer

66 Comments | |

October 20, 2009 • Posted by Michael Ferrari

"Smarter" Pig Is On Its Way

In the 18 months since we launched SmartyPig, we've made a dozen or so unique upgrades to our service. Why? Because you told us to. Sure it's cliché to insist a product is what its customers want it to be - unless you mean it. And we do. We heard almost immediately after we launched that we needed an ACH option at redemption, so we added it. Then we heard it needed to be faster. So we made it faster. Connect with sites like Mint. Launch a mobile site. Add additional sharing features like Twitter and Facebook connect. Enhance our widgets. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done.

We're not just tooting our own horn, but typically a financial services company would take 18 months to launch a single product - after a lot of focus groups and maybe a few pilot runs in test markets. It may work. It may not. The need for it may have changed or gone away completely. In the social world of Web 2.0, though, where you are right now, things move pretty fast. People want back and forth. People want more. People want a new kind of relationship where their ideas matter.

So within the next month or so we're going to unveil a few pretty dramatic upgrades and enhancements in our service. More will come in December, and then even more in January. We've been hearing what's important to you. And we're all set to take SmartyPig to the next level - faster, easier, better. As the leader in the Bank 2.0 space, we vow to continue to provide groundbreaking features, terrific technology, the best possible deals and top-notch customer service. What all of that looks like, however, is pretty much up to you. Just let me know.

Thanks,

Mike Ferrari, co-founder
@mferrari

 

Tags: smartypig   •  new features

24 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

17 Comments | |

December 26, 2008 • Posted by Michael Ferrari

New Features On SmartyPig

Today we rolled out some new features on SmartyPig. We've heard from many of you over the past few months that you would like to be able to visualize your account goals, so we added a new section in your account called "Visualizer". You can now easily chart your goals and see a detailed breakout of your funds broken out by your deposits, gifts from others and interest paid. We believe this is just the beginning and are anxious to hear what you think.

We've also added a new "Features" page in the "About" section that will highlight new features as we roll them out in the future.

And lastly, many of you have suggested it would be nice to see when your next monthly contribution will be initiated. You can now locate this information in the goals detail section of your account.

In 1st quarter of 2009, we will be rolling out a new mobile application and we wanted to give you a sneak peek so here you go! And yes, very soon your SmartyPig account will integrate with sites like Mint, Geezeo, Wesabe, Rudder, Yodlee and more...

Thank you to everyone for making 2008 a terrific year at SmartyPig. We are looking forward to 2009 and with your help, suggestions and feedback, we will continue to improve upon what we believe is the simplest and most rewarding way to save.

Tags: smartypig   •  visualizer   •  charts   •  graphs   •  new features   •  mint   •  geezeo   •  wesabe   •  rudder   •  yodlee   •  mobile

16 Comments | |