SmartyPig® Tag Feed for 'social banking' http://blog.smartypig.com SmartyPig is the fist online savings account that helps you save for a specific goal and is a high interest savings account. SmartyPig wants to provide consumers with a simple, smart, secure and highly rewarding way to save through free savings accounts. en-us 2008. Copyright SmartyPig http://blog.smartypig.com/template/smarty/images/rss-image.jpg SmartyPig® Tag Feed for 'social banking' http://blog.smartypig.com SmartyPig is the fist online savings account that helps you save for a specific goal and is a high interest savings account. SmartyPig wants to provide consumers with a simple, smart, secure and highly rewarding way to save through free savings accounts. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html PostZinger/v.1.0 Show The World How You Save! http://blog.smartypig.com/rss-read/show-the-world-how-you-save Business "Banking" and "innovation" are two words that are typically not paired up. For years, banks have been interested in the Web but have tended to use it only as an extension for their traditional products. Most banks' idea of Web 2.0 is letting you... Jon Gaskell "Banking" and "innovation" are two words that are typically not paired up. For years, banks have been interested in the Web but have tended to use it only as an extension for their traditional products. Most banks' idea of Web 2.0 is letting you view your balance or statements online. And while it may be better than the old way, there is nothing groundbreaking about it. It may be faster, but it's not different. At SmartyPig we've actually changed the game, and our latest play is our most exciting one by far!

social banking

We have a new widget option for sharing your public goals with friends and family. We are leveraging the Clearspring widget technology from our friends there to allow you to easily integrate your SmartyPig goal widget into the leading social networks, start pages, desktops and blogs. Such as MySpace, Facebook, Google, Dashboard, Live, myYearbook, Netvibes, Hi5, Freewebs, Xanga, Friendster, Tagged, Blackplanet, Blogger, TypePad, Livejournal, Wordpress, Hoverspot, Multiply, Eons, Pageflakes, Webwag, Orkut, Vox, Piczo, and Perfspot.

smartypig widgets

Because we are able to break the mold again and again, reacting quickly to what our customers want, we are watching as our message of responsible saving resonates from coast to coast. And it is not just about folks signing up for SmartyPig, it's what they do upon signing up: They invite others to be a part of the experience. Clusters of users have created their own SmartyPig Friends groups. Some are saving for different events like weddings, a family vacation and the latest in electronics, while others are saving for the same thing, all together, like Spring Break 2009 or their Girls Night Out.

online savings account

Most importantly, all of these individuals are sharing in the goal-saving experience - just like when they share about other aspects of their lives on their social networking pages, Websites and blogs. This true banking/social application is only available on SmartyPig, and we feel our updated widget option will go a long way in our really opening up this social side of saving, letting customers build their groups, allowing others to easily help them along, and most importantly giving them another tool that will keep them focused with regard to sensible saving.

In a terrific post by blogger Guillaume he writes of a "most critical time" for banks regarding true innovation, pointing out that without paying careful attention to what is going on in areas like the social space (like SmartyPig does), traditional financial institutions could be relegated to "mere accountants." We could not agree more. Because while we, too, like to see our bank statements online, we believe that true advancement for entities in the banking space lies in allowing customers to truly interact the way they do everywhere else on the Internet.


online banking social banking social bank account online savings account social savings widget ]]> Thu, 29 May 2008 17:16:00 -0400 http://blog.smartypig.com/rss-read/show-the-world-how-you-save "You're the iPod of Banks" http://blog.smartypig.com/rss-read/youre-the-ipod-of-banks Business That statement from a customer last week was a new one. We've been called "The Google of banks." And "The Facebook of banks." Of course, we've also been called a few other things by people who didn't like us or get us or both. But the one thing... Jon Gaskell That statement from a customer last week was a new one. We've been called "The Google of banks." And "The Facebook of banks." Of course, we've also been called a few other things by people who didn't like us or get us or both. But the one thing pretty much everyone agrees on is that there is nothing like SmartyPig. "You're banking 2.0," a reporter recently told us. That's more like it. And we're getting even more 2.0 with every update... Including today's.

PASSWORD RESET SIMPLIFIED
We heard from a number of you that the password reset was far too complex. So we simplified it. Just like that. So from now on, if you forget your password, and we have to send you a new one, it won't be 50 characters long. OK. That's a slight exaggeration. It was only 30.

SMARTYPIG ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER
Lots of you have asked if we were on Facebook and Twitter. We posted links on our home page. Become a SmartyPig fan on Facebook to keep up with what's new or to weigh in. Follow us on Twitter where we have $100 giveaways for three lucky winners every month.

NON-SUFFICIENT FUNDS FEE ELIMINATED
Our $25 non-sufficient funds fee is now gone. If you setup a goal with a monthly contribution from your existing checking or savings account, and you do not have the available funds, we will simply lock your funding source until the issue can be resolved.

INITIAL DEPOSITS AND MONTHLY GOALS CLARIFIED
To clarify, customers have asked, "Hey, if I start a goal on the 15th of the month, and I set my monthly contribution for the 15th of every month, will BOTH my initial deposit and monthly contribution be initiated?" Great question. And the answer is... Your initial deposit will always be initiated immediately on the day you create your goal. Your monthly withdrawal in this instance will actually not begin until the following month. However, if you had set your monthly withdrawal to the 16th, then it would be initiated the next day.

SECURITY AUDIT
And finally, last month SmartyPig completed a security audit by Primeon® a leader in enterprise-wide application security, planning, assessment, pen-testing, infrastructure scanning and application QA. Primeon's comprehensive methodology, proprietary tools and knowledgebase have been applied to the SmartyPig site to identify deeply rooted vulnerabilities. Leveraging 13+ years of application analysis experience, that exceeds over 1 billion lines of source code reviewed and nearly all computing architectures and languages, Primeon's satisfied clients include many of the Fortune 500 and over 50 of the largest financial services enterprises on Wall Street. So what does this mean to you? Well, it means that SmartyPig takes online security very seriously and we are doing all we can to ensure your experience with SmartyPig is a safe and secure one.


smartypig customer service social banks social banking smartypig banking 2.0 ]]> Thu, 22 May 2008 17:14:00 -0400 http://blog.smartypig.com/rss-read/youre-the-ipod-of-banks