5 ms·

SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

38 points by filipmares 15y ago

endlessvoid94 15y ago
This site has the exact mechanics of a slot machine.
- michaelcampbell 15y ago
  Except the machine is your own "house" (bank accounts), right?
  - ssx 15y ago
    Co-founder at SaveUp here. SaveUp is absolutely free. Think of it as a rewards program that is scalable to any financial instrument. You can earn SaveUp credits with an type of account ( ING Savings Account, Chase Credit Card, etc). Basic concept is we reward you for good financial actions. We have sponsors and will get more sponsors to offset the prizes, as well as financial referrals.
    - sunchild 15y ago
      So, my "reward" is an advertising opportunity for banks, insurance companies, etc.? They better be offering some sweet deals.
      - ssx 15y ago
        Your reward can possibly be $2million or any of the prizes on our site. We will never accept financial products that are not in the best interest of our users. Nor will we ever sell your information. We are just trying create an entirely new rewards program that is free and self sustaining. Our inspiration comes from Prize-linked savings. Check out this article about PLS. http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/11/18/freakonomics-radio-could-a-lottery-be-the-answer-to-americas-poor-savings-rate/ http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/11/18/freakonomics-radio-co...
        sunchild 15y ago
        In the end, it will all depend on what offers you can secure from companies that like penny-wise customers. It's a very relevant demographic, for sure. I would think the pitches would be for savings and investment products, insurance, mortgage refi, coupons, group buys, and loyalty programs. It's a good business plan, but it really depends on the quality of the offers. Consumers have been conditioned to distrust financial/insurance products, since they are so often a scam wrapped in a scam – even when offered by the biggest names.
- Androsynth 15y ago
  that's gamification in a nutshell
- run4yourlives 15y ago
  ...that you own.
Hisoka 15y ago
I visited this site and had no clue what to do after 5 minutes.. Is this like Mint? I need to link all my accounts so they can verify it? I get points for reading the articles? It's just a lottery? All confused... horrible intro.
monkeygus 15y ago
this seems like it should be part of mint's site..
felideon 15y ago
I signed up and quickly went through the tour, but now I realize I went too quickly. I don't know how to redo the tour (or if it's even possible), and can't find anything with a similar explanation. Then again, it's mostly self-explanatory: just click on a Play Now button. :) (EDIT: Hah! This is kind of cool. I'm playing slots, except not spending any money. (Au contraire, the more I save the more I can play.)
- woodesigns 15y ago
  A lot of the information in the tour can be found here: https://www.saveup.com/about/how-it-works https://www.saveup.com/about/how-it-works Hopefully that's helpful.
- ssx 15y ago
  We are definitely going to add a button to take the tour again. But for now, you can just go here: saveup.com/?tour=1
  - hugh3 15y ago
    So I have to sign up for your service before I find out what it does? I can't find any details at all outside the media coverage, and if I'm gonna sign up to turn my financial affairs into a game I'm gonna want to know what the rules are first. edit: Wait, I found https://www.saveup.com/about/faq https://www.saveup.com/about/faq
hugh3 15y ago
Alright, I think I understand the rules now. You earn one "credit" for every dollar you deposit into a registered savings account (or every dollar you pay off a registered mortgage, or whatever). There's no limit to how many credits you can earn, but there is a limit to how many credits you can spend: a maximum of thirty a day. Credits are spent by putting 'em into a big slot machine which dispenses prizes whose value and winning probability are unknown. Hopefully you can get something, though. The best way to game the system seems to be: 1. Move, say, $10,000 out of your savings account into your checking account 2. Sign up for saveup 3. Move the $10,000 back into your checking account, claim your ten thousand credits 4. Spin the wheel three times a day for the rest of the year and hope you get enough prizes to make the effort worthwhile. Do I have it right? edit: Aha! I found more information on the precise rules of the contest: https://www.saveup.com/rules https://www.saveup.com/rules including the probabilities of winning prizes. For instance, your odds of winning the two million dollar prize they're so keen on talking about are 1:170,230,452. On the other hand, your chances of winning $10 are one in 4133. There seem to be various different types of drawing which you can enter, but none of 'em seems to have better than a 1:1000 chance of winning even the most trivial amount of money (five dollars).
- danielamitay 15y ago
  I went through and found the expected values of the Jackpot and $50k instant win tickets, and found the expected value (excluding the inclusive value of additional credit rewards) to be ~$0.016 By that metric, 1 credit is worth $0.0016, and 10,000 is worth $16.
  - hugh3 15y ago
    Sounds roughly right. Or to put it another way, you can, at the cost of an extra daily chore and a bunch of "special offer" emails, earn about four point eight cents a day. I'm afraid I'm just not sold on the value proposition.
- jessedhillon 15y ago
  Savings accounts are subject to regulation D -- you can only transfer money out of them a maximum of six times a month: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_D_(FRB) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_D_(FRB)

38 points by filipmares 15y ago

endlessvoid94 15y ago

This site has the exact mechanics of a slot machine.

michaelcampbell 15y ago
Except the machine is your own "house" (bank accounts), right?
- ssx 15y ago
  Co-founder at SaveUp here. SaveUp is absolutely free. Think of it as a rewards program that is scalable to any financial instrument. You can earn SaveUp credits with an type of account ( ING Savings Account, Chase Credit Card, etc). Basic concept is we reward you for good financial actions. We have sponsors and will get more sponsors to offset the prizes, as well as financial referrals.
  - sunchild 15y ago
    So, my "reward" is an advertising opportunity for banks, insurance companies, etc.? They better be offering some sweet deals.
    - ssx 15y ago
      Your reward can possibly be $2million or any of the prizes on our site. We will never accept financial products that are not in the best interest of our users. Nor will we ever sell your information. We are just trying create an entirely new rewards program that is free and self sustaining. Our inspiration comes from Prize-linked savings. Check out this article about PLS. http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/11/18/freakonomics-radio-could-a-lottery-be-the-answer-to-americas-poor-savings-rate/ http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/11/18/freakonomics-radio-co...
      - sunchild 15y ago
        In the end, it will all depend on what offers you can secure from companies that like penny-wise customers. It's a very relevant demographic, for sure. I would think the pitches would be for savings and investment products, insurance, mortgage refi, coupons, group buys, and loyalty programs. It's a good business plan, but it really depends on the quality of the offers. Consumers have been conditioned to distrust financial/insurance products, since they are so often a scam wrapped in a scam – even when offered by the biggest names.
Androsynth 15y ago
that's gamification in a nutshell
run4yourlives 15y ago
...that you own.

Hisoka 15y ago

I visited this site and had no clue what to do after 5 minutes.. Is this like Mint? I need to link all my accounts so they can verify it? I get points for reading the articles? It's just a lottery? All confused... horrible intro.

monkeygus 15y ago

this seems like it should be part of mint's site..

felideon 15y ago

I signed up and quickly went through the tour, but now I realize I went too quickly. I don't know how to redo the tour (or if it's even possible), and can't find anything with a similar explanation. Then again, it's mostly self-explanatory: just click on a Play Now button. :) (EDIT: Hah! This is kind of cool. I'm playing slots, except not spending any money. (Au contraire, the more I save the more I can play.)

woodesigns 15y ago
A lot of the information in the tour can be found here: https://www.saveup.com/about/how-it-works https://www.saveup.com/about/how-it-works Hopefully that's helpful.
ssx 15y ago
We are definitely going to add a button to take the tour again. But for now, you can just go here: saveup.com/?tour=1
- hugh3 15y ago
  So I have to sign up for your service before I find out what it does? I can't find any details at all outside the media coverage, and if I'm gonna sign up to turn my financial affairs into a game I'm gonna want to know what the rules are first. edit: Wait, I found https://www.saveup.com/about/faq https://www.saveup.com/about/faq

hugh3 15y ago

Alright, I think I understand the rules now. You earn one "credit" for every dollar you deposit into a registered savings account (or every dollar you pay off a registered mortgage, or whatever). There's no limit to how many credits you can earn, but there is a limit to how many credits you can spend: a maximum of thirty a day. Credits are spent by putting 'em into a big slot machine which dispenses prizes whose value and winning probability are unknown. Hopefully you can get something, though. The best way to game the system seems to be: 1. Move, say, $10,000 out of your savings account into your checking account 2. Sign up for saveup 3. Move the $10,000 back into your checking account, claim your ten thousand credits 4. Spin the wheel three times a day for the rest of the year and hope you get enough prizes to make the effort worthwhile. Do I have it right? edit: Aha! I found more information on the precise rules of the contest: https://www.saveup.com/rules https://www.saveup.com/rules including the probabilities of winning prizes. For instance, your odds of winning the two million dollar prize they're so keen on talking about are 1:170,230,452. On the other hand, your chances of winning $10 are one in 4133. There seem to be various different types of drawing which you can enter, but none of 'em seems to have better than a 1:1000 chance of winning even the most trivial amount of money (five dollars).

danielamitay 15y ago
I went through and found the expected values of the Jackpot and $50k instant win tickets, and found the expected value (excluding the inclusive value of additional credit rewards) to be ~$0.016 By that metric, 1 credit is worth $0.0016, and 10,000 is worth $16.
- hugh3 15y ago
  Sounds roughly right. Or to put it another way, you can, at the cost of an extra daily chore and a bunch of "special offer" emails, earn about four point eight cents a day. I'm afraid I'm just not sold on the value proposition.
jessedhillon 15y ago
Savings accounts are subject to regulation D -- you can only transfer money out of them a maximum of six times a month: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_D_(FRB) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_D_(FRB)