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tl;dr App called "even" allows people with incredibly variable income (case study is on a massage therapist, lots of money one week, little the next) to even ou
by preinheimer 11y ago
tl;dr
App called "even" allows people with incredibly variable income (case study is on a massage therapist, lots of money one week, little the next) to even out their income. They evaluate their income history, then offer a stabilized value, say $380/week. Weeks they make more, the application takes it and puts it aside. Weeks they make less, it either pulls it in from a reserve, or an instant loan is made.
Costs users $3/week. Which is non-trivial, but less than a payday loan company.
- gadders 11y agoWhen I started reading I thought it was going to be "Uber for Masseuses" but it turned out to be more interesting than that. I hope it works out.
- profinger 11y agoThank you. This article was way too long to get such a simple thing across.
- belorn 11y agoSo its a very basic personal economy management tool that automatically takes loan and restrict withdraws. Sound risky.
- qzcx 11y agoWhat is the risk you are referring to? On the surface it sounds like a decent app for someone who lacks financial skills.
- belorn 11y agoMaking automatic loans sound very similar to sms loans, which is a common cause for people falling into incurable debt. It mean less insight and less responsibility, targeted to those who lack financial skills. That could make things better in theory, or things much much worse if the incentives are to get people to take unnecessary and expensive loans.
- icebraining 11y agoThey say they aren't loans, but credits. It's not clear that you actually become indebted to them.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- belorn 11y agoIf its only credit and this work, banks really have something to learn from this. Having customers pay you to restrict withdraws from the bank account is one those ideas that sound crazy, but sure, I can see some direct value from that kind of service. Not one I would personally pay for.
- joshdance 11y agoNot nearly as risky as using a payday loan. If you have someone you could borrow $500 from you are not the target market for this app.
- qzcx 11y agoFor once I wished I came to the comments before reading. It was an interesting article, but it is definitely full of fluff
- yawz 11y agoExactly my thoughts :/.
- mblevin 11y agoBrilliant from a PR perspective though for your average NYT reader. I would kill to get an article like that written - it's lengthy, detailed, has an accurate representation of the actual function of the app with tone a that's not breathless or sycophantic, and just the right level of skepticism thrown in so that readers believe a deep, detailed analysis has been done and that this is the future.
- redthrowaway 11y agoWhat's the value of that PR? Attracting quality employees or boosting VC interest? Because I highly doubt their target market is reading articles about startups in the NYT.
- noer 11y agoAttracting quality employees I'd imagine. I think a twitterbot I had been using followed the user researcher in the article because she tweeted today about looking for talent.
- IanCal 11y ago> Costs users $3/week. Which is non-trivial, but less than a payday loan company. That does depend how much and how often you need to borrow money. If twice a year I need to borrow $50 but pay it back the next month, that's equivalent to a 13000% APR loan rate (~$150 for the convenience of borrowing $50 for a month twice is equivalent to borrowing $50 and paying back $125 the next month, 150% per month or 13000% per year). It doesn't have the same risk of spiralling out of control, but for small short term loans this is a really expensive thing to do. Edit - For comparison, $150/year is like borrowing $2800 at 10% and paying it off in a year.