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Nine Winning Personal Finance Apps to Help You Manage Your Money

If you have found yourself researching personal finance apps, you can find something interesting among nine winning personal finance apps providing assistance from managing budgets to reducing debt to easier bill payment to streamlining the food stamp application process. There is always work on the cutting edge dreaming up new solutions to ongoing financial problems. Below, you can learn about nine winning companies and their apps as announced in the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) and American Banker’s EMERGE Conference in Austin, Texas in May. Announced by the Financial Solutions Lab, you can find more information here: www.finlab.cfsinnovation.com.

Companies found motivation to enter for a chance to win $250,000 from the inaugural $3 million competition. The competition is aimed at identifying solutions that help households better manage their finances on a tight budget. They were chosen from a pool of over 300 applicants from across the country. Entrants competed in presentations in New York before a group of experienced financial professionals.

“Tough problems like managing income volatility need to be addressed by all sectors –technology, nonprofits, academia, and financial services,” said Dalila Wilson-Scott, Head of JPMorgan Chase Foundation. “JPMorgan Chase is committed to being a part of the solution by supporting the Financial Solutions Lab to help all consumers manage their financial lives and achieve their long-term goals.”

The Financial Solutions Lab is a $30 million, five-year initiative managed by the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) with founding partner JPMorgan Chase & Co. to identify, test and expand the availability of promising innovations that help Americans increase savings, improve credit, and build assets. The FinLab is launching a series of competitions to identify solutions to specific consumer financial challenges. It will provide incentives for entrepreneurs, businesses, and nonprofits to enhance financial products and services that address these challenges and improve consumers’ financial health.

Meet the Nine Winners
● Ascend Consumer Finance, Inc. (https://www.ascendloan.com) (San Francisco, CA) – Ascend reduces risk on current loans and rewards the borrower by lowering interest payments for positive financial behaviors, such as reducing debt, decreasing credit card spending and increasing savings.

● Digit (https://digit.co) (San Francisco, CA) – Digit analyzes a user’s spending habits and automatically allocates available funds from checking to savings.

● Even (https://even.me) (Oakland, CA) – Even turns the inconsistent income of hourly and part-time workers into a steady salary by saving money from above average paychecks (in a separate savings account) and boosting low paychecks automatically.

● LendStreet (https://lendstreet.com) (Sunnyvale, CA) – LendStreet is a marketplace-lending platform which helps borrowers reduce their debt and rebuild their credit, and allows investors to buy the loan at a discount.

● PayGoal by Neighborhood Trust (http://neighborhoodtrust.org) (New York, NY) – PayGoal is a workplace tool that enables financially underserved workers to improve the allocation of wages toward their principal financial goals using a simple, guided mobile experience that leverages behavioral insights.

● Prism (https://www.prismmoney.com) (Bellevue, WA) – Prism is a comprehensive bill payment and management app that helps people across the country better manage their personal finances and pay their bills from their smartphones.

● Propel (http://joinpropel.com) (Brooklyn, NY) – Propel’s technology simplifies the food stamp application process by streamlining the initial enrollment form, eliminating the hassle of submitting paper documents, and providing a phone-friendly interface.

● Puddle (San Francisco, CA) – Puddle is a platform for reputation-based borrowing, allowing anyone with a debit card to make small short-term loans to other trusted borrowers.

● SupportPay (http://supportpay.com) (Santa Clara, CA) – SupportPay is an automated child support payment platform that enables parents to share child expenses and exchange child support directly with each other.

In addition to the capital prizes, each winning team will receive the following benefits:
● National partnership opportunities to help innovators increase the reach of their products
● Access to the CFSI network and to JPMorgan Chase expertise
● Direct, ongoing mentorship from industry leaders

These nine organizations represent the next generation of consumer champions. Their winning solutions embrace consumer-friendly design, promote consumer success, build trust, and create opportunity in order to generate mutual benefit for providers and consumers. To learn more about the winners, visit http://bit.ly/1PQ662q.

Commentary: This group of apps looks like it spans a good ground that can help consumers in a variety of personal finance situations. It is great to see institutions backing competition like these that foster innovation and help new companies develop their products. I will be looking forward to hearing more from these companies, learning about their products and learning about future winners.

If you use any of these apps, let us know. We would love to hear about your experiences. If you know someone that might benefit from one of these apps share this article. Everyone appreciates a new app to try, especially if it can help them with their money.

Image Attribution:
Featured Image (up top): Sean MacEntee
Iphone App Swirl: Blake Patterson

July 30, 2015
Nature vs. Nurture Which Affect Your Spending Habits?

This is an interesting item on the topic of nature vs nurture and how they may affect your spending habits. Although the study came out in 2013, it does not appear the information has changed. For those who are curious, read on.

Which affects your spending and borrowing habits more, nature or nurture? Does it matter? Well Dr. Hersh Shefrin, Chair in the Department of Finance at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business seems to think so. In a recent paper for Chase Blueprint’s Resource Center for Mindful Spending, Dr. Shefrin, takes a deeper look into the psychology of why we spend and borrow the way we do.[pullquote_right]…financial education has largely been ineffective in increasing our degree of financial literacy …[/pullquote_right]]

Some would argue it is due to a genetic predisposition, while others would say it is a matter of financial literacy. Well, you would be surprised to find it is actually a little of both. While nature and instincts play a part, a strategic, well-educated thought process (nurture), can override habits and knee-jerk reactions for instant gratification.

According to Dr. Shefrin, Traditional financial education has largely been ineffective in increasing our degree of financial literacy because traditional methods fail to take into consideration the importance of psychology and the knowledge of how our brains make decisions. A recent study showed those with financial literacy training fared no better on tests than those who did not take the class.

Dr. Shefrin suggests the key to better financial literacy would be a two-fold approach. First, identify what motivates us, then design programs aimed at helping develop and maintain strong spending and borrowing patterns. Some ways to do this would be by designing smart, nurturing programs that help people carry out the basics of managing spending and borrowing. Another way would be with the use of modern technology, such as personal financial management tools aimed at providing consumers with their spending data in a straight forward way. Finally, turning finances into fun with the use of games would go a long way to help instill better spending and borrowing habits in children, particularly during the K-12 years.

“There is a high cost to making bad financial decisions,” says Dr. Shefrin. To make real progress, we should harness innovations that can make it possible for people to overcome poor spending and borrowing habits.”

Why do we spend this way?

For more information on the role nature and nurture plays in our spending habits, visit: https://www.chase.com/online/chase_blueprint/document/JPMC_Chase_BornToSpend_FINAL.pdf

For more information on the Resource Center for Mindful Spending, visit: https://www.chase.com/online/chase_blueprint/resource-center.htm

January 22, 2015
Chase Freedom Lifestyle Index Points to Consumer Confidence

Do you remember how you spent the summer? If how Americans spent their money is any indication, families across the nation stuck their collective noses into a lot of books, hit the road and generally tried to improve themselves. That’s according to the recently released third quarter Chase Freedom Lifestyle Index.

Released each quarter, the Chase Freedom Lifestyle Index is one of many tools available to measure consumer attitudes and behaviors. Unlike opinion polls, the Chase Freedom Lifestyle Index tracks actual spending by Chase cardholders and releases the data in its aggregate form. Given that Chase cardholders represent a broad cross section of Americans, the index can provide a window into consumer trends and reflect overall confidence in the economy.

If that’s the case, then this most recent iteration of the index paints a fairly rosy picture of consumer mindsets heading into the already revved up holiday season. For instance, the index found that consumers spent 13 percent more on books than they did during the same period last year and 18 percent more than in 2012. Spending on lessons and classes also saw a significant six percent uptick and outlays for sporting goods also rose by eight percent. Some of the increases in spending were also clearly seasonal. The amount spent on tolls rose by 35 percent compared to 2012 – up 17 percent compared to last year – and purchases of office supplies and consumer electronics were also up briskly, a reflection of preparing for an upcoming school year.

There were some weak areas of spending in the index. Whether it was a lack of good movies or too much good summer weather to blame, movie theater purchases were down by 25 percent. Also down compared to 2013 were toy purchases, which fell by 10 percent. And despite higher prices, grocery spending also was slightly down, dropping by one percent compared to 2013.

The release of the Chase Freedom Lifestyle Index came on the heels of the results of the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, which were revealed on October 28. Many analysts had expected the index to decline, in keeping with a sluggish September report. But the index rose from 89 in September to 94.5 in October. “A more favorable assessment of the current job market and business conditions contributed to the improvement in consumers’ view of the present situation,” said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at the Conference Board. “Looking ahead, consumers have regained confidence in the short-term outlook for the economy and labor market, and are more optimistic about their future earnings potential. With the holiday season around the corner, this boost in confidence should be a welcome sign for retailers.”

November 10, 2014
JP Morgan Chase Aims to Boost Consumer Financial Security

Over the summer CardRatings.com issued a disturbing report that revealed the sorry state of financial literacy among the general population. Despite all of the news about data breaches at Target and Home Depot, fewer than half of those surveyed knew the proper steps to take to monitor and protect their credit – basic steps to maintaining financial security. This lack of understanding, unfortunately, extends beyond just credit issues to the basics of savings and investing and other straightforward elements of financial fitness. Add in the stressed finances of many American families and the predatory practices of payday loan and check cashing outfits and it all adds up to a major problem.

Yet it is one the financial services industry seems increasingly focused on addressing. As part of that effort, JPMorgan Chase & Company announced on Sept. 19 a two-year, $35 million effort to assist individuals and families to save money, build credit and generally improve their financial security. The money will be disbursed in the forms of grants to non-profit organizations that help consumers boost their financial knowledge and that also develop financial products and tools that meet the needs of typically under-served communities.

Indeed, according to JPMorgan Chase, its grants will be targeted to three distinct areas. For one thing, it will be seeking out non-profits that can provide innovative, technology-heavy financial solutions to help meet consumer needs in an affordable way. Understanding that innovative solutions that nobody knows about aren’t useful, grants will also be given to support efforts to expand the availability of these novel solutions. And grantees that seek to disseminate financial best practices will also be considered.

For instance, JPMorgan Chase contributed $150,000 to MoneyThink to help that group develop and app and curriculum to boost the financial literacy of 11^th and 12^th graders. “Chase’s support will help serve an additional 2,000 youth through near-peer mentorship and game-based mobile technologies,” said Ted Gonder, the CEO of MoneyThink.

This latest announcement is a follow-up to JP Morgan Chase’s establishment earlier this year of the Financial Solutions Lab. A five-year, $30 million program in collaboration with the Center for Financial Services Innovation, the lab is centered on developing and distributing innovative products that improve financial security.

September 24, 2014
Chase Liquid Adopts Disclosure Recommendations

Chase has adopted consumer-friendly disclosure recommendations for its Chase Liquid prepaid card. At the same time that the Pew Charitable Trusts unveiled detailed suggestions about the types of fees and other disclosures all prepaid debit card issuers should make available to consumers, Chase announced that it would do exactly what Pew advised.

The popular Chase Liquid prepaid card became the first product to follow Pew’s road map, which was released in hopes of making it easier for shoppers to choose between quickly multiplying prepaid card options. Although prepaid cards have seen a steady and sharp rise in popularity over the past few years, Pew notes that there are no legal or regulatory requirements that card issuers must follow when it comes to disclosures about fees, terms and conditions. Pew has also found that only 32 percent of consumers actually compare card terms before selecting one.

By quickly implementing Pew’s disclosure suggestions, Chase may very well be grabbing a competitive advantage in the increasingly cutthroat fight for prepaid card customers. It also doesn’t exactly hurt Chase’s reputation among lawmakers, including US Senator Mark Warner, who recently introduced legislation to compel financial institutions to more clearly disclose fees related to their prepaid cards. “I commend Pew for their work on this issue and Chase for being the first prepaid card provider to adopt the disclosure box for their cards, which I proposed making standard for the industry in my legislation,” says Warner.

The Chase Liquid disclosure form is attached to the packaging that comes with the physical card. The box includes information on a wide range of fees – although many don’t apply to Chase Liquid – including charges to get cash back from a purchase, a monthly account maintenance fee and the charge for calling a customer service telephone number.

For its part, Pew hopes that Chase is just the first of many prepaid card issuers to follow its disclosure recommendations. “Pew’s research shows that inconsistent disclosures make it difficult to understand the fees associated with each prepaid card,” says Susan Weinstock, director of Pew’s safe checking research. “Terms should be plainly stated so that consumers can make fully informed financial decisions. Chase is taking an important step toward making these cards more beneficial and we hope other providers will follow.”

March 12, 2014
Prepaid Card Fraud Controllable

A recent report by Mercator Advisory Group examines the vulnerability of prepaid debit cards to criminals.

by Chris Warren

Prepaid debit cards make it into the news a lot these days. A lot of the time stories are focused on the maneuvering of large financial services companies like Chase and American Express and the various strategies they’re implementing to grab a larger chunk of this ever-growing market.

But there has also been a steady stream of news recently about fraud involving prepaid debit cards. For instance, in mid-November six Yonkers, New York residents were arrested and charged with hacking into bank financial systems and swiping prepaid debit card information that enabled them to steal $45 million. There have also been frequent reports of criminals posing as utility workers, who threaten victims with shutting off their power unless they put money on a prepaid debit card.

While the use of prepaid debit cards by criminals is gaining notoriety, the scope of the overall problem may not be so dire. Indeed, according to a recent report by Mercator Advisory Group, a consulting company, fraud involving prepaid debit cards is much smaller than what takes place with debit cards. The report, “Prepaid Card Fraud and Risk Controls in the United States,” notes that criminals target credit, debit and prepaid cards alike simply because they all have some level of weakness that can be exploited.

In addition, Ben Jackson, the report’s co-author and a senior analyst at Mercator’s Prepaid Advisory Service, insists that further regulation of the industry isn’t necessary. “Prepaid fraud is a serious, but manageable problem, as long as the members of the prepaid value chain work together. There is nothing inherent to prepaid that makes it more or less risky than other financial products,” he says.

Furthermore, Jackson outlines a variety of best practices that can be implemented to thwart criminals. For instance, the report says that card issuers and retailers should not be hesitant to say “no” to customers who raise red flags. In addition, the report encourages companies and banks to ask for additional documentation in situations when they feel it’s warranted and also to create a list of problematic names, addresses and phone numbers.

December 5, 2013