The growing popularity of personal financial management
tools has been one of the more positive developments since the
economic crisis gathered pace. While Mint.com remains the best
known vendor, the marketplace is becoming crowded as firms such as
Moneystrands, Thrive, Hellowallet, Clear Checkbook and Billeo
compete for consumers’ attention
Go deeper with GlobalData
The “personal” in personal financial management might just have
to yield to “social” financial management, as a number of new
developments underscore the realities of a wired world.
Information once deemed private, and financial activities long
deemed personal, are being shared in social networks, changing the
way consumers talk about and exchange financial tips and
decisions.
It’s a sea change, said Ken Sun, a mobile products manager at
Intuit Personal Finance, who was deeply involved in the development
and launch of the new Mint.com iPad application that makes
financial management social and collaborative.
“We see our users managing their finances in collaborative ways,
with couples and families sharing information, and the iPad’s wide
screen really helps people peer over it sitting on the couch,” Sun
says.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalData“We just spent two watching customers use it – people literally
touching their money, and playing with the pie charts and moving
their spending categories around and really reacting to these big,
beautiful graphics, really encouraging sharing and engagement.”
Users can sync the app with various accounts so they can see
real-time balances, and also can create budgets, track spending,
get bill reminders, and generate reports to analyze the health of
their finances.
A new addition to the iPad app allows users to manually enter a
cash transaction, with Google Places picking up the location of the
purchase and categorizing it automatically.
Intuit updated its iPhone app as “universal” platform, so it
translates seamlessly to the larger, more visually appealing space
of the iPad.
Because it is a cloud-based app, any information entered on a
mobile device is instantly available through the user’s account on
the Mint.com website, and vice versa.
The iPad also allows the Mint.com app to engage all members of a
household on a single screen, facilitating conversations between
the family around a social network.
It’s a reorientation of the financial management context, which
until now had always been built around one-on-one conversation
between the PFM site and a single user.
Intuit built the Mint.com app on the newly released iOS 5,
including Automatic Reference Counting technology, which means must
faster operating speed. In addition, customers will receive instant
updates on bill reminders, alerts and other account activity
through the app’s Notification Centre.
To facilitate faster user set up, Mint is populated with account
information from 18,000 institutions, ranging from credit unions to
PayPal, says Sun. In most cases, a user has only to enter his
online sign-in name and password to gain access to his data.
Sun says that that its initial analysis of usage patterns
indicates that iPad app users engage in a different way than
smartphone app users. Smartphone apps typically are used throughout
the day in 30 to 60 second bursts, where the user wants a
particular piece of information. With the iPad app, Mint is seeing
much longer sessions, often at night, as users take a broader,
longer look at their finances.
At the heart of Mint.com’s app lies its Advice Engine, which
serves as a referral agent for a host of financial service
partners, from credit card issuers to brokerage firms, 401(k)
rollovers and insurance. Based on a constantly updated analysis of
the customer’s financial dashboard, the engine picks selected
offers and presents them to the customer.
Sun says that the iPad changes the very nature of financial
management.
“We see customers engage with the iPad, and we can see a real
change in the way people interact with their finances,” he said.
“It’s a wholly new medium, and it become a real conversation.”
Sun also sees real opportunities for engagement and sharing on
social networks and on the Mint.com forum. Mint.com aggregates all
of its spending data from more than 7 million users and allows
people to compare their spending with different demographics,
different geographic locations.
“People love looking to how they compare with others,” he
says.
Billeo – the online bill payments and shopping service that
consolidates its users various payments directly to vendors online
in one place – also senses a shift in the engagement with financial
information on social networks.
Murali Subbarao, CEO of Billeo, tells RBI:
“We work in online transactions, so we see sharing things as a
click away, and what is interesting is the online users – pretty
tech-savvy people – love the social element around shopping but
surprisingly, also bill pay.”
Billeo’s ShopSmart iPad app allows businesses to optimize
rewards and loyalty programs by layering offers directly into
people’s search results to alert shoppers when a relevant discount
is available.
The application also links shoppers to their friends, enabling
financial institutions offering the system to be part of online
conversations already happening around shopping and daily
deals.
“The apps are context-aware technology, which means they
understand what a user is doing online and adjust accordingly,”
Subbarao says.
“Depending on the person, shopping can be either intensely
private or quite public, but there are certain things people really
like to share, like their evaluation of a product pre-purchase, and
their reviews post-purchase.”
When a Billeo users searches for a product, the system presents
offers that are relevant at that moment, and allows the user to
share offers and add comments on Facebook, so a user can begin a
conversation about the product, and get feedback from their social
network.
“All of these daily deals out there offer a real opportunity for
social networking,” he says.
Billeo’s financial partners can connect with shoppers at every
point during the online shopping session, from browsing through
purchase and beyond – to reach, engage and incentivize them along
the way.
Subbarao says that it is clear that a fundamental change is
underway in the exchange of shopping information.
“I think there are some things that are quite private, but there
are things that lend themselves to the social conversation,” he
said. “We’ll continue to see momentum toward integrating payments
in the social network.”
