Intuit Launches Quicken Beam: Free Text-Message Alerts & Balance Inquiry

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Intuit, Launches, Mobile Banking, Personal Financial Management

image Intuit joined the messaging race with the beta release of Quicken Beam. The free service sends users text-messaged balance-and-activity alerts from most U.S. bank, credit card, and credit union accounts. Users may also query the service for balance plus last five transactions by texting “Bal” to the short code 636363.

Currently, the service runs independently of Quicken and can be used by anyone free of charge. According to the official press release, the service was developed in Intuit Labs.

What’s innovative
It’s not a new feature. Quicken Online (see second screenshot below), along with most major banks and personal finance specialists (Mint, Rudder, Wesabe), already supports text-message alerts (see note 1). But this is a relatively low-cost way to hook users early on with an extremely simple service, then migrate them to more robust Intuit services later on (Quicken, QuickBooks, TurboTax).

And the Quicken stamp of approval means a lot when turning over your log-in credentials to a third party. If you want to talk to the company about Quicken Beam, Intuit will be demo’ing the latest features of Quicken Online at our Finovate Conference in October. 

Financial institutions that lack text-message support might consider linking customers to Quicken Beam. Yes, you are turning customers over to another financial provider, and yes, your compliance folks will hate it. But customers are going to do it whether you want them to or not. You might as well get credit for making a solid recommendation. And realistically, using Quicken Beam is unlikely to hasten anyone’s exit from your bank or credit union.

Qucken Beam homepage (25 Aug 2008) 

Quicken Beam homepage 25 Aug 2007

 Text messaging in Quicken Online (25 Aug 2008)

 Text messaging in Quicken Online

Notes:
1. Geezeo really differentiated itself with mobile capabilities in its May 2007 launch. 

2. For more information, see our Online Banking Report on Personal Finance Features.

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Rudder (formerly SpendView) Launches New Mint-like Personal Finance Site

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Launches, Personal Financial Management, Rudder

image There's a new challenger in the online PFM space, aptly named start-up Rudder which is headquartered in Houston, TX (see note 1). The company was founded in 2007 and launched last year under the name SpendView (note 2).   The company raised $2 million in January from Meakem Becker Venture Capital. The founder is Nikhil Roy. 

What's innovative
While it's a bit busy for my tastes, Rudder's homepage is aesthetically pleasing, and more importantly, lays out a number of remarkable benefits that every financial institution should be able to deliver on:

  • Finances in your inbox: emphasizes that it's pushing info to you, not relying on your obsessive monitoring of a website
  • Paying bills on time: They don't just help you pay the bills; Rudder makes sure you pay them ON TIME, a huge difference in terms of consumer benefits
  • Think forward: Everyone has a sense of what they really have in the bank after upcoming expenses are met, but Rudder actually does the math for you and shows you what's truly "free cash" in your account after accounting for upcoming payments
  • Every morning: Rudder provides a personal-finance heads-up each morning so you can go about your day without thinking about your finances
  • Safe & secure: Self-explanatory, but cannot be overlooked

Clearly, Rudder has been studying how Mint grabbed an early following with great design, advanced functionality, and a brash point of view. However, it won't be able repeat Mint's PR coup last year of winning at TechCrunch40 and our Finovate 2007 (see note 4). Rudder has scheduled its public debut at competing techfest, Demo Fall, running Sept. 7-9 and unfortunately were not on our radar screen until after the Finovate 2008 lineup was set (note 5).

What it means
You gotta love Web-based startups. It took a decade for Wells Fargo to move from delivering plain old statement info on its website to offering rudimentary personal finance functionality in My Spending Report.

But less than two years after Wesabe (note 2) kicked off the Personal Finance 2.0 era, we have dozens of cool personal finance companies looking to make a name for themselves. Mint (note 2) is the most hyped (see coverage), but there are also great things going on at Geezeo, Jwaala (note 3), Buxfer, ClearCheckbook, Mvelopes, and, of course, Quicken Online, which has Coke-like brand awareness.

And don't rule out the incumbent financial institutions. PNC Bank (post here) and Frost Bank (post here) have both introduced novel accounts that incorporate advanced personal finance functions. And Bank of America has offered full-service PFM functions since late 2006 with Yodlee-powered MyPortfolio.   

Rudder homepage with five key benefits highlighted (21 Aug 2008)

image

Your "real" balance widget
I love the focus on what you really have in your account, after netting out all the known bills in the coming month. Here's the graphical feedback Rudder provides.

image

Notes:
1. Rudder seems like a good name for a financial management app. What do you think Jeffry?

2. The previous version, SpendView, is still live at <spendview.org>, but the original spendview.com now redirects to rudder.com.

3. See Wesabe and Mint demo their latest features at the upcoming Finovate 2008. Mint won Best of Show at Finovate 2007.

4. Jwaala was Best of Show winner at Finovate Startup, April 2008.

5. Attention startups: It's never too early to make an introduction and get on our Finovate watch list. We're already putting notes together for 2009. Contact Online Banking Report/Netbanker editor Jim Bruene. 

6. For more info on the space, see our Online Banking Report on Personal Finance

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Finovate 2008 Conference Demo Lineup Announced

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Conference Calendar, Conferences, Finovate

image After looking at more than 100 companies, we’ve selected 24 finalists to present at our second annual Finovate Conference Oct. 14 in New York City (registration here). Three will emerge as Finovate Best of Show companies joining  last year’s winners: Mint,Mortgage Marvel from Mortgagebot, and Prosper (note 1).  

In a single action-packed day, we’ll see several financial startups launch, a few major product overhauls revealed, and a pile of new features shown to the public for the first time. It could be the single biggest “news day” in the history of online finance. Besides the amazing presenter lineup, the audience will contain many well-known industry analysts, members of the press, and banking and technology execs. Here are the subjects that will be covered:

  • Person-to-person lending
  • Lead generation in financial services
  • Personal financial management and online banking
  • Mobile banking and payments
  • Payments/billing
  • Investing and retirement planning online
  • Security technologies
  • Social media and Web 2.0

Finovate 2008 Lineup (alphabetic order, note 2)
Below is a list of all 24 companies. In all, seven of the companies presented at our sold-out Finovate 2007; three are graduates from Finovate Startup last April; and 14 are new to Finovate. But all 24 will be demonstrating substantial new products and/or features. 

Companies announced Sept. 16 and Sept. 23, 2008:

About Finovate 2008

Press: Members of the media should contact Jim Bruene, jim@netbanker.com to secure a press pass.

Note:
1. Winners are selected by audience vote.
2. The list does not include two stealth startups and one company to be named later.

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Could Mobile Payments Get a Boost from Lowly Stickers?

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Contactless payments, Credit/Debit Cards, Mobile Banking, Mobile Payments

image Even though I have credit cards from Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, American Express and Chase, I have never been offered the opportunity to add contactless payment capability to my card, so I still have no firsthand experience of that particular wave of the future. 

And it hasn’t been too high on my list of things to try, since it still requires carrying a piece of plastic or an additional device such as keychain fob (inset). I don’t see much benefit to tapping a piece of plastic compared to swiping it.

However, I do look forward to NFC-enabled mobile phones. But given the hurdles for adoption among carriers, payment processors, and issuing banks, I wasn’t expecting that much before the next summer Olympics.

But now an interim workaround is being tested around the world: the contactless payment sticker. It’s a quarter-sized sticker you plop on the back of your mobile phone making it instantly payment-enabled.

That allows consumers to leave their wallets at home, a nice benefit for outdoor enthusiasts, club goers, or anyone who doesn’t want to worry about losing their wallet while on the go. Of course, we’ll need a few million more contactless-enabled merchants before the wallet-free world is realistic for most, but widespread use of stickers could move that along (see note 1).

Who has it?
There are several rollouts under way around the world. For example:

USA Technologies Pay Dot contactless payment sticker

Note:
1. There are about 110,000 PayPass merchants worldwide, less than 1% of the 25 million locations that accept regular MasterCard cards. 

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First Sales Report on an iPhone Finance App: Tipulator Downloaded 3,200 Times

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Apple, iPhone, Personal Financial Management

imageAccording to TechCrunch, the $0.99 tip calculator app from TapTapTap has been downloaded 3,200 times in the month it’s been available. Net income to the developer, after Apple takes its 30% cut, is $2,200.

TapTapTap also markets a much more sophisticated location-based search tool that has generated $50,000 in revenues for the developer.

Tipulator is ranked number 20 in our Aug. 5 rundown of the top-20 banking and finance apps. Today it ranked number 27.

Apple ranks the most popular apps within each category, but does not provide download totals. Tipulator numbers were provided by developer.

What it means
1. iPhone users, so far, are willing to pay for apps. Who would have thought that more than 3,000 people would go to the trouble to download an app to help them multiply their bill times 15% to 20%? And there are two tip calculators that ranked higher in the App Store.

2. There is real demand for mobile financial tools, even very simple ones. Financial institutions should consider launching a branded calculator app in the Apple App Store.

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Lending Club Adds Secondary Market to Updated S1

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Lending Club, Loans & Credit, P2P Lending

image Lending Club filed an amended S1 statement, a positive sign that it is moving through the registration process in a timely fashion.

As we noted here after reading the original S1, Lending Club has indeed added a secondary marketing piece to its business plan. Holders of its notes (aka individual lenders), will be able to sell their Lending Club loans through a market run by an undisclosed third party.

Here's the pertinent section from pp. 50-51 of the August 1 S1 (note: the name of the partnering broker-dealer is not disclosed; hence, the blank space below):

Trading System
Lender members may not transfer their Notes except through the resale trading system operated by           , a registered broker-dealer. This trading system is an Internet-based trading system on which Lending Club lender members who establish a brokerage relationship with the registered broker-dealer operating the trading system may offer their Notes for sale. In this section, we refer to lender members who have established such brokerage relationships as “subscribers.”

Subscribers may post orders to sell their Notes on the trading system at prices established by the subscriber. Other subscribers will have the opportunity to view these prices, along with historical information from the original loan posting for the member loan corresponding to the Note, an updated credit score range of the borrower member and the payment history for the Note.

I skimmed the updated S1 and didn't see anything else particularly noteworthy. Another blogger, Doughroller.net, noted that the company is adding more credit factors to its loan-pricing model. You can see the new formulas in the S1 filing (pp. 36-38).

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Reward Checking Account Results: $5.5 billion Down, $2.994 Trillion to Go

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: BancVue, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Metrics & Market Research

Reward Checking banner at First State Bank (13 Aug 2008) In the year or so that they’ve been widely available, so-called reward checking, those high-yielding accounts that require a hefty number of debit card transactions (see note 1), have attracted quite a following.

image But besides the number of blog posts and press mentions, we’ve had few other metrics upon which to gauge their success. Until now. In an email to me yesterday, the company behind many of the accounts, BancVue, laid out the total rewards checking results across its client base:

  • 381 financial institutions live
  • 610,000 reward checking accounts
  • $5.5 billion on deposit in the accounts
  • $9,000 average balance
  • Opening more than 13,000 accounts per week (700,000 annual run rate)
  • Average of more than $14 million in deposits per financial institution
  • Average of 1,600 accounts per financial institution

Although $5 billion isn’t even the rounding error across the entire $3-trillion U.S. retail deposit market, it’s real money to the smaller banks and credit unions offering the program.  

Notes:
1. Most accounts require 10 to 12 debit transactions per month in order to earn the high yield. For more info, see our previous coverage and Finovate Startup video here.
2. Upper-right graphic comes courtesy of First State Bank, Gainesville, TX.

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Intersections Inc.’s Identity Guard Brings Back 6-Month Free Trial and Adds Free Credit Report and Score

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Credit Reports & ID Theft Protection, Intersections

imageIdentity Guard, the direct-to-consumer credit-monitoring brand from Intersections, has a new logo, homepage design, and a compelling new offer: six months of free credit monitoring (Good Start option) PLUS 30 days of access to your credit report and score (see previous look here).

And unlike most offers in this industry, this freebie is made with no obligation. Intersections does take billing info as part of the sign-up process, but unlike most others, they will not automatically begin charging a monthly fee at the end of the six-month free trial (see note 1). Last year, Intersections offered the six-month free trial (post here), but did not include the free credit report/score (see note 2). 

Identity Guard hompage (11 August 2008)

Identity Guard homepage (11 Aug 2008)

Separately, I ran across the company’s banner ad today at Amazon’s IMDB site (below). Here, the company is taking a more traditional approach, offering a 30-day free trial plus $3/mo discount on its flagship Total Protection service (regularly $17.99/mo). 

Identity Guard banner at IMDB (12 August 2008)

Identity Guard banner on IMDB (12 Aug 2008)

Landing page from the IMDB banner (12 Aug 2008)

Identity Guard landing page from IMDB banner (12 Aug 2008)

Notes:
1. I tested the free offer last year and can confirm that they did NOT bill me for the service after it expired, nor did they pester me to become a paying customer at the end of the trial.

2. See our Online Banking Report on Credit Monitoring Services for more information.

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Wesabe Adds Twitter Integration for Account Updates

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Personal Financial Management, Twitter, Wesabe

imageWesabe’s latest feature, the ability to update your account via Twitter, isn’t likely to find too many users in the short-term. However, it’s a great marketing move that could see a fair amount of uptake over time (see note 1).

Although there are less than 2 million Twitter users, the company is currently white hot, one of the most talked about Internet companies (see Google trends below, which shows Twitter search volume is 7x or 8x that of “phishing“). So why not draft off Twitter’s hype, as long as it’s not too costly?

How it works
After logging in to Wesabe and providing your Twitter name, you then simply send a private or public message (aka Tweets) to Wesabe’s Twitter account. Wesabe then adds the expense to your cash-tracking account. You can include merchant name, expense categories, and descriptions to the transaction (see examples below).

Most common: Update via private message (no one else will see)

Private Twitter message to Wesabe


Less likely: Update via public message (your friends will receive it, and if you have an open feed, anyone could see it)

Public Twitter message to Wesabe

 

Google Trends for Twitter vs. phishing (9 Aug 2008)

image

Note:
1. Updating accounts via text message and email has much wider appeal. It’s one of the recommended items in our personal finance feature set. See our Online Banking Report on Personal Finance Features for more info.

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Online Financial Services Scorecard: May 2008

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Compete, Metrics & Market Research

compete_may08.png

May continued to show increases in both deposit and home-loan shoppers while demand for credit cards edged downward. On a year-over-year basis, almost all segments are down with the exception of home equity and home purchase.

  • Credit card shopping was down slightly (-1%) compared to April and down 7% in applicants. Conversion also declined 2% over the previous month.
  • Compared to April, deposits had big gains in both checking and savings shopping, up 8% and 5% respectively. 
  • Both savings and high-yield savings saw more than 20% gains in number of applicants compared to the previous month; however, both were down compared to a year ago.
  • Despite increased shopping volumes, home-secured lending, as measured by the number of leads and/or applications, dropped compared to last month. The largest was the 38% drop in refinance activity.
  • Conversion rates were down in all three loan categories, dropping 1% in home equity, 2% in purchase, and 4% in refinance.

About the Financial Services Scorecard
A year ago, we introduced the Financial Services Monthly Performance scorecard produced by Compete. It summarizes the overall performance of 23 large U.S. financial institutions and lead-generation sites. Refer here for the detailed methodology as well as companies tracked.

Notes:
1. Year-over-year comparisons were added to the chart beginning in March 2008. Because of ongoing methodology tweaks, the percentages in this table may be slightly different than if you went back to the data from a year ago and calculated the change. 

2. Leads/applicants = Leads or applications depending on whether the site being tracked is a lead-generation site or an actual lender.

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