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SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

venturebeat.com

11–20 of 22 posts

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#11
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.)

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#12

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.)

A lot of the information in the tour can be found here: https://www.saveup.com/about/how-it-works

Hopefully that's helpful.

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#13

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.)

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

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#14
post #13

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.)

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

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

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#15
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 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).

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#16
post #15

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 valu…

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.

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#17
post #15

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 valu…

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)

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#18
post #15

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 valu…

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.

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.

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#19
post #15

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 valu…

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)

Fun fact, but I think you've misread what I was saying if you think it's relevant.

Re: SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

#20
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Fun fact, but I think you've misread what I was saying if you think it's relevant.

Seemed like you were saying that you could do that every day?
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