Interesting
Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
21–30 of 31 posts
Re: Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
#22Great product. Congrats on the raise. How do you monetise this?
Re: Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
#23Great product. Congrats on the raise. How do you monetise this?
Thanks for the support! Right now we monetize by charging a flat fee per API call, similar to API-first companies like Plaid.
Re: Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
#24Oh look, instead of teaching people financial skills in school, we will eventually have an FIN.AI
It will automatically calc our income and priorities and allocate our spending as such, which will happen automatically via CBDC.
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Seriously - this is where we are headed:
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John works as an SRE for BigTech.com, he wakes in the morning on April 1st 2030, payday.
His automatic payment system is activated, providing him a summary of income and active debts, bills and payments that are payable.
His screen shows him that he made $5,000 this pay period, before taxes, but he has $3500 in his deposit.
From that deposit, he also has these fees due, and expected to deduct from his pay:
Insurance, Rent, Groceries, subscriptions, etc...
He will select auth for payment to each fee due via the app.
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FF: John lost his job.
Now its Oct. 1st and john reviews his "Due Dash" -- which shows him he needs to pay X services.
John has no income, and his auto-pay for things has already hit his account whilst he was sleeping and John basically already auto-payed a bunch of services he should have canceled.
John is fucked. Because he paid his netflix bill automatically, and thus he is insufficiently funded for his Rent.
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John has a traffic ticket which he is indignant about and vows NOT to pay such. Methodfi.AI automatically makes him pay that ticket.
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HERE is my question:
Every time I leave the house, I am bombarded with every aspect of marketing to get me to SPEND.
How about creating an environment/thing and business model that MAKES me monet(y) as opposed to creating the tech that makes it EASIER to SPEND.
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So, in conclusion, please ensure you have the most exquisite controls over allocations and spending behavior.
Re: Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
#25I'm trying to think of the business use-cases (TAM) where connections to debt repayments is more value-able then the current solution: 1) Personal Finance Manager's like GradJoy/Mint, definitely make sense, where the PFM knows about all my debts and helps me orchestrate payments between them. :) 2) Maybe a gofundme/honeyfund where people can "gift" someone money but it has to go directly to paying down debt? For exam…
Of course not! You missed the most (only?) important one: more debt!
We can provide you with a loan that will consolidate all your existing debt! Student debt, medical debt, car debt, credit card debt, mortgage debt - you name it, we’ll refinance it!
Install our app and you can handle all your debt in a single easy payment! No job? No problem! Let us take care of you. Install our app now!
Re: Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
#26One smaller use case that comes to mind is for immigrants like myself. On an H1 visa, you are only allowed to receive a paycheck from the sponsoring employer, so you cannot do contract work for cash (stock is ok), but paying down debt might be a cool way to accept "payment" for services.
Re: Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
#3 is regulated and may be illegal for W-2 employees in the US. You have to pay people with something as liquid as cash.
I could see payroll providers offering it as an option, similar to sending money to retirement plans, post-tax insurance, charitable contributions, etc. I have seen payroll plans that purchase goods either up front or on layaway.
This is how it works by default in New Zealand, and it works quite well in my opinion.
If you have a student loan then your tax code changes and student loan repayments are deducted from your pay like payroll taxes, at a rate 12% of every dollar you earn over the repayment threshold (~$20k NZD annually). In effect (combined with Kiwisaver, our retirement savings plan deducted at the same time) this means that you don't really need to think about your student loan when earning wages or a salary as your take home pay already accounts for this.
You can add manual repayments, but this is seldom done in NZ as student loans are interest free under certain conditions so there is less incentive to repay them quickly.
Re: Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
#28Why would someone prefer having their debt paid over just receiving money which they can use to buy something, invest into something with a better return than interest on your debt, or pay off their debt?
Re: Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
#29Why would someone prefer having their debt paid over just receiving money which they can use to buy something, invest into something with a better return than interest on your debt, or pay off their debt?
Ultimately it depends on the type of debt. Some people carry credit card balances with 20% APR, so in that case is much better to pay off the balance on the credit card when compared to market returns.
Re: Launch HN: Method Financial (YC S19) – API to embed debt repayment into your app
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I could see payroll providers offering it as an option, similar to sending money to retirement plans, post-tax insurance, charitable contributions, etc. I have seen payroll plans that purchase goods either up front or on layaway.
This is how it works by default in New Zealand, and it works quite well in my opinion. If you have a student loan then your tax code changes and student loan repayments are deducted from your pay like payroll taxes, at a rate 12% of every dollar you earn over the repayment threshold (~$20k NZD annually). In effect (combined with Kiwisaver, our retirement savings plan deducted at the same time) this means that you don…
That's really interesting perspective, I had no idea that's how it worked in NZ. I suppose it works seamlessly in NZ as the loans are originated by the the NZ government. Could be interesting if student loan services in the US offered a BPS discount if the payment auto deducted from a paycheck.