FinTech Archives

Review of Drop App – Earn Cash Rewards While You Shop

There are plenty of personal finance apps and browser extensions designed to help consumers save more money on everyday and major purchases alike. However, few apps have the seamless user experience and popularity of Drop, a free savings app with more than 1 million users who have earned over 1 billion points and redeemed over $3 million worth of rewards since the app first launched. This flexible, intelligent mobile app functions as a consumer’s wallet-saver: by linking your credit or debit card to your Drop account, you could earn points and redeem these rewards within a few days of completing your purchase. As long as you’re 16+ years old, have access to online banking, and have a valid cell phone … Read more

Tally Review – An Automated Debt Manager in a Smartphone App

by Hank Coleman

Note – I’m an affiliate of Tally. While all of the opinions are my own (like always), but I’ll receive a small commission if you slick on a link and choose to sign up. These commissions help keep Money Q&A going. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a magical calculator that told you exactly how much you needed to pay towards what cards/loans in order to stretch your dollar furthest? Surprise: it already exists in the form of an automated debt management app called Tally. Commonly described as a “robo-advisor for credit card debt,” Tally has become enormously popular with consumers juggling multiple credit cards and loans because this nifty app makes debt repayments a breeze. Rather than having … Read more

Getaround Review – Get A Rental Car For Less

by Hank Coleman

Although car rental costs vary widely, you can typically expect to pay between $50-$100 for a two-day rental. And, that’s not to mention a $25-35 “young driver fee” for anyone between the ages of 21-24. Worse yet, you typically have to wait in a long line at the car rental office, fill out a bunch of paperwork, and wait for an employee to retrieve your rental vehicle, a process that can take more than an hour or two! Now, imagine if you could rent a car directly from your smartphone and for as little as $5 per hour. Your information would be already saved to the app, you have more flexibility over how many hours you need to use the … Read more

Review of the Figure Home Equity Line of Credit

by Hank Coleman

Millennials and Home Ownership - Do Millennials Need to Buy Homes?

It’s no wonder home ownership is such a desirable attainment in the U.S. – there are too many benefits to owning your own home as opposed to leasing your primary residence from a landlord. For instance, tenants continuously pay rent, month after month, without ever seeing that money again. On the flip side, home ownership allows you to build equity – the value of what you truly own – over time, until you either sell the property (hopefully for a higher price than what you initially paid) or pay off your mortgage loan and own the property outright. Another advantage to home ownership is that you can borrow against this build-up of equity if/when you need additional cash for anything … Read more

Lively HSA Review – Why You Need a Health Savings Account

by Hank Coleman

Since the early 2000s, the percentage of working Americans enrolled in a high deductible health plan (HDHP) without a health savings account (HSA) increased from 10.6% to 24.5% in 2017. Meanwhile, the percentage of people in the same demographic enrolled in an HDHP with health savings accounts increased from 4.2% to 18.9%. Are you one of the millions of Americans who have a high deductible health plan without a tax-advantaged HSA to mitigate the costs of medical care? If so, opening a free, FDIC-insured health savings account with a provider like Lively could be an enormously beneficial financial decision when it comes to protecting yourself and your family against the potentially high costs of medical treatments. You may not think … Read more

GoodBudget Review – How to Spend, Save, and Give with Budgeting App

by Hank Coleman

Did you know that only 32% of Americans regularly maintain a household budget? This abysmal statistic serves as an important reminder that the best practices of budgeting are not as commonsense as they may seem and it’s not enough to simply know how to budget – you have to put this information into practice if you want to see real change in your financial situation. Of course, budgeting isn’t exactly the most fun thing to do, especially when you could be spending that precious little free time on more enjoyable hobbies like traveling or hitting the gym. If you’ve struggled with budgeting in the past or you only recently decided it’s time to start following a budget, how can you … Read more