

Rate my startup: SwipeGood - Roundup every purchase you make & donate the change - SteliE
https://swipegood.com/

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zts
The idea sounds like it might be interesting, but I can't imagine how this
works and neither your website nor the facebook page linked at the bottom tell
me anything about it.

I might suspect that if I signed up with Facebook Connect that there might be
more information, but it's not clear whether that's the case - and I wouldn't
try it on the off chance.

I would suggest that there needs to be more up-front information to explain
what happens if I use Facebook Connect to login. How does giving you my credit
card work? On the face of it, that sounds like a scam. Is this service for
everyone, or only people in the USA? After signing up, how easily can I opt
out? etc etc.

But I'm curious to know more.

~~~
twymer
I agree with zts. Having a giant "login with facebook!" button immediately
followed by a prompt to give my credit card information does not make me feel
comfortable.

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zach
So does this avoid B of A's infamous Keep The Change patent?

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anemitz
We are confident our method does not violate any current and enforceable
patents.

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kno
It would be nice to have a how it works page, you must give me a compelling
reason for me to signup my credit card, at least I will like to know how it
work.

~~~
SteliE
Good point. We need to improve the landing page plus signup page. Any ideas?
:)

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SteliE
Hey HNers! :)

We just launched this first basic version of SwipeGood so we can get some user
feedback before we move forward. Right now we haven't got Yodlee implemented
so we can't do the monthly transactional data but have to ask the users to
estimate the amount of transactions they make on a monthly basis. The idea is
all about making change simple, affordable and effortless so more people can
be part of it. Any and every feedback is welcome!!

~~~
espadagroup
Love the idea, I was about to sign up when I realized that it isn't done
automatically, that's kind of a deal breaker for me. When you get the Yodlee
integration send an email out :)

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bound008
The problem is that Yodlee is very expensive to get started with financially,
(not technically). The point is to get people excited about the project and to
sign up now, to convince someone to foot the cost of yodlee and keep all the
money flowing to charity.

~~~
arfrank
It would be nice if banks offered a simple API to tap into in order to get
access to ones account details. I know the BankSimple guys are planning on
having Oauth support in able to allow people to build services around their
service and now have to go through Yodlee necessarily.

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siruva07
Love the idea -- i used to do this by hand in a restaurant, but that sometimes
meant the server wouldn't get a round tip.

Will you support the ability for me to save a portion of the money? Put it in
my piggy bank for rewards (that you negotiate) so when I have enough money
saved up I can buy something cool from you. Plus, you can also make good money
if you properly short-term invest the float.

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edanm
I really like this idea, I've thought of it in the past and am happy to see it
being implemented.

I don't know if you're planning on this, but I suggest making each donation as
public as possible. For example, tweeting/Facebooking every time I make a
donation or every month.

This will help spread the site, and help give social proof to people to show
that donating to this charity is indeed a good (and popular) thing.

~~~
AlexC04
"optionally" of course.

There are places in Christian literature that charity donations should be made
generously but completely anonymously.

According to some, it's "Not Christian" to make donations and publicly declare
that you've made a donation.

~~~
edanm
I agree it should be optional.

But I think the idea that donations shouldn't be public is a _terrible_ thing.
Social proof is a great motivator to get people to do things. The fact that
most people are "shy" about letting the world know about their donations goes
directly against the social proof.

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AlexC04
Seems a nice Idea. Though not for me. I don't like the lack of control of my
funds.

I don't think I'd be happy signing up for something like this because it seems
like something haphazard that can quickly.

I think I'm too cautious with money for this to appeal to me (so obviously not
your target market)

Incidentally, my gut response was: Who gets the tax receipt?

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daok
How much money you take from the roundup money?

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covercash
I feel like this idea would hold more weight as a non profit.

~~~
SteliE
We thought about it long and decided that the ultimate goal is to have the
maximum impact and make SwipeGood sustainable without any grants and gov
support. We believe that it doesn't matter what form the org has but how much
positive change we can make in the long term...and we believe we can be more
creative as a company and more agile in making change happen :)

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barrydahlberg
My thoughts went like this:

 _Enroll your credit/debit card today._ OK yeah this is going to take some
trust.

 _It only takes a moment to sign up with Facebook._ Oh wow I don't want them
anywhere near my credit card.

~~~
SteliE
Good point. We heard this before. Prob will have to change the signup process!
Thx for the feedback :)

~~~
barrydahlberg
I'm not opposed to Facebook in general, they just haven't done much to build a
trusting relationship lately.

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vgurgov
Call me paranoid, but I am not brave enough to pass step1 in your
registration, sorry!

Although I even know one of the founders :)

~~~
gawker
Yeah me too. The thing that put me off was Facebook. I can't trust putting my
credit card alongside my Facebook account.

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Diana
I signed up and donated! Wonderful idea!!!

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faust1
indeed a nice idea ,,, consider changing the swipegood logo and by making it
more apparent... how will that work, i dont know, but its a nice thing that
people will surely appreciate....

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chrbaine
great idea -- just looking forward to seeing transaction data, being able to
include mins and maxes for donations, as well as split my donations to
different causes!

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gojomo
I know that these round-up programs are quite popular -- but it reflects a
sloppy-with-money mindset I just don't have.

Let's say you're a super-heavy card user -- 5 times a day. And charges are
random in the cents value -- so on average a charge yields a $0.50 allocation.

Why not just donate (30 days * 5 transactions/day * $0.50/transaction =)
$75/month to your chosen purposes (be they personal savings as with BoFA or a
charity as here)?

Sure, you cold use transaction volume as an initial indicator of ability-to-
pay or a socially-normed anchor-value. But, there really ought to be more
consideration of personal circumstances than that. (What's your overall
savings/debt? What are your other obligations?) And, this only requires an
occasional look-back at prior volume to set a benchmark level -- not a
constant function of every transaction.

Sure, putting allocations on autopilot improves compliance to a stated plan...
but that can be done without the 'round-up' transaction gimmick. (Lots of
systems for auto-charging donations or savings on
weekly/monthly/paycheckly/etc. schedules already exist.)

And why $0.50 per transaction? If trying to achieve an optimal savings rate,
it's unlikely that's the right ratio for anyone.

~~~
jerf
"but it reflects a sloppy-with-money mindset I just don't have."

It redirects the sloppy-with-money behavior into something that benefits you
instead of harming you. A surprising amount of self-control ultimately boils
down to that, differing only in the exact level on which they are applied. It
is way easier to fool your bad habits or false ideations than actually
eradicate them, and you've only got so much self-control to spend, as recent
psychology research is demonstrating.

