

SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun - filipmares
http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/01/saveup-debt-solution-game/

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hugh3
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).

~~~
danielamitay
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.

~~~
hugh3
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.

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felideon
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.)

~~~
ssx
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

~~~
hugh3
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>

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endlessvoid94
This site has the exact mechanics of a slot machine.

~~~
michaelcampbell
Except the machine is your own "house" (bank accounts), right?

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ssx
Co-founder at SaveUp here. SaveUp is absolutely free. Think of it as a rewards
program that is scalable to any financial instrument. You can earn SaveUp
credits with an type of account ( ING Savings Account, Chase Credit Card,
etc).

Basic concept is we reward you for good financial actions. We have sponsors
and will get more sponsors to offset the prizes, as well as financial
referrals.

~~~
sunchild
So, my "reward" is an advertising opportunity for banks, insurance companies,
etc.? They better be offering some sweet deals.

~~~
ssx
Your reward can possibly be $2million or any of the prizes on our site.

We will never accept financial products that are not in the best interest of
our users. Nor will we ever sell your information.

We are just trying create an entirely new rewards program that is free and
self sustaining. Our inspiration comes from Prize-linked savings. Check out
this article about PLS.

[http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/11/18/freakonomics-radio-
co...](http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/11/18/freakonomics-radio-could-a-
lottery-be-the-answer-to-americas-poor-savings-rate/)

~~~
sunchild
In the end, it will all depend on what offers you can secure from companies
that like penny-wise customers. It's a very relevant demographic, for sure. I
would think the pitches would be for savings and investment products,
insurance, mortgage refi, coupons, group buys, and loyalty programs. It's a
good business plan, but it really depends on the quality of the offers.
Consumers have been conditioned to distrust financial/insurance products,
since they are so often a scam wrapped in a scam – even when offered by the
biggest names.

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monkeygus
this seems like it should be part of mint's site..

