transaction fee Archives - Lazy Man and Money

Last month, I wrote about Revolution Money Exchange and how you can get $25 for two minutes of your time. The 10,000 foot view is that the company has some very important people in the banking industry trying to start-up a competitor to Paypal. Paypal has been around a long, long, time and has the power of Ebay behind it. This company realizes it’s facing an uphill battle, so they are willing to buy users with a free $25 for those willing to take those two minutes to sign up.

I signed up and I’ve used it to send a small amount of money transaction-fee free. That’s important to me since Paypal makes me pay around 3% on other transactions. Last month, at least 50 people signed up through my this referral link and made themselves a quick $25. Some people commented that they referred their significant other as well – getting $60 for the couple ($25 for each and $10 for referring someone) – that’s a decent dinner out. In total, Lazy Man and Money readers made over $1300 by me writing that post. From my perspective, I never felt happier about a post. It’s very rare that I can directly quantify the value of my writing to the readers.

The free ride ends tomorrow though. There’s no way that Revolution Money Exchange can give out that much free money forever – especially when they aren’t collecting it back from fees. Tomorrow, May 15, it looks like they’ve finally decided to end the promotion. Click here to take advantage before the opportunity is gone.

Side comical note: My wife called it Revolution Monkey Exchange last week. I’ve been having fun with her asking if she thought that they exchange monkeys and/or if we can somehow work the system to get a monkey butler.Â The joke is still funny for me, but I think it’s getting a little old for her.

Here are some updates from the first batch of demos at Finovate.

Authentium – Safe Central makes keystroke loggers or screenshot grabbers “blind.” Runs on top of Firefox. Prevents man in the middle and phishing.

Credit Karma – Free credit score tracking using their proprietary scoring system. Cons are that you need to give up your social security number. This seems to not be a problem, because 86% of people who try to join complete the registration. Credit pulls are “soft pulls” – a very good thing. Credit Karma gives you percentile vs. general population. Makes money by pitching offers tailored to users of a specific credit score.

WorkLight – Allows you do banking from portals like iGoogle or Facebook securely. The premise is that people would rather bank in these applications.

Prosper – You should know this company by now. Their presentation was a general walk-through with a focus on endorsements which typically have 35% less default rate.

Andera – Does banking accounting for other third parties. It does this in real-time by verifying your identity with (*I think*) a credit pull. You can then log into an existing bank (with help from Yodlee) to fund that account.

BoulevardR – Provides financial planning advice through a Certified Financial Planner. Updates your goals over time.

Diversinet – Use your cell phone to bank and send money securely. Makes money through a transaction fee similar to an ATM.

Facilitas – Allows you to search for a better bank based on your personal preferences. Once you find that bank, allows you to quickly switch from your old bank to your new bank ““ including porting your online scheduled payments.