Wesabe tracks your spending… let’s you know where your money went.
If you are regular reader of personal finance sites, you’ve probably heard of Wesabe. It’s one of many personal finance start-ups that track your spending in order to help you maximize your dollar. I first heard of Wesabe over a year ago. I signed up to give it a shot. I had planned to write about Wesabe then, but I came away underwhelmed. The way Wesabe works is that it analyzes your spending and gives you suggestions from other members on things you could do better. When I put in my bank account, it had only two tips and neither were that revolutionary. I believe one was to buy a case of water from Costco and keep it in my car. It didn’t occur to me until later that I should have given it my credit card information, I typically only use my bank account for Costco because it doesn’t accept my credit cards.
So you can imagine why I wasn’t very enthusiastic about seeing their demo at Finovate Startup a few months ago. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised by demo they had… very pleasantly surprised. You can watch the demo here. You may want to right-click it and watch it full screen. Before you stop the video early, the good part really starts at the 3:30 mark. The video shows an example of finding a bike shop with a fantastic deal that may have been otherwise missed.
The demo impressed me so much that I shook off my monumental shyness and went to talk to the people at Wesabe at their booth. I even went as far asking Gabe at Wesabe to see it again, which he happily did.
I’m sure you’ve noticed the Wesabe conversations I’ve highlighted over the last month. It was the first time that I actually went out of my way and pitched an company to advertise their product. Before now, each advertiser has come to me. I urge you to take a minute and look at the Wesabe discussions. There’s a wealth of knowledge there… much of it coming from people like me or you… people just looking to learn a few things about money. (Note: This write-up is not part of the advertisement, I simply want to share with you something that got me excited.)
I had a similar experience a year or so ago… I just didn’t see much value in it, but you have convinced me to reconsider it now…
The concept is good and the execution will surely improve. Neither of my accounts were recognized most likely due to image verification/challenge question. Mint has that part figured out. Matter of fact, the two sites would make a good team.