March 24th, 2010
Review: HelloWallet, The Latest Startup In Personal Finance Websites
For the price of a cup of coffee, HelloWallet will revolutionize how we think and manage our personal finances and provide everyone access to “the first independent online financial guidance service”.
Bill Clinton endorses HelloWallet, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom blogged about it, and entire cities have already begun adopting it. But does HelloWallet live up to the buzz?
The Vision
HelloWallet is a personal finance website similar to Mint or Quicken, complete with money management tools and personal finance advice, minus the salesman pitch from affiliate businesses and partnerships. That’s what sets it apart. Independent of any credit union, bank, and with no hidden arrangement with any financial institution, HelloWallet is a fully-loaded personal finance website without the annoying advertising and dependency on financial institutions.
HelloWallet’s mission is to provide professional, comprehensive financial advice to the people who have the least access to it– lower-to-middle class Americans. The low $4 monthly price tag lets every consumer stay financially fit no matter the size of their wallet. Also, HelloWallet pledges to give away one free membership to a family in need for every five paying subscribers, operating on the model of “Doing well, by doing good”. “We believe everyone needs financial guidance that is smart and trustworthy, even those of us who can’t afford an expensive private advisor,” the website states. Their pledge will provide HelloWallet free to at least 300,000 households over the next 5 years, saving households-in-need an estimated $500 million.
Nuts and Bolts
HelloWallet markets to working class people making between $20,000 and $100,000 a year. Its main goal is to give advice on personal finance topics and information of 50,000+ financial products including checking accounts, savings accounts, money market funds, and more. Other services include 24/7 money management and monitoring, personalized bank shopper service, custom financial plans, savings opportunities and finance advice tailored to each person, and more.
Remember, what sets HelloWallet apart from the gamut of personal finance websites already out there is its member support and commitment to being affiliate-free and advertisement-free . This enables the site to be totally independent from banks and provide consumers with transparent, unbiased recommendations on financial products. Its the key to the HellowWallet philosophy to make banks work for consumers, instead of the other way around.
HelloWallet Or No Thank You?
The word is out about HelloWallet. A few select cities and foundations have already signed up with the newly launched site. The city of Los Angeles partnered with HelloWallet to provide personal finance counseling to its workforce. The California State University is using HelloWallet for its 45,000 staff and faculty. San Francisco is offering it to city’s residents at a subsidized price.
HelloWallet hopes to burst on the personal finance scene and democratize access to financial guidance for a mass market. It’s a new type of business in the financial services market that is unlike the typical bank-dependent, ad-heavy approach. However, HelloWallet’s biggest challenge is to convince consumers that, amongst free sites like Mint, it is worth the monthly price. But with the presidential seal of approval on it, we say HelloWallet is worth test-driving to see if it’s worth its affordable price.
For more on budgeting help, check out this video:
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