SmartyPig – Savings Through Social Media

By FutureNestEgg | August 24, 2009

A new online savings account called – Smarty Pig has been getting some good publicity – especially among the younger generation. It was time I checked it out and wrote my review about the product.

It is an online savings account – backed by ANZ – all funds are secured and held by ANZ. The current interest rate if 4% pa. The account is free to open.

Account Features

I am really quite excited about this product – it is innovative and will definitely encourage a lot of people to save.

1. It is excellent for people who want to save for a specific goal.

2. You can get your family and friends contribute to your savings goal – almost like some of the fundraising walks – a friend of mine is going to be walking next week and she has a fundraising page set up and she has emailed us the details of this page and we can all contribute money so that she reaches her fundraising goal.

This product has a similar feature – If you decide to make your goal public, then your friends and family can contribute to your account to help you reach the goal. You can make it public either through email or through social networking sites – facebook and myspace and loads of other sites. If you opt for social networking option then you will get access to widgets, which you can then display on your page – shows your goal and where you are at.

Social networking option might not be for everyone – but it will definitely have a great appeal for the younger ones or basically anyone who is into social networking. Making a page public, irrespective of whether you want your friends and family to contribute or not, will definitely make you more accountable and motivated to save more.

3. You can have more than one savings goal accounts – For example you can have one account for a savings goal of $5000 for your first car, another for your next travel etc – as many as you want basically. Each goal has to be at least $250.

4. A monthly contribution amount will be arrived at (based on your goal value and goal end date) and this amount will be automatically debited from your nominated savings account.

Financial Benefits

The current rate of 4% pa is definitely not one of the highest out there – but I personally feel that the other features of the SmartyPig account make it worthwhile. When you reach your goal, you have the option to get your savings in the form of a gift card. The retailers of this gift card add an extra amount on to the card (between 4 and 8% of the savings). That is quite a good value boost.

Some of the retailers are David Jones, Myer, Freedom, Virgin Blue Holidays, Bunnings, BabyCo etc.

Additional Notes

1. You have to be at least 16 years of age to open an account.

2. You will receive an email as and when your friends contribute towards your goal.

3. This is an excellent way to save for your first car, first home, travel, wedding, baby arrivals…Basically for any specific goal.

4. SmartyPig website is very user friendly. All the help videos make it super easy to understand how it all works.

5. You can make additional contributions at any time.

6. Smarty Pig Gift Cards – This is an excellent gift for anyone who is 16 years of age and who you know are trying to save for something specific – the gift cards are of $10, $20, $50, $100 and $500 denominations.

By gifting someone with this card, you are basically opening an account for them with an initial deposit from your side (deposit amount is the same as the gift card denomination). I have a couple of gifts I need to purchase for two friends’ kids – and they are both going to get Smarty Pig gift cards – a great way to make your kids responsible savers.

All in all, I am actually excited about this product – it was launched in 2007 and already has a big following. It is innovative and will hopefully make more and more youth financially aware.

If you have any comments or would like to share your experiences with Smarty Pig, please do leave your comments below.

Best,