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5 Things to Know to Get Customers to Your Online Community...and Keep Them There Download

Passing the Mic: How ampifying the voice of the consumer can add value to your organization Download

DanMiller said:

Mint Dot Com is a free personal finance web application that works with over 3500 financial institutions worldwide. It pulls together all of your credit cards, all of your savings accounts, all of your checking accounts, all in one place.... so you can see exactly what you spend on gas, clothes, sushi (must not forget the sushi), and how many Starbucks double-redeyes you've had this month, etc.

Mint competes directly with the likes of Microsoft Money and the crowd favorite - Quicken. It's much easier to set up and does away with the need to balance your checkbook manually -- it does all of this for you automatically. The main demographic using the free service is in their 20's and because the service is web-based, it's accessible from any location with Internet access. Mint also uses the latest in mobile technologies to enable users to access their accounts via text-messaging (for balance alerts, etc).

So how, you might ask, does this Web2.0 company who offers a free service plan to make money? By referring you to use the services of sponsoring financial institutions. Let's say that you currently have your money sitting in a low-interest-paying checking account. Mint will detect this and then "suggest" that you move your funds to one of several institutions who are paying a higher rate of interest. If and when you sign up, and move your account, Mint will earn a referral fee from that financial institution. This "advice" is based on your spending trends and also may include recommendations of new mutual funds, credit cards, etc. On the surface this sounds good, but I do wonder just how objective the advice will be?

So, that's the scoop this week. Take a look at Mint.com and let me know what you think.

(Read the full blog...)

Posted: 4/18/2008 1:10:41 PM

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