When I got my first paycheck from my first-ever job, my mom took me to the bank. She told me I could take half of it and use it however I wanted, but the other half was going in the bank and staying there. And it was like that with every check. An escort to the bank with the instruction that half was being deposited and not allowed to be touched.
Eventually, it became a habit, and my mom stopped accompanying me to the bank on payday. I knew what I was supposed to do when I went to the bank, and I did it. Consciously or subconsciously, my mom had automated my savings habit.
Automation is an important part of habit forming. It may be the most important part. When something becomes automatic, and you don’t have to think about doing it, then it gets done more easily and more effectively. You don’t have to think about what to do when you feel hungry or tired. You know to brush your teeth before you go to bed. Everyone has daily habits — good and bad — that they are subscribed to.
Making debt payments automatic could be a great way for consumers to be more responsible about their spending, saving, and bill-paying habits. A new service, ReadyForZero, that aims to help people with their bill payments, recently rolled out a new product that makes suggestions about what to do with money when a bank deposit is made. The service, which costs $4.99 per month, is tied to your bank account and to any debt account where payments can be made online. Using analytics and algorithms, the service can make recommendations about what debt payments to make, based on timing, interest rates, and more.
Users can only enter in accounts which accept online payments, but the company is working to expand that, according to an article published by TechCrunch.
There is also a mobile app that people can download to their iPhones.
Auto lenders should love a service like this, which advocates that consumers to pay their debts. It’s like having another mother.
Here is a video about ReadyForZero:
When I got my first paycheck from my first-ever job, my mom took me to the bank. She told me I could take half of it and use it however I wanted, but the other half was going in the bank and staying there. And it was like that with every check. An escort to the bank with the instruction that half was being deposited and not allowed to be touched.
Eventually, it became a habit, and my mom stopped accompanying me to the bank on payday. I knew what I was supposed to do when I went to the bank, and I did it. Consciously or subconsciously, my mom had automated my savings habit.
Automation is an important part of habit forming. It may be the most important part. When something becomes automatic, and you don’t have to think about doing it, then it gets done more easily and more effectively. You don’t have to think about what to do when you feel hungry or tired. You know to brush your teeth before you go to bed. Everyone has daily habits — good and bad — that they are subscribed to.
Making debt payments automatic could be a great way for consumers to be more responsible about their spending, saving, and bill-paying habits. A new service, ReadyForZero, that aims to help people with their bill payments, recently rolled out a new product that makes suggestions about what to do with money when a bank deposit is made. The service, which costs $4.99 per month, is tied to your bank account and to any debt account where payments can be made online. Using analytics and algorithms, the service can make recommendations about what debt payments to make, based on timing, interest rates, and more.
Users can only enter in accounts which accept online payments, but the company is working to expand that, according to an article published by TechCrunch.
There is also a mobile app that people can download to their iPhones.
Auto lenders should love a service like this, which advocates that consumers to pay their debts. It’s like having another mother.
Here is a video about ReadyForZero:
This is not happening. While these firms may have “kicked the tires,” as the Post puts it, Citigroup has made it clear that it will not sell CitiFinancial Auto. In a Wall Street presentation on Nov. 11, Ned Kelly, the vice chairman of Citigroup, said definitively that CitiFinancial Auto is not on the block.
What Citi will sell, however, is its CitiFinancial consumer finance business, excluding auto, and its Retail Partner Cards business, a private-label card business with about 100 million accounts outstanding.
One reason why Citi Auto will stay in the fold is that most of its losses are covered as part of Citigroup’s loss-sharing agreement with the federal government. Citi holds about $15 billion of auto loans, and about $10.8 billion of that is “ring-fenced” by the government. In all, $300 billion of Citi assets are protected by the federal government.
“Performance of that [auto] portfolio has actually been quite good,” Kelly said.
At the end of last quarter, 6.61% of Citi Auto’s portfolio was not current and 1.83% was 90 days or more past due.
Good post, Mike!
This looks like an automated version of the Dave Ramsey program to get people out of debt.
This is where the real rubber hits the road with regard to “Can I trust my bank?’ because this could have and should have been done by banks decades ago. Which leads us to the fact that our middle class has been “financially crushed” and part of it is the result of shameful banks lacking any concern other than “Caveat Emptor” for their customers. In the alternative, helping the customer to “fatten their wallets” is a theme that I have pushed for the many years that I have been posting here and at other bank blog sites. This concept is part of what is needed in a good PFM tool. I hope that this company is successful. It will need substantial help with distribution.