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<\/a>Is micro saving a thing? Digit and its venture capital investors seem to think it is. Micro saving is better than no saving, particularly when you seem to live paycheck-to-paycheck. Having a digital assistant that can go through your bank account and find money pockets that you can put away for a holiday or a rainy day might be a great solution when you don\u2019t have the habit to save, or simply don\u2019t know how.<\/p>\nGo Banking Rates say that \u201c57% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. In fact, 39% of survey respondents said they had no money set aside in savings at all.\u201d[1]<\/a> The personal finance platform uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to tap into your bank account, evaluate your income and spending habits and find a way to withdraw small amounts of money every other day, to make a constant saving flow that will pay in the future.<\/p>\n How does it work? So when you download the app, you are basically opening a savings account that will automatically put spare change for an emergency or a future treat. Think about it like your old penny jar in the kitchen, except that it is digital, you know how much money there is in the jar because it will give you an updated balance, you carry it on your smartphone, you can chat with it, and it will help you find extra cash to upgrade that holiday with friends.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The automated saving tool chats with you, through phone messaging, so you can decide your saving ranges\u2014that can go from pennies to hundreds of dollars\u2014and set specific goals with end dates. After this, the tool will find a way to meet your goal(s) by withdrawing money every two or three days. Their purpose is to \u201cmake saving as easy, stress-free, and automatic as possible.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n Safety measures and other concerns<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Fee<\/u><\/em>. Digit charges a monthly subscription fee of $5.00 each month and also make money from interest earned on your savings.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n Security<\/u><\/em>.<\/em> \u201cThe data is secured by 256-bit encryption, that\u2019s the same level of security as the military, and uses the funds in your Digit Account are held with our FDIC insured banking partners for your benefit and are insured up to a balance of $250,000.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n Saving Bonus<\/u><\/em>. If you save with the app for three consecutive months, you will be rewarded with a1% annualized Savings Bonus.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n Goals<\/u><\/em>. There is not a limit on the number of goals, but if you don\u2019t have any, the app will send the money by default to a rainy day fund, with an umbrella emoji.<\/p>\n Customer service<\/u><\/em>. It wants to make it easy and simple, by doing most of your operations through chat; even withdrawals (that are on a 24\/7\/365 basis) are done by phone chat. BBB Rating<\/u><\/em>. The Better Business Bureau has given Digit a rating of A- (on a scale of A+ to F), and only 11 complaints have been filed against the company.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n There is much value capture from same-side network effects, customer experiences improve the cost structure benefits from the data feed of its users. The more users they have, the more data they acquire and the better it is for its Application Programing Interface (API), and hence the more accurate their financial services will be. The app could benefit form more banking partners, additional checking account information, and diverse demographics; this will help them access a more varied set of data, that in return will help the algorithm learn other economic habits and offer more and better financial products, maybe personally or regionally tailored. It could grow to other services, other than just savings\u2014within the range of financial inclusion and financial education\u2014such as personalized financial coaching and budget tracking with spending caps (you don\u2019t want to overspend in coffee, retail therapy, or apps you don\u2019t use).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.gobankingrates.com\/about\/press-releases\/americans-less-1000-savings\/<\/a><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> https:\/\/dollarsprout.com\/digit-review\/<\/a><\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Idem.<\/a><\/p>\n [4]<\/a> https:\/\/help.digit.co\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/210583978-Is-my-money-FDIC-insured-<\/a><\/p>\n [5]<\/a> https:\/\/www.doughroller.net\/reviews\/digit-app-review\/<\/a><\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Idem.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is micro saving a thing? Digit and its venture capital investors seem to think it is. Micro saving is better than no saving, particularly when you seem to live paycheck-to-paycheck. Having a digital assistant that can go through your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-12594","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/competing-with-data-and-ai-challenge\/","yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>You will give the app your identifying information and your checking account information, and for the next couple of days it analyzes your transactions (pay day, bills and spending patterns), and finally it suggests the best alternative to withdraw money for your savings account.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Credit Card<\/u><\/em>.<\/em> Digit doesn\u2019t have access to your credit card, but can see your monthly payments and factor that into your expenses.<\/p>\n<\/a>Overdrafting<\/u><\/em>. The platform promises the algorithm will avoid overdrafting your account, and gives you a free overdraft reimbursement if it saves too much.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Conclusion<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n