Nick's dashboard

Nick replied on August 22, 2009 01:08 to the question "Dropping rates too often. Bad Business" in SmartyPig:

With the most recent rate cut, SmartyPig's inability to move money between goals or partially cash out completed goals is no longer worth the small rate difference when compared to other online banks. I'll currently only lose 0.3%* if I switch to an online savings account elsewhere (no fee/no min), plus I'll be able to reorganize goals without being forced to place my savings into a 1-2 week round-trip limbo between SmartyPig and my checking account, receiving concerned calls from my local bank as these large deposits and withdrawals occur. I think this hassle and inflexibility is worth a little more than 0.3%*.

This was only a mild source of irritation when I first commented on it here, and with Mike's responses that this would be fixed "in the near future", I decided to wait it out. Many months and rate cuts later, I've decided that I'd be better off placing my savings somewhere else, so that I can truly organize my goals on my own terms, at least until SmartyPig's current problems are eventually resolved. Goodbye.





*Actually, SmartyPig goals in their current form are better compared to Ally Bank's no-penalty CD, where you can break the CD with no fee, but you have to extract all principal+earned interest at once. They're only 0.15% down from SmartyPig, and I wouldn't even be forced to redeposit all the money straight back into my checking account.

A comment on the question "How do I withdraw only part of my money after reaching my goal?" in SmartyPig:

It's a very nice lawnmower :)

Why so angry? :( – Nick, on April 21, 2009 04:09

A comment on the idea "Ability to edit a goal even when there are pending transfers" in SmartyPig:

I have some transfers pending right now, I'll see how long they take, and I'll email you the details if any of them ends up taking >3 business days. – Nick, on April 21, 2009 04:06

Nick marked one of Mike Ferrari's replies in SmartyPig as useful. Mike Ferrari replied to the problem "Nitpick: "Step 3 of 3" when logging in".

Nick reported a problem in SmartyPig on April 20, 2009 00:53:

Nitpick: "Step 3 of 3" when logging in

1) Go to https://www.smartypig.com/Login.aspx
2) Observe "Step 1 of 3" in upper right when prompted for username. Enter username and click Continue.
3) Observe "Step 3 of 3" in upper right when prompted for password.

This can also be observed by submitting the username directly from the front page. In this case it goes straight to the same "Step 3 of 3" password prompt.

Nick started following the question "Length of Time for Deposit to Show up in Smarty Pig Account." in SmartyPig.

Nick replied on April 20, 2009 00:37 to the idea "Ability to edit a goal even when there are pending transfers" in SmartyPig:

In my experience, transactions have usually taken around one full week/"5 business days" to post. When this is combined with the automatic monthly transfers, it means that my goals are uneditable for at least 25% of a given month. Add my regular manual contributions to the mix and.. you get the idea.

Nick started following the idea "Ability to edit a goal even when there are pending transfers" in SmartyPig.

A comment on the question "How do I withdraw only part of my money after reaching my goal?" in SmartyPig:

I do somewhat agree with you, but I think the reason you're getting a high rate is because of the hoops that you need to jump through. At other online banks, those hoops take the form of large minimum balances, tiered rates, or a high number of monthly debit transactions (for checking accounts).

That said, it really would be *very* nice to not have to cash out the entirety of a goal when it's closed. The bank holding my checking account has been getting very antsy as a result of my periodic deposits and withdrawals of large sums of money when I'm reprioritizing/restructuring my goals. The 100% withdrawal requirement, combined with the inability to move funds between goals, is at the top of my personal list of missing features. – Nick, on April 15, 2009 03:52

Nick shared an idea in SmartyPig on April 12, 2009 07:49:

Visualizer: Estimated future balances, plus savings calculator functionality

It'd be nice if the visualizer showed an estimation of the future progress of a goal, according to current APY and monthly contributions. Where will the goal be in a couple months? A couple years?

Additionally, it'd be great if this view of the future was also able to display the difference that changing the monthly contribution or making an extra one-time contribution would make to the goal's progress. What will it do for my goal's progress if I add some extra money I've got sitting in my checking account? What if I start contributing an additional $50 each month?

As an example, here's a savings calculator which I've lately been using to answer these questions for myself. A very useful feature with this calculator is how it has two data series, which allows me to easily compare directly between savings schedules.

This functionality would also be very useful when viewing the page for creating/modifying a goal.

Nick marked one of Mike Ferrari's replies in SmartyPig as useful. Mike Ferrari replied to the question "Support PNG images for custom avatar and use better compression for GIF, JPG".

Nick asked a question in SmartyPig on April 07, 2009 14:33:

Support PNG images for custom avatar and use better compression for GIF, JPG

Supported images for avatars are currently gif and jpg. Couldn't hurt to add png support to that list.

Also, I've noticed that with your current compression settings, jpgs end up looking smudged (due to a low quality recompression) and gifs look like they came out of a dot matrix printer (due to a forced palette change away from optimized indexed values).

This is totally a nitpick, but figured it'd be worth mentioning.

Nick started following the idea "Add "Emergency Fund" savings goal" in SmartyPig.

Nick started following the question "How do I withdraw only part of my money after reaching my goal?" in SmartyPig.

Nick started following the idea "Use current goal as funding option" in SmartyPig.

Nick replied on April 07, 2009 14:18 to the problem "I have to say goodbye, here's why." in SmartyPig:

I actually moved to SmartyPig from DollarSavingsDirect after noticing that DSD's terms of service contained the following:

The Bank may refuse to permit withdrawals in cases such as, but not limited to, the following:

1. The Bank chooses to exercise its legal rights to require up to 60 days advance written notice of any intended withdrawal from this Account and the 60 days have not passed since we received the required notice from you
[...]

So be sure to always read the small print, wherever you go.

Nick marked one of Mike Ferrari's replies in SmartyPig as useful. Mike Ferrari replied to the question "Support rainy-day savings Goals: At 100%, stop monthly contributions and apply the interest to other Goals.".

Nick replied on March 31, 2009 19:03 to the question "Support rainy-day savings Goals: At 100%, stop monthly contributions and apply the interest to other Goals." in SmartyPig:

Thanks for your response!

Now that I think about it, the ability to move funds between goals would make this feature obsolete -- you could just move accrued interest from your "rainy day" goal into your other goals.

Sure, it would be a manual process, but given that interest is currently only being added every 3 months, it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to go in and reorganize things every now and then..

Nick made a comment on "Can you transfer money between savings goals?", but it was removed. see the change log

Nick started following the idea "Scheduling deposits to correspond with pay periods" in SmartyPig.