SmartyPig Reduces Fees to Try to Make the Service Attractive

I reviewed SmartyPig a couple of days ago. Though in general the concept presented by SmartyPig, social+savings, is good, my biggest concern is the cost of letting others contribute to my saving goal. Paying $4.95 each time to make a $50 contribution doesn’t make a whole lot sense.

Then yesterday, I got an message from Jon, the co-founder of SmartyPig, announcing that SmartyPig has revamped its fee schedule to address users’ concerns. Now instead of charging $4.95 every time a friend or family member makes a contribution by using credit cards or buying a SmartyPig gift card, the fee will be at a flat rate of 2.9%. Furthermore, if the contributor is also a SmartyPig member, the fee of contributing to other’s saving goal via established bank account will be eliminated (for details, check out their fee schedule). The changes, I think, are quite positive.

If you like what you see at SmartPig and want to give it a try, I have two $50 SmartyPig gift cards that I will give away. There’s still time to enter the drawing.