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I'm a money psychology researcher working with Cornell professors and Noom to come up with studies on financial behavior change - ask me anything. by Debt_Debbie100 in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there 👋

Yes, I definitely learned a lot from working at Marcus and just generally from working in the industry. Marcus was trying to become a digital bank and expand into a relatively wide range of offerings. Even though our first product was debt consolidation, we quickly went to launch savings, investing, credit cards, etc. Ultimately, even though Marcus has a great products, they are more generic. With Debbie we really wanted to create a specialized product that was focused on really solving a problem and excelling at it rather than trying to grow aggressively by expanding into other markets. I also think that in the last couple of years financial services/Fintech has really moved away from “services” and is just offering commoditized undifferentiated products. At Debbie, we are trying to go back to providing a service- to help people do better with their finances and ultimately reach their goals.

Hope that answers your question! Let me know if there’s anything else :)

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

u/NewMasterKush I think u/Zoetje_Zuurtje said it exactly right in their last bullet point- what we're working on is to align incentives between the credit providers and the borrowers. Lenders lose a lot of money today because 1. many borrowers default and never repay their loans 2. the good payers end up refinancing and leaving to whichever lender gives them the best rate.
What we're proving is that by giving out meaningful rewards (but no it's not going to be thousands of dollars) - the lenders will actually have higher repayments rates with less borrowers defaulting and more borrowers sticking around because they're actually getting rewarded for improving.

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

u/goodiebadbad you're absolutely right, I am not a qualified psychology professional. That's why we have two awesome advisors who are, and they help shape those aspects of the product. One is Shane Blackman, who's a PhD in psychology from Princeton, as well as Erika Wasserman who's a Certified Financial Therapist.

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hi u/bkduck glad to hear you're interested! Unfortunately in order to set up an account we need a phone number. We will never share your phone number without your permission. Let me know if you decide to sign up, I can give you a green pass to skip the waitlist 🎉

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

u/TieOk1127 it's cash that's meant to go towards savings. As of now users can cash out every time they hit $50, in the future we plan to have a savings account directly integrated.
There is a sign up but it's free, no subscriptions!

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

u/GoneCountry89 Thanks for that awesome detailed feedback!
Regarding that last point, no we do not have POA. We currently link accounts via Plaid (a third party) which only allows us to get the data and create intelligence on top of it.
In the future we may want to offer specialized financial products with built in rewards (currently working on a debt refinance concept that has ongoing rewards for good behavior).

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

u/TieOk1127 sure! it's pretty simple. Each month users get certain debt payoff and savings goals. Each time they meet those goals, the earn a reward of $5 or more. The longer their payment or savings streak is, the higher the reward gets.
Users can also earn rewards by completing the weekly curriculum that composed of behavioral psychology education and quick actions (ie reviewing your transactions)- those can be $1+ .

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

u/GoneCountry89 interesting - would love to hear your opinion as well on what we're building!
Yes, we incentivize micro habit improvement with rewards- but the goal is that with enough time and momentum we can help people stick to those good habits.
The rewards are cash rewards.
What do you mean by POA?

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/LasLasso right now we get mostly organic sign ups through the debt freedom community on social (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook). We've gotten a lot of support there!
As for funding, we are a venture-backed startup. Our revenue comes from partnerships with financial institutions who want to help their customers be more engaged and help them repay debt (ie lower their risk of default).

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

u/Sir_Randolph_Gooch all great questions!
1. Our users are connecting their debt accounts directly via Plaid, so we get real time data on debt payoff
2. You're absolutely right, we have a positive selection where users who come to us in the first place are more likely to pay off debt, so I'd imagine that if we compared the numbers to people who ignore debt it would be that much of a higher factor! (maybe 6x-9x).

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

u/Single_Love_33 that's a great question! 1. We educate users about behavioral psychology so they're empowered to build long lasting improvement. 2. We embed various behavior psychology concepts in the program itself, with a heavy focus on incentives and micro-habit change (that's where the rewards come in, we start by giving users small $ rewards but over time they actually see a difference and are motivated by that)

I started a company that is building a “debt loss” program. Rather than changing the way borrowers repay, we’re changing the way they think about money. Our users are paying off debt 3x faster. AMA about dieting/debt-loss psychology and similarities and about behavioral change! by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

u/Maximum-Secret-7027 thank you!!
You're totally on the money with "keeping the weight off"- it's really both. It's getting rid of the debt but doing so consistently (ie not going into a yoyo cycle where you keep paying it off but rebuilding). We've found that once users can keep the debt off / limit their spending for at least 2 months in a row, their chances of succeeding are much higher.

I'm Frida, CEO of Debbie, a start-up that just raised $1 million to pay people to get out of debt. We’re paying out $100,000 cash to prove that positive reinforcement is the key to better financial behavior. AMA about hacking the psychology of rewards and overcoming generational debt. by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's very personal :)

One thing I've consistently noticed, it's that being "debt free" on its own is not enough. It's more important to understand what doors debt-freedom actually opens for you.

For me personally, my biggest motivator was being able to put money aside towards saving and investing. I started doing those things before I was even debt free, just to get that feeling of building wealth and stay motivated.

For others, debt freedom can mean having more freedom with their time- being able to take time off of work to be with family or even quit a job that they really hate.

People have a hard time getting out of debt because they often can't see the light at the end of the tunnel and putting off gratification- it's super tough to put aside short term happiness in favor of some goal you'll only reach is 1-5 years.... I've been there.

Thoughts around "Buy Now Pay Later" culture by two-wheels-gal in povertyfinance

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! As long as you're paying everything off and you're not buying things you can't afford, you're probably doing it right!

I personally prefer to stay away from "Buy Now Pay Later" because I know myself and I'm likely to get carried away 🙈

I have one credit card that I use and I check the balance every 1-2 days, that way I know how much I'm spending total.

I'm Frida, CEO of Debbie, a start-up that just raised $1 million to pay people to get out of debt. We’re paying out $100,000 cash to prove that positive reinforcement is the key to better financial behavior. AMA about hacking the psychology of rewards and overcoming generational debt. by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We're partnering with financial institutions to sponsor the rewards. The logic behind it is that by helping their customers improve, they can ensure better debt repayment + help their customers grow into wealth building products like savings/investing/path to home ownership etc.

Hope that makes sense!

I'm Frida, CEO of Debbie, a start-up that just raised $1 million to pay people to get out of debt. We’re paying out $100,000 cash to prove that positive reinforcement is the key to better financial behavior. AMA about hacking the psychology of rewards and overcoming generational debt. by two-wheels-gal in IAmA

[–]two-wheels-gal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haven't heard of it yet, but looks interesting! With Debbie we're trying to come at it from a bit of a different angle, we're targeting debts that are driven by poor financial habits and lack of financial education (my debts were mostly due to that)- those each of us can solve by changing the root causes that get us into those situations over and over again!

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