What’s up money lovers!
Got a new personal finance app to share with ya today for anyone still looking for that holy grail of fintech help ;) It’s called Clarity Money, and my boy who’s on their core team over there literally told me it will become “the app that kills Mint” haha… Pretty bold for only being a month old! But hey – I guess you gotta shoot for the stars, eh?
He also made sure I knew that the founder – and his boss – is Adam Dell, the brother of THE Michael Dell from computer fame. And that one of their backers is legendary investor George Soros. All pretty impressive, for sure.
What is Clarity Money App?
Here’s a quick clip of what Clarity does from their website:
“We help you take control of your finances by cancelling wasteful accounts, lowering your bills, getting you better deals and managing your financial life — all in one place for free.”
Well sign me up! Haha… Oh wait, I can’t because I rock Android, womp womp… (UPDATE: Clarity now has an Android app!)
I was going to wait until I could test them myself to post this up, but it’s still going to be a while and didn’t want to keep y’all in the dark about a new budgeting app. So any Apple lovers will have to just be my guinea pigs for now, deal? ;) And from what my friend is saying, they definitely seem to be doing something right.
Here are some of the stats he just shot me this week:
- Apple featured them as a “New App We Love”
- They’ve got over 100,000 downloads so far
- They’ve analyzed over $7 billion of transactions
- Saved their customers over $400,000!!
- And their customers have opened 4,000 Clarity Money savings accounts so far
Similar to Digit, I had the opportunity to connect up with them and receive a small pile of stock options, however I took too long to decide and they eventually went on to sell to Capital One!!! D’oh. But at least my taste in fintech personal finance apps seems to be good ;) My friend Marc Atiyeh was a part of that team who helped get them to where they are, and then promptly jumped ship to move over to the next hot personal finance app – Clarity Money. So we’ll see if he strikes gold again.)
Okay, So What Does Clarity Money Do?
In a nutshell, you hook up all your financial accounts with them and then Clarity will analyze all the data and spending habits and make suggestions on how to better optimize and save you money. It identifies reoccurring bills, subscriptions, and helps show you wasteful spending.
But rather than just telling or showing you what to do, you actually have the ability to *take action* there directly in the app – the major difference between them and all the other apps popping up around each corner.
Here’s a short video on ’em if you prefer watching vs reading:
Clarity App Bill Lowering & Canceling Service
One of the main ways you can take action is through their Bill Negotiation & Lowering service, where you can give Clarity app permission to negotiate and cancel any of your recurring services on your behalf. They do this by applying discounts or coupons that you may be entitled to but didn’t even know about. They help you make smart decisions!
If they’re successful in cutting down the costs, they keep 33% of the savings as their commission, leaving you with the other 2/3rds of the difference. Win-win for all. And of course, they never change your contract or commit you to anything unless you’ve approved it after getting all the info.
Here’s some screenshots of how it looks in the app:
Some Other Things You Can Do Directly In The Clarity App
- Transfer money between your connected accounts
- Get your free credit score (they work with Experian and use the VantageScore model)
- Create a new savings account and have them automatically save for you. (Clarity Money Savings Account is FDIC-insured up to $250,000, but no word on interest rates)
- Find lower interest rate credit cards and/or personal loans (another way they make money)
- Stay on top of insights based on your spending patterns
And then lastly, of course, they aim to help you with better budgeting and making smart decisions. You can easily set up expense categories, get an overall financial picture any time you want, and they’ll even alert you any time you get close to hitting any max limits.
Here are some more screenshots:
Are There Cons to Clarity Money?
Of course! Every budgeting app has downsides. It’s hard to know all of them since, again, I haven’t personally tested them myself. (Con #1 – no app for Android! :)). But similar to every other personal finance app out there you have to be okay with the following:
- Connecting all your financial accounts to an app
- Not being able to connect to *every* financial institution (like a really small bank or credit union)
- Not being able to cancel or negotiate *all* recurring bills and expenses
- Doesn’t work outside of the U.S. (I swear – one of these days!!)
- And probably coming across some bugs here and there since they’re still such a new banking app
There are always trade offs with this stuff. So the main question to ask yourself is, Does this app (or any app) have a good shot of improving my finances and simplifying my life? Can it replace any other apps or services I’m already using? Do I enjoy testing new apps because I’m a big fat money nerd?? :)
Only you know the answers to those, so from there you just gotta go with your gut and continue keeping your eyes open for any other ideas or apps that may look good over time. It’s a constant game of trying things out and putting together your perfect array of killer tools.
If this newer app looks interesting and you rock Apple, you can sign up and test them easily here: Clarity Money App. Again, it’s a FREE app.
Let me know what you think! And especially if you’re already using them! Drop all the tricks and hints below so we can all learn from you, please :)
I want to see if they can for real dethrone the app that started it all – Mint.com.
UPDATE: Clarity got purchased by Goldman Sachs… You can see their notice about it here, and the future of Clarity Money which will now be called Marcus App: claritymoney.com/marcus
*****
As with most products we feature here, all links to Clarity Money above are affiliate ones which means I’ll get a few bucks if you end up signing up through them. It never impacts my reviews (and as you can tell, I rarely do any unless I think it’s a winner!), and I always want you to do whatever is best for YOU. If it means testing out stuff I share here, cool! I appreciate the support.)
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Thanks for the review J. I love hearing about the new tools that are out there making things easier. Hope they can pull it off. You’ll have to let us know when they come out with the Andriod version. And in my world, Personal Capital already dethroned Mint. I don’t think I’ve logged into Mint since I started using PC.
Haha yeah, PC is def. blowing up these days. I’ve always thought of them more for tracking investments vs budgeting and daily expenses though? Or maybe that’s been changing?
Same – though I have to admit I haven’t used PC to track expenses/budget. Hmm…sounds like someone should do a comparison post…*raises hand*
Now if only it Clarity were on Android already…I would totally orchestrate a cage match of budgeting tools!
Yeah, I mainly use PC for investments and Mint for budgeting. Thanks for the suggestion on Clarity, but I think I’ll be waiting on this a little bit. I had signed up for Paribus a while back and have seen minimal results there, although it has negotiated a few things for me.
Hmmm…this does sound interesting. When they save money and keep a portion of the savings does that mean they keep that savings each month? One month? For the entirety of your business with them? I use Mint and have always thought it was a bit clunky. I have to combine it with an old school spreadsheet to get what I need out of it. I do, however, rock an older iPhone that continues to limp along, so maybe I’ll give it a go…using your link, of course ;)
Grabbed this from their FAQs :)
“If we are able to lower your bills, we will let you know how much we are able to save you. If you decide you want the savings, we will charge you 33% of the annual savings, but only after the savings we have obtained for you have gone into effect.
For example, if we are able to save you $100 on your cable bill, we will charge you a one time fee of $33 dollars, but only after the discount we got you has gone into effect.”
Clarity sounds very interesting. I have Samsung Galaxy S5, so I won’t be able to be a guinea pig. But, maybe I can convince my wife to do so with her new iPhone :)
I think the Bill Lowering/Canceling Service is a game-changing feature. That’s what will kill Mint right there. I look forward to seeing where this goes.
As I said in a comment on Mustard Seed Money about this app, I like how AI is being used in the personal finance space. It’s really exciting to see the possibilities and all in the name of helping people with one of their biggest pain points — financial literacy and executing sound financial decisions.
Thanks,
Dave
Yeah man! Technology is getting sooo cool over the years. I’m still in shock that you can deposit checks by phone, even though that was so 5 years ago, haha…
Hey David, Eli here from Clarity Money.
Please send us an email to feedback@claritymoney.com and we’ll add you to the waitlist for Android! We’re shooting for Q3 this year with a beta and then GA.
Due to overwhelming requests on our support portal, we’ve decided to make a public facing link. So Android lovers, please sign up over here! https://goo.gl/forms/NxWnWWEBLzvb0fV52
As always, if you do have any questions or would like a direct response, please shoot us a note at support@claritymoney.com
Thanks,
Eli
I just read another review on Clarity. Sounds pretty cool, especially with the negotiation and cancellation services. Is it primarily for spending or does it have investing analysis and planning capabilities as well like Personal Capital?
Also, I’m guessing it checks with you before going off and canceling all your services? Seems pretty cool until they screw up and cancel something you really need.
Yeah, you have to confirm everything before they take action on your behalf :)
As for investing analysis, Personal Capital is still the go to place for that. Clarity is more for helping people budget/track their daily expenses than investments (at least as far as I can tell)
Interesting that you can give this app permission to negotiate and cancel any of your recurring services. That’s a great feature to help manage your money. There are other apps that do that alone, but to have it rolled up into a single app is pretty nice.
Exactly – I think that’s the thing they’re really going for. The “all you need in one app” route.
Heard about this on the Stacking Benjamins podcast – sounds interesting, kinda surprised you can cancel services in-App…… they must have a special Comcast/Xfinity line to call, it takes me an hour to talk to the right person and another 30 to actually change anything.
Haha for real. I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with cable anymore…
I just started using Mint a couple months ago and really like(d) it. So this new player seems very interesting, and will surely help with finances. Cancelling recurring services is key, I’ve never seen that before. Great features with this new free money tool. And great review too, thanks.
Hey, glad you like man! Let me know what you think if you end up trying them out :)
Awesome review. Competition will be good for Mint to up their game and create more ways to add value and security.
These sort of tools interest me and I get pretty excited about them until I get to the part of linkiing finacial accounts to one portal. Being on your Networth List, this makes it way too spooky for me since there are plenty of assets floating around in these apps. Having all of one’s financial assets, including bills, pointing to one App or portal could be one stop shopping for lucrative criminal hacker community who could even be on a different continent. Everyday, there are hackers working the web looking or creating weaknesses and holes in site security and every company has armies of people trying to stay ahead of them. We hear abour breaches well after the fact in sites that we thought secure. When authority figures try to make assurances, the hairs on the back of neck alert me to stand firm. We lived through the financial meltdown of 2008. Can we live through a “Cloud security collapse” that is brewing in the future?
As much time consuming as excels sheets are to update on a quarterly basis, they’re secure for me. I welcome the implementation of this handy and helpful app and watch cautiously from the cheap seats.
Ain’t no shame in that :) I have a tendency to just not worry and deal with it when it happens, haha…
Interesting but I too am skeptical about sharing all of my accounts with one app. I’d prefer to wait until all the bugs are ironed out and there aren’t any security issues. Finding discounts that I’m not aware of is the big draw for me.
You can try Paribus for that, although the trade off there is giving them access to email so they can scour your receipts and look for money to save you. Always something to trade :)
https://budgetsaresexy.com/2015/05/paribus-review-get-money-back-shopping/
Marc here from the Clarity Money team.
The idea behind Clarity Money is simple: If you empower users with the tools to gain transparency and take control of their finances, they’ll do so wholeheartedly. Americans know their finances need work, and we’re here to help.
We have combined cutting edge technology with some of the world’s best financial experts and data scientists to do the hard work of helping you manage your finances with complete transparency. We analyze your accounts and spending patterns, and make specific recommendations and surface better deals that you can act upon — all within the app and all at the push of a button. We put the power back in your hands, giving you secure and insightful visibility into your finances.
Please feel free to share your feedback with us at support@claritymoney.com
This sounds really cool. I, too however rock Android….do they have an ETA for an Android app? A ball park guess?
An earlier comment said they’re shooting for a beta release of Q3 this year.
Without giving an exact date, we are shooting for Q3 of this year. I’ve added a link above, but in case you missed it, please sign up for the waitlist here – https://goo.gl/forms/NxWnWWEBLzvb0fV52
We’re looking for beta testers!
Thanks for sharing your honest review. I may give it a shot – I think my monthly bills are pretty bare bones, so it would be great to see if they find any leaks I’ve missed!
Let me know what you think after you’ve given it a try!
The one thing I’m always looking for to help be a Mint Killer, is the ability to split transactions. Doesn’t look like they’re there yet. Adjusting the date for budgeting between end of the month/first of the month is nice too.
But I would like to periodically ‘sickem on the Cable Company!
Good feedback! Will make sure they see it :)
I hadn’t heard of Clarity until today, so it’s good to check out. I downloaded Personal Capital last month and I’ve been giving it a test run for a review on it. I have to say, I do like what I see about Clarity so far. I enjoy that it pulls together actual insights to improve your financials instead of showing a simple graph of expenses. It’s super helpful to have smart software that helps you cut expenses.
I love the concept, my big idea that I will not act upon is very similar and for that reason these guys/gals are geniuses. I hope they hire someone similar to the “Dude you are getting a Dell” kid, maybe something catchy like “Oh man, so much Clarity” possibly while doing yoga on top of a mountain top. This idea is free, hard to believe I know. Also are we sure Mint isn’t already dead or at least dying slowly?
Haha…. I will buy you beer for the rest of your life if they steal your idea :)
I have a love/hate relationship with Mint, but so far the love is winning out.
Clarity sounds interesting but I am loathe to give out my financial credentials to such an early stage startup. Giving any app your credentials is a risk/reward bet, but I do like to know that they have withstood at least a year of folks trying to hack them before I trust them with my stuff. The other risk with such an early stage startup is that if they go bust what exactly are they going to do to protect all the data they have collected. Are they guaranteed to wipe everything clean before they put that big fat lock on the door?
Fascinating!! I actually have no idea as I’ve never thought about before, but it’s def. something to consider for sure… I like the “one year live” first idea to help mitigate it more.
That is SO COOL that you can take action straight from the app! I think this will go far. Thanks for sharing about it. I would definitely be curious to see what suggestions it would come up with based on our spending.
yeah – that’s the big change there compared to others… and hopefully it will now make everyone else copy too to make all apps better :)
Interesting to see a new PF app that allows you to conduct financial transactions within the app. That is new for me. I’ll be sticking with Mint because it has all of my transaction history stored up, and I started with them right after I got my first full time job. One big advantage for CM is their bill negotiation feature, what a great idea. I think that the 33% commission is steep but for a lot of people that don’t like confrontation that is a worthwhile price to pay.
yeah – good point about having all your data stored up already with Mint. i wonder how much of it carries over when you start with new apps like Clarity or others? I feel like it’s only 60-90 days.
Thank you, J, for reviewing this app. I’ve been using Personal Capital, but love to try Clarity. I just downloaded this app.
This app’s icon looks very similar to my ClassPass icon; I probably will click on the wrong one from time to time. I don’t know which app came out first though…
hope you like it!
Wow, what a great concept! I liked Mint for awhile then fell off the bandwagon. I still use your Excel budget spreadsheets.
Ooh cool!!! I still use them too, but it’s changed massively since then and also moved to google docs :)
Looks like a really interesting app. Will give it a try. I’ve been off, then on, then off Mint so many times over the last couple years. I need to find something that keeps me engaged.
I’m assuming you can use this with an iPad? Sounds great! I hate getting on the phone with any company about my bills – seems to take hours longer than I anticipate and half the time I get cut off. I’m old school and really like using my desktop. Hate typing in a phone and touchscreens drive me nuts. Maybe though it’s time to switch to an Iphone.
yup – should work with iPad!
Man I wish they had an Android version, I would be all over trying this out. Thanks for sharing!
Handful of months to go then it’s our turn :)
Android on the way! Sign up over here and we’ll notify you when it’s ready – https://goo.gl/forms/NxWnWWEBLzvb0fV52
We’re actively working on a web version as well :)
I love the sound of this app. Being able to cancel services within the app would be a huge time-saver. Fingers crossed they make it available to everyone.
Hmmm, interesting. I personally only have accounts in a teeny local credit union (and am getting a beastly 1.25% interest rate on up to $2500 in my savings account for being young, yay!) so neither this nor Mint would work for me. For budgeting I came across Toshl Finance – have you heard of that one, J? I ended up actually paying for the pro version so that I could use multiple accounts (including cash!!!). Some people aren’t crazy about inputting their every transaction but I actually prefer it so that I can have a better idea of how much I’m spending and on what. And then it comes out with some sweet interactive graphics/plots of where my money goes.
nice! no – I’ve never heard of it before, but if it’s working well for you keep rockin’ it! the only app I know people swear by when it comes to manual transactions is YNAB. have you checked them out in your research?
here’s our review if you’re interested: https://budgetsaresexy.com/2016/01/you-need-a-budget-ynab-review/
I am a bit disturbed that you’re offering this up as a review when you can’t actually test anything and yet sound overwhelmingly positive and cheerleader-ish based only on promotional materials and what you’re told by those that are set to profit from the promotion. Especially concerning since there are several of their representatives piling on in the comments. It sounds more like a sponsored post (advertising – with or without compensation – is unclear) that is not labeled as such, and makes me sad this is here, and question your integrity.
Sorry you feel that way. As you can tell from the comments people seem to be finding it helpful :) I don’t know how long you’ve been reading the blog for, but you’ll see that I only share apps or services I think can really help people out and that I get excited about. I’m naturally a positive person so you’re never going to see a “hey – here’s an app that sucks! try it out!” haha… Believe me, if I were in it for the money this site would look completely different.
J$, Interesting product review. I wonder how they are able to renegotiate contracts so quickly online, because it requires verification and informed consent rules (that’s why conversations are recorded when you call a service provider). Unless they get a master consent agreement from you online and get it pre-authorized with all service providers. Still, there are some state to state jurisdictional differences on customer representation. What about dispute resolution in case the renegotiated rates aren’t honored later? Probably will take a wait and watch approach till they reach a million users. Meanwhile, PC is kicking butt as investment tool for me. For expenses, I use online bank statements and my own Excel tool based analysis macro to optimize them.
Haha… nooooo idea.
I’m willing to bet they’ve partnered up with a company that specializes in all that and shares revenue or something, but I’ll see if I can get them to shed some light on it here. Great questions for sure!
These were my thoughts as well. How much control do they have over your accounts that they can negotiate AND cancel on your behalf?
A new money app I gotta try. Thanks for the review, J Money. I know this is helpful and there must be something special about this app. :)
That sounds interesting! I’ve been a long time Mint user, but this is a new one which seems like worth trying. Will definitely give it a try.
Come back to let us know what you think while us Androiders have to wait in suspense :)
After downloading and exploring the app, here is a quick review (disclosure: I am a longtime Mint user and I have tried Alfred, Penny, and several other budgeting apps in the meantime).
TL:DR – no web app, no excel output, no savings without opening account, no custom categories, transferring money between accounts security hazard, cancelling subscriptions gimmicky and can be accomplished with other apps without a fee, negotiating is a value add, phone app better than mint’s phone app (but not significantly, and mint’s web app is versatile)
Until this company has a web app that can export all of your transactions to Excel (a la Mint), tagged with date/category/merchant, it won’t kill Mint. As much as I despise mint’s mobile app, I never use it, as it is so much easier to categorize and edit transactions (the few times I need to) on a computer. I can also use excel to create my own fancy graphs and insights (yes, monthly and daily, etc) that I just paste my mint export into.
There are also no custom categories – which means that my gas and uber will be lumped under ‘transport’, my groceries and restaurants will be ‘food’ – so being able to aim at certain spending sectors is harder (for example, with mint I separate my work food spending from my pleasure food spending, which has allowed me to see my trends in both and reduce both measurably – same with my gas and uber expenses).
Transferring money within the app between banks is intriguing and convenient yet terrifying. If someone stole my Mint credentials, they couldn’t make any ACTIONS with my money.
Clarity also has no savings options unless you want to open an account with them. Why would I open an account when my checking account gives me 1% interest? I am throwing all my free cash in the highest earning account.
This edges on a complaint I have with Mint – if you want to save for something, you have to dedicate an entire account to it (you can’t say ‘I am dedicating $100 a month of Account A toward this goal’ and have it track how much you have saved and tell you how much of that account is still ‘assignable cash’). The best app I have seen for this is Ramsey’s ‘EveryDollar’. I think everydollar is the best budgeting app out there at the moment but I’m not going to pay the (albeit minimal) fee to have it automatically pull my transactions when I can make Mint work for free.
I have not tried YNAB (shame on me) but I will do that next.
TL:DR – no web app, no excel output, no savings without opening account, no custom categories, transferring money between accounts security hazard, cancelling subscriptions gimmicky and can be accomplished with other apps without a fee, negotiating is a value add, phone app better than mint’s phone app (but not significantly, and mint’s web app is versatile)
Thorough – I love it!! Maybe you should have written a review for us here on it ;) Appreciate you taking the time to share as i’m sure it’ll be super helpful for future people who come here to read this. Definitely interested in your analysis of YNAB as they seem to have a rabid group of followers. Though they do charge which I know is a deal breaker for you haha….
THIS CLAUSE IS THE SHOW STOPPER FOR ME AND I WILL NOT TRUST THIS APP OR COMPANY WITH MY CREDIT CARD OR BANKING INFORMATION !!!!
Grabbed from Clartity Money Inc. End User License Agreement
Monitoring. We may (but have no obligation to) monitor, evaluate, alter or remove Submissions before or after they appear on the App, or analyze your access to or use of the App. We may disclose information regarding your access to and use of the App, and the circumstances surrounding such access and use, to anyone for any reason or purpose.
Interesting… I wonder if this is common across all apps/services out there, or with just Clarity?
I recommend that everyone read company EULA for App/services before they trust them with their credit card and banking logon and passwords.
Are you aware of any products like this, Mint, or Personal Capital for the European market? I’ve been searching for ages. Thanks for the review!
I do not, I’m sorry :( Most of the apps we cover here are US-based only.
The wait is over. Now it’s here. Clarity Money has landed on Android. Pls help us spread the word!
Please can the app use for transfer when I link another bank account with mine ?
Does anyone know if I can link my Ally Cashback Card with Clarity? I can’t do it with Mint and am trying to find an app that this will work with. From what I can tell, it does not work but that doesn’t mean much.
My contact over there says yes – Ally is supported :)
I’m loving Clarity! They canceled my Spotify for me. I never used it and I hate going through looking up subscriptions and doing that stuff. I have 2 accounts with Comcast (for 2 locations) and they saved me $15 on one and $22 on the other. So in my 1st month they have saved me $47 per month going forward. It is such a great looking app. I love the tiled set up. I check it every morning and I have cancelled my Mint account.
Oh nice!! Glad to hear. Now the *real* question is – what are you going to do with your saved $47 each month? :) (my advice, if I may, automatically throw it all into savings! you’re already used to paying it and won’t notice it!)
Ya lost me at George Soros. He’s the last person I would want to have access to my information. Truly a Horrible Person in the realm of Personal Privacy and Civil liberties.