Credit Sesame, the personal finance service (and TechCrunch Disrupt alum), which provides free credit scores and other information aimed at helping consumers get out of debt, is today launching a new feature which will allow users to compare their financial situation to their peers and the market in order to see where they stand. Not to worry - you won't be swapping credit scores with your Facebook BFFs here. Instead, the feature lets users see how they compare with others in their age group, income group, and in the same region, allowing them to compare things like total debt and credit usage.
According to CEO Adrian Nazari, the company uses its proprietary, bank-level technology and security to pull in this aggregated, non-personalized data. And the feature should be a benefit to a service that's helping people focus on the liability side of the balance sheet, as they say. Being able to see how people like you and near you are spending or saving can motivate you to keep your credit card on ice and focus on your real goal: paying down that debt.
But it's not just about social comparison, Nazari tells us. The feature can actually help you determine if you're paying too much for various financial products. "We evaluate consumers on their credit, on their debt and the terms of their loans so they can see if they are overpaying," explains Nazari. "They can compare their finances to their peers and the market and get specific action items to outperform both and save," he says.
In addition, Credit Sesame is also allowing users to now set alerts. "For example, if a consumer wants to save $500 per month on their mortgage," says Nazari, "they can set an alert and Credit Sesame will monitor the market and tell them when loan terms are available for then to save that amount based on their credit profile."
The company recently hit one million users, which is the first time it's gone on record about its reach. In June, for example, Nazari declined to talk users. He said then that Credit Sesame was managing $20 billion in consumer loans through its service, and was then saving its users over $170 million per month through its recommendations. Today, Nazari says that Credit Sesame is close to $35 billion under system monitoring and management, and has found over $1 billion in total savings for its customers.
The updated version of Credit Sesame's service will launch today for all users.
This story originally appeared in TechCrunch.
