New app aims to keep tabs on mobile wallet
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For those who use a mobile wallet, a new app aims to help keep track of when electronic cash is running low.
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The Level Money application aims to give smartphone users a “money meter” at a time when carrying cash is passe.
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The app, for those who use Apple’s mobile iOS gadgets, is aimed squarely at people age 35 or younger, referred to as Millennials or Generation Y.
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“For the vast majority of that group, money management is checking the balance at the ATM after the money comes out of the machine,” said Level co-founder and chief executive Jake Fuentes.
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“Frankly, we don’t think about money the same way our parents do,” the 27-year-old continued. “We didn’t grow up with savings bank passbooks and physical money; you swipe a card and put it back in your wallet.”
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Level Money lets smartphones show whether it would be fiscally smarter to pass on buying that extra round of drinks or sleek new gadget.
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“We want to give you this real-time money meter,” Fuentes said.
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Level Money synchronizes with bank accounts and credit or debit cards, analyzing entries to identify income and monthly bills such as rent or mobile phone service.
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The application lets people specify how much of their pay they want to save.
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“We distill it down to stuff that has to be paid every month, savings, and everything else comes up as spendable,” Fuentes said. “That is the way this generation thinks: Am I feeling rich today or am I not?”
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San Francisco-based Level entices people by projecting how much money they are on pace to have saved at the end of a month to put toward splurging on themselves.
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Level partnered with personal finance software titan Intuit to handle people’s personal information with “bank-level security and encryption.”
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“Level is a radically simple approach to money management,” Fuentes said. “We think this is part of a sea change to using mobile devices for financial decisions in a way not seen before.”
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Level Money is available only for iPhones in the United States but the nine-person startup was intent on expanding quickly to more devices.
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“Our ambition is to become the next generation of financial services company,” Fuentes said.
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Level does not make money from the free application but envisions eventually cashing in by providing more sophisticated financial services to users.
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