3 Bay Area Fintech Companies That Are Changing Personal Finance

Personal finance is a little more complicated than just balancing the checkbook in the 21st century. There are digital wallets to keep track of, multiple bank accounts, and of course, the investment portfolio to monitor. Since many Americans are in a precarious financial situation, you can’t blame people for looking for some help with managing money.

Fintech has a few solutions for those looking to upgrade their bookkeeping.

San Francisco, the site of the Benzinga FinTech Summit on September 28, is a hub for the growing injection of technology in personal finance. These three Bay Area fintech companies are changing personal finance for the better.

Personal Capital

Where: San Carlos, California

Who: Founded by William H. Harris, Louie Gasparini, and Robert Foregger

What: Personal Capital’s goal is to make managing money a more feasible and successful experience by combining high level technology with high level financial expertise.

The company’s app is designed to help people develop long-term financial strategies with tools that calculate net worth, help users plan for retirement and design budgets. The app also allows people to link their investing, retirement, bank, and credit accounts with their credit cards so that all of their financial information is in one place.

Other features that Personal Capital offers its 1.5 million clients are a fee analyzer that examines hidden fees, investment checkups that give second opinions on portfolios, and a retirement calculator. Financial advisors and professionals also work for the company to help clients with investment strategies.

Besides just wealth management, Personal Capital also serves as an educational service. Most people are not experts on money management tools and variables. That’s why the company’s website explains each step of the money management process and why each step is important.

Tally Technologies

Where: San Francisco, California

Who: Co-founded by Jasper Platz and Jason Brown

What: Tally Technologies is aiming to change the way that people use their credit cards. The company believes lending should be fair, APRs should be low, and interest rates should be formidable. Tally, which has been backed by many local banks and investors from Alphabet Inc. GOOGL and Facebook Inc. FB, offers an app that takes care of these goals.

To use the app, people scan their credit cards. If they qualify, Tally gives them a line of credit at a low APR and manage all payments. The app creates a faster way to pay off balances and a smarter way to organize credit cards.

Tally brings your credit cards into one simple-to-use app in an effort of feasibility and transparency. It’s designed to help people smartly use their credit cards and pay down balances faster by offering low interest and late fees.

UghMoney

Where: San Francisco, California

Who: Co-founded by Dmitry Mazin and Dan Guilak

What: UghMoney is a spending tracker to help people allocate budgets. The company offers an app that helps people follow their spending. The app lets people plug in how much they’ve spent and where they spent it on a daily basis, with alerts when spending is too high or too small. Users can plug in their bank and credit card balance into the app for more accurate data.

The UghMoney app also categorizes spending into categories, such as needs and wants. If a person usually spends $150 per week on needs but only spends $110 in one particular week, the app will alert them on their good spending. If that same person spends $200 in a different week on needs, the app will alert them on their poor spending.

UghMoney is giving people an easy approach to spending and money tracking. Feasibility is the top concern of people: the last thing anyone wants when trying to figure out spending is having to figure out how to figure out spending. UghMoney takes this challenge head on with its highly efficient app.

If you’re looking for cool fintech startups and access to top financial institutions, and are sick of attending stuffy corporate conferences, the Benzinga Fintech Summit is the event for you. Visit www.bzsummit.com for more details.

Connect with us on social media — use the hashtag #BZsummit and #Fintech to spread the word!