BillShrink launches real-time savings platform

Looking for savings delivered directly to your online bank statement? BillShrink, a site designed to help people lower their bills through a money-saving search engine, launched an extension to their online platform that enables consumers to save on common expenses like wireless bills or television service.

BillShrink's transaction search engine classifies purchases into specific merchants and categories and then accurately determines what content to display. BillShrink's matching technology leverages knowledge of both historical and current transactions to present consumers with the most relevant savings available.

For example, a transaction for a mochaccino might trigger a $25 loyalty reward for the cost of $10 at the user's favorite coffee shop. Similarly, gas purchases generate cheaper gas station recommendations.

Schwark Satyavolu, co-founder and CEO of BillShrink, insists that consumers are interested in real-time, contextual rewards based on their spending history.

"In our research, nearly 90% of consumers indicated they would switch their spending to cards or bank accounts that offer this functionality and 68% said they'd switch to a new card just to get a service like this," Satyavolu says. "StatementRewards will give financial institutions a powerful way to increase spend and loyalty by providing customers with rewards and savings while they are considering their finances."

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Study finds credit card rates still on the rise

When it comes to your credit cards, expect rising fees and sneaky, below-the-belt jabs from issuers.

BillShrink, a site designed to help people lower their bills, conducted a survey on credit card rates. Their findings? Credit card issuers' rates have increased an average of 16 percent. In a study of 150 credit cards, the average increase in fees is 16 percent. One third of issuers raised rates as high as 20 to 30 percent.

Bill Shrink also reveals that many issuers late until the last legal moment (February 22, 2010) to comply with all new regulations under the CARD Act.

What is the CARD Act? Beginning on February 22, the CARD Act prohibits credit issuers from double-cycle billing and penalizing cardholders who defaulted on a different card. Issuers who complied as early as Fall 2009 include Chase, Discover, Wells Fargo, and American Express. Most issuers, however, waited until the last minute before applying a fair allocation of payments and fees for over-the-phone bill pay, also part of the CARD Act.

Samir Kothari, co-founder of BillShrink says, "We've been carefully monitoring rate changes and compliance for over a year and have seen issuers sneak in rate hikes to brace for the new regulations rather than using the grace period to phase out prohibitive practices."

Kothari continues, "After February 22, we expect to see more cards with annual fees, as well as a rise in other charges like balance transfer fees, cash advance and even inactivity charges. The good news is that there is some level of protection from consumer-friendly billing practices."

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