We’re excited to have SmarterBucks® as one of our monthly sponsors in August.
I had the opportunity to interview them and get to know their company a little more recently:
1. Tell us about the history of your company.
SmarterBucks® was launched in 2012 by the same team behind SimpleTuition. Since 2006, SimpleTuition has helped over 20 million students and families better afford their college education.
Now, with SmarterBucks®, we are empowering them, and the one in five households in America living with student debt, with the tools and information needed to be smarter about their student debt management. Our rewards program is built around the power of interest: for every dollar you earn in SmarterBucks® that gets contributed toward your student loan debt, you save that dollar plus interest over the life of your loan. It’s that exponential effect that makes the SmarterBucks® rewards program so powerful, and enables us to help our users crush their student debt faster and for less.
2. What product or service does your company offer?
SmarterBucks® is a rewards program that helps its users pay down their student loans. To earn rewards, members currently have four options:
- Shopping in our online rewards marketplace featuring hundreds of leading retailers like Target, Walmart, Groupon, J.Crew, and more
- Inviting family and friends to make contributions or earn rewards on their behalf
- Using their SmarterBank® Visa® Debit card (optional) on everyday purchases
- Completing brand-sponsored online surveys
Signing up is completely free, and once a user has earned $15 in SmarterBucks®, those rewards are automatically contributed as an extra payment to the student loan that the user has set up in the SmarterBucks® system. Our thought process: you are online shopping/in-store shopping/taking surveys/getting gifts (etc) already, so might as well put those everyday activities to work in getting you out of student debt. We try to make it as simple, powerful, hassle-free, and automated as possible, and there are never any caps on rewards earnings.
3. The main focus on Money Saving Mom® is saving money and making our dollars stretch. How does your product help us to do that?
We call it the power of accumulated interest. Because SmarterBucks® rewards are contributed as extra payments, which are meant to be in addition to a user’s regular monthly payments, our users not only get out of debt faster, but they also save interest on the overall cost of their loan. That means that for every $1 earned and contributed in SmarterBucks®, a typical user is really saving up to $2-$3 over the life of their loan. A little math to drive home the point:
4. Does your company have any new products or promotions coming up?
Just for joining, SmarterBucks® members are always entered into our monthly student loan payment giveaways, worth anywhere between $1,000-$2,500 in SmarterBucks®.
In addition, until September 15th, we are running a special promotion to help people reach their first extra student loan payment: any new SmarterBucks® member who earns $5 in rewards (and sets up a valid student loan) will receive their next $10 in rewards on us. Click here for more information.
5. Does your company do any charity work that you’d like us to know about?
Though SmarterBucks® is a for-profit organization, we do consider ourselves social entrepreneurs in the business of smarter student debt management.
6. What would you most like your customers or future customers to know about your company?
Here at SmarterBucks®, we live, breathe, eat, and sleep our mission to help you get student debt-free faster and for less. We’re constantly brainstorming new ways for you to earn rewards, seeking out new inspiring #crushstudentdebt stories to share, and creating or curating new content to help you take control of your financial future. We don’t whine, brood, or vent about the struggle of paying off student loans. We’re action-oriented, and our products and content help you get debt-free faster.
Perhaps most importantly, however, is that we listen to our members. Our SmarterBucks® Ambassador community, a community open to all members who wish to share their feedback and opinions with us, has played, and will continue to play, a critical role in shaping the future of our program.
7. How can your customers get the most out of your product or service?
Make SmarterBucks® a part of your daily routine, and sign up for the SmarterBank® Visa® Debit card. When we look at our members who have gotten the most out of our program, they are the people who are taking a survey a day, doing all of their online shopping in the SmarterBucks Marketplace, asking friends and family for SmarterBucks contributions in lieu of birthday and holiday gifts, and using the SmarterBank® Visa® Debit card for all of their purchases, both in-store and online. It can be a bit of a behavior adjustment at first, but the rewards are worth it.
8. Is there anything else that you would like for Money Saving Mom® readers to know about your company?
SmarterBucks® is part of a unique suite of products, all brought to you from the same parent company, SimpleTuition, dedicated to leading the path to an affordable education. We’re serious about this mission and hope you will join us in our quest.
Interested in becoming a monthly sponsor or advertising with us? Find more details here.
Holly S says
I loved the idea of this and signed up as soon as I heard about it since I will do surveys throughout the day as I get a chance anyway for various places but I nearly every email they’ve sent me or I try to qualify for it turns out I’ve not been able to complete. I’m going to give it another week or so but so far it’s not helped me.
Maria says
Does anyone know how much one generally earns from each survey? I can’t find any such information online.
kat says
it says on the smarterbucks website you can earn anywhere from $1-5 dollars per survey: https://www.smarterbucks.com/surveys
Maria says
Thank you!
Annie says
Like+
for the power of additional payments on a typical student loan