Charlie, the personal finance app helping users get out of debt without lifestyle sacrifices, today announced the official launch of its completely revamped app that offers a judgement-free path to debt freedom.
Charlie is a money-saving, deal-finding, bill-cutting insight engine that continually analyzes users’ spending habits to find easy and smart ways they can get debt-free faster. Charlie supports users spending money on what they desire, while simultaneously setting money aside for them automatically to pay off debt, creating sustainable financial behaviors and letting users see the big effects of small changes. The company previously operated as a chat-bot app, helping users see personalized spending insights and find deals. Now, Charlie provides a full suite of money management tools and a personalized, flexible, and achievable debt-free plan for anyone looking for debt management or personal finance help.
Charlie is currently helping its users save an average of $40 monthly, and the app shows them how paying just $25 more of debt per month can save thousands of dollars of interest, getting them out of debt years sooner than they thought possible. Unlike other financial management tools, Charlie provides a refreshing user experience that recognizes the value of purchases that are often labeled unnecessary, such as a daily coffee or monthly streaming services. Charlie supports users’ reasonable splurges and emphasizes the importance of balanced financial behaviors to ensure healthy habits are maintained long term. By using Charlie, users can keep their Starbucks and Uber rides while still saving money. With over $6 billion of user spending data analyzed each day, Charlie optimizes user behavior to construct the best tactics to help users achieve their financial goals at their own pace.
The new and improved Charlie includes the following features:
• Users see their debt-free date: visualization is a powerful tool—users enter their debt details for Charlie to figure out when they will be debt-free and to see how paying down just a few more dollars per month leads to saving thousands of dollars in interest with its proprietary calculator
• Credit card payment tools: Charlie shows which cards to pay first and helps users have more money to do it
• “Zany” auto-funds: custom, fun ways to auto-transfer money into debt pay off savings, triggered by events the user chooses (e.g., “Guilty Pleasures” - Charlie can put away 10% every time a user buys fast food; “The Bachelor” - Charlie saves a user $1 everytime time a contestant on the show says they’re ‘here for the right reasons’; “Queen Taylor” - Charlie will put away $13 every time Taylor Swift releases a new album)
• Personalized deals and savings: to help users pay off debt, Charlie finds better deals on current services used (e.g., Charlie can reduce cell phone bills by $50/month) and helps users remove services they are not actively using (e.g., Charlie can help cancel a user’s Hulu if they are not using it)
• Advanced chat-bot features: users can simply ask Charlie via the app for help with specific questions
• Celebrations: Charlie’s lighthearted persona is one of the app’s major differentiators in the fintech space, and positive interactions, such as confetti upon any user achievement, are key to creating a supportive, fun and overall successful environment for getting out of debt
“We’re excited to offer our loyal users a completely re-imagined and advanced version of Charlie to support them in their journey to becoming debt-free,” says Ilian Georgiev, CEO and co-founder of Charlie. “We saw the need for a debt tool that is grounded in simplicity, flexibility, and self-acceptance. We built Charlie to allow our users to enjoy their morning latte while, at the same time, work towards getting out of debt. We know the psychology behind debt is complex, so in addition to helping them get out of debt faster without drastically changing their habits, we are also helping them make smarter, sustainable choices for their debt-free journey and thereafter. Ultimately, we believe that achieving debt-freedom can and should be accessible and even enjoyable.”
The app’s evolution was inspired by co-founders and finance experts Ilian Georgiev, Ivo Parashkevov and Robert Luedeman's desire to understand the psychology behind debt and spending behavior, as well as to provide financial help to the average American being left out of the conversation of how to get out of debt. Traditional banking corporations and lenders capitalize on the 72% of ordinary people without a financial plan due to lack of access to advanced knowledge or tools to adequately manage their money. Unlike those organizations, Charlie works to level the playing field, democratize financial assistance, and put power back in the hands of consumers with its simple and easy-to-use debt management tools. Over 80 percent of Charlie users are women, with the average user’s age being 31 years old.
The app is currently available for iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded for free. Access to the app and new premium features are available with a subscription for $4.99/month.