Transcription CBS 5 Evening News Profiles Mint
with other Money Management Tools

October 17, 2007

CBS5 San Francisco

Female Presenter 1– Personal finance is very confusing, savings in one account, checking in another, credit cards, investments.

Male Presenter– So we’re here with free websites, put it together, they say it’s as safe as online banking.

Female Presenter 2 – So they say. The average American has accounts with ten different financial institutions, now we checked out new websites that put all that information in one place.

Nita Singh “Sometimes you (unclear) with your money”

Female voiceover – Nita Singh is facing her money head on using a new financial planner called Mint.com

Nita Singh – You learn a lot about yourself as well in terms of how you spend it and how you manage it.

Female voiceover – Mint joins other free sites including Wasabi and Geezeo that allows users to view all their accounts in one place.

AP – You see where it all goes, how much you spend on gas, groceries, Target, DVD’s.

Female voiceover – Along with keeping track of your spending Wasabi and Geezeo include social networking to encourage users to reach their financial goals. At Mint the twist is recommendations for deals on monthly bills, banks and credit cards.

AP – It will analyze your spending patterns and find the credit card that is right for you if you do a lot of travel they will give you a miles card, if you spend a lot on gas it will give you, find you one tha twill give you 5% back.

Female voiceover – All three sites offer multiple levels of security and accounts are kept anonymous, analysts say banks are catching on.

Jean Garascia – The Bank of America offers a very similar type of service right now that allows you to look at your multiple accounts though one online banking site.

Female voiceover – The free sites categorize data automatically, that when we tried out Wasabi and Mint we found a few transactions were misfiled. Our web browser didn’t support Geezeo. Nita says using Mint has been eye opening.

Nita Singh – I’ve seen Starbucks is like number one places I go to all the time, it’s a big wake up call. To budget or to make even better decisions if you’re at work you just make yourself some tea and be just as happy.

Female presenter 2 – Now we have links to all these free websites at CBS5.com and if you have a consumer problem you can call our volunteers at 8885helps-u leave a message anytime and we will get back to you.