Well today was an exciting day here at Geezeo. We received a call from Jacki Schechner, Internet Reporter with CNN to discuss Geezeo and and the world of social personal finance. Jacki joined Gerri Willis on her program Open House today to discuss using websites like Geezeo to manage your money online. The program aired today at 9:30 this morning and in case you missed it, will be broadcast again on Sunday, July 29th at 3:30 on Headline News.

Below is a little bit of the transcript from the show. If we get a link to the video we’ll add it to the post…

CNN Internet reporter Jacki Schechner is in D.C. to guide us through all of this.

Jacki, thanks for joining me.

JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Of course. My pleasure, Gerri.

WILLIS: You know what’s really interesting about this? This isn’t your mom’s Quicken program. This is really very different. In fact, I’ve read that some two million people will use these Web sites in the next year.

Let’s go on a tour here and start with the ones that organize your finances.

SCHECHNER: All right. I just want to put this into perspective for you numbers-wise, though. This is very much an emerging project.

If you take a look at something like MySpace, 70 million users.

WILLIS: Wow.

SCHECHNER: Something like facebook.com, 30 million users.

So, when we talk about two million over the course of the next year, it is very much a startup operation.

Let’s take a look, first of all, at Geezeo. Now, this is a Web site — I spoke to the founders today. They say this is a personal application Web site. It’s a social finance application in that you can possibly interact with other people. But it’s personal finances first.

Now, what might hold people off in the beginning is that it does ask you to add your accounts. So you can upload your checking account, your credit card account, perhaps your mortgage information.

That’s all going to go online to this Web site. In order to have any sort of interactivity in terms of managing your finances, you are going to have to upload this personal information.

The other aspect of this site would be, for example, if you have problems keeping track of your credit card debt. You can find other likeminded people and go ahead and compare what you are doing to counter and fight that debt compared to what’s working for them.

You can also set up goals. For example, if you want to buy an iPhone. Perhaps you don’t have the money on hand — it is a little pricey, after all.

WILLIS: Right.

SCHECHNER: You can compare with other people who are trying to reach the same goal.

It’s really exciting to see social personal finance (I know oxymoron) getting this much attention in the national media. Pretty amazing…and we’re just getting started.

Looks like the time is right to shake up the world of personal finance!

Today we launched a new feature on Geezeo–financial goals. When you create a Geezeo goal, you associate it with either a bank account or tag, and because your accounts are updated nightly, the progress of your goal is also automatically updated!

For example, let’s say that after you sign up for Geezeo, you quickly learn by reading your tag graph that you’ve been spending way too much money on food each month. So, one of your goals might be to spend less on food. You could create your goal and set it up so that it’s complete when your food tag gets below a certain amount. Or perhaps you want to buy a new car? You could set up a goal that gets completed when your savings account exceeds a certain amount.

But rather than reading about it here, go give it a try!

It is my belief that it is the easiest to save money when buying plane tickets. It is one of those things that needs to be done carefully and requires a lot of patience, but it is all worth it when it comes to getting the same price. I recently bought a ticket to Miami and all of this came back to me. Websites like orbitz.com or expedia.com have great deals – we all know that… BUT they do come along with a lot of tricks. I have been spending a lot of time trying to find the lowest price… but oddly when it comes to buying the ticket, that “deal” seems to be missing. Hmmm… fast selling tickets or perhaps a low ball technique of getting me to make the purchase without the deal because I have already committed to a Miami trip in my mind. It’s tricky – but it works I am sure with all of us! Remember that when it comes to buying tickets – stay strong. You’ve got to act quick and use your best comparing skills. I am suggesting multiple windows open with each travel site.

Remember.. 1) try different airports. Yes it may not be the most convenient… but sometimes it is worth the hassle if it is saving you a hundred bucks. 2) Notice which days of the week have the lowest prices. Perhaps staying over another night wouldn’t hurt. 3) Ask for special deals. Make phone calls… sometimes that is all it takes! There is usually some special going on that could save you a lot. And to finish off… once at the airport – avoid shopping at the airport. I always make the mistake of shopping because I have some extra time.. but it is never for anything I REALLY need. Vacation gives the illusion of having freedom and luxury living.. but it doesn’t start in the airport : O Save up for the trip & keep your wallet in your pocket until arriving at your final destination!

New Yorkers panic when faced with the so-called dangers leaving the city. Had we listened to them we might have expected danger when B got off the plane.

Yes, B was bitten by a horse. On vacation.

It happened like this: B loves animals and he let a horse sniff and lick his hand. Oh, how cute….Then the horse took a big chomp’n bite. Nearly missed a joint.

See what happens when you leave the city?

The horse bite — although unpredictable, and now wrapped in gauze — reminded me to expect the unexpected (and here we were, thinking mere unemployment is the unexpected!). Here are some tips to keep the horse bites (and the financial bites!) under wraps:

1. Do you have an emergency fund? They are easy to set up and can work wonders even if you’re contributing just $10-$20 a week. (That’s money you blow without knowing it anyway, right?) Do yourself a favor and set it up so you’re automatically prepared. Even if the cushion is small, it’s better than nothing. I find it is easier if I send this money to an account not connected to my regular checking account. This makes it harder to liquidate during a night out when I could be tempted.

2. Do your budget, but in reverse. Me, I hate numbers. I hate budgets. Rather than budget items, I’ve found that the best solution is to “budget in reverse”. By that I mean, I know how much I need to pay all my various household bills and other living expenses each month. Tally up your essentials. Come up with your “number” and then backtrack from there. If you work freelance, you know that one project has to cover rent, another to cover food, etc. Sounds obvious, but until you come up with your number life is a lot harder.

3. Get health insurance. Okay, no joke: health insurance is very, very expensive. If you’re lucky you’ll never need it… and you’ll be tempted to stop the payments. Trust me, I lived without for a long time. Don’t be stupid like I was and risk your finances and health by going without insurance. Look for better deals via your professional associations. Personally speaking, I purchase inexpensive, bare-boned emergency coverage at FracturedAtlas.org. They should float me a free year for telling so many people about it.

4. Stay on top of it. Being aware of your financial situation (whatever the situation is!) makes you better able to plan for the unexpected. Why? Because you know exactly where you are and aren’t just guessing. Use the tools here at Geezeo to make that process easier. My favorite feature is the tagging capabilities.

5. Stay away from horses. That probably isn’t a requirement to avoid unexpected expenses. But can’t hurt.

The last 30 days have been amazing here at Geezeo. In parallel with launching our site, rolling out weekly feature updates and supporting the rapid growth of the site we’ve enjoyed some pretty fantastic press!

Most recently Linda Stern gives Geezeo a nice write-up In the July 23rd edition of Newsweek. We’re looking forward to more than 3 million weekly readers learning about Geezeo and discovering the new and exciting options people have when it comes to tracking and managing their money online.

We keep a rolling list of all our news coverage on the About Geezeo page. Here’s a snapshot of some of the latest mentions:

Social-networking finance sites help members track their money while they kibitz with others to see how they are doing. At geezeo.com, users can put all their financial info in one place and get it sent to their cell phones, so they can check balances before they shop…read more

You may not need to wait for your bank to introduce mobile service. Geezeo, a company launched just over a month ago in Framingham, Mass., is a Web-based financial aggregator that lets you track your accounts from any of some 6,000 financial institutions online—and via your cell phone…read more

On Geezeo, members can create discussion groups with other users about specific financial topics…Starting this week, users will be able to provide feedback on financial products, such as student loans, credit cards or savings accounts…read more

NEW OR NOTABLE: Right now, it (Geezeo) consists of Geezeo Mobile, which lets you view your balances at a bank or broker from your cellphone…Geezeo has partnered with Simple Tuition to offer an impressive network of potential lenders for consolidating or refinancing student loans…read more

Geezeo wants to be considered an “Online Quicken Alternative” and the product offers a lot of new and innovative options past what Quicken or Money do.…read more

Geezeo is also stretching its brand past the mobile banking service. Its website will act as a social-networking community where users can share money management tips and anecdotes…read more

More than a tracking service, Geezeo is also a community, where groups can be formed for users to discuss planning and spending behavior, hints and tips. You have the option of sharing your personal information with other users to get advice and feedback…read more

A big THANKS to all our early users. We can’t thank you enough for all the emails, live chats, group comments and product suggestions. Your support and enthusiasm drives us each and every day to make Geezeo the best personal finance management site on the web!

The Muscle Behind Geezeo: Our CTO, Theron “Sonny” Parlin wrote a great article for ThinkVitamin describing our hosting and infrastructure using Amazon Web Services. Caution: Not for the technologically faint of heart

The following blog is taken from a post in the Geezeo group Quarter Life Crisis by Her Every Cent Counts.

Looking into my wallet, I noticed I had several credit cards, but NO CASH!! That got me thinking… Where is all my cash going?

I went online that night and looked at each one of my credit cards – some had an APR (annual percentage rate) as high as 24% (average APR is 14.53 %*)!!! That is literally just throwing money away!

I called up my father, who is ex-military (you get the idea), and told him about my lingering financial problem. He immediately looked at his calendar and scheduled a meeting with me the next Friday night – not my idea of fun to start off the weekend! He instructed that I bring all 4 of my credit cards and print my statements offline.

Friday night rolled around and I showed up with all of my credit card information in tow. He instructed that I sit down and we end this craziness right away. He got on the kitchen phone, and I got on the cordless phone.

I picked the first credit card out of my wallet, a Citi Bank card, flipped it over and dialed the customer service number on the back. After at least five minutes of automated, and annoying, prompts, and after waiting on hold for another five minutes, I was put in touch with a representative. She asked how she could help me, and I asked her what my annual percentage rate was. She said 15%, which, although close to the average, is still a lot. My dad immediately chimed in with, “That is crazy! You’re going to have to lower that or cancel her card.� A little startled, she typed on her keyboard and said that she could change it to 13%. “That’s not good enough, cancel the card!� was my dad’s response.

She said that she was sorry that she couldn’t get us a better APR, but would put us in touch with Citi Bank’s financial representative. After another few minutes of holding, a man came on the phone and said that he would lower my APR to 7.9% and thanked me for being a customer.

Wow – I just almost cut my interest rate in half. Feeling better it was on to the next credit card…

Two hours later, when we were both exhausted, we had cancelled one card (couldn’t lower the APR enough), and significantly reduced the other three. I’m in the process now of finding the best card to transfer my closed account balance to. I know that closing my credit card hurt my credit score, but at this point, I can use the extra cash and feel that I’m young enough to rebuild the reduction quickly!

I guess the lesson here is: Ask – Depending on your debt, you could be saving hundreds, if not thousands of dollars by making one phone call!

*March 2, 2007 survey:
http://www.consumer-action.org/news/articles/2007_credit_card_survey/

Well quit wasting your time and come work for us! We’re a group of high energy folks who enjoy life, love to laugh, party and build software. We are looking for a talented individual to join the team and work (either from home or at the office, depending on your location) with us to build a kick-ass social finance application.

All you need are the following skills:

• 1 to 3 years as a rails web application developer
• Experience with MySQL
• A live web application that you can point us to that you built or built part of
• Experience with the scriptaculous/prototype libraries
• Experience with writing tests for a rails application
• Experience with RJS
• Experience with Subversion and Capistrano
• Basic unix/linux skills
• A serious commitment level

The ability to design is a plus and it would be cool if you’re an active blogger. Extra points for being a mac user! If you’re interested in the job and would like to interview, send me an email with your resume.

-Theron Parlin
tparlin@geezeo.com