BillGuard Creates Analytics, Savings Features

BillGuard, a fraud-flagging startup, is adding analytics and savings add-ons to its iPhone app, according to TechCrunch.

Both new features -- Smart Savings and Spend Analytics -- will give users a heads up when there are merchant discounts on items they usually buy, while organizing spending into expense categories, according to the tech blog.

The update to the company's smartphone app will push the company into the PFM category.  

Traditionally, the fintech company's app was meant to shine a light on bogus amounts that sometimes show up when, for instance, you sign up for a free credit report and then get sucked into an annoying, monthly fee.

The startup is one of BTN's "Top 10 Tech Companies to Watch" this year.

BillGuard started in 2009 when the company's chief executive Yaron Samid noticed a ridiculous $9.99 recurring charge on his wife's credit card bill.

After some Googling he figured out it was a concert ticket vendor scam that cost him 60 bucks.

"I had the lazy man's idea. I wanted to be notified any time a transaction [type] on my credit card was repeatedly disputed by others," Samid told BTN in the spring. "A system of collaborative data analytics."

The idea is based around the same technology you may be using to filter email.

"I was looking for a system of collaborative data analytics, but I found it in a parallel industry — anti-spam" software, says Samid. "We modeled BillGuard after this anti-spam methodology and we built the consumer service first.

"That's how we started."

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