How Tally is helping Americans overcome $1 trillion in credit card debt

Growing up, I was always anxious about money. There was a lot of love in our home, but my family struggled financially. While other kids were skateboarding and hanging out at the mall, I was learning to balance a budget and picking up odd jobs for extra cash.

Looking back, I’m glad I learned how to manage my money early on and avoided racking up crazy amounts of debt. But as I got older, and my finances got to a better place, I was surprised by how the stress and anxiety about money stayed with me. Instead of worrying about how much I had, I was now worrying about paying bills on time and avoiding inflated interest rates and unnecessary fees.

Surprisingly, I found that many people I knew felt the same way. As it turns out, 1 in 2 people have the same levels of anxiety around their credit cards as those awaiting medical test results. Even more shocking is this holds true regardless of whether or not someone has debt.

Why are credit cards as complicated as they are convenient?

It was the question my co-founder Jasper and I obsessed over. Jasper had spent years auditing banks and knew all too well how broken the system was. Banks have long been overcharging people on interest — just because they can — which means Americans are leaving more than $100 billion in interest on the table. We were hell-bent on figuring out how to separate the burden of credit cards from the benefits.

Today, credit card debt is at a record-high ($1 trillion and counting...), and about half of consumers carry a balance. Nearly 80% of the trillion dollar debt load belongs to people with good or excellent credit.

In 2014, credit card debt in America was near an all-time high. People were more open than ever to managing their finances online, but Jasper and I noticed the overwhelming amount of information provided by various “fintech” services often led to more questions and confusion.

The available solutions just didn’t cut it.

We quickly learned people don’t want to worry about the best way to pay down their debt — they just want it done. That’s why money managers exist. But the reality is most people don’t have the luxury of hiring others to handle their finances for them.

With mobile wallets and mobile banking hitting the mainstream, plus consumers’ growing openness to autonomous services, Jasper and I knew it was the perfect time to level the playing field, and the idea for Tally was born.

We spent the next three years building Tally to help people overcome their credit card debt — and the stress and anxiety that come with it.

A study conducted by Tally found anxiety levels around credit card management were akin to awaiting medical test results.

We’re excited to widely roll out Tally, the world’s first autonomous debt manager. While we’re starting with credit cards, our long-term vision is to automate everything related to personal finances. In less than a year, we've already saved people millions of dollars, and we have the potential to save them billions more. There’s a lot more work to be done, but we hope our initial offering will help with a huge pain point in a meaningful way.

Here’s to worrying about money less and doing what you love more.