Trim is a simple app that has the potential to save you a significant amount of money each year. It may appear unusual, but you may be giving your money away every month without even realizing it!
Over the previous few decades, the level of automation in the personal payments arena has continuously increased. People used to automate the payment of their most critical bills, such as their mortgage or vehicle loan. That has changed, and it is now quite easy to fall into automated payment plans that you are unaware you have signed up for.
One of the major issues that Trim addresses is the tendency for us to overlook the importance of properly scrutinizing our monthly spending. We may notice a charge of a few hundred dollars, but a charge of $20 or $30 does not stick out. That is one of the reasons you may be throwing away thousands of dollars each year without even realizing it.
Companies realize that most people are lousy at personal financial planning, so they devise methods that allow them to extract money from the uninformed public. Trim is a free program that combats this unfair business conduct and ensures you don’t lose money every month.
What is the Trim App?
Trim’s concept is straightforward. Allow Trim to examine your expenditure, and the app will alert you to recurring costs that can be eliminated or bills that can be bargained lower.
Trim can be thought of as a free personal financial assistant that will go through your spending with a fine-tooth comb if you desire!
How They Hook You
You may or may not be knowledgeable with behavioral psychology, but the large corporations with which you do business are well-versed in the subject. In truth, companies employ a variety of methods to obtain your financial information so that they can begin taking your money.
These techniques may not appear to be ethical, but they are legal and highly effective from the standpoint of the firm that may be raiding your bank account or credit card on a monthly basis. All of these fees are known as ‘Gray Charges,’ and Forbes estimates that they add $200-$300 to the average American’s monthly bill.
The Freemium Platform
Have you ever had to give your financial information away in order to use a “free” service?
This is known as a ‘freemium’ business model, and it can generate a lot of revenue for the company that employs it. Most users provide their payment details for a freemium program and then forget that they must pay after a particular length of time or usage.
When the individual reaches the limit, the freemium site will begin billing your bank account or credit card. It’s not so awful if you’re charged for usage (after all, you’re utilizing the service), but if you’re only charged on a monthly basis regardless of consumption, the freemium model is disastrous for your money.
Trim will detect any of these freemium subscriptions on your bank or credit card accounts and alert you to the fact that you are paying for them.
Ghost Subscriptions
Do you ever check the box for a ‘free’ membership while you’re shopping online?
You might be the proud owner of a ghost subscription that is no longer free. Once you’ve entered all of your payment information, it’s simple for corporations to’sell’ you a free subscription by ticking a box (or not click).
After a few months, the free component of the membership will usually expire, leaving your bank account or credit card to pay for something you probably don’t want. Trim is an expert at locating and permanently removing these phantom subscriptions.
Nuisance Charges
It may come as a surprise, but once a corporation has your payment information, it is really simple for them to charge you for something. A nuisance fee is one that you may have already attempted to avoid but were unable to do so.
Companies can deceive you into thinking you have stopped paying for their services in a variety of ways, and some simply restore billing because they can. Most consumers will not notice, but they will be forced to pay a corporation that engages in unethical business activities.
Trim will locate any nuisance charges and permanently remove them after checking with you to ensure that you want to stop payments.
Cost Creep
A corporation may be able to boost the price you pay for their services on a regular basis, depending on how a contract is drafted.
Some businesses will only change their prices once a year, whilst others may add fees to your automatic payment whenever they desire. This is known as ‘cost creep,’ and it may be consuming more of your revenue than you realize.
Trim is fantastic in locating recurrent payments that have been steadily increasing in price and ensuring that you still want to pay them!
How To: Use Trim and Save Money
Trim registration is quick and easy, and it’s completely free. Trim will need to contact with you, and you can choose between using Facebook Messenger or SMS message for this purpose. If you don’t want to use your Facebook account, you can sign up for Trim with an email address instead.
Trim will require you to link your bank account and principal credit card, but unlike many of the freemium services Trim will help you eliminate from your financial life, it will never charge your credit card or bank account for its services. The software must monitor your financial statements in order to detect any unnecessary charges.
Trim is now designed to interact with over 15,000 financial institutions in the United States, and it will also seamlessly interface with any of the major credit card providers. Trim may be used by almost everyone to assist save money and ensure they aren’t getting ripped off on a regular basis!
It is a good idea to link any online accounts you may have used, as well as any company that received your billing information. When you connect all of the relevant accounts to your new Trim account, the app will begin a thorough review of the last 90 days of spending data.
Trim Does a Lot to Save You Money
Trim does more than merely hunt for recurring expenditures and send text messages to you. One of the most difficult aspects of handling subscriptions is ensuring that they are properly terminated.
Companies understand that most individuals don’t have a lot of time, so they make canceling a subscription far more difficult than signing up for one. Trim may automatically terminate a lot of automated subscriptions (provided you give it permission) and also help you shave down your monthly expenditures.
Trim is familiar with many of the laws that businesses must follow, and it can even negotiate cheaper bills for you!
Bye Bye Unwanted Recurring Charges
There’s a strong possibility you’re currently paying for a membership to a service you despise. Trim will provide you the option to cancel any recurring expenses that are no longer serving you when it has completed its extensive scan of your finances.
Trim will send you a message by whatever option you choose, and the cancellation process will be completely automated in most circumstances. Some companies will need you to cancel the ‘contract’ manually since they do not want to give up their free monthly paycheck.
Trim will do its best to assist you in the correct direction if you need to manually cancel a contract. Even a few minor recurring payments can build up to a significant amount of money over the course of a year, and that money might be working for you in investment accounts.
Negotiate Your Bills Lower With Trim
This may come as a surprise to some, but did you realize that many cable and internet service providers will negotiate on price?
Trim is set up to bargain on your behalf with a variety of internet, phone, and cable service providers in the United States. The app includes a software called ‘Trim Bill Negotiator,’ which can help you save money on your monthly payments.
Trim originally designed the bill negotiator to deal with Comcast, but it has now expanded its scope to include several of the more prominent internet, phone, and cable service providers. Trim claims that this application may save you up to 30% on your bills per year, which is incredible for an app that does so many other things to save you money.
Of course, in order to use Trim Bill Negotiator, you must grant it access to any internet, phone, or cable service accounts you have.
Does the Trim Bill Negotiator Cost Anything to Use?
You might be doing some mental math and calculating that saving double digits on your cable or internet payment will put money in your pocket.
It’s true that you could save hundreds of dollars per year. The bill negotiator, unlike the rest of the Trim app, isn’t actually free. While there is no fee to use the program, Trim will take a third of any money saved through the Trim Bill Negotiator.
What does this mean in practice?
Assume you pay $200 per month for cable and internet then Trim Bill Negotiator can save you 15% per month. This equates to $30 a month or $360 per year. The Trim Bill Negotiator would take $120 of that for its services, leaving you with a $240 expense savings every year.
No matter how you look at it, it’s not bad.
But Wait, Can’t I do This Myself?
If you’re thinking whether it’s a good idea to give Trim a third of your potential savings, fantastic for you!
Trim isn’t doing anything you can’t do yourself, and the firm doesn’t guarantee that their bill negotiation software will save you money.
If you want to try to negotiate lower pricing with your internet, phone, and cable service providers, go ahead and do so. Negotiating with people may be a lot of fun if you enjoy it, and the folks on the other side of the table are essentially a captive audience (call often).
Any money you save is entirely yours!
Sponsored Personal Financial Product Recommendations
Trim also increases its revenue by recommending financial items that will assist you in saving money in some way.
Trim is able to perform what it does for free because it receives some sort of reward from the service that it recommends to you. Regardless, having a well-connected app that is constantly on the lookout for new methods to save you money is useful, even if you choose not to follow its advice.
Based on your credit score and other financial criteria, you will receive information on credit cards, bank accounts, and other financial services that may be of use to you. Higher interest rates on your savings are definitely extremely welcome, and this is the type of service Trim is aiming to connect its consumers with.
Trim Has a Bunch of Other Great Features
Trim is a linked app that can help you save money at many of the stores where you regularly shop. Trim will ensure that you get the most out of your credit-card transactions if you are an Amazon user (who isn’t these days?).
Many credit cards provide purchase protection on things that drop in price after you purchase them, and Trim will handle all of the back-office work for you. The app will also ensure that you have access to relevant coupons and cash-back offers from a variety of merchants around the United States.
Track Your Way to Better Financial Health
Trim was not created to be a financial tracking tool for budgeting purposes, but it can help you keep track of where your money is going.
People are much better at spending their money than they are at tracking where it is going. Trim allows its users to easily monitor their cash flow and even set up warnings for upcoming bills. There are budget tracking applications with more capabilities than Trim, but if you’re just getting started with money management, Trim’s tracking features are useful.
Trim will be able to tell you how much you spend at any given merchant on a monthly basis via handy text messages once you connect all of your financial information to the app. The program will also calculate your net worth on your dashboard, but it will only be based on the accounts Trim is aware of.
Is Trim Safe?
Trim provides a lot of features for free, but you may have noticed that it asks for a lot of sensitive personal financial information.
Making sure your personal information is secure is important, and Trim employs some of the strongest security available to keep any data you give private.
- Any information that Trim has access to is protected by 256-bit SSL encryption, which is basically the standard in retail banking.
- Additionally, Trim uses a program called Plaid to receive data from the more than 15,000 financial institutions that it connects to directly.
- Plaid will send all the authentication data you supply to Trim to the financial institutions for approval, and once given, Trim will have read-only access to your data.
- Trim won’t be given the authentication information itself, which is why the Plaid system is so much safer.
Hackers could potentially steal your data if you keep it with Trim, but there is no such risk if Trim does not have it!
Trim: The Rundown
Trim is a comprehensive app that is essentially free. If you use (or have used) a lot of subscription services, you might want to give Trim a shot for a few months. We’re all busy, and it’s really easy for businesses to steal your money when you’re not paying attention.
Trim connects to your bank and credit card accounts, and the procedure becomes virtually entirely automated. You won’t have to sift through hundreds or thousands of lines of transactions looking for recurring charges, and you won’t have to waste your time attempting to stop dishonest organizations from stealing your money.
Trim collaborates with nearly every major credit card service provider as well as several of the most well-known institutions in the United States. Plaid makes sharing sensitive financial information much secure, so you don’t have to worry about losing important information due to a security breach.
Pros
- Trim is a well-built app that is focused on saving you money. People that have been using the same credit card or bank account for years can take advantage of Trim’s ability to sift through loads of data, and find recurring charges that may be costing you a fortune!
- One of the biggest advantages that Trim has is the cost. There is no charge to use it. All you have to do is download the app, and connect all your accounts. While the Trim Bill Negotiator isn’t technically free, it will only cost you something if it can save you money.
- Trim takes data security seriously, and won’t even have access to the information that allows them to access your financial records on a read-only basis. Overall it is a well thought out system that has a high chance of creating returns for its users.
Cons
- While Trim does offer some features in addition to its recurring charge cutting function, it isn’t the deepest financial planning app out there. For people that keep a close eye on their spending, or have created specific accounts for subscription, Trim probably isn’t necessary.
Financial Planning is a Good Idea
Whether or whether you utilize Trim, it is a good idea to create a financial plan. Trim’s concept is sound, and everyone should be conscious of how much money they spend on a regular basis.
There are a variety of applications available that can perform almost everything that a traditional financial planner or assistant can do, but at a considerably lesser cost. It’s easy to believe that wealthy individuals are wealthy because they earn a lot of money, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
Once you’ve made money, it’s critical to keep it safe from leaches like recurring zombie charges that disappear into a black hole or terrible investments that never make money. Trim is one of a new breed of automatic money apps that can help anyone get ahead, but you must know how to utilize them effectively.
Trim Could Have a Place on Your Money Management Team!
Trim can help you save money on a monthly basis, but what do you do with the money once it’s in your bank account?
Several new automated investment platforms have emerged in the previous decade, and many of them need relatively little money to create an account.
If Trim discovers that a few extra dollars are being drained out of your accounts each month, why not put them into an investing account?
Assume Trim discovered that an old cable service provider was stealing $30 from you per month and stopped it. You could take $25 of that and invest it in an automatic investment platform instead, giving you an extra $5 per month.
Nobody ever become wealthy by giving away their money, and Trim now assists you in discovering new methods to save. Trim’s website can be found here if you want to learn more about them.