Company Profiles: Spotlight on Travel and Tech

When it comes to planning a trip, most people do it on a budget. You want to have a nice vacation with your family, but you don’t want to break the bank. An RV that can serve as transport and lodging may sound like a good idea, but while many RV owners buy one with the intention of using it many times throughout the year, the reality is that many campers sit in driveways most of the time. Over 15 million RVs in North America sit unused for nearly 350 days each year, according to Outdoorsy, a company that helps both RV owners and travelers save money on their vacations.

Money and education often go hand in hand, and it all starts with the necessary building blocks from elementary school. At Inspirus Credit Union, it’s all about caring about students in the community. RewardExpert spoke with Collin Campbell, vice president of strategic initiatives, and Morgan Cole, public relations specialist, about what makes their credit union stand out from the rest and why after more than 80 years it’s still going strong.

When it comes to investing, many people incorrectly believe that you need to have a lot of time and a lot of money to be successful. In fact, you can get started on your road to financial freedom by investing whatever you have, thanks to companies like Acorns.

RewardExpert spoke with Manning Field, chief commercial officer of Acorns, which is a mobile investment platform that helps anyone and everyone invest their money. “We firmly believe that anyone can grow wealth,” according to Field.

Over the past two years more than 25 million Americans started or were running new businesses in an economy that continues to show moderately healthy growth, according to the  Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2016 United States Report released by Babson College.

What if you could manage key aspects of your business while lying on the beach? Create schedules or finalize payroll while sipping an exotic beverage, or even get the low down on how the weather will impact your scheduling back home while watching the sunset?

If any of that sounds good to you then Deputy might just be up your alley. It is software designed to streamline scheduling and workforce management. Companies like Amazon, Nike, and McDonald’s are already using Deputy, and so is NASA, along with local mom-and-pop stores looking to get the most out of their money and time.

In the wild world of finances, it can be tough to get access to credit. For students who are starting out and having a hard time getting their first credit card, it’s hard to know where to turn. A company called Deserve helps make credit access possible. 

Let’s face it, paying bills is not a fun activity, as you part with your hard-earned money. Even with the convenience of online bill pay, it still seems like a tedious process and takes time – not to mention having to remember each bill, each online password, each due date, etc. But the days of stressful bill-paying are over.

A company called doxo has made this process simple by allowing users to pay each of their bills in one convenient place, the doxo platform. According to VP of Marketing and Consumer Services for doxo, Jim Kreyenhagen, “doxo is the first crowd-sourced, customer-centered bill pay solution built around the consumer, and it’s already changing the way people manage their bills.”

Buying a home is one of the most important financial and personal decisions a person will ever make. Naturally, most buyers have lots of questions about mortgages, interest rates, taxes, down payments and more. A company called Mr. Cooper is aiming to answer those questions, working to make the home loan process simpler by putting the focus back on customers.

Finding your perfect home isn’t an easy task. It usually takes countless hours of research, time viewing homes, looking up listing agents, etc. Homesnap is an app that simplifies the process by providing accurate, real-time data on over 90 million homes in over 100 markets, representing about 750,000 agents nationwide.

With the New Year, now is a great time for consumers and businesses to think about protecting their financial data. North Carolina-based SAS is one of the analytics companies that businesses turn to, to stay ahead of fraud and security threats. Banking Fraud Solutions Manager at SAS, Ian Holmes, spoke to RewardExpert about some of his company’s products that help keep banks, merchants and consumers safe. 

If you’re looking to boost your financial returns and make more money, are interested in alternative investments and would like quick access to your newfound cash, consider peer-to-peer lending. One of the fastest growing companies in Europe’s peer-to-peer lending industry is Latvia-based TWINO.

Republicans accomplished a feat this past week that had eluded them for more than three decades—a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax system. Passed through the Senate and House on party lines, and celebrated outside the White House by Republican legislators and the president, the bill is less popular with the American public. According to a recent CNN poll, only 33 percent favor the GOP’s proposed tax code.

On the other hand, an earlier survey by Paychex, a payroll and HR solutions company, found that tax reform has a more favorable rating among the small businesses it was intended to stimulate. RewardExpert spoke with Mike Trabold, Paychex’s Director of Compliance Risk, about the survey results.

Healthcare in the U.S. is becoming increasingly expensive. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, healthcare spending grew nearly 6 percent in 2015, reaching $3.2 trillion or $9,990 per person. In the next year alone, health insurance premiums are increasing by 50 percent or more for many consumers. Deductibles and out-of-pocket annual maximums are also growing, leaving more patients footing the bill for the majority of their medical expenses in any given year.

Have you ever had to pay a fee to get your own money from an ATM? If so, you’re not alone. Nor are you in the minority if your bank has ever socked you with an unexpected overdraft fee. In fact, according to CNNMoney, in 2016, America’s three biggest banks alone raked in more than $6.4 billion dollars in these fees from their customers. Despite public outcry, there’s little anyone can do about it, either—except take their business to a more caring financial institution like Alliant Credit Union.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 82 percent of American adults take at least one medication and 29 percent take five or more. However, only 50 percent correctly follow their medication schedule, and 700,000 suffer an emergency due to medication mismanagement each year.

With the holidays around the corner, it’s a great time to give. While we’re all looking to save money, wouldn’t it be great to know that you can clean out your closet, make some money and restock it at the same time? That great deal is possible thanks to a company called Buffalo Exchange.

For more than 40 years, Buffalo Exchange has been providing quality clothing and helping people feel good about selling their old clothes and getting new ones. The company has 49 stores in 20 locations. RewardExpert spoke with Marketing Director, Stephanie Lew, about why it makes sense to save money, help the environment and get a new wardrobe at Buffalo Exchange. Lew said, “We give customers the chance to find current, like-new items for a fraction of the price.”

Many small business owners are accustomed to stressful financial challenges—whether they’re struggling to collect on unpaid invoices, scraping together the cash to repair equipment, or securing credit to fund their company’s expansion.

In fact, according to the Federal Reserve Bank’s Small Business Credit Survey, 61 percent of the small business respondents had faced financial challenges in the previous year, with accessing necessary credit (44 percent) and meeting operating expenses (36 percent) the most common.

It’s a seller’s market across much of the U.S. thanks to brisk growth in home prices and low for-sale inventory in many areas. While that’s great news for homeowners who want to enjoy the financial benefits of increasing equity—such as refinancing to lower mortgage payments or even take out cash—it’s bad news for buyers, many of whom are afraid to make the largest investment of their lives at what could be the apex of another real estate bubble.

Take a peek at the average U.S. household and you’re likely to find a beloved pet at its center. According to the most recent American Pet Products Association (APPA) National Pet Owners Survey, the nation was home to 84.6 million pet-owning families in 2016. Pet owners spent more than $66 billion dollars on their pets that year and the APPA forecasts they’ll spend even more ($69 billion to be exact) on furry family members by the end of 2017.

‘Tis the season for charitable giving, and Americans are increasingly donating. According to the Giving USA Foundation, individuals, estates, foundations, and corporations across the nation contributed an estimated $390.05 billion to U.S. charities in 2016, an increase of 2.7 percent in current dollars from the prior year. Giving by individuals increased nearly 4 percent, accounting for much of the rise in total donations.