DebtGoal first debuted at FinovateStartup 2009, (see video here). In the past year, the company has made several changes, most recently the partnership with Jean Chatzky and the launch of NegotiateMyRate.com both demonstrated at the FinovateSpring 2010 conference (video here).
DebtGoal has partnered with Jean Chatzky, a nationally recognized personal finance expert to create the “Pay it Down!” application, part of Chatzky’s new personal finance program “The Debt Diet.” The application is based on the DebtGoal algorithm, already in use on its website.
Additionally, DebtGoal launched NegotiateMyRate.com, a crowd-sourced tool that provides tips for getting a lower APR on credit card balances.
Tour through NegotiateMyRate.com
The cardholder reviews the list of cards available in the system (currently 11) and selects their card, if available, or “other cards.” The cardholder then enters their balance to see a prediction of how likely they are to get a reduction and the average savings from previous successful users (see image 1).
The cardholder is presented with a sample script on how to negotiate a rate reduction.
After calling the company, the cardholder is encouraged to enter their results back into the system.
According to DebtGoal CEO Scott Crawford, since launching in April 2010, more than 500 users have reported negotiation attempts with an overall 50% success rate.
DebtGoal was founded in 2008 by GoalSpring, and has since raised $3.1 million. The company reports that the main site, debtgoal.com, gets 45,000 unique visitors per month. Compete data confirms that number for April and shows a doubling of traffic in May to more than 100,000 unique U.S. visitors. Traffic data is not yet available for NegotiateMyRate.com.
anthonyuchung 
