I've found the alerts Mint sends out to be highly helpful in reducing unneeded spending. So the results of this study don't surprise me.

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FatLynn

@joshuadavis: Like what? I am really curious about this, because I always have money on the brain and can't imagine a text message changing my habits.

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Damocles57

@FatLynn: \"Like what? I am really curious about this, because I always have money on the brain and can't imagine a text message changing my habits.\"

You are making the classic statistical mistake of thinking that a change of 16% in a group of people translates into you are 16% more likely to change.

Additionally, it does not say that 16% of the cohort did anything, only that the savings rate increased by 16%. This could have happened if one or two people increased their savings rates by very large percentages during the study. We don't know how large the cohorts were, what the initial savings rates were, how many people accounted for what percentage of change, etc.

It may just be that people who are not you are motivated by these things.

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FatLynn

@Damocles57: I know this. I am genuinely curious about what the messages say. But thanks for the superfluous stats lesson.

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floraposte

@FatLynn: Well, it doesn't seem to have resulted in 100% change; it's possible that there are people who, as you say, don't need reminders to weigh those advantages. But I can also imagine that there are, and that that might make a difference, say, when you're out shopping, and that a recent reminder might keep you out of the impulse buys. Kind of a competing impulses thing--some of us get a fair amount of satisfaction already from saving, but some people find spending a lot more enjoyable, and this might give them more pleasure in the idea of saving.

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FatLynn

@floraposte: What do the messages say?

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floraposte

@FatLynn: It looks like the work has been presented in progress but isn't published yet, and none of the commentary I'm finding states what the successful messages were; it just gives one example of an unsuccessful message (\"If you don't frequently deposit into the Gihandom Savings account, your dream will not come true\"). If you want to hunt further or check again later, they're calling the study \"Getting to the Top of Mind: Borrowing, Saving, and Limited Attention.\"

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savvy999

Or.... banks could raise savings (or short term CD) rates to the point where they actually beat inflation.

Want people's money? Make it attractive for potential and current clients to give it to you. Where's the competition for attractive rates? Just looking at bankrate.com, seems like it's a race to the bottom, not any sort of \"market\" to speak of in regards to good rates.

A text message asking me to put my money into an account making 0.25% isn't going to do crap. Move that decimal over, and I'll on it. My money (and everyone else's) flows quite easily in the direction of nice returns.

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secret_curse

@savvy999: Why would you jump on a 0.025% rate?

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savvy999

@secret_curse: har har

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savvy999

*Move that decimal over, and I'll jump on it

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CaptZ

Text messages also save you tons of time. And as we all know, time = money.

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Shoelace

I'd send a message reminding myself that the bank's concern is not for me but for making money off me. I could drop dead otherwise.

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MercuryPDX

\"This Text Message just cost you ten cents.\"

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bohemian

@MercuryPDX: Twenty cents to get a junk text message. Why would I need yet another interruption in my day?

I certainly wouldn't open a savings account with our local bank. They won't let us use a savings account as back up funding for a checking account. But they certainly have no problem raiding it AFTER you go overdraft to pay themselves those sweet sweet $30 fees. Their current interest rate is something like .01 percent right now. We opened an ING savings account. Better interest rate, options to invest and our local bank can't raid it because they double processed a weeks worth of transactions.

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azntg

@MercuryPDX: More like fifteen or twenty cents!

(Which would offset whatever savings I'd get from saving in the first place - especially with today's savings rates)

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nybiker

@azntg: $.20 for Verizon, if you don't have a plan.

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Rachacha

@nybiker: So for someone like me who does not have a TM plan, sending me text messages on how to save money will actually cost me money.

When did AT&T purchase Bank of America?

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floraposte

Just to clarify, the researchers seem to be American, not overseas (two of them are named, and one's at Darmouth and the other's at Yale); it's just that they conducted their research overseas.

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pecan 3.14159265

@floraposte: But you don't have to be American to study at either university or conduct studies.

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floraposte

@pecan 3.14159265: No, though they are. However, I'm referring to the phrase in the article that says \"Researchers overseas teamed up with banks\"; what happened was that researchers here teamed up with overseas banks.

At least one of them is also involved with the commitment website [www.stickk.com] so this is clearly a piece of a broader corpus of work.

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Colonel Jack O'Neill

Ppl r s stpd f thy nd t gt txt rmndng thm t sv mny.

Why nt d t yrslf, why th hll wld smn nd t b snt txt fr.

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pecan 3.14159265

@Colonel Jack O'Neill: Your negativity on nearly every subject that arises on this website is astounding. I'm glad you've been called on it.

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The Black Bird

@pecan 3.14159265 'Your negativity on nearly every subject t...:

I was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it.

As to the text messages; while I don't need any reminder to save money I do see it as something positive if it helps people.

Many people need support and motivation in various ways. When I first started jogging many years ago I found out that if I had a partner to jog with it made it easier to get up early and do what had to be done.

When I consider how many people have been helped by the various support groups available I look at the text messages as just another type of support.

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props-nyc

articles about text message reminders can also increase savings by 6%

at least it did for me this month... this just made me go schedule a transfer

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flugennock

Can someone please explain to me how -- at a cost to me of, what, ten cents per message -- I'm supposed to save money being SMS-spammed by my bank?

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SPENCERG

I would send myself a text message reminding me of the pitfalls I should stay away from during the week, and have it be sent \"from Future SpencerG\".

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XTC46

@SPENCERG: See, this is a great idea. Im going to build a website that can schedule texts messages to be sent at a specific time, so I can remind drunk xtc46 not to go to the beach at 3am next saturday

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catastrophegirl chooses not to fly

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: it's called google calendar and you put the email address for your phone into the email slot.
i do this for doctor's appointments which have to be scheduled 3 months in advance.

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INsano

I say with google maps and GPS, every time your portly self gets within a block of a fast food chain, a bakery, a chocolatier, you have preset messages that remind you of how much you don't really want whatever it is. Diet, savings, location-based guilting!

PAM...that's Phone As Mother.

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pecan 3.14159265

@INsano: Hahaha. This may be a good detterence, or it could remind people of how hungry they are and where the closest eateries are.

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whysthsncnsmrst

Bank account texting is pretty nifty. I have a homemade Excel register and bump it up against my \"transactions over $1.00\" texts every morning. It is a lot more portable and I can also keep better track of the little charges that would be forgotten about.

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Blueskylaw

\"Could a text message make you save more?\"

Nope. After my Verizon phone started downloading songs on its own and Verizon wouldn't credit my account I turned off the data option.

It's also been a huge timesaver because now I don't get a text asking \"hows work?\". If you feel it's important to know \"hows work?\", you have to give me a call.

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bohemian

@Blueskylaw: Hmm I thought I was the only one. I supposedly downloaded something last month but I never use the web/media portion of my phone. I got it refunded of course it came along with a sound scolding that it was really my fault and I really downloaded that ring tone and they will only refund such a thing once.

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quirkyrachel

Interesting. That sounds similar to a study that looked at helping people lose weight. They found that a simple email reminder or phone call during the week helped people stay on track with their food/exercise goals.

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H3ion

This sounds like subliminal advertising. \"You are getting hungry. There's a McDonalds nearby.\" If my memory is right, this is now illegal but it was tried in movie theaters to increase concession sales.

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floraposte

@H3ion: It's not subliminal if they're consciously aware of it, though. Which these study participants are. These are just reminders that have a particular efficacy depending on how they're pitched.

As you say, subliminal advertising was outlawed--despite the fact that it doesn't seem to work.