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Trim: Canceling Subscriptions and Fixing Finances One Text at a Time

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Like mosquitoes swarming your summer cookout, subscription fees can bleed your finances dry one nibble at a time. The problem is that even if you know it’s time to make a sweep of your ongoing expenses, actually setting aside the time to take care of the problem is easier said than done.

Enter Trim.

“Trim analyzes your transaction history, finds your subscriptions, sends a list of them to you in a text message and, if you want to unsubscribe to them, you simply text back ‘cancel X,’” explains Trim co-founder and CEO, Thomas Smyth.

You realize I don’t even look at my card history, right? Ignorance is bliss and all that.

Well, let’s start by saying you should absolutely stay up-to-date with your credit, even if you peek at it with your hands over your eyes. Ignorance is bliss until you’re getting slammed with overage fees and your credit score looks like an NBA game.

Even still, Trim has you covered.

“One type of Trim user is people that don’t know they’re carrying these charges because they’re not looking at their card history. [Laughing] I’m one of those people who hates looking at it too! This is super useful for them,” Smyth told GenFKD.

Alright let’s say I take your overbearing advice and check my history. Can’t I just do this whole thing myself then?

Technically, yeah, you could decide to sort through transaction history, identify unused services, remember user names and obscure passwords, head to the service’s site and try to cancel your subscription.

Or you can realize that, like the rest of us, you can be a little lazy sometimes and put things off for tomorrow instead of doing them today. Smyth identifies with that and made Trim specifically with slugs like us in mind.

“The second type of Trim user is people who are aware that some small charge is hitting their card every month and they just don’t have the time and activation energy to go and cancel it,” Smyth said.

“I think of myself, and it’s stunning what it says about me and the human condition. I had this Vimeo pro subscription I signed up for to put one video up in June. I forgot about it, I had a free trial and it rolled over and I was just busy or whatever.

“In August or September, I went through my history as part of the process of putting Trim together. So, I knew then that I had this Vimeo subscription but I was super busy.

“In October, it hit me one last time and I was like, ‘Wow, a critical piece of Trim has got to be a way to unsubscribe with minimal amount of effort required. Otherwise people will keep putting it off.’”

I didn’t know we were gonna go deep with the value judgments, but fine, I’m open to Trim. So, should I download it in the app store?

No, you actually can’t. Much like Digit, which we showed you in October, Trim is an app without an interface, it operates strictly via text message which is why you need to sign up on Trim’s site.

While having a unique app is all the rage, Smyth and co-founder Daniel Petkevich went without all in the name of user experience.

“Form and function go hand in hand. If you’re not offering a huge range of functions, then you should be as stripped down as possible. We basically offer one function,” Smyth said, laughing.

“When we talked about what we wanted it to look like, and we realized it would take longer for people to download this than it takes to sign up. It takes 45 seconds to sign up but to download an app it can take a minute. It would double the sign up time, then take up room on their phone.”

I don’t know about you, but giving some random strangers my credit card information seems a bit shady. Security and safety — where we at?

A wise question and one we wanted answered straight from the horse’s mouth.

“Our main concern is security. Dan set this up with top-of-the-line stuff, all new,” Smyth said.

“We have a great system that would stand up to the test were we to be audited by a top security expert. We sell that to people and have a super long blog about it but people are still concerned.”

People thought pet rocks were cool at one time, too.

Check it out and if you dig it, great. You don’t even need to thank us when you cut that monthly charge for the food co-op members club. Just don’t complain if you keep that gym membership without using it.

 

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  1. Pingback: Trim Co-Founder and CEO Thomas Smyth - GenFKD

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