SmartyPig, a company which offers goal-based online savings accounts, has announced that it has hired Suzin Wold as the company’s newly created role of Senior Vice President of Product and Marketing.
The company said in a press release that “Wold brings 16 plus years of successful marketing and brand management experience to her new position as Senior Vice-President of SmartyPig Product and Marketing. Prior to joining the SmartyPig team, Wold served as Group VP at Blackhawk Network, a market leader in card-based financial solutions and the largest provider of third-party prepaid cards. While at Blackhawk Network Wold was instrumental in the creation and development of the first retail Gift Card Mall program and was a pioneer in the Open Loop category. Wold will use her 9 years of Open Loop experience to oversee the development and management of the redemption product suite (General Purpose Reloadable and Gift Cards) in addition to the oversight of SmartyPig’s marketing efforts. Prior to Blackhawk Network Wold held leadership positions at LeapFrog, PlanetRx.com, Clorox and Procter & Gamble. Wold earned an MBA from the University of Virginia and a BBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Texas-Austin.”
If you’re not familiar with SmartyPig, it’s a combination of online savings and social networking trends. SmartyPig offers customers an online savings account, but incorporates various social aspects to their service, such as goal setting and allow others to contribute to your savings goal. Currently, SmartyPig is offering a 1.75% APY for balances up to $50,000. Balances above $50,000 earn 0.50% APY on the entire balance. It’s likely that the rate will stay at that rate for a while because it won’t look good for the firm to cut its rate during its transitional period from West Bank to BBVA Compass. SmartyPig has consistently been an interest rate leader since the service launched a few years ago.
SmartyPig is a consumer finance site where you can earn high interest on your savings goals and get cash back when making a purchase with premium retailers and top travel companies, all while never relying on credit cards. Family and friends can also help achieve financial goals by securely contributing to your account via social networks like Facebook. Launched in April 2008, SmartyPig has proven extremely popular with consumers throughout the U.S. and in Australia where it partnered with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) to launch www.smartypig.com.au. To date, SmartyPig customers have opened savings accounts with more than $500 million in U.S. deposits and have reached more than $300 million in savings goals. The system is based on proprietary, patent-pending technology and features the latest in security standards. SmartyPig’s U.S. banking relationship is with BBVA Compass. All funds held on deposit are FDIC insured up to the applicable legal limits. SmartyPig is based in Des Moines, Iowa. For more information on how to get started, please visit http://www.smartypig.com and follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/smartypig.
