from Hacker News

SaveUp makes paying your debts addictive and fun

by filipmares on 11/1/11, 6:23 PM with 20 comments

  • by hugh3 on 11/1/11, 10:37 PM

    Alright, I think I understand the rules now.

    You earn one "credit" for every dollar you deposit into a registered savings account (or every dollar you pay off a registered mortgage, or whatever).

    There's no limit to how many credits you can earn, but there is a limit to how many credits you can spend: a maximum of thirty a day.

    Credits are spent by putting 'em into a big slot machine which dispenses prizes whose value and winning probability are unknown. Hopefully you can get something, though.

    The best way to game the system seems to be:

    1. Move, say, $10,000 out of your savings account into your checking account

    2. Sign up for saveup

    3. Move the $10,000 back into your checking account, claim your ten thousand credits

    4. Spin the wheel three times a day for the rest of the year and hope you get enough prizes to make the effort worthwhile.

    Do I have it right?

    edit: Aha! I found more information on the precise rules of the contest: https://www.saveup.com/rules including the probabilities of winning prizes. For instance, your odds of winning the two million dollar prize they're so keen on talking about are 1:170,230,452. On the other hand, your chances of winning $10 are one in 4133. There seem to be various different types of drawing which you can enter, but none of 'em seems to have better than a 1:1000 chance of winning even the most trivial amount of money (five dollars).

  • by felideon on 11/1/11, 9:37 PM

    I signed up and quickly went through the tour, but now I realize I went too quickly. I don't know how to redo the tour (or if it's even possible), and can't find anything with a similar explanation.

    Then again, it's mostly self-explanatory: just click on a Play Now button. :)

    (EDIT: Hah! This is kind of cool. I'm playing slots, except not spending any money. (Au contraire, the more I save the more I can play.)

  • by endlessvoid94 on 11/1/11, 6:41 PM

    This site has the exact mechanics of a slot machine.
  • by monkeygus on 11/1/11, 9:03 PM

    this seems like it should be part of mint's site..