The U.S. Treasury Department awarded Cloudberry experience architect Nicole Kendrot the grand prize in its 2012 MyMoneyAppUp competition. The competition required innovators to submit mobile app design concepts to help Americans make good financial choices and shape their financial futures. Nicole’s winning app, Centz, helps students tackle the daunting challenge of managing student loans.
Earning cents while making sense of loans
With multiple servicers, bills, payment dates, and payment plans, student loans often shadow graduates for years after they earn their degree. Centz compiles all this information into one user-friendly interface to keep track of payment dates and goals.
Centz also incentivizes the process with gaming principles: quizzes about student loan management offer opportunities for users to earn “centz” (which may be redeemed for real cash) while they learn more about their payment options.
With Centz, student loan borrowers can:
- View all of their student loan information in one place
- Create a payoff plan that works for their goals and budget
- Estimate how much they can reduce their repayment period and total interest paid by paying extra each month
- Learn about managing their student loans and finances
- Test their knowledge of student loan and personal finance management via quizzes
- Earn Centz (which can be redeemed for cash) for tracking, planning and completing quizzes about managing student loans
Stay tuned for more
Although Centz is still in the ideation and design stages, it is set to be entered in the upcoming FinCapDev competition, which offers its winners support and resources to make their personal finance app a reality.
To learn more about Centz and view additional designs, visit startmakingcentz.com.