Thoughts on Extra.App?

[wanderingfool2]

My biggest issue is still in terms of the merchant fees and how they also treat the businesses.  Not necessarily the user-base facing, it still is I think a large issue that never gets addressed.  Some of the credit card companies can be brutal...an example from work: Credit card charge disputed, provided the signed contract, with initials over all additional costs, chip and pin transaction, separate ID required verifying identity, and proof the contract was carried out as agreed upon.  The charge still got reversed and we were out $1000+ (To be clear, this wasn't Extra, some other CC company)

 

While I get that for a consumer level, it is likely not going to matter on the surface I do think that promoting any types of credit cards that provides rewards is not great.  It feeds into the expectation that rewards should be something given on a credit card...and unfortunately people don't get to see how much it affects the businesses they shop at (or how it can subtlety increase the price of products).

 

While I do think that Extra could have value for some people, overall my disdain for general credit card promotion is greater.  Credit cards are a good thing, but as it currently stands they aren't something I would like seeing promoted

 

*edit: If it is ever promoted though, the biggest point that bugs me about credit card ads are ones that encourage frivolous spending because you are now "capable" of spending.  Can't find an example ad at the moment (again not Extra), but I know I've seen a couple that left me thinking that they were effectively promoting frivolous spending because of "rewards" or credit building.

  

3 hours ago, Roswell said:

Many banks block Plaid because they commit fraud and illegally intercept/store your banking login info. There have been class action lawsuits and tons of controversy over the financial data they scrape from your accounts and sell to third parties. If you can't get in now, your bank is never going to allow it. I'd ask for a refund and seek either a regular debit card or a secured credit card from a reputable bank.

 

https://www.plaidsettlement.com/frequently-asked-questions.php

Not that I'm condoning the actions of Plaid, but having intermediaries with credit cards and businesses is quite a common thing...and between banks as well I wouldn't be surprised if it is common as well.  The twitter post you did, the guy makes some pretty brazen assumptions which were not proven at all.  (Like the claim that information has to be stored in a plain-text format...not necessarily the case).

 

It's similar to how many companies end out contracting out payment providers to third parties to comply with PCI compliance.  It's in general safer that way than each vendor creating their own system (with their own flaws).  At any given moment, I can guarantee that your credit card information is actually stored on some server that you would also consider being shady.

[Jtalk4456]

  

3 hours ago, LinusTech said:

1. Some of the critiques of Extra here don't appear to fully understand the service they're offering.

Nowhere did I glorify credit or encourage its use for day-to-day transactions. Maybe we just need to fine tune the messaging here, because essentially Extra is an automatic service that does what I did to build my credit when I was younger.

2. the service they are providing DOES have a value if you don't have the means or the discipline to manage it yourself. 

3. but you CAN build your credit score (a necessary evil unfortunately) if you want to make some kind of major purchase that requires a credit check - like a vehicle (personally I have never taken out a loan to buy a vehicle and I would recommend against it) or a house. 

4. If you don't like the price or you don't like the service, don't buy it. 

1. in point 3 I quoted you claiming credit to be necessary, which is false. You can argue about glorifying it, but by having them as a sponsor you ARE encouraging it's use. you claim it to be a necessary evil but encourage a service that encourages more of that evil. I think claiming we don't understand the offer is really silly. I fully understand what they are offering, they are offering me to pay small fees to use a convoluted loophole to make my credit score better when I dislike the entire concept of a credit score. It's utter nonsense and everyone seems to be fully tricked into thinking it's a good thing to have.

2. I would argue if you're one of the many without the discipline to manage your own finances, getting more credit is one of the worst solutions possible as it encourages a behavior that's out of control.

3. I mentioned this above, but a credit score is not at all necessary. Consider that credit scores were only invented in the 50's. People definitely had homes and cars before then. Manual underwriting is the way to get a mortgage without needing a credit score. People who are debt free for 6 months iirc end up with a 0 credit score. Credit scores are not necessary and are extremely damaging. It's also just nonsensical. You have a low score, meaning you're worse at making payments, less reliable. So lets give you the BIGGER, HARDER TO MANAGE PAYMENT! In what world does that make any sense??

4. I would agree with you to a point, but since you're encouraging the furtherance of a massive societal problem, I don't think it's that simple.

4 hours ago, LinusTech said:

I sincerely hope that the correct authorities take care of Plaid's bad behavior, but there's a pretty slippery slope here. We haven't engaged with Plaid in any way, and as far as we can tell, Extra is in good faith creating a product/service that (while not perfect) is valuable to people and doesn't appear to be any WORSE than anything else, even if we all wish it was BETTER in this way.

If we start refusing to engage with companies who (through no choice or fault of their own) have to engage with crummy players that's going to leave a VERY short list, and I don't really think it makes a ton of sense.

I'm attributing most of my issue with this post to lack of understanding on how damaging credit is, but this point just makes no sense. If they are working with a company doing very bad things, you are engaging with those bad things. I don't get to work with a company that uses mafia connections for something and say that I'm not the one choosing the mafia so it's OK. when you say through no choice or fault of their own, I struggle to see how this company didn't choose to work with plaid. they absolutely chose it. IDK what the alternatives are if any, but that doesn't remove their choice that they made and are still making despite knowing the terrible things plaid does.

[LinusTech]

2 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

  

1. in point 3 I quoted you claiming credit to be necessary, which is false. You can argue about glorifying it, but by having them as a sponsor you ARE encouraging it's use. you claim it to be a necessary evil but encourage a service that encourages more of that evil. I think claiming we don't understand the offer is really silly. I fully understand what they are offering, they are offering me to pay small fees to use a convoluted loophole to make my credit score better when I dislike the entire concept of a credit score. It's utter nonsense and everyone seems to be fully tricked into thinking it's a good thing to have.

2. I would argue if you're one of the many without the discipline to manage your own finances, getting more credit is one of the worst solutions possible as it encourages a behavior that's out of control.

3. I mentioned this above, but a credit score is not at all necessary. Consider that credit scores were only invented in the 50's. People definitely had homes and cars before then. Manual underwriting is the way to get a mortgage without needing a credit score. People who are debt free for 6 months iirc end up with a 0 credit score. Credit scores are not necessary and are extremely damaging. It's also just nonsensical. You have a low score, meaning you're worse at making payments, less reliable. So lets give you the BIGGER, HARDER TO MANAGE PAYMENT! In what world does that make any sense??

4. I would agree with you to a point, but since you're encouraging the furtherance of a massive societal problem, I don't think it's that simple.

I'm attributing most of my issue with this post to lack of understanding on how damaging credit is, but this point just makes no sense. If they are working with a company doing very bad things, you are engaging with those bad things. I don't get to work with a company that uses mafia connections for something and say that I'm not the one choosing the mafia so it's OK. when you say through no choice or fault of their own, I struggle to see how this company didn't choose to work with plaid. they absolutely chose it. IDK what the alternatives are if any, but that doesn't remove their choice that they made and are still making despite knowing the terrible things plaid does.

Having a crap credit score sucks for lots of reasons and it doesn't matter how much you 'object to the societal construct' or whatever.

 

In the US a landlord can creep your credit score and refuse to rent to you if it sucks. This has absolutely nothing to do with debt or anything. It just is the reality for a lot of people and rejecting that reality might work for you personally, but unfortunately that's a luxury that many people don't get to enjoy. 

 

For myself, I was extremely glad I had a strong credit score when it was time to start our business. Yvonne and I were able to expand our business much faster by leveraging credit.

 

So, in summary, it might not matter to you, but it matters to lots of other people and like any tool it can be used for good or evil. Extra's service helps these (many) people and does not encourage them to spend money they don't have, so I don't have an issue. 

 

As for the Plaid issue,there are many many problems with the financial system, and hopefully they get fixed, but for now we're stuck with it. Pointing out problems without solutions isn't really going to help anyone improve their credit score.

[Roswell]

37 minutes ago, LinusTech said:

As for the Plaid issue,there are many many problems with the financial system, and hopefully they get fixed, but for now we're stuck with it. Pointing out problems without solutions isn't really going to help anyone improve their credit score.

Plaid isn’t the financial system.

 

You now know that Plaid has illegally intercepted and stored banking passwords, sold customer financial information and impersonated banks. They’re getting sued left and right because of what they’ve done to people.

 

Yet… you’re cool with this because you’re getting a sweet check to line your pockets. You’re knowingly compromising the financial security of your viewers. 

Pretty gross behavior, but I suppose also somewhat refreshing for you to finally come out and dispel the myth that you (a business) somehow care about your fan’s wellbeing. In reality, a business cares about said fan’s monetary value and little else. Maybe if you publicly took stances against consumers like this more often you wouldn’t face as much backlash for other things. People may finally realize that LMG is a business, not their friend.

 

[DANK_AS_gay]

9 hours ago, LinusTech said:

but what makes them so is the poor transparency about costs and penalties. Extra's costs are flat and up-front..

Sounds murky to me. I know 1$ isn't much, but it's not about the amount of money. 

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

9 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

I dislike the entire concept of a credit score

Me too. The thing is, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. The concept of a credit score isn't bad in and of itself. The problem is that it is tuned in a very particular way to encourage a very particular behavior.

 

The credit score could be tuned to measure financial fitness and financial intelligence. It could be tuned to encourage paying off debt, having a savings account, saving for retirement, having a sufficient emergency fund, making big purchases later with cash rather than now with debt. Those are all smart financial choices you can make for yourself, and none of them are measured properly by credit scores. Doing any of those things makes you financially healthier, and yet some of them, like paying off debt, can actually reduce your score if not done in precisely the right way.

 

Spoiler

Last year I finished paying off my over $150k in student loans. When the accounts were closed, my score went down. In what world does paying off over $150K early make me a less reliable debtor, or less financially responsible? It's simple, my loan servicer would have preferred minimum payments for the rest of my life.

 

Despite my score going down, I am undoubtedly in a better financial position than I was before.

 

I think Extra.App may genuinely be trying to help people. But it comes from a flawed perspective. A lot of people have a false notion that having a good credit score is the same as being good with personal finances, and it isn't, because it was never designed to measure that. It is this false notion that has them assigning value to the service that Extra.App provides, and makes them feel like the costs are worth it. But I know that many people would be better served and would become more financially healthy by saving their few hundred dollars and instead using it to pay off existing debts, build an emergency fund, add to a security deposit fund, or start building a down payment.

 

6 hours ago, LinusTech said:

Having a crap credit score sucks for lots of reasons and it doesn't matter how much you 'object to the societal construct' or whatever.

 

So yes, having a bad score can suck, but it's not only about objecting to the construct. It's that there are better, more effective ways to achieve financial independence.

[Jtalk4456]

13 hours ago, LinusTech said:

1. Having a crap credit score sucks for lots of reasons and it doesn't matter how much you 'object to the societal construct' or whatever.

2. In the US a landlord can creep your credit score and refuse to rent to you if it sucks. This has absolutely nothing to do with debt or anything. It just is the reality for a lot of people and rejecting that reality might work for you personally, but unfortunately that's a luxury that many people don't get to enjoy. 

3. For myself, I was extremely glad I had a strong credit score when it was time to start our business. Yvonne and I were able to expand our business much faster by leveraging credit.

4. So, in summary, it might not matter to you, but it matters to lots of other people and like any tool it can be used for good or evil. Extra's service helps these (many) people and does not encourage them to spend money they don't have, so I don't have an issue. 

5. "This has absolutely nothing to do with debt or anything"

1. Actually it does matter. If you have financial independence and don't use credit, it doesn't suck, you just pay for things with money you have. I don't know how anyone with any knowledge of security and privacy is ok with some 3rd party company constantly peeking in at everyone's finances, especially after that absolutely massive data breach from Equifax. I know there's at least 147 million people with no reason to ever trust credit score companies again. The damage that societal construct has done is immense and has impacted hundreds of millions just in that data breach alone. This isn't counting the millions impacted financially by thinking that credit and debt is a necessary part of life and end up in financial ruin all the time. Dave Ramsey has a show daily just taking calls constantly from people at the breaking point from it. You might be able to manage your money with it, but many have been ruined by it. It's nonsensical, unnecessary, and factually harmful. I know lots of people haven't looked too much into it and just assume credit is a good thing, but there's not a single good thing about it.

2. plenty of landlords will rent without credit score, anyone that requires you to use debt to figure out if you're good with money has it backwards. Debt is, by definition, a negative thing, and should never be used as a sign of financial responsibility or wealth.

3. And everyone enjoying your channel and what you've accomplished is happy you were able to grow, but leveraging debt is a risk. You took that risk and we're happy it worked out for you. For many people, that risk does not work out. Dave Ramsey is the prime example, becoming a multi millionaire in his 20's leveraging debt to buy real estate. Loans changed ownership and the new bank called the loans and Dave went completely bankrupt. That risk with leveraging is dangerous and has hurt many people. You walked out of the casino richer, but the majority going in lose money to that risk

4. Since statistically using credit leads to spending more money, they actually are encouraging that. 

5. I would love if you could try for me and list what part of your credit score wasn't measured by debt.
Here actually I can list the factors for you, just to check:

Payment History: Making payments on debt. normal bills not involving debt don't report to the credit bureaus. Debt only

Amounts Owed: Debt Owed?

Credit History Length: How long have you been using debt?

Credit Mix: How many different types of debt do you use?

New Credit: How recently have you opened new accts for debt?

Credit Utilization: Of the debt we have allowed you to use, how much of it are you actually using? (ie: How desperate are you for money that you don't have)
All factors that affect your credit score are a measurement of debt, nothing else. You can make a billion a year and have a 0 credit score, you can be making minimum wage and have a perfect credit score. Why? Because it doesn't care about any actual measures of financial responsibility, such as income, assets, expenses, anything that actually matters. If you know of a factor affecting credit that isn't about debt, feel free to tell me, but I've never seen one, even from the company website
https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/score-basics/what-affects-your-credit-scores/
I appreciate your willingness to reply and have a civil discussion about this, but I haven't been provided any rebuttal that makes the negative impact of debt any less. Your credit score is factually a measure of your use of debt, the companies measuring will tell you that themselves. While you may not operate by holding balances past the end of the month, you are in debt during the month, which is how they use your transactions to measure your score. They are intimately paying attention to everything you do and using that information for marketing and selling to other companies. And even if you ignore the basic premise of debt being bad, the credit score companies have not proven themselves capable of securely handling your very private information.

[Jtalk4456]

9 hours ago, Hairless Monkey Boy said:

Me too. The thing is, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. The concept of a credit score isn't bad in and of itself. The problem is that it is tuned in a very particular way to encourage a very particular behavior.

 

The credit score could be tuned to measure financial fitness and financial intelligence. It could be tuned to encourage paying off debt, having a savings account, saving for retirement, having a sufficient emergency fund, making big purchases later with cash rather than now with debt. Those are all smart financial choices you can make for yourself, and none of them are measured properly by credit scores. Doing any of those things makes you financially healthier, and yet some of them, like paying off debt, can actually reduce your score if not done in precisely the right way.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Last year I finished paying off my over $150k in student loans. When the accounts were closed, my score went down. In what world does paying off over $150K early make me a less reliable debtor, or less financially responsible? It's simple, my loan servicer would have preferred minimum payments for the rest of my life.

 

Despite my score going down, I am undoubtedly in a better financial position than I was before.

 

I think Extra.App may genuinely be trying to help people. But it comes from a flawed perspective. A lot of people have a false notion that having a good credit score is the same as being good with personal finances, and it isn't, because it was never designed to measure that. It is this false notion that has them assigning value to the service that Extra.App provides, and makes them feel like the costs are worth it. But I know that many people would be better served and would become more financially healthy by saving their few hundred dollars and instead using it to pay off existing debts, build an emergency fund, add to a security deposit fund, or start building a down payment.

 

 

So yes, having a bad score can suck, but it's not only about objecting to the construct. It's that there are better, more effective ways to achieve financial independence.

I have to disagree with you here. I don't think there should be any company monitoring my finances without my permission. If we tune credit scores to the things that actually measure financial responsibility like I mentioned above, there would be constant change and it wouldn't make for a good measurement without requiring extreme privacy issues to be accurate. What's to stop me from getting fired, then bringing my last 3 paystubs to get a loan? The only way to prevent that outcome would be contacting your employer everytime you do anything, which would indirectly inform your employer of your private dealings. The thing is, manual underwriting already exists for something too large like a home purchase. There's no need for a score to be tallied on a constant basis by monitoring my every move. If I need to get a loan from a responsible bank they can at that time ask the necessary questions and use common sense to decide whether or not I would be able to make the required payments. The reason the current system doesn't measure those common sense things is because they don't want to measure responsible behavior. Responsible behavior avoids debt and kills their entire business model. they are never gonna improve the credit score system because they want to remain in business. I have a hard time giving benefit of the doubt to Extra or anyone else in this space because they are all participating in making debt easier to use. That only leads to more use, and more debt and more problems.

[KFCMcNuggets]

 

On 4/6/2022 at 12:13 PM, JonoT said:

Thanks! Please keep us updated regarding the status. Also, @Extra Card is a member on the forum so they can help out to explain it to everyone on what happened!

 

On 4/7/2022 at 3:22 PM, Roswell said:

Many banks block Plaid because they commit fraud and illegally intercept/store your banking login info. There have been class action lawsuits and tons of controversy over the financial data they scrape from your accounts and sell to third parties. If you can't get in now, your bank is never going to allow it. I'd ask for a refund and seek either a regular debit card or a secured credit card from a reputable bank.

 

https://www.plaidsettlement.com/frequently-asked-questions.php

 

 

 

See the above link. Why are you guys pushing financial products that you can't even bother to Google? This garbage is extremely exploitive and they force you to hand over your banking passwords to Plaid of all people...

 

Stay out of pushing healthcare and financial products. You guys don't know what you're doing and seem intentionally ignorant.

 

@LinusTech

 

Following the initial setup of my account I have since received the physical card associated with the account. Despite this I am still unable to relink my

Spoiler

 

account and @Extra Card concierge says that it is being "worked on by the technical team" but like @Roswell mentioned it seems that Discover will not allow my banking account to be linked. I unfortunately have no other account that works with Plaid and don't feel like changing my direct deposit to a new bank just to use this service. I have begun the process to get a refund and cancel my subscription that I had paid for a year upfront.

 

A small aside, The concierge seems very friendly and don't follow the normal "corporate" style of tech/customer support.   

[LinusTech]

On 4/9/2022 at 10:20 PM, KFCMcNuggets said:

 

 

Following the initial setup of my account I have since received the physical card associated with the account. Despite this I am still unable to relink my

  Reveal hidden contents

 

account and @Extra Card concierge says that it is being "worked on by the technical team" but like @Roswell mentioned it seems that Discover will not allow my banking account to be linked. I unfortunately have no other account that works with Plaid and don't feel like changing my direct deposit to a new bank just to use this service. I have begun the process to get a refund and cancel my subscription that I had paid for a year upfront.

 

A small aside, The concierge seems very friendly and don't follow the normal "corporate" style of tech/customer support.   

Thank you for sharing your experience. As long as the cancelation is smooth then hopefully this is just a one-off, but we definitely want to hear more customer stories here.

[SeanLMG]

On 4/9/2022 at 10:20 PM, KFCMcNuggets said:

 

 

Following the initial setup of my account I have since received the physical card associated with the account. Despite this I am still unable to relink my

  Reveal hidden contents

 

account and @Extra Card concierge says that it is being "worked on by the technical team" but like @Roswell mentioned it seems that Discover will not allow my banking account to be linked. I unfortunately have no other account that works with Plaid and don't feel like changing my direct deposit to a new bank just to use this service. I have begun the process to get a refund and cancel my subscription that I had paid for a year upfront.

 

A small aside, The concierge seems very friendly and don't follow the normal "corporate" style of tech/customer support.   

Thanks @KFCMcNuggets for the update. Sorry that it didn't work out with Discover for it. Please let us know how the cancellation goes, and we can follow up with our contact if need be. Glad the customer service has assisted, however!

[BlackCipher]

From my research this would only be useful if your credit card score is extremely low and you can't apply for any other cards, in which it might help. As for not selling data point, I really doubt that they won't sell the customers data. I would prefer not seeing such a sponsor, especially if the average person won't actually benefit from the services. 

[KFCMcNuggets]

On 4/12/2022 at 6:31 PM, SeanLMG said:

Thanks @KFCMcNuggets for the update. Sorry that it didn't work out with Discover for it. Please let us know how the cancellation goes, and we can follow up with our contact if need be. Glad the customer service has assisted, however!

The cancelation was very quick and easy. They didn't push back at all and I got a full refund in less than a week.

 

Good customer service even if I could not use the service

[LinusTech]

On 4/15/2022 at 4:23 PM, BlackCipher said:

From my research this would only be useful if your credit card score is extremely low and you can't apply for any other cards, in which it might help. As for not selling data point, I really doubt that they won't sell the customers data. I would prefer not seeing such a sponsor, especially if the average person won't actually benefit from the services. 

We have many criteria that we use to evaluate the suitability of a sponsor, but whether 'the average person' will use it isn't like to become one of them.

 

The average person may not appreciate a high performance gaming mouse, but as long as it marketed correctly (towards people who WILL appreciate its benefits) then we will happily work with the manufacturer. 

 

Just because something isn't useful for you doesn't mean it's not useful at all. 

[DaBoi]

On 2/15/2022 at 5:46 PM, JonoT said:

Hey!

So we've been contacted by Extra.App to be a sponsor across all Linus Media Group. Our prelim talks and research seem to be very transparent in how they operate, which is a big bonus for us.

https://extra.app/

So what do they do? Well, they offer a way to help build or repair your credit rating with a debit card. (the US only for now)

 

How does it work? 

 

- build or repair credit with a debit card

- "spot" you the funds to make any purchase today but withdraw it from your bank account tomorrow
- app/service links up to your bank account and bases your spending power in buckets also your balance

- at the end of each month, they send your purchase + payment history to credit reporter (Equifax and Experian)

- the service is a monthly fee of $7 to $12 (based on the account type you want)
 

What they don't do:

- sell your information to 3rd parties or anyone

- offer credit card services (for the time being)

- operate outside of the US (for the time being)

- charge you interest on your purchases

 

Notes:

We have read through reviews, and while you could still get a credit card regardless of your credit rating as interest rates would be very high, this is an alternative for someone who doesn't want to worry about owing a monthly balance. 

 

We did bring up this post we saw on Reddit to them, and they assured us they have re-worked internal measures to make sure this doesn't happen a. Also, they've been speedy in responding to our messages and questions. 

Let us know if there's any questions you may have that we haven't thought off or just your initial impressions. 

I have one simple question, does this credit score improvement show up on third party apps, like Credit karma and do banks accept this?

[SeanLMG]

3 hours ago, DaBoi said:

I have one simple question, does this credit score improvement show up on third party apps, like Credit karma and do banks accept this?

Hey @DaBoi, correct, it reports directly to the large credit bureaus so your score would be improved on those apps and with banks. 

[DaBoi]

8 minutes ago, SeanLMG said:

Hey @DaBoi, correct, it reports directly to the large credit bureaus so your score would be improved on those apps and with banks. 

Cool, cool. Then I'm all thumbs up for this being a sponsor.

[Noxitb]

On 2/16/2022 at 11:46 AM, JonoT said:

Hey!

So we've been contacted by Extra.App to be a sponsor across all Linus Media Group. Our prelim talks and research seem to be very transparent in how they operate, which is a big bonus for us.

https://extra.app/

So what do they do? Well, they offer a way to help build or repair your credit rating with a debit card. (the US only for now)

 

How does it work? 

 

- build or repair credit with a debit card

- "spot" you the funds to make any purchase today but withdraw it from your bank account tomorrow
- app/service links up to your bank account and bases your spending power in buckets also your balance

- at the end of each month, they send your purchase + payment history to credit reporter (Equifax and Experian)

- the service is a monthly fee of $7 to $12 (based on the account type you want)
 

What they don't do:

- sell your information to 3rd parties or anyone

- offer credit card services (for the time being)

- operate outside of the US (for the time being)

- charge you interest on your purchases

 

Notes:

We have read through reviews, and while you could still get a credit card regardless of your credit rating as interest rates would be very high, this is an alternative for someone who doesn't want to worry about owing a monthly balance. 

 

We did bring up this post we saw on Reddit to them, and they assured us they have re-worked internal measures to make sure this doesn't happen a. Also, they've been speedy in responding to our messages and questions. 

Let us know if there's any questions you may have that we haven't thought off or just your initial impressions. 

Yeah make sure its mentioned as usa only because people in Australia like me wouldn't know off the bat 

[Rikere]

On 4/7/2022 at 5:11 PM, LinusTech said:

Is there an alternative to Plaid that they should use right now?

Plaid, near as I can tell, works as just a webscraper. You give it  your logins, and it scrapes your banking page. They live on the fact that they have a scraper rigged up that works with about every bank.

There are alternatives, I think. Free Agent, one of the competitors to Freshbooks, doesn't use Plaid, I don't think. I used them for a time, they didn't come up in the Class Action settlement's search function.

 

I think I am opposed to LTT doing anything with these Extra guys unless you do a full and complete coverage of the product in a video. Explain credit scores. Explain how the reporting will effect the credit score. Explain what risks there are to the score (is it possible this product could backfire?). I don't think you can get access to the FICO calculation for a credit score, but I imagine you can get someone who knows a great deal about it to explain things.

 

In the US, your credit score is calculated from credit history, your current balances, your credit limits (and this part could screw someone over if they aren't careful how they report it. If they report you have a limit of $500 and you regularly use the card, it may show that the card is 'maxed out' if you make a large purchase at a bad time, which would be detrimental), delinquincies/being late to pay (if your account at any time is unable to pay your balance to Extra, is that a delinquincy, even if it's only 1 day?). I think this needs to be approached with caution, and the details of it need to be explained. Every angle that could screw someone over needs to be answered.

[MultiGamerClub]

Loaning.. never had a bad experience taking on debts from stupid tech buying decisions but this looks kinda sus.. oh its usa only haha

There's enough of these around in every country, just hope this gets labeled right with the right terms used instead of the things they try to label on their website x)

[Kn0wn]

Would like to add my own personal experience regarding cancellation.

 

I had this for about two weeks before I realized I did not need it, but it was cool overall. Deciding that the cost outweighed the benefits to me, I attempted to cancel.

 

On the Android app the support contact page failed to work multiple times and once it did I sent an email to them.

 

It then took a back and forth of around 5 emails for them to finally cancel the subscription. They would not stop asking me if I was sure and presenting all the benefits. I am not sure if this is a one off, but it is not fun.

[CPotter]

On 9/14/2022 at 12:26 PM, Kn0wn said:

Would like to add my own personal experience regarding cancellation.

 

I had this for about two weeks before I realized I did not need it, but it was cool overall. Deciding that the cost outweighed the benefits to me, I attempted to cancel.

 

On the Android app the support contact page failed to work multiple times and once it did I sent an email to them.

 

It then took a back and forth of around 5 emails for them to finally cancel the subscription. They would not stop asking me if I was sure and presenting all the benefits. I am not sure if this is a one off, but it is not fun.

Sorry about this, but thanks for the feedback, we'll bring it up to them. Right now we don't have anything else planned with these folks.

[CPotter]

Gonna lock this thread, if anyone has issues with Extra.app please send it to this thread: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1428939-lmg-sponsor-complaints/