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Trim review – your new ‘personal finance assistant’ to do money better

We tried Trim, a “personal finance assistant” that will cancel your unwanted subscriptions, text you when you spend too much on Uber, and even negotiate your cable bill.

Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Amazon Prime, your gym membership, Dollar Shave Club (you signed up for that one because it sounded cool but, it turns out, you don’t shave very often!) This is just a small list of the automatic monthly subscriptions you could be signed up for. And if you do the math, you’ll want to scream when you realize how much it’s actually costing you.

Enter Trim, the service that will automatically organize all of your recurring monthly charges—and help you cancel the ones you don’t need.

We’ve written about Trim before, but to summarize: Trim is a personal finance assistant (not an app, they make sure to clarify) that helps you save money by analyzing your credit card transactions and getting rid of old, unused subscriptions.

And it’s completely free!

All this is done and communicated to you through text or Facebook messaging, making Trim easily available without the need to download anything extra. See the example screenshot of how easy it is to cancel an unwanted subscription!

While there’s still many features Trim is working, there are some cost-saving elements to Trim that can already help.

While technology has given us so much, it also has a way of making us completely ignore how much we spend—if you can’t see it, it’s easier to forget it’s happening. Trim tunes you in to your own spending, but still does the actual saving work for you.

In addition to canceling your old subscriptions, you can:

  • Set spending alerts
  • Get your balance
  • Find out how much you spent on Uber last month

And if that’s not enough, let’s take a look at some of the new features Trim offers.

Trim savings

Trim is all about saving you money, and that fact really shines through in their new savings service.

You start by registering a Visa card (for whatever reason, it only works with Visa cards for now…it can’t be a MasterCard or Amex) that you use frequently for groceries or dining. Trim will then find you coupons and apply them automatically to your purchases —at no charge to you.

For a limited time, Trim is offering $30 in cashback coupons towards “everyday purchases”. As the picture demonstrates, Trim sends you a message where you can activate the offers.

Here’s what you’ll get for offers:

  • Groceries: $1 on any purchase > $5—you’ll receive 10 of these, a total of $10
  • Dining: $1 on any purchase > $5—you’ll receive 10 of these, a total of $10
  • Movies: $10 on any purchase > $20—you will receive only once
  • Shopping: $10 on any purchase > $50—you will receive only once

While this won’t save you hundreds immediately, having a few extra dollars in your pocket is always a good deal. And you’ll be getting money for buying things you were already going to buy anyway.

Trim can also save you money on your Amazon account. If something you bought on Amazon drops in price, Trim can get you a refund for the difference. All you have to do is link your account. Trim files the paperwork and sends you a check if everything goes through. As someone who’s constantly buying things from Amazon, I think this service is pretty cool.

Trim Bill Negotiator

Trim’s new Bill Negotiator automatically negotiates users’ Comcast bill. Trim usually save users between $5-$50.

This is where Trim makes some if its money. If Trim negotiates your bill successfully, they charge 25 percent of your first month’s savings and give you the rest.

This service has a lot of potential. If you aren’t a Comcast user, this feature obviously doesn’t offer you anything. But Tim has plans to expand the Bill Negotiator service to include other bills. When this happens, some users could end up saving a decent amount of money—and let’s be honest, no one likes calling anyone these days, let alone their utility providers, so Trim’s negotiator service could someday make it big.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Free — It’s free
  • Lower your bills — You can get your cable/internet bill lowered without having to do any work
  • Ease of use — All you have to do is text Trim to start using their service

Cons

  • Charges for bill negotiation — You do have to pay if Trim negotiates your bill

Summary

Trim is an easy, free way to save a couple extra dollars (and maybe more). If you’re bogged down with subscriptions and don’t want to take the time to go through all of them yourself, Trim is for you. Even after it goes through your subscriptions, the new savings feature makes Trim useful even after your old subscriptions have been canceled.

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