Debt-Freedom App Charlie Hits 5X User Base Growth in Just Four Months; Adds DirectPay to Its Suite of Tools to Help Americans Get out of Debt

The user-friendly Penguin helping ordinary people get out of debt announces growth numbers and new DirectPay feature to level up its offering from savings tools to making actionable debt payments

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Charlie, the personal finance app helping users get out of debt without lifestyle sacrifices, today announced new features and a reengineered UI/UX for iOS users to further grant its users an attainable path to debt freedom, as well as company growth numbers. In addition to its existing debt management tools, Charlie will today offer DirectPay, enabling users to link their credit card details to the app so they can easily transfer savings from their debt fund to make extra credit card payments, allowing them to pay down their debts quicker than ever. The new, streamlined feature allows users to make extra payments at their own pace or let Charlie recommend when it’s best to utilize their debt fund to make extra payments towards credit card debt. The company is also sharing that its user base has grown 5X since January 2021, and that since launch, the number of active users building their debt fund within the app has grown by 450 percent.

Initially a chatbot app, Charlie now offers a full suite of tools that focuses on the journey to debt-freedom with its updated UI/UX, optimizing the interface and making the app a more purposeful experience. On average, Charlie users currently save $66 monthly, helping them save $30,406 of interest over the lifetime of their debt, meaning they will be able to pay off their credit card approximately 19 years faster. With the introduction of DirectPay, Charlie will create an even more seamless user experience, allowing its users to send any money from their debt fund directly to their credit card, streamlining the flow and maximizing savings’ impact on debt. Charlie utilizes AI to analyze spending habits and show users that making small payments towards their debt, alongside their minimum monthly payment, can have a huge impact. Charlie has pioneered a new type of user experience in the fintech world, making the journey to debt freedom easy, refreshing and one-of-a-kind. Its judgement-free persona and interactive guide supports users spending money on what they desire, while simultaneously setting money aside for them to pay off debt.

“Charlie isn’t just about learning how to pay off your debt anymore, it’s now about providing our user the complete end-to-end experience of figuring out how to manage debt, as well as actually paying it off in a few simple steps,” said Ilian Georgiev, CEO and co-founder of Charlie. “We listened to user feedback and honed our offering to maximize our users’ time spent in the app. We wanted to perfect the features that users were enjoying and declutter the experience of what they didn’t need. In addition to being a one-stop-shop for people to save money, find deals and cut bills in order to pay off debt, they can now automatically pay it down directly within our app to become debt-free faster.”

Charlie’s unique and innovative features include custom auto-transfer rules, such as putting money away whenever it rains, whenever users buy fast food, purchase Starbucks or take an Uber. With the new and improved UI, Charlie has created an enjoyable journey to debt-freedom for users and celebrates and motivates them along the way. Based on feedback from interviews with users and overall consumer interest, Charlie elevated the most important tools for easy access including its debt-free plan, auto-savings and rewards, and rearranged its less-visited features to provide a more succinct and polished user experience.

With over 500,000 registrations since inception, Charlie has exchanged over 85 million conversations with users on the app. Charlie analyzes over $6 billion of user spending data to optimize user behavior and build the best tactics to help Americans achieve their financial goals, no matter how big or small. Charlie demonstrates the power of saving and shows users how paying even $25 extra more towards debt per month can save thousands of dollars of interest and get them out of debt years sooner than they thought possible.

The app is currently available for iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded for free. Access to the app and new premium features are available with a subscription for $4.99/month.

To download Charlie on the App Store, please click here.

To download Charlie on Google Play, please click here.

For more information about Charlie, please visit https://hicharlie.com.

To access the media kit, including visual assets, please click here.

About Charlie

Founded in 2016, Charlie operates on a mission to get Americans out of debt and help them regain financial freedom. Within minutes of signing up, Charlie users can start paying down more debt without changing their everyday spending habits. Finance experts Ilian Georgiev, Ivo Parashkevov and Robert Luedeman created Charlie’s psychology-based tools to support users’ need for balance in a healthy financial plan while helping them save money. Charlie has had over 500,000 sign-ups of people that want to take control of their debt. Learn more at hicharlie.com.

Contacts

Bianca Assunta

ASTRSK

hicharlie@astrskpr.com