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Yotta Savings brings the thrill of the lottery to your savings account. Saving money isn’t nearly as exciting as winning the lottery, but with Yotta’s prize-linked savings accounts, it could very well be.
Being financially responsible just doesn’t bring the thrill or instant gratification that most people crave. This could explain why U.S. households spend on average $1,000 a year on lottery tickets, but 40% of Americans still have less than $300 in their savings account. What is it that makes people want to spend on a jackpot they only have a 1 in 302,575,350 chance of winning, rather than putting that money away in a savings account?
The founders of Yotta contemplated this question and found a simple answer: short-term rewards. The fact that there is no instant reward or gratification to be gained from saving money is precisely what makes it so difficult to save in the first place.
HOW YOTTA SAVINGS WORKS
With Yotta, you earn one recurring ticket for every $25 saved into your account. For example, if you have $75 deposited in your account, you will get 3 tickets every week. If you withdraw $25, you’ll lose a ticket. The tickets enter you into a weekly prize drawing, so the more money you save, the more chances you have to win.
The app lets you pick 7 numbers for each ticket and draws a random number every night at 9 p.m. ET. Prizes are automatically paid to your account every Sunday night after the final drawing. The more numbers you match in each ticket, the more money you’re able to win. If you forget to choose your numbers for that week, the app will auto-pick numbers for you. A third-party insurance carrier picks the numbers, so you can be sure that the weekly drawings are completely randomized.
One of Yotta’s founding principles is that it’s impossible to lose. You don’t need to spend any money on prize tickets because you earn them by saving. Yotta also partners with banks that pay fifteen to a hundred times more interest than the national average. So even if you don’t win big in the weekly prize drawings, you can still earn a decent amount of interest on your savings.
HOW MUCH DOES YOTTA PAY?
The prize for matching one out of seven numbers is $0.10, but if you’re lucky enough to match all 7 numbers correctly, you could win a massive $10 million prize. Compared to larger banks like Chase and Wells Fargo that offer only 0.01% interest on savings accounts, Yotta offers an interest rate of 0.2%.
MORE WAYS TO WIN
The seven ticket numbers consist of six regular numbers and one Yotta Ball. The Yotta Ball has the most potential to increase your winnings. Let’s say you match three out of six regular numbers. Without also matching the Yotta Ball, you earn $0.25. With it, you earn $7.
You can only win the $10 million jackpot by matching all six numbers and the Yotta Ball. However, you’ll still win a Tesla Model 3 even if you only manage to match six regular numbers. It may not be $10 million, but winning a brand new Tesla is nothing to complain about.
Yotta also allows you to Level Up your account by referring friends. Every account comes with a shareable invite code. You can earn one hundred extra tickets for the following week’s prize drawing for every person that signs up for an account and makes their first deposit using your code. You could earn even more free tickets depending on whether your account has Silver, Gold, or Platinum status. Unlike tickets earned from regular deposits, the tickets you gain from referrals are non-recurring and can only be used once.
YOUR ODDS OF WINNING
As mentioned earlier, you have a 1 in 302.5 million chance of winning the Mega Millions. In comparison, you have a 1 in 8.2 billion chance of winning Yotta’s $10 million jackpot, and a 1 in 133.2 million chance of winning that Tesla Model 3.
Overall, the odds aren’t very optimistic for either. But unlike with the actual lottery, there’s no risk or loss involved with using Yotta. Their only objective is to encourage you to inrease your savings in a fun and rewarding way.
HOW TO SET UP A YOTTA SAVINGS ACCOUNT
Yotta is completely free to use and to set up an account. They partner with Plaid in order to connect your existing bank account to your Yotta Savings account. There are no minimums or monthly fees, but you do need to have a bank account based in the U.S.
The Yotta Savings mobile app is available for both iPhone and Android devices. After downloading the app, you need to provide your name, email address, date of birth, and social security number to set up an account. The app offers two-factor authentication and biometric authentication, and the personal information you provide to set up your account is securely transmitted through SSL and is never stored in their servers.
IS YOTTA SAFE?
Yotta Savings is completely safe to use. All your funds are FDIC insured up to $250,000, and your account is protected by military-grade encryption and access control.
3 BENEFITS OF YOTTA SAVINGS
1. It’s fun. Yotta Savings adds an interesting twist to the monotony of online saving and banking apps. With the gamification, saving feels more like gambling which should, in theory, encourage healthy saving habits. Unlike with gambling, you can’t actually lose money.
2. They make it easy to save. Not only are the prize drawings a good incentive to save money, but Yotta also allows you to set up customized recurring deposits, making saving a sustainable habit.
3. It’s social. Yotta has a cool feature called Pool Play, where you can enter public or private pools with other Yotta users and contribute tickets to the pool. This increases your chances of winning, and Yotta automatically distributes the winnings among members of your pool.
WHAT’S NEXT
Yotta will soon be launching its Yotta Debit Card. It offers tons of interesting benefits that provide the same thrill and gamification of Yotta’s prize-linked lottery model. For every $10 you spend, you earn a ticket for the following week’s prize drawing. You can also earn 1,000 bonus tickets if you spend $2,000 in your first 4 months, and with every item you purchase, you have a 1 in 500 chance of getting it for free. Finally, Yotta allows you to take advantage of your social circle by offering a premium metal card if you refer at least ten friends. There’s currently a waiting list for the debit card, but you can add your name through the Yotta mobile app.
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