Personal finance site Buxfer uses Amazon to help friends settle debts

August 3, 2007 | Eric Eldon | Comments |

picture-6.pngBuxfer, a site that helps you and your friends keep track of shared expenses, announced today that it is using Amazon’s new payment service to allow its users to settle debts with each other from within the site.

Buxfer competes with a number of other startups focused on helping people do a better job of managing their personal finances, such as Billmonk.

Buxfer stands out for taking a strongly group-oriented approach, quickly showing you how much you owe and are owed from friends.

A built-in payment system has been a big missing component as tracking shared expenses is less useful if you have to separately handle the transcation.

Amazon’s service has been getting good reviews from even normally harsh critics due to its developer-friendly features for customizing to specific sites.

Buxfer’s payment service is free through the end of August. After then, people receiving money will incur a 1.5-2 percent fee, depending on how the payment is made. The service is only available in the United States. More coverage here.

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About the Author, Eric Eldon

Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.

  • Both the service and the payment method sounds like a good thing. I like especially the ability it has to keep people not only friends, but the simple way they can take care of their financial debts and money owed them.

    Let's face it, after a short period of time, many people forget what they borrow or are owed in relationship to friends. These types of services and now easy payment method should help everyone with these types of issues.