ChromaCard

The college years are a critical time period in a young adult’s life. During this time, students develop and discover essential habits, including budgeting skills and financial literacy. Current financial tracking methods merely collect and report spending patterns; they aren’t interactive and don’t include a tangible component. Our goal is to reduce the number of excessive purchases by facilitating the development of smart financial habits for new college students. ChromaCard transforms the credit card, bringing an unprecedented physicality to the card through live, visual feedback.

ChromaCard is an intelligent credit card that transitions between two colors to display the depletion of a student’s allocated budget. During a transaction, ChromaCard briefly illuminates to remind a student of their budget. At any time, the student can double-tap the card to view its color. ChromaCard’s companion app tracks transactions and generates readable reports of spending habits. The app notifies the student if they shop too regularly in value-poor spending categories and suggests better-value alternatives. Our rewards system - bonus points based on achieving budget goals – incentivizes students to stay on track with their budget. As students transition to financial independence, we understand the importance of their communication with parents. For this reason, parents may check in on their student’s spending trends at any time.