Social payment site helps friends share expenses

Shared expenses are always a tricky challenge, largely because of the logistics involved in making sure everyone pays their own fair share. Enter PayDivvy, a California-based startup that aims to make the whole process easier. With support for electronic billing from more than 5,000 different service providers, allows users to pay, send or share individual and group bills through a simple online and mobile interface. To split any bill, users can create a group on the free site — such as a set of roommates, for example — and then create a “divvy” for each shared expense, such as rent. It’s automatically assumed that all divvies are split up equally, but that can be adjusted by the user creating them. Either way, when a divvy comes due, each participating member makes his or her payment via Visa, MasterCard, American Express or bank account, and the site keeps track of who has paid and who hasn’t. ‘Pinging’ a member of a particular divvy sends a notification reminding that person to pay up, while wall notifications and peer pressure can play a role as well, the company says. Meanwhile, much like PayPal, PayDivvy gives each user his or her own FDIC-insured account with bank-level security, and any money paid into those accounts can be withdrawn by the account holder as well. So, divvies can be used to reimburse a user who pays a bill up front — such as for a nice dinner out, for example — or they can be used to collect funds to be paid directly and jointly through PayDivvy to a utility or landlord, for instance. Online bill payment is all very good and well, but it’s the social aspect that promises to set PayDivvy apart. One to partner with or emulate in your neck of the woods? Spotted by: Parul Rohatgi