Jelli review

There are social platforms out there that focus on different things. For instance, Facebook is used for communicating and events, Instagram for photos and Linkedin for job-related things. But there really wasn’t a social platform for finance and sharing different types of money goals.

That’s where the idea of Jelli and sharing the jars began.

Who is Jelli best for?

Jelli is designed for the millennial demographic and Gen Z. It’s an app that would give them the ability to organize, customize and interact with their finances and money. We really wanted to develop a space where millennials can organize their money, customize it with photos and colors and then share it with friends.

Can you connect external accounts to Jelli?

Yes. I have a Wells Fargo account and my Venmo connected to Jelli. I can send money from Venmo and my bank account over to Jelli and use it to make purchases or put it in a jar.

Jelli charges a fee for bill pay and ATM withdrawals. Besides not using these services, is there any way to avoid these fees if you do want to use bill pay and withdraw cash?

Yes, so on the bill pay side you can use your Jelli Visa card to pay for things like Netflix and your cell phone bill.

As for utilities, many utilities don’t allow you to use a debit card. They prefer an ACH transfer.

To avoid a bill pay fee, you can provide your Jelli account and routing number. If you prefer writing a check, you’ll pay a fee.

Ok, cool. And as far as ATM withdrawal goes, it doesn’t look like Jelli has an ATM network so there’s a fee every time you withdraw cash from an ATM. Is there a way around that ATM fee?

As for ATM withdrawals, the only way around that fee is if you get cash back at a point of sale. But we do charge a fee of $0.50 cents for cash back at the register. Long term, we hope to eliminate that fee and move toward contactless payments.

What if someone loses their Jelli debit card?

If you lose your physical card, you can call to replace it and get a new one sent in the mail. But if you lose your card, you’ll still have access to your virtual Jelli card.

So if you ever lose your physical card, you still have your virtual card as a way to pay for things while you’re waiting for your new card to arrive.

If there are two cards (physical and virtual) are there two separate card numbers?

Yes, that’s correct. If you cancel or freeze the physical card in the app, you can request a replacement. But you’ll still be able to use your virtual card, which has a different card number. You can shop online with it or use it with any type of mobile wallet on your phone.

Can you tell us more about Dosh and how Jelli works with them to provide cashback rewards?

Dosh provides cashback rewards from hundreds of merchants. They’re constantly rolling out hundreds of local merchants, restaurants and retailers. Cash rewards can be anywhere from 3% to 5% — with some even at 10%. They also have Cash Flash rewards that can be anywhere between 10% to 25%.

In the Jelli app, if you click on the Jelli cash icon, it takes you over to your Jelli cash rewards. This section lists all the rewards that you receive. The rewards are instant, but it takes anywhere from three to four days to clear.

You can access the list of merchants available in your area and nationally in the Jelli card rewards section. It shows everything from PetSmart to Walmart.

With Cash Flash deals you can get up to 25% off for the next 24 hours if you make a purchase with your Jelli Visa card. You don’t have to show a coupon or a bar code. You simply shop and get the rewards.

Once you swipe your card you’ll get a notification in the app saying: Hey! You just earned $4 in rewards or $6 in rewards from this merchant. The cash back will show up as pending in your app. Once it clears, you can transfer the money to one of your jars and spend.

If you connect with friends through the Jelli app, how much of your budget can they see? Is it only shared with them? Or can they see your income and other budgeting categories as well?

With Jelli you have some different levels of sharing. Every time you create a jar, it’s private. Only you can see it. But if you select the sharing feature a window will pop up with a number of options. You can choose to share it to the public, to all your friends or only a select list of friends.

Let’s say you create a jar for a camping trip with your friends. You can share it with them, so that they can pitch in with the cost. They can open up the jar, post comments and add their money.

If you’re creating a jar for a larger thing, you can choose to share it with all of your friends or publicly. You can share public jars on Facebook, Twitter, email, text, etc. If someone clicks on the jar and has a Jelli account, it will open it directly in the Jelli app.

But if they don’t have Jelli, a web browser on their phone will open. They’ll need to download Jelli to contribute to the jar.

Can you give an example of when someone would share a Jelli jar with all of their friends on social media?

You can use it to make an announcement to all your friends. For instance: We’re getting married! Instead of wedding gifts we’d like to go to Tahiti for our honeymoon. We’re trying to raise $4,000 for this trip. If you’d like to contribute, you can add your money here.

You can send thank yous and pictures from your honeymoon to everyone who contributed straight from the jar.

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about Jelli?

Jelli combines the features of budgeting, banking and cash back giving users one single source to get rewards, and manage and share their money. With Jelli we want to revolutionize the way you bank.