While sharing an apartment with my co-founders during an internship, I was responsible for paying the gas, wifi & rent bills upfront and having everyone Venmo me back. Tracking how much I was owed and getting everyone to pay me back took up a fair amount of time, and I didn't particularly like talking about money with my friends. Fronting the bill also messed up with the budgeting I've set up with my bank, and often I would have to front thousands for our rent payment.
We released the first version of the YSplit app a year and a half ago to fix these problems. On the YSplit app, you can link your bill accounts (e.g. Power, Internet, Streaming services, etc..) and invite the people you split the bills with. We use our bill pay partners (Finovera) and in-house scrappers to verify the details, establish a connection then add a YSplit virtual card to the account. When you have a due bill, we charge everyone their share the bills in the app, and then we pay the bill with the YSplit virtual card. We've also added the ability to see a PDF copy of your bill in the app and an in-app balance that you can use to set money aside for future bills. Since releasing the app, we've grown the no. of billers we support to 5,000, covering every major utility provider in each state and the most popular subscriptions (e.g. Netflix, Spotify, HBO).
Apart from automating recurring bill splitting & paying, we are developing features like the YSplit card, a Visa virtual/physical card that automatically splits one-time payments, e.g. groceries, takeout, house supplies, night out and more. The card can also be used for splitting recurring bills and is a good option for people who'd rather not share their bill account credentials.
The hard part of developing this product has been making sure we are always synced to your latest bills and that they are always paid on time. Luckily, bills have very predictable patterns, so we've been able to build a system that can identify and alert us of bills that are likely to become overdue. It was also tough designing a UX that clearly shows how the app works at every stage since most people are used to P2P payments.
We make money from interchange fees and premium options we offer in the app. YSplit premium enables cashback, rent payment splitting via check, and the ability to make multiple YSplit cards.
YSplit is live and being used to pay & split bills by thousands of roommates and friends. Head over to https://www.ysplit.com to download the app and try it out. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback & ideas.
by Andrey
Azimov