Pick2Pay is described as a tool to help travelers maximize savings on every purchase by leveraging credit card rewards, discounted gift cards and bonus offers from retailers and online shopping portals. We recently spoke with CEO and co-founder, Srikanth Deshpande. You can download the iOS app at http://www.bit.ly/10bHveA or check out the Web app at http://www.bit.ly/YEMAZV
InsideFlyer
How did you come up with the idea of Pick2Pay? And how long was the idea in the works before you launched it?
Srikanth Deshpande
We started our journey in November of 2012 by winning the first Startup Weekend at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. We wanted to answer the simple question: which is the best card for this purchase? It was a problem I constantly battled for my own purchases.
We launched our iOS app in March 2013, a short four months after we won the Startup Weekend. We then launched our Web app at http://www.pick2pay.com — a blog-widget (one of many at http://hackmytrip.com/online-shopping-maximizer ) and continued to build the Pick2Pay platform.
IF
Can you briefly describe Pick2Pay? How does it work? Is there a cost?
Deshpande
We help consumers maximize credit card rewards, hotel points and airline miles across shopping categories and stores. We offer consumers discounted e-gift cards for hundreds of stores that can be purchased and immediately redeemed, as well as stacked on top of credit card rewards. We gather rewards from over 20 different shopping portals that offer cash back, points or miles for shopping at over 2,000 online stores and save consumers 5-40 percent on online shopping. We gather Microsoft Bing Offers and MOGL offers for businesses located in the vicinity of the consumer and display them on our iOS app for the user to redeem. There is no cost to use Pick2Pay.
IF
How can Pick2Pay help frequent travelers maximize FFP miles?
Deshpande
Pick2Pay not only recommends the best card in your wallet but also the best card on the market for every purchase. For frequent travelers with airline, hotel and other expenses, Pick2Pay identifies the best card to maximize rewards for those purchases. Consumers can also earn miles or points for online purchases from shopping portals like AAdvantage shopping, Delta SkyMiles shopping and many more. In addition, non-frequent flyers trying to keep miles from expiring can quickly check which shopping portals to use for an online store purchase to trigger activity for the program they need.
IF
Can you please describe how Pick2Pay maximizes savings by “stacking” credit card rewards with e-gift cards and other offers?
Deshpande
Pick2Pay stacks credit card rewards with discounted e-gift cards to maximize savings. For example, customers can search for Starbucks and get a one percent reward from their credit card for buying a 15 percent off discounted e-gift card for Starbucks at our partner Raise.com, thus adding up to savings of 16 percent. They can then load the Starbucks e-gift code they receive via email into the Starbucks app and save on every purchase at Starbucks.
IF
How does Pick2Pay differ from similar services such as Evreward?
Deshpande
Pick2Pay not only compares the best portals for each online store you would like to make purchases through but it also recommends the best card for each category of purchase. Pick2Pay lets you find discounted e-gift cards and the “Map” feature within the app allows you to identify your location and shows offers from stores in your vicinity.
IF
Can you explain how Pick2Pay allows users to assign custom values for the points or miles they earn on their cards?
Deshpande
Pick2Pay lets users assign customized values for the points or miles they earn on their cards. For example, a user could say that Avios earned on a British Airways card are worth five cents per mile and the algorithm would account for this and recommend this card over other cards which are valued at one cent per mile for the same one percent reward. Consumers can do this by editing the card-detail page for their British Airways card once they are logged in. Also, logged-in users can add notes to the credit cards to remind them of things like “Card expires in August 2014” or “Used for Balance Transfer offer–don’t use for purchases.”
IF
Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about Pick2Pay?
Deshpande
Pick2Pay wants to help consumers by making it faster and easier to get the best value when shopping. We will continue to innovate along these lines and are looking forward to providing additional features and tools that can save people time and money.
