Debt Buddies

Yesterday, I officially launched my Debt Buddies platform on Indie Hackers. Hooray!! What a great feeling this is! It did have some bugs that needed prompt attention, the main one being that users were unable to manually add debt. I believe I have fixed that problem now, along with some other issues. The application has been redeployed and can be found here: https://debtbuddiesapp.com

Just a recap: I am not a coder/software developer, so I built this product on Replit. I hope to one day hire a freelance software developer to help me, as I know it definitely needs some polishing. I am open to any feedback you have to offer.

For a recap of the product, Debt Buddies is a social platform designed to help users stay motivated and accountable for paying off their debt. Users can link their debt via Plaid or add it manually. If connected via Plaid, the payments will be automatically updated once the user "syncs" their Plaid connection (and usually 1-3 days after the payment posts to their debt). If added manually, users can manually add their payments after making them directly to their debt. Social posts should be posted automatically once a payment has been made, but users can also post socially at any time, and all posts are open to likes and comments.

Users are able to utilize analytical tools for their debt once the debts are added, like goal setting, estimated payoff date, interest saved, among many others. There is also an AI-powered Strategy tab that helps users select the best debt payoff plan for them, highlighting tips and tricks they can utilize to pay off their debt more quickly.

Users can also join or create debt payoff challenges with their buddies for bragging rights and the highest spot on the leaderboard. This is a great tool that helps users stay motivated by their buddies to pay off their debt.

Additionally, there is an anonymous community wall that allows you to post vents, frustrations, successes, etc. completely anonymously, which truly gives the user the ability to say whatever they're feeling with no judgement.

I hope you try it out and find it helpful! But if you don't think it's useful or if something needs changing/fixing, I definitely want to know that, too. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post and check out my product!

Hi everyone! I'm the creator of Debt Buddies, which is a platform that helps users stay motivated to pay off their debt with the help of accountability, social motivation, and buddy support. Drowning in student loan debt myself, I wanted to create a tool that would keep me motivated to pay off my debt, as well as allow me to share the mental and emotional load with friends going through the same journey. And hence, Debt Buddies was born! I am not a coder, so I used Replit to make it. I know it's probably very clunky compared to all your beautiful applications, so I would absolutely love any feedback you have to make things smoother, better, or easier for the user.

The home page is a social page where users can post about their payments and get likes and comments from their buddies. The dashboard page is divided up into several different tabs. On the debt tab, users can either manually add their own debt or connect their debt via Plaid. Once users have added their debt, they can then click the analytics button and play around with fun tools like the "What if" feature that will allow you to see what would happen if you contributed a little more or less per month to your debt. You can also set a goal to pay off your debt sooner, based on either an extra amount you pay per month or a set date (and it will automatically calculate the amount extra per month you'll need to pay to hit that date).

You can also create and join challenges with your buddies to help with motivation, and use the AI-powered Strategy tab to create a debt payoff strategy just for you.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my product! Truly, I would love any and all feedback you have to offer. I'm doing this completely on my own with my own money, and I have no coding/software/computer science in my educational background, so this really is just a "learn as you go" kind of side project for me. I'm having a lot of fun though, and I really appreciate learning from all of you!

Link: https://debtbuddiesapp.com