BillShrink, a free online service to help consumers save money on their cell phone bills, announced the appointment of Matt Coffin to its board of directors.
Coffin led LowerMyBills.com from concept through its 2005 sale to Experian for $380 million. His experience will be a big help to BillShrink as it moves from its beta stage into a growing company, according to Samir Kothari, co-founder of BillShrink.
The Website, www.billshrink.com, allows users to input their cell phone usage information to find the best cell phone plan for them. Users can get as detailed as they want, with an option of importing their latest wireless bill, to figure out the best plan.
Besides price plans, the system is tied into carriers’ latest coverage maps, so it will make suggestions based on that as well. One feature of the site is for users to make recommendations of their own, such as sharing where they find dead spots.
BillShrink already works with the four largest nationwide U.S. carriers but expects to add more service providers, Kothari said. It refers people to the carrier sites, as well as to LetsTalk and Wirefly.
With pressure on carriers to keep the customers they have and attract loyal new subs, BillShrink helps carriers match up with customers who are most likely to stay with them, Kothari said. BillShrink’s primary source of revenue is the commissions it gets for delivering new customers. “I think we’re going to have a very good relationship” with carriers, he said. “We’re sending them well-qualified users.”
The service is similar in some ways to those offered by the likes of Validas, but Kothari said he believes BillShrink is distinctive in the way it does its analysis and monitoring. And while a lot of people still research online and buy in a store, the percentage of people buying online is expected to grow.
Considering the number of plans from which a consumer can choose, “we felt there was a lot of pain,” and came up with the BillShrink system to sift through the many offers and plan variations. Plus, the cell phone industry provides a big market in which to showcase its technology. Next on the horizon: a service that evaluates credit cards.
