What if there was a way to have fun while chiseling away at your massive student loans? Better yet, what if there was a video game you could download onto your phone that could help along the way?
It would beat the hell out of getting a second job, that’s for sure!
The online trivia game Givling is doing exactly that. By “gamifying” crowdfunding from each of its users, the company creates a large pool of money to be awarded to one of its users at random in order to pay off their student loans.
So, how does it work?
Each time you play, you are placed on a random trivia team (or “funding team”) with other players from around the country to answer rapid-fire trivia questions. Your team is allowed three wrong answers before your game is considered “over” and the day’s winning team will receive a cash prize.
Players get two free games per day and every additional game they play will cost fifty cents. By pooling a portion of all of this money, the winning teams will be awarded small daily cash prizes with the rest of the money going towards one winner chosen at random by Givling for a big grand prize.
This lucky player will be awarded a cash prize of up to $50,000 towards paying off their student loan debt. In other words, think of Givling as HQ for people who want to wash away their crippling student loans.
So far, Givling’s crusade against student debt has been working as they have paid off twelve of their lucky user’s loans for a total amount of $655,044. As they see it — the more people who play, the more grand prizes they will be able to give away and in turn, the more student debt they will be able to erase.
“We know student loans suck, they’re such a burden and nobody likes them,” explains Seth Beard, Chief Marketing Officer at Givling, “a lot of times people wish they could change things, but now we’re creating a community that’s really helping people care for each other.”
Before people can win these incredible prizes, they have to get through Givling’s difficult trivia questions first. And for some, it can feel like earning back a college degree with each prize they win … or don’t win.
Beard understands how crushing these losses can be for some, as playing to pay off your student loans can be an addictive goal to chase.
“There is definitely some heartbreak!” explains Beard, “but at the end of the day, people know as we continue to scale we’re going to be doing this with our goal of daily loan payoffs and even multiple loan payoffs. We envision getting there within the next 6 months and definitely by the end of the year.”
Who knew using the knowledge that you gained at school can help you crawl out of your current financial ruin? Think about that the next time you and your friends play trivia at a bar to win a round of drinks or a t-shirt!
