Thanks to California's Proposition 8, passed back in 1978, homeowners in the state can get a temporary reduction in their home's assessed value—and, accordingly, their property taxes—when the housing market enters a slump. Recognizing that that applies to virtually everyone who purchased property in the state within the past few years, Prop8.org is a new consumer advocate group that was formed specifically to help California consumers take advantage of the law.

Prop8.org provides tax-assessment appeals services for commercial, industrial and residential properties throughout California. With a team that's professionally trained in tax appeal rules, procedures and requirements specific to each California county, Prop8 can provide market data and analyses needed to advocate the lowest possible tax assessed value. Clients get full-service representation, from the initial filing of the assessment appeal application and supporting documentation, through negotiations with the county assessor—even including a formal hearing before the County Tax Appeals Board, if necessary. Prop8's services are available on a contingency fee basis for 50 percent of the first year's tax savings or via a flat-fee plan that covers the entire process—with a three-year guarantee—for USD 495. For homeowners who bought their homes between 2004 and 2006, the average savings that result from hiring Prop8 are between USD 1,500 and USD 2,500 per year, the company's founders say.

Prop8 is currently seeking affiliates to help extend its service throughout California. Meanwhile, of course, there are also many other situations in which consumers are legally entitled to compensation but are unaware or too busy to claim it. Find one of those, and you just might have something to build a business on! (Related: Claiming compensation for duped passengers.)

Website: www.prop8.org
Contact: info@prop8.org

Spotted by: Troy Nelson

As the weakening economy causes purse strings to tighten in many parts of the world, consumers are increasingly looking for new ways to earn some extra money. Enter My Gold Party, which facilitates Tupperware-style parties that help guests sell their unused trinkets, cashing in on record gold prices.

Launched earlier this year, My Gold Party sells all the equipment minipreneurs need to host parties in which guests can sell their gold, including a scale, karat tester and book of instructions. Party hosts then invite guests to bring gold coins, watches and jewelry to their party, where they assay and weigh each item to determine its current market worth. The party host pays guests for the items with cash or a cheque, then ships the gold to a refinery, which in turn pays the host—at a rate the host hopes will be higher than paid to the party guests. The gold is then melted down and reused. My Gold Party's kit for hosts is priced at USD 699.50. (Obviously, scales and karat testers can also be bought from many other suppliers.)

Consumers in hard times have always been able to sell their spare jewelry in pawn shops, but by bringing the process out of the back alley and into the living room, My Gold Party legitimises and updates it with a social and entrepreneurial twist. As the saying goes, there's gold in them thar hills—both for the consumers who have it and for the minipreneurs who help them sell it. One to bring to cash-strapped hills near you?

Website: www.mygoldparty.com
Contact: info@mygoldparty.com

Spotted by: Bill McMahon

Longtime Springwise readers may remember Kiva, the venture we wrote about back in 2006 that facilitates charitable microloans to entrepreneurs in the developing world. Now the organization has found a way to make loans go even further through a partnership with credit card issuer Advanta.

Earlier this month Advanta and Kiva announced the KivaB4B Project, an initiative through which Advanta will match the loans made by holders of its business credit card with up to USD 200 per month per card. Card holders simply select a business owner to sponsor through Kiva and make a grant using their Advanta BusinessCard. Advanta matches that grant, dollar for dollar, and Kiva distributes the total resulting funds. As the funds are repaid, they get deposited back into the card holder's Kiva account, while the match funds go back to Advanta. In the meantime, donors get materials to publicize their support, such as a KivaB4B button to put on their website, stickers for their storefront and postcards to send to customers.

Started in 1951 with USD 30 in seed money, Advanta is now one of the largest credit card issuers in the US small business market. Ami Kassar, Advanta’s Chief Innovation Officer, explains: “In our years of working with small business owners, we’ve found that many of them remember the moment someone gave them inspiration, some good advice, or a little cash to get things going. Now, through KivaB4B, American small business owners can offer that same ray of hope to entrepreneurs in developing countries.”

San Francisco-based Kiva has already opened a whole new world of opportunity to entrepreneurs in developing countries—it's facilitated more than USD 27 million in loans since its inception in 2005. With the power of a major bank behind it—and a little cause-related marketing incentive for donors—there's no telling how far its effects might go.

Website: www.kivab4b.org
Contact: aholderer@advanta.com

Spotted by: Susanna Haynie

Slated to launch this summer, Wells Fargo’s vSafe is a secure online location where customers can upload and store copies of everything from the deeds to their homes to precious family photos. The bank also uploads each customer’s bank statements to the vault, which can be accessed by logging on to customers’ regular internet banking accounts.

Reported fees of USD 4.95 for 1 gigabyte to up to 14.95 for 6 gigabytes might seem high when you consider that webmail accounts like Gmail and Yahoo offer multiple gigabytes of storage space at no cost. But Wells Fargo adds layers of security and throws in a dedicated phone help line. Plus it provides a single, central location for an individual’s or family important documents. Wells Fargo claims it is the first large financial services company to offer virtual storage of vital documents. In the Netherlands, ABN Amro Bank offers a similar service: Digitale Kluis (digital safe). ABN Amro’s safe stores a maximum of 500 MB of storage for EUR 14 per month, and is accessible to anyone who has access to an account holder’s online banking—including authorized accountants or family members.

The focused service is an order removed from the general purpose online storage services that have been available for years. Whether or not the US bank can make the service pay, imitators are sure to enter the space. Besides competition from other financial service providers, look for online storage firms to bundle-in virtual vaults as part of their regular offerings.

Website: www.wellsfargo.com — www.abnamro.nl
Contact: www.wellsfargo.com/help

Spotted by: Bill McMahon

Consumer credit is ubiquitous and the notion of saving up for something is almost foreign. But it's an essential step toward regaining control over spending, and SmartyPig wants to help.

Iowa-based SmartyPig offers a safe, secure way for consumers to save towards a specific goal—a wedding, remodeling project or vacation, for example—and it adds a dash of social networking and added incentives to speed up the process. Users begin using the free service by creating a profile on SmartyPig and establishing a savings account and goal amount—anywhere between USD 250 and USD 100,000. (SmartyPig's banking partner is 115-year-old, FDIC-insured West Bank, which has assets of more than USD 1.3 billion.) SmartyPig, in turn, suggests a monthly contribution in order to meet the savings goal by the time it's needed, and each month it deducts whatever amount the user chooses from their existing checking account or other funding source and puts it into the SmartyPig account.

To enlist the help of family and friends, users can choose to make their account public, enabling those they know to help them meet their goal; they can also put a SmartyPig widget on their MySpace or Facebook page to enlist the whole world's help. SmartyPig members can contribute to each other's accounts for free; to contribute via credit card, the fee is 2.9 percent. Once users reach their goal, they can receive their savings plus 4.30 percent (APY) interest on the SmartyPig MasterCard debit card, or they can get it plus interest and additional savings of up to 5 percent on a gift card from some of the country’s top retailers, including Amazon.com, Best Buy, Staples and Marriott.

SmartyPig just launched in February, with plans for a major publicity campaign to begin this month, but it was already awarded "Best of the Web" by NetBanker in March. It's open just to US consumers, however. Time to bring this concept to the credit-laden community near you! (Related: Layaway is back.)

Website: www.smartypig.com
Contact: support@smartypig.com

Spotted by: Sarah Johnson