You aced that chemistry exam that you were stressing over and you and your bestie decide to head to Aqui to celebrate. You take an Uber over to the restaurant so you can indulge in a few "swirls" to really celebrate your achievement. You agree to Venmo her your share of the Uber bill and your half of the meal the next day. Venmo makes one-on-one payments convenient and easy in an era where cash carrying habits are dwindling.

It’s a Thursday night and you’re with a group of your friends, planning out a party at your place for Friday night. You offer to foot the bill for food, drinks, and all the other amenities that one needs in order to throw the rager of all ragers. Your friends agree to Venmo you after you’ve bought it all on your own dime. You head to Safeway, debit card in hand, where the bill comes out to a cool $200. This is way over the budget you had anticipated, and now you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel to pay for your groceries next week—all in the name of your disco-themed party that’ll probably get rolled by the cops before midnight.

In college, managing money is hard. You have to pay for groceries, rent, gas, and a whole slew of other unexpected expenses that leave you with a bank account emptier than a frat boy’s heart. But when you add in the social aspect of college, where you’re constantly forking over a couple of bucks for the jungle juice fund or being convinced that you can afford another sushi dinner on Santana Row, you’re suddenly faced with the dilemma of holding others accountable for the times you’ve spotted them for a hungover breakfast at Bill’s.

In this dawn of technological advances and the demise of cash handling, we find ourselves face to face with the challenge of how to pay people back, on top of the challenge of trying to budget our own meager paychecks. We’ve all heard of Venmo, but personally, I find myself frustrated with the lack of accountability when it comes to big groups. Thankfully, there’s a new money-sharing app that provides users with just as many, if not more advantages to the tricky business of money managing in college: tilt.

You’ve probably heard of tilt in regards to payment for events like concerts or Greek life. But what often is lost in translation is the ergonomic manner of tilt when it comes to collecting money for collecting rent, or a number of other common college situations. Venmo is great when it comes to you and your honey going dutch on a date night, but you don’t exactly want to be personally funding your squad’s trip to Tahoe with the money your parents gave you for textbooks. I recently spoke with tilt ambassador Bailey McQuain about what makes tilt so great, and it didn’t take long to realize that there’s a whole mess of reasons about why we should all be using tilt:

Rent

Let’s say you live in an off campus house with eight of your closest friends, and you’ve somehow managed to earn yourself the role of house treasurer. You’re expected to collect the rent every month and present your landlord with an enormous check. Keeping track of eight people’s finances on top of your own is no easy task, especially when you’re constantly distracted by hard classes and internship applications. On Tilt, you can easily collect rent in a matter of seconds. Throw up a picture and description and blast it out via text, email or on social media to your housemates. The easy-to-understand app interface allows you to see who hasn’t paid their rent yet and how many days you have left to fork over your share. And if you’re waiting for your parents to deposit money into your account, tilt is configured so that no one is charged until the event “tilts.” That means that no money is taken from your account until the final day to make a payment, and if the monetary goal isn’t achieved, the event won’t tilt and no one is charged (which creates a whole new issue, but that’s between you and your house).

Weekend Getaways

It’s a long weekend and you’re desperate to escape the misery of El Niño with your besties and run to San Diego to soak up some rays. But before you can tie up your Triangl bikini top and frolic in the waves, you have to figure out the logistics of finances. First, there’s the issue of gas for the eight-hour drive down the coast, but then you have to figure out the cost of the airbnb and general sustenance for the weekend. Rather than checking your bank account at the end of the weekend and realizing that you’ll probably have to subsist off of fumes in the coming week, sit down and budget out the money you’ll need for the coming weekend. From there, create a Tilt page and have everyone pay his or her share. Once your page tilts, deposit the money into your account before taking out a cash withdrawal. Store that cash in an envelope and in a safe location for the weekend, and anytime someone needs to make a run for more Solo cups, they can grab the envelope and use the budgeted money you collected with tilt and make your weekend fiscally stress free.

Greek Apparel

As a proud sister of Kappa Kappa Gamma, I live to wear my letters, everywhere from the library to the gym to the airport. Anytime an iBuy opens, you better believe I’m on the website, scouring the options and poring over the adorable prints created by our PR chair. But as someone who’s anal retentive and needs to know specifics, nothing frustrates me more than the fact that the price of the product in question in presented in a range. This “outdoorsy Kappa” long-sleeve tee could cost anywhere from $17.95 to $29.50. That’s a pretty substantial range when you consider that those twelve dollars are basically six gallons of gas. By opting to have your sisters pay for sorority apparel on tilt, you can set a median flat rate price that would cover all the expenses if enough of your sisters bought them. If not enough people decide to buy them, then the event won’t tilt and you aren’t charged. If you end up with more interested people than anticipated, then you’ve got more money to cover shipping fees and your PR budget doesn’t have to suffer. And on top of that, by using tilt, all of the data from your sale is entered into a “Sell Something” Excel spreadsheet and you can see who bought what. When it comes to payment and distribution, there’s no third party involvement and helps streamline the chaos that is handing out semiformal t-shirts at chapter.

Philanthropies

Throughout the year, sororities and fraternities alike work tirelessly to put on legendary philanthropy events to raise money and awareness for a cause close to their hearts. For my chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, in spring quarter, we host an event called “Kappa Karnival” where individuals form teams and participate in games like pie-eating contests and ring tosses. We work to raise money for The LymeLight Foundation, an organization founded by the family of sister of ours who suffers from Lyme disease. The LymeLight Foundation provides money for treatment of Lyme disease for those who cannot afford it. But for any philanthropy chair, whether it’s for Kappa Karnival or Pi Kappa Alpha “Movember” calendars, keeping track of all the payments coming their way can be stressful. By creating a tilt event in conjunction with philanthropy, it’s easy for all of the money to be deposited into one concise location (and you can check out the competition easily). Plus, the ability to provide a description of your event of tilt can allow you to educate people on the charity for which you’re raising money so people have a better idea of where their money is going.

Venmo is great for a whole slew of reasons, but tilt is up-and-coming and going to make a world of difference when it comes to coordinating payments and finances with big groups. Even if you just want to buy four large pizzas from Costco, tilt’s quick cashout system that works even on the weekends can get you your money in two business days or less. It’s a marvel of computer technology and this incredible world in which we live that we’re fortunate enough to have not one but two money sharing applications that make college life that much easier. Next time you’re faced with a pocket-pinching situation, whether it’s a camping trip in Santa Cruz or hosting a party for the finale of The Bachelor, turn to tilt to help you figure out the details. Lord knows, in college, we can use all the help we can get.

(A huge thanks to Bailey McQuain for her help and ideas!)