As consumers increasingly sign up for social media access, digital music or video streaming services, the number of recurring payments has mounted.
New York startup Hiatus saw a need to better manage those monthly bills, bringing its subscription bill payment service to market two years ago with the idea that many consumers forget how much they are paying or even whom they are paying.
Now, the company wants to help consumers pay less on those bills, providing a bill negotiation tool in which the company acts on behalf of the consumer to reduce monthly payments, according to a Feb. 24 report in
Hiatus, which recently completed a $1.2 million funding round, seeks to use the price negotiation service as a way to differentiate itself from other services that monitor subscriptions with the intention of reminding consumers about those with which they may want to cancel. TechCrunch reports that Hiatus plans to use its new funding to continue its project to launch an Android app in a couple of months. The app currently operates on iOS.
Other companies are also using payments analysis to spot opportunities to manage bills.
Hiatus says it will not make an adjustment to a service that a consumer is receiving, but will only seek to get a better price on what they are already receiving. As a fee, Hiatus charges the Hiatus user half of what is being saved for a subscription service during the first year.
The company has analyzed $2.5 billion worth of transactions for users who have linked a bank account for payments, and is managing $50 million worth of yearly subscriptions.
