Fintech Little Birdie launches to help manage subscriptions amid cost-of-living crisis
Little Birdie’s play is attracting users who are now questioning the subscription services they signed up for during the pandemic, but are launching in a highly competitive sector.
Image source: Martin Bould/Little Birdie
A fintech app to help individuals manage subscriptions and recurring payments during the cost of living crisis has launched.
The free app, called Little Birdie, provides a central point for managing subscriptions and recurring payments.
It reminds users when payments are due, when a free trial is coming to an end, when there is a price increase and points users in the direction of money-saving deals and helps them switch providers.
It also has a “Click to Cancel” feature, which allows users to cancel subscriptions directly with nearly 400 providers, including Spotify and Disney+, directly in the app, with more available in the coming months.
Little Birdie’s play is attracting users who are now questioning the subscription services they signed up for during the pandemic amid the cost-of-living crisis.
But it’s launching in a highly competitive sector, with fintechs and financial startups launching similar budgeting and money management features.
Martin Bould, co-founder of Little Birdie, said: “While subscriptions can be excellent value for money and can offer a convenient way for people to access the products and services they need, the problem is that they can be challenging to monitor and subscription management can be complicated.
“Many people sign up for a discounted price or a free trial, but find it too difficult – or simply forget – to cancel. And companies don’t often make the cancellation process easy.
“We launched Little Birdie to help people take control of their regular bills and subscriptions – users can connect via Open Banking to upload all their regular payments in one place or choose to add some or all of these payments manually .”
Little Birdie points to Opinium research of 2,000 UK adults showing that 32 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds regret buying subscriptions during the pandemic, while 41 per cent fear these regular subscription payments could push them into debt.
To date, Little Birdie has raised £500,000, with a future funding round planned for Q1 2023.
It makes money through advertising, along with commissions from suppliers when customers switch via comparison and trade-in services and potentially premium features it may introduce in the future.
It says it expects to reach 10,000 users by Christmas and currently has a staff of around ten people.
