Dive Brief:
- Visa has partnered with Pinwheel, a New York-based, in-app bill management provider, to launch an enhanced subscription manager tool, the card giant said in a press release last week. Underdog Technologies, which does business as Pinwheel, sells its applications to banks and fintechs.
- Within a banking app, the Pinwheel tool provides cardholders with a summary of their subscriptions, displays alternative payment methods and guides them with respect to the option of canceling their subscriptions, the release said.
- Visa is offering the tool to North American card issuers this summer and plans to offer it in Latin America and the Caribbean later on, per the press release.
Dive Insight:
By providing consumers with a comprehensive view of their subscriptions, Visa aims to help consumers get a handle on “unwanted charges” and assert more “control” over their subscriptions, the release said. For card issuers, the feature can curtail disputes and chargebacks stemming from recurring payments.
Visa plans to release additional features for the new tool throughout this year. The San Francisco-based card network also touted other services the company has added to the platform for merchants, including a new digital card display, transaction controls and scheme-agnostic push provisions, per the press release.
“Consumers today want clarity, control and convenience when it comes to managing the subscriptions that touch so many parts of their lives,” Kathleen Pierce‑Gilmore, Visa’s global head of issuing solutions, said in the press release.
By collaborating with companies like Pinwheel to introduce new features, Visa seeks to improve the experience for card issuers so they can better serve cardholders, Pierce-Gilmore explained.
"As the subscription economy has exploded, consumers have lost visibility and control over their recurring spending," said Pinwheel Chief Revenue Officer Brian Karimi-Pashaki said in the release. “That lack of transparency is confusing for consumers. Banks and fintechs that empower consumers to view, manage, switch, and cancel subscriptions are winning primary relationships, substantial interchange revenue, and long-term brand loyalty."
Subscription cancellations had been a headache for federal regulators, too. Under the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission launched the “Time Is Money” campaign aimed at companies with needlessly complicated subscription cancellation processes.
Last summer, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the FTC’s “click-to-cancel” rule, which would have required companies to make subscription cancellations easier. The agency suggested that the rule could have reduced some chargebacks related to subscription cancellations. As of March, the federal agency is seeking public comment on a revised approach.
