It’s like closing all of your internet tabs after finishing a project for work. Or taking your boots off after a really long hike. It’s like cancelling the plans that you made last weekend when you were tipsy at the bar. Or sitting down in front of the TV with a movie cued up and a plate full of food.
Sweet relief.
Similarly, if you’ve ever narrowly escaped an overdraft fee when paying a bill, you probably got that tabs-closed, boots-off, plans-cancelled, full-plate-of-food-and-a-movie, sweet-relief feeling.
The Deal with Bills and Overdrafts
Overdraft and NSF fees accounted for nearly $8.5 billion in revenue for banks in 2021, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Despite several banks reducing or eliminating overdraft fees entirely, CFPB data shows that overdraft fee revenue inched back up toward 2019 highs in the early months of 2022.
The cost of bills is also increasing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, housing alone accounted for about 33.8% of consumer spending in 2021, up 5.6% from 2020. Transportation costs accounted for 16.4% of consumer spending (+11.6% YoY), and apparel and services accounted for 2.6% (+22.3% YoY).
Overdrafts are, unfortunately, a two-way street. Sure, banks are charging the fees, but merchants are the ones sending you into overdraft, namely if those payments are set to autopay.
So what’s the alternative — leaving bills off autopay and risking forgetting to pay them altogether? Sounds like a lose-lose situation to me.
It’s time there was a sweet-relief option that allowed you to put your bills on autopay and temporarily pause your payments if you need to.
Introducing Cushion Pause Payments
The first and only app designed to help you win, avoid overdraft fees, and put bill pay control back in your hands.
There are a number of instances why you might want to pause a payment.
Say a bill is scheduled to come out of your account this week but you don’t get paid until next week. You need a little time to move money around or find the extra cash. Maybe you’ve subscribed to a streaming service but you’re booked out for the next month and don’t anticipate that you’ll make use of the service.
Just pause it.
By pausing your payments, you buy yourself the time that you need to get your finances in order — or just live your life without the financial burden of paying for services when you don’t need to.
How to pause payments
When you sign up for Cushion Bill Pay, we issue you a virtual card to put on file with your billers. This is how you pay your bills through Cushion.
It is also how you pause them.
Within your Bill Center, select the bill or Buy Now Pay Later payment that you’d like to pause and opt to pause future payments. When you are ready to resume payments, you can do so from within the app.
You must have your Cushion card on file with the biller in order to pause a payment.
Remember: If you pause a payment through Cushion, you may need to make arrangements to settle up with your biller in the future.
