U.S. Bank is rolling out a new tool meant to help consumers with a common annoyance: updating payment methods for recurring expenses.
About U.S. Bank’s Payment Switch:
Today, U.S. Bank announced the launch of a new feature on its mobile app. With Payment Switch, customers can move eligible recurring payments over to their U.S. Bank debit or credit card with just a few taps. This includes streaming services, utility bills, mobile phone service, and more. In each case, users can make the swap without needing to visit each individual service’s site or app.
Customers can access Switch from the Bills & Subscription dashboard. On said dashboard, users can see all of their recurring bills and subscriptions in one place. This tool can also help them identify unneeded expenses and prevent surprise charges by highlighting upcoming payment dates.
According to U.S. Bank, the Payment Switch tool was developed in partnership with Atomic. The same FinTech already powers the bank’s automated direct deposit setup. Both technologies fall under the U.S. Bank Easy Switch solution, allowing new customers to join the bank and then quickly move over their direct deposits and recurring payments.
Payment Switch is available to both new and existing U.S. Bank customers.
My Thoughts:
As someone who’s just gone through the process of updating credit card info for recurring bills — first because I wanted to make my 3% Robinhood Gold Card the default for some expenses and then, last week, changing out some subscriptions after canceling my vanilla Amex Platinum — I can definitely see how this Payment Switch tool could be useful and time-saving. Similarly, the overall Bills & Subscriptions dashboard is something I’d recommend people pay attention to as I’ve personally found unexpected or forgot subscriptions with similar tools. Plus, with streaming services and the like regularly hiking prices, it’s always good to keep an eye on what you’re paying and pull the plug if it no longer makes sense for you.
While this tool is beneficial for customers, I think it’s also a smart investment for U.S. Bank. Interchange fees (the money card issuers collect when your card is used) and direct deposits are two big money-makers for banks — so making the process of going all-in on a new bank as frictionless as possible seems like a smart idea. In my view, working with a FinTech like Atomic to enable this shows the bank is forward-thinking and willing to adapt.
So, kudos to U.S. Bank on this new tool. I just hope it works as well for customers as it intends to.
