Cushion
p/cushion-2
Your bank & credit card fees, refunded
Paul Kesserwani
Cushion — Your bank & credit card fees, refunded
Featured
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Get back money wasted on bank fees & credit card interest.

Cushion is currently in Private Beta. Our bot (Fee Fighter) is successfully waiving all kinds of costly bank fees for our users: ATM fees, late fees, wire fees, overdraft fees, credit card interest charges, and more 💰

Replies
Chuck Kahn
U.S. only I assume?
Paul Kesserwani
@chuckkahn Hi Chuck! Since we developed new tech to negotiate with banks on behalf of our users, we're rolling out the service one bank at a time. We are starting with the U.S. because the credit card interest and bank fee epidemic is out of control here. We would love to expand internationally over time.
Melissa Monte
I've been a member for a few months and I've added 4 cards to my account. Cushion has only found one fee to negotiate (it's still pending). I totally don't think this product is worth it.
Melissa Monte
Had Cushion for a year and I connected a LOT of cards and accounts and it saved me $0 lol. What a waste of money.
Tom Uebel

I've been on the beta for awhile and it's gotten me back ~$100 two separate times and hasn't needlessly nagged me when there weren't any fees to be refunded. I’ve gotten pretty good at credit card/travel hacking over the past few years and grown a strong distaste for the myriad ways banks try to trick people, so I love products like these.

Even with a decent understanding of how all these things work, I was under the impression that wire fees were just a fact of life and non-refundable, so it was an awesome surprise when Cushion got several $25 wire fees back for me. A lot of people in tech are prime customers that banks want to keep happy, so you'll probably be surprised how often your bank will cave to the Cushion bot's persuasive powers :)

Pros:

Big fan of Cushion - it just does its job and stays out of your way when there isn’t money to be reclaimed.

Cons:

None

Charlie Benkendorf

Product doesn't support my banks yet but can't wait until they do!

Pros:

Who doesn't love saving money?

Cons:

Faisal Al-Khalidi

Used Cushion a few months ago when it was still in early beta. The onboarding process was simple and easy. The bot interactions made it easy to respond with a few words and a quick login with my bank account gave them all I need. Within a few hours I got a message letting me know I got cash back.

Pros:

Low effort way to get cash back

Cons:

None

✨Lauralynn Stubler✨
That's awesome to hear Faisal! Thanks for joining our beta - you rock! 👊
Michael Burkett

It's really amazing to watch money that banks took for fees fly back into your account.

Pros:

Super easy to use, just sit back and fee fighter does all the work

Cons:

Only available for a few banks, they dont support bank of america yet

Can Ipekci

At first I was hesitant about connecting my bank account to a startup, but then AMEX decided to charge me $99 for one of my cards. So I signed up and I've been happy with it so far.

Pros:

It got back a nice chunk of cash for me (over $150 by now I belive)

Cons:

Needs more banks

Israel Vicars
My SO was invited to participate in the private beta, and I can confirm that the service just works. We've gotten fees back from Chase. We're looking forward to our bank being supported too. Thanks so much Cusion!
✨Lauralynn Stubler✨
@israelvicars You're welcome Isreal! Happy to hear your SO got some money back!
Paige Sandhu

I'm incredibly cautious when it comes to apps/services connecting with my bank and credit cards (my father's owned an ATM hardware and SaaS company for 30+ years). However, when I saw the ads for Cushion on Facebook, I had to try it out. Student loans, multiple moves around the Bay Area, and a couple credit cards later, I knew I had some random interest charges hidden throughout my history.

I got access to their beta back in January and connected Cushion to my least used Chase card to test it out. Onboarding was a breeze, and before I knew it, Cushion was already fighting $37 in fees! I didn't even know about those fees!

So far, I've connected it with the rest of my Chase accounts, and looking forward to when I can connect Cushion to my actual bank account to fight overdraft charges (darn you, BofA)!

Pros:

fights hidden fees, constantly checks for hidden fees, all done through Facebook Messenger

Cons:

waiting on that bank account connection! :)

Gil Allouche

All I had to do is connect my American Express card and within 1/2 an hour I got $170. Pretty incredible

Pros:

Saved me $170 in 30min

Cons:

None

max mackey

This team is hungry works super fast. Paul used my Chase account to debug a few issues with the legacy chase UI and was able to help me get $$ back.

Pros:

Free Money!

Cons:

None

Logan Johnston

I've been on the beta and was astounded by how easy it was to save money.

Pros:

Easiest way to save more money.

Cons:

I guess you might prefer to visit the bank and whine at the teller.

Logan Johnston
Right on Cushion team! Storytime: I was lucky enough to get access to the beta and it was so easy to set up. I chatted with the bot and got like 4 dollars back in back fees and then forgot about it... A few weeks later while I was traveling abroad, I got a message from the Cushion bot about some additional travel-related bank fees. I tapped the "Yes, fight my fees" button and later that day I had nearly $100 come back to my account! I didn't even know. It was so easy. This is the way that technology SHOULD work. Question: The branding is super sweet and lovable. What's the story behind the adorable robo-mascot?
✨Lauralynn Stubler✨
@mylo_does Hey Logan, I love this story! I'll let @thepaulk talk to the inspiration for the bot!
Paul Kesserwani
@mylo_does @lauralynnz At Cushion, we are all about comfort - as the company name implies. We want to help our users build their financial cushion, and we want them to rest easy knowing that our service has their back. From the get go it was important for us to use welcoming colors and a mascot that was so cute our users would look forward to hearing news about their finances. We found the perfect designer on 99designs.com... and after a few iterations we knew that our mascot (Fee Fighter) would be a hit. Plus, his outfits are hilarious! Thanks for liking our mascot as much as we do!
Jorge Soto
I used to work with the CEO Paul at Twitter and can’t wait to use the product!
✨Lauralynn Stubler✨
@sotoventures Thanks Jorge, we're looking forward to seeing how much money we can get back for you!
Trent Bigelow
This is seriously cool!
✨Lauralynn Stubler✨
@trentbigelow Thanks Trent! 😍
Jake Gibson
Which banks do you guys work with?
Paul Kesserwani
@iamjakestream Thanks for the question Jake! Since we built brand new tech that enables our bot (Fee Fighter) to negotiate with banks, we've been rolling it out one bank at a time. The first two banks that we support are Chase and American Express. Next up is Wells Fargo - which will be available in the coming days. After that, we plan to support that top 10-15 U.S. banks.
Sebastian Heyneman
@thepaulk Is there somewhere we can subscribe if we want to get notified when our particular bank rolls out?
✨Lauralynn Stubler✨
@thepaulk @sebastianhwells Hey Sebastian! I recommend just joining the waitlist at www.cushion.ai and we're notifying everyone as we build out for more banks.
Nawar Nory

I've seen the team of cushion working on this problem and building the complex technology behind it, leveraging every knowledge out there and diving deep into security, machine learning and data nuances just to make sure the solution as efficient as possible and work as expected. I'm glad it is paying off now and we get to see the chat bot magically fights off our bank fees.

Pros:

Concierge bot, innovative idea

Cons:

-----

Vittorio Banfi
Pros: You will get back money from your bank, automatically! It's almost magical Cos: Could not find any
✨Lauralynn Stubler✨
@vittorio_banfi Ha ha ha! Thanks Vittorio! There's never a downside to extra cash in your pocket!
Lyle McKeany
I've been on the beta for Cushion for awhile now. At first it didn't do much since I didn't have many fees at all. But when my wife and I wrapped up our kitchen project and had to carry a balance for awhile on our Chase card and we got hit with interest charges. Miraculously, Cushion got our $100+ interest charge back after pestering the bank on our behalf. It worked amazingly well and we didn't have to do anything to make it happen. Now it's fighting a Wells Fargo charge. Hoping to get some cash back from them since they've charged me plenty over the 20+ years I've banked with them. :)
✨Lauralynn Stubler✨
@lylemckeany Thanks for joining our beta! Glad to hear you got some money back through Chase and we're stoked to see what we can get you from WF!