In March 2022 we launched our Beta app. Here’s a preview of what makes it different.
Building a better way to manage your subscriptions started over twelve years ago, when I was part of the original team that built the first virtual card that was used to help businesses track and reconcile hotel expenses at Barclaycard.co.uk
Virtual cards were pretty novel when it launched. For the first time, businesses could easily pay and reconcile hotel expenses automatically, they no longer had to use the hotel bill back option or employ hundreds of administrative staff to manually reconcile hotel expenses. For many businesses, this was transformative.
As one of the first product managers on the Barclaycard team, I would often have conversations with myself about virtual cards and how they could be used across other areas of finance focused on giving consumers better control of their money.
Fast forward 10 years later and the moment became apparent when I fell into a subscription trap. I subscribed for a free trial and totally forgot about the subscription. 1 year later I was hit with a £60 charge and tried to cancel the service. It was one of the most stressful processes, but I believed the service was cancelled.
To my surprise, 1 year later I got charged £60 again and thought there has to be a better way to manage subscriptions. This led to the three fundamental thoughts:
- Managing your money should be stress-free
- Using the right payment tool and software can significantly reduce financial stress and increase a sense of control
- Better control will give the freedom to trial new services as ultimately subscriptions can save you money
Introducing the next phase of personal finance technology
The US is more advanced in leveraging data and new technology to improve Financial power. Mint was one of the first finance software providers that leveraged data to give consumers better insight into their finances. Mint was acquired by Intuit in 2010, just 2 years after its launch.
5 years ago in the UK, we saw the emergence of personal finance software companies like money hub who were able to leverage open banking data to help people manage their finances through their app and connect them with products that can save them money.
Despite this rapid increase of Fintech focused on using technology in personal finance, there has not been any real innovation that radically attempts to give people better control of their finance at the inception. Why wait for people to fall off the cliff and offer them help when you can prevent them from falling in the first place?
Personal finance technology can and should do more. After being frustrated through my experience with the subscription trap and doing research that identified I was not alone, I decided to do something about it and started a new company named ScribePay.
For the past 18 months, our passionate team has been hard at work building the best financial platform to track, manage and pay for subscriptions. While ScribePay will of course help you with all of the personal finance “basics” you’ve come to expect—services like account aggregation through open banking, budgeting, and subscription categorisation—what is exciting about ScribePay is what makes us different.
Here is a preview of just a few things that make our product transformative:
ScribePay automatically track your subscriptions
Every subscription has a free trial- 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, and 1 year. The idea is to get people to trial services first and keep the service at a reasonable monthly recurring fee. The majority of these free trials need your card detail as part of any setup and this is where most people lose control. Studies show around £1 billion is lost in forgotten subscriptions and the majority is through free trials.
With this in mind, we’ve built ScribePay to help you automatically track any subscription the minute you opt-in. We know it is a 7-day or 1-year trial and send you a reminder a few days before the trial is due to expire so you don’t forget your upcoming commitments or cancel before you are hit with a charge.
ScribePay gives you control of your money.
Automatically tracking subscriptions and getting a reminder before being charged is great. However, what if you tried to cancel the subscription but you are unable to because the merchant’s cancellation button is not working or you got confirmation it’s cancelled but have a sneaky feeling it’s not; does this mean the merchant can still take money from your account without your permission?
With your ScribePay instant virtual card, you make the ultimate decision in the moment who takes money out of your account. For the first time, you’ll have the ability to approve or decline free trials turning into auto-renewals, subscription price increases, and stop subscriptions in two clicks—so you can change what’s not working, and do more of what’s serving you well.
ScribePay gives you the freedom to trial new services
Once you have better control of your money, the freedom to try new services is a given. Talking from personal experience, I have been holding off subscribing to certain services simply because I knew I would forget. With the ScribePay Virtual card and app, I have opted in for more services and to my surprise, some have become a constant favourite.
Manage your subscriptions from one app.
Say goodbye to forgotten missed trials, missed payments and unwanted charges.
Manage your subscriptions from one app.
Say goodbye to forgotten missed trials, missed payments and unwanted charges.
So why do we charge a fee for our app?
Our mission at ScribePay is to breathe a new approach to opting in and out of subscription services, so you can manage your money in a better way.
We feel strongly that the best way to do that is through a subscription-based business model. This may seem unconventional in an era where most personal finance technology products are “free” and supported by advertisers. However, charging a subscription aligns our incentives with yours and enables us to exclusively focus on giving you control and improving your financial life, rather than catering to the needs of advertisers.
ScribePay launched our premium beta app in March. You can download the app on IOS and Android. We believe it’s the best financial platform to track, manage and pay for subscriptions. The Premium version is priced at £4.99 per month. You get a dedicated e-money wallet, an instant virtual card to pay for your subscriptions, and automatically control your money.
