Bills manager Little Birdie taps Bud for open banking

Little Birdie aims to help you tackle the rising costs of subscriptions with the help of open banking.

Recently-launched subscription manager Little Birdie has signed a partnership with open banking provider Bud to better identify the kinds of bills people are looking to cut.

Bud will provide data aggregation, categorisation and payments for Little Birdie, letting users connect their bank accounts via open banking and drill down into the data.

Little Birdie in turn uses its algorithms to remind users when payments are due, when free trials are coming to an end, when prices rise, and identifies better deals for them to switch to.

It also has a 'Click to Cancel’ feature, which lets people cancel subscriptions directly with almost 400 providers, including Spotify and Disney+, directly in the app, with more available in the coming months.

To date, Little Birdie has raised £500,000, with a future funding round planned for Q1 2023.

“Little Birdie [is] using Bud's transaction intelligence to underpin their ability to accurately identify subscriptions, regular payments and other key transactions in order to help customers engage with their finances,” said Bud CEO and founder Edward Maslaveckas.

Little Birdie is hoping to attract users who are questioning the subscription services they signed up to during the pandemic amid the cost of living crisis.

It claims 32 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds regret buying subscriptions during the pandemic, while 41 per cent fear these regular subscription payments could push them into debt, according to Opinium research.

With the cost of living crisis pushing household budgets to breaking point, people are desperate for a simple solution which gives them more control over their finances,” said Martin Bould, co-founder of Little Birdie. 

“Our partnership with Bud allows users to connect the Little Birdie app directly and securely to their bank accounts using open banking – seamlessly allowing us to identify all their regular payments – and manage their subscriptions in one place.”