App Profile: Hiatus - Subscriptions & Bills

tracileabee

Rating: 5/5

First, yes, negotiating your various bills and subscription rates down is something really anyone can/could do for oneself & all the personal financial advice people will tell you to do so. But it is somewhat easier said than done and I really hate trying to navigate customer service phone bank hell. I also work long hours, at night, and am unable to make personal calls at work so finding time to do this for myself is also a pain. So anyhow, I downloaded the app right before I went to sleep and within a few hours I woke up to 3 notifications that they’d found savings of just under $1000 for me over the course of a year. So, yeah, super!! Ummm, yes, they make money by charging you 50% of the amount saved - it’s disclosed right there in black & white, plain English, so I don’t know how people are surprised or somehow don’t understand how it works. Of course I do wish it were a smaller percentage cut but I’m still saving a decent amount over time. Also, I’ve verified savings with all 3 accounts (AT&T UVerse, Verizon, SiriusXM). Thanks y’all!

AngM627

Rating: 1/5

After downloading Hiatus I didn’t hear anything for a while. Then I got a message that they saved me $30 a month on my AT&T bill - $360 a year. And they were taking half of it now ($180). That was cool - but I didn’t realize they took it immediately. I went to look at my phone bill when it updated and it was $20 more than it had been. After messaging them they said that sometimes the companies aren’t honest and they end up charging more. After waiting several days I was informed that they made my Apple Watch a separate line which is what caused the rate increase. One of the people from Hiatus told me this was being taken care of. I asked, and there is no $30 a month savings now and I’m not eligible for any other savings at this time. Oh, and my $180 would take 7-10 days to be refunded. So, I’m down $180 for 7-10 more days, my cell phone bill won’t be fixed until April, so I’m down $20 for another month, and, the icing on the cake was that when I contacted AT&T to verify that they’d corrected my account they actually hadn’t and I had to wait on hold for several minutes to correct their mistake. I immediately deleted my account. I wouldn’t trust this app, but if you do, make sure to keep an eye on everything. My accounts will eventually even put but to have something like this happen, and only be fixed because I was watching like a hawk is unforgivable. They get a free $180 loan from me for about a month. Can I charge interest?

HelpingHound

Rating: 5/5

I downloaded the app and requested a negotiation to lower my cell phone bill. Then I completely forgot about it. I get a text this morning asking if I’d like to save money on my cell phone bill. I said of course! Well Hiatus negotiated a credit and a significant cut in my phone costs. They saved me $70 or so dollars a month and the credit I received is going to mostly cover the next bill! This is the important part I learned today. The first negotiation is free. The fee is $7 to $10 a month depending on the plan you choose. This cell phone bill was my first negotiation request. I keep the entire credit. Hiatus will receive 50% of all future savings from successful negations. If this cell phone bill negotiation hadn’t been my first free negotiation and Hiatus had taken 50% of my savings I would still have come out ahead because my future bills have been so drastically reduced. Make sure what you are going to pay a bill negotiator makes sense for your situation. Your paying someone to do the talking to save you money. If someone offered to do that for free I would be suspicious. The app. It’s useful, uncomplicated, shows me banking activity at a glance but not in great detail. The categories don’t always make sense for my spending but the numbers are correct so I’m happy. Over all very satisfied with the service even if the fee structure isn’t as clear as it could be.