About
Cushion was a pioneering AI-powered personal finance app that leveled the playing field between everyday consumers and a complex, costly financial system. Founded in 2016 by Paul Kesserwani, the company started by deploying AI bots to negotiate bank fee waivers with human bank agents at scale — helping users reclaim overdraft, late, and service fees they didn't know they could dispute. Over time, Cushion expanded its scope dramatically. Recognizing that Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) was quietly becoming infrastructure for everyday spending, Cushion's ML team spent two years building a first-of-its-kind BNPL data layer. By parsing 30 million emails, they reconstructed over $300 million in fragmented loan data scattered across providers like Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay — giving consumers a unified view of their BNPL obligations for the first time. The platform also tracked subscriptions, utilities, free trials, and SKU-level purchase data mined from inbox receipts. With a 4.8-star rating across ~3,000 reviews, $21M raised, and over 1 million consumers onboarded, Cushion became one of the most impactful consumer fintech tools of its era. In April 2025, Cushion was acquired by LendingClub, marking the end of its independent operation. Its technology and data infrastructure continue to inform AI-driven financial services.
Key Features
- AI Bank Fee Negotiation: Deployed AI bots to negotiate fee waivers (overdraft, late fees, service charges) with bank agents on behalf of users, recovering $15M+ in fees across all major U.S. banks.
- BNPL Loan Aggregation: Parsed email inboxes to extract and consolidate Buy Now Pay Later loan data from providers like Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay into a single unified dashboard.
- Inbox-Powered Financial Intelligence: Built proprietary ML infrastructure that processed 30M+ emails to reconstruct $300M+ in loans, subscriptions, utility bills, and purchase-level spending data.
- Subscription & Bill Tracking: Automatically identified recurring charges, free trials, and subscription renewals from email receipts, helping users avoid unwanted charges.
- Transaction Analysis at Scale: Analyzed over $1.46 trillion in transactions to surface spending patterns and financial risks for more than one million consumers.
Use Cases
- A consumer who frequently incurs bank overdraft fees uses Cushion to automatically negotiate refunds without calling their bank.
- A shopper juggling loans across Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay uses Cushion to see all upcoming BNPL payments in one place and avoid missed payments.
- A budget-conscious user connects their inbox to Cushion to identify forgotten subscriptions and free trials about to convert to paid plans.
- A fintech researcher or LendingClub analyst leverages Cushion's structured BNPL data layer to understand consumer borrowing behavior at scale.
- An everyday user overwhelmed by their financial situation uses Cushion's automated tools to reclaim fees and organize debt without needing financial expertise.
Pros
- Automated Fee Recovery: Handled the entire bank fee negotiation process automatically, removing the burden of calling banks and allowing users to recover money with no effort.
- First-of-Its-Kind BNPL Visibility: Provided the only unified view of BNPL loans across multiple providers, solving a fragmentation problem no other app addressed.
- High User Satisfaction: Maintained a 4.8-star average rating across nearly 3,000 reviews, reflecting genuine consumer value and ease of use.
Cons
- No Longer Independently Available: Cushion was acquired by LendingClub in April 2025 and ceased operating as a standalone consumer product, so new users cannot sign up.
- Required Email Access: Core features like BNPL tracking depended on connecting and parsing users' email inboxes, which raised privacy considerations for some users.
- Limited to U.S. Market: Bank fee negotiation and BNPL coverage was focused on U.S. financial institutions and providers, limiting utility for international users.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to Cushion?
Cushion was acquired by LendingClub in April 2025 after nine years as an independent fintech startup. The app is no longer available as a standalone consumer product.
How did Cushion negotiate bank fees?
Cushion used AI-powered bots to contact bank customer service agents on behalf of users and request waivers for fees like overdrafts, late fees, and monthly service charges — all without the user having to call the bank themselves.
How did Cushion track Buy Now Pay Later loans?
Cushion's ML system parsed users' email inboxes to find confirmation and payment reminder emails from BNPL providers like Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay, then reconstructed the full loan details into a single structured dashboard.
Was Cushion safe to use with my email and bank data?
Cushion used read-only access to email and linked financial accounts. The company raised $21M from institutional investors and maintained strong app store ratings, suggesting a track record of responsible data handling, though users were required to grant email inbox permissions.
How much money did Cushion recover for users?
Cushion recovered more than $15 million in bank fees for its users over its lifetime, analyzing over $1.46 trillion in transactions across more than one million consumer accounts.
