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Today, I may have ended my career.
At a time I am heads-down raising our Series B, I did something some people will consider adversarial: I wrote directly to the leaders of America’s biggest banks.
Why?
I was looking through data from the hundreds of thousands of people who have downloaded Relief and engaged with our platform, and what I saw made me sick to my stomach.
Falling behind has become a business model.
Americans have paid billions of dollars a year in credit-card late fees alone. And the people paying those fees are, by definition, often the people already struggling to keep up.
There’s something fundamentally backwards about that.
Relief exists to help people understand their debt, protect themselves, reduce what they owe, and ultimately resolve it. And as we grow, we’re increasingly helping money flow back to creditors that might otherwise have gone uncollected.
So this isn’t an anti-bank letter.
It’s an argument that there is a better model.
Give some of that late-fee economics back to consumers. Give people who are struggling a little breathing room. That money doesn’t disappear. It gets spent on groceries, rent, childcare, transportation, local businesses, and eventually back into the economy.
Banks might make a little less on certain fees in the short term. But healthier consumers are better customers, and a healthier consumer economy is better for everyone.
As Relief becomes larger, I want to make sure we never forget whose side we are supposed to be on.
It’s not always about extracting the maximum dollar.
It’s about treating people like human beings.
And, at the very least, making sure the financial system doesn’t make a difficult moment in someone’s life even harder.
At a time I am heads-down raising our Series B, I did something some people will consider adversarial: I wrote directly to the leaders of America’s biggest banks.
Why?
I was looking through data from the hundreds of thousands of people who have downloaded Relief and engaged with our platform, and what I saw made me sick to my stomach.
Falling behind has become a business model.
Americans have paid billions of dollars a year in credit-card late fees alone. And the people paying those fees are, by definition, often the people already struggling to keep up.
There’s something fundamentally backwards about that.
Relief exists to help people understand their debt, protect themselves, reduce what they owe, and ultimately resolve it. And as we grow, we’re increasingly helping money flow back to creditors that might otherwise have gone uncollected.
So this isn’t an anti-bank letter.
It’s an argument that there is a better model.
Give some of that late-fee economics back to consumers. Give people who are struggling a little breathing room. That money doesn’t disappear. It gets spent on groceries, rent, childcare, transportation, local businesses, and eventually back into the economy.
Banks might make a little less on certain fees in the short term. But healthier consumers are better customers, and a healthier consumer economy is better for everyone.
As Relief becomes larger, I want to make sure we never forget whose side we are supposed to be on.
It’s not always about extracting the maximum dollar.
It’s about treating people like human beings.
And, at the very least, making sure the financial system doesn’t make a difficult moment in someone’s life even harder.
