BillFixers is an American company that negotiates with

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

s, and cell and landline companies on behalf of consumers or businesses. It was founded in July 2014 by brothers Ben and Julian Kurland with the goal of lowering household monthly bills from telecommunications service providers. BillFixers is an expert as a service (ExaaS) or justice-as-a-service company, which optimizes on work that feels menial to individual consumers. As of February 2020, BillFixers has over 25,000 clients and claims a combined savings of over $5,000,000. BillFixers was acquired by

Experian Experian is an American–Irish multinational data analytics and consumer credit reporting company. Experian collects and aggregates information on over 1 billion people and businesses including 235 million individual U.S. consumers and more t ...

in April 2022.

History

Ben and Julian Kurland founded the company in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

, in July, 2014. Later that year, a customer service call between

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

and tech entrepreneur/journalist

Ryan Block Ryan Block (born June 25, 1982) is a San Francisco-based technology entrepreneur. He was the editor-in-chief of AOL’s Engadget before he co-founded the community site gdgt. With gdgt's sale to AOL in 2013, he returned to the company and heade ...

went viral. The Kurlands posted on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

about their speciality in haggling with Comcast and thus received their first customers. In the first year, the Kurlands and their cousin Peter Zimbicki were the sole negotiators. By 2016, the business had grown to over 1,200 clients and was featured on '' NBC Nightly News'' and in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. On April 1, 2022, BillFixers was acquired by Experian Consumer Services.

Services

BillFixers works primarily on TV, internet, and phone bills, although their services may extend to

satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a ''broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than ter ...

, home security, and

propane Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used a ...

bills. They claim a 95% success rate and average savings of $300 per bill.

How it works

The service operates by hiring experts to negotiate on behalf of consumers. When a client submits their bill, BillFixers calls the provider (like

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

) to seek a lowered rate. Their success is due to industry know-how and expertise on promotional and custom deals. The business generates revenue on a contingency basis, meaning payment is reliant on customer's savings.

Reception

BillFixers was praised by

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

as an "ingenious idea", and a CNET review reports 100% satisfaction. In September 2015, BillFixers was nominated as the Small Business Innovator of the Year by ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

''. A 2016 article in ''

'' questioned the legality of negotiators representing themselves as clients, but found no violation. BillFixers has also received positive feedback from My Money Blog and Debt Departure.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://billfixers.com Financial services companies established in 2014 American companies established in 2014 Companies based in Nashville, Tennessee Finance websites Online financial services companies of the United States