Eliminating Bank Disconnections: A technical UX solution that cut costs by 66%
How smart duplicate prevention solved customer churn while saving $1,000+ monthly
87% reduction in duplicate connection attempts (8 → 1 monthly events)
66% reduction in total Plaid costs ($1,493 → $510 monthly)
93% reduction in balance API calls (12,918 → 800 monthly)
The Crisis
Fincent faced a critical retention problem: 56.2 monthly bank disconnections were driving customer churn. Customer Success identified frequent disconnections as a primary reason customers left the platform.
Root cause analysis revealed:
1,128 duplicate bank connections cluttering the system
2.79 average duplicates per company
Major institutions (Chase, Bank of America, American Express) most affected
$1,493 monthly Plaid API costs from unnecessary balance calls
The Technical Challenge
Plaid API Constraints:
Duplicate connections had to be managed at Plaid's end, not just our database
Users could inadvertently create multiple connections for the same institution
No native duplicate prevention in existing flow
Balance API calls ($0.08 each) triggered on every transaction regardless of user activity
Business Impact:
Customer frustration with cluttered account lists
Support overhead from connection issues
Unsustainable operational costs scaling with user growth
The Solution
Dual-pronged approach addressing UX and technical efficiency:
1. Smart Duplicate Prevention
Added connection detection before account setup
Implemented warning dialogs to guide users to existing connections
Created account deletion flow with proper Plaid cleanup
2. API Cost Optimization
Changed balance fetching from "every transaction" to "user login only"
Reduced API calls from 12,918/month to ~800/month
Added bookkeeper-specific balance refresh controls
Implementation
Timeline: Sept 2024 → Dec 2024 (3 months)
Key Features:
Account selection interface preventing duplicates
Confirmation dialogs for account disconnection
Optimized balance fetching triggered by user activity, not transactions
Result
Customer Experience Impact
87% reduction in duplicate connection attempts (8 → 1 monthly events)
Eliminated customer churn from disconnection issues
Streamlined bank account management experience
Cost Impact
66% reduction in total Plaid costs ($1,493 → $510 monthly)
93% reduction in balance API calls (12,918 → 800 monthly)
$12,000+ annual savings in operational costs
Technical Impact
1,128 duplicate connections cleaned up
Sustainable scaling of Plaid integration costs
Improved system reliability with proper connection management
Key Insights
Low-effort, high-impact intervention: Simple UX friction points prevented expensive technical problems downstream.
User education over restriction: Warning dialogs informed users without blocking legitimate use cases.
Operational efficiency: Solving the UX problem simultaneously addressed a major cost center.
Conclusion
This project demonstrates how thoughtful UX intervention can solve multiple business problems simultaneously. By understanding the root cause of customer frustration, we eliminated a major churn driver while cutting operational costs by two-thirds.
The result: Happier customers, cleaner data, and sustainable unit economics.