Pricing
Ember Bank is a US digital consumer bank whose paid subscription tier, Ember Plus, has stopped growing and started losing money on its most engaged subscribers.
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Ember, Inc. (operating as Ember Bank) is a US digital consumer bank founded in 2019. It has 2.4 million active checking and savings customers, roughly $10.2 billion of deposits, and annual revenue of about $180 million, generated mostly from interchange on card spend and net interest margin. In January 2025, Ember launched Ember Plus, a paid subscription tier at $5.99 per month offering 4.00% APY on savings balances up to $25,000 (versus 2.00% on the free tier), 1.50% cashback on card purchases (versus 0.50%), and a small set of perks such as fee-free overdraft up to $50 and priority support.
Eighteen months later, 385,000 customers (16% of the base) subscribe, generating roughly $27.7 million of annual subscription fees. But the numbers have turned. Gross monthly adds have fallen from about 27,000 to 9,500, monthly churn has climbed from about 1.5% to 2.3%, and net adds are now below 1,000 a month. Most worrying for the CFO: subscription contribution has stopped growing even though the subscriber count is still edging up. The pricing team has flagged something odd: average cashback paid per subscriber keeps climbing month after month even though the subscription fee has never changed and average card spend per subscriber has been roughly flat.
The leadership team is split. The CMO argues Ember is being undercut by a cheaper rival and wants to cut the price to $4.49. The CFO argues Ember should raise the fee to $8.99 and add perks to fund the roadmap. The head of product insists the most engaged subscribers are the ones who drive the bank's net promoter score and must not be alienated. The board has asked the pricing team to resolve the dispute with a data-backed recommendation: should Ember keep one tier, cut price, raise price, or restructure entirely? The key decision is which pricing architecture maximizes long-run subscriber contribution without destroying the deposit and engagement value those subscribers bring.
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