diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ed55b2b..6d3e94c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 # xhr
 
-[![Join the chat at https://gitter.im/naugtur-xhr/Lobby](https://badges.gitter.im/naugtur-xhr/Lobby.svg)](https://gitter.im/naugtur-xhr/Lobby?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge)
-
-
+> Originally forked from [naugtur/xhr](https://github.com/naugtur/xhr).
 
 A small XMLHttpRequest wrapper. Designed for use with [browserify](http://browserify.org/), [webpack](https://webpack.github.io/) etc.
 
@@ -76,6 +74,8 @@ the returned object is either an [`XMLHttpRequest`][3] instance
     or an [`XDomainRequest`][4] instance (if on IE8/IE9 &&
     `options.useXDR` is set to `true`)
 
+### XhrCallback
+
 Your callback will be called once with the arguments
     ( [`Error`][5], `response` , `body` ) where the response is an object:
 ```js
@@ -202,6 +202,52 @@ A function being called right before the `send` method of the `XMLHttpRequest` o
 
 Pass an `XMLHttpRequest` object (or something that acts like one) to use instead of constructing a new one using the `XMLHttpRequest` or `XDomainRequest` constructors. Useful for testing.
 
+## Helpers
+
+This module exposes the following helpers on the `xhr` object.
+
+### `xhr.httpHandler(callback, decodeResponseBody) => XhrCallback`
+
+`httpHandler` is a wrapper for the [XhrCallback][] which returns an error for HTTP Status Codes 4xx and 5xx. Given a callback, it'll either return an error with the response body as the error's cause, or return the response body.
+
+Usage like so:
+```js
+xhr({
+    uri: "https://example.com/foo",
+    responseType: 'arraybuffer'
+}, xhr.httpHandler(function(err, responseBody) {
+
+  // we got an error if the XHR errored out or if the status code was 4xx/5xx
+  if (err) {
+    // error cause is coming soon to JavaScript https://github.com/tc39/proposal-error-cause
+    throw new Error(err, {cause: err.cause});
+  }
+
+  // this will log an ArrayBuffer
+  console.log(responseBody);
+});
+```
+
+```js
+xhr({
+    uri: "https://example.com/foo",
+    responseType: 'arraybuffer'
+}, xhr.httpHandler(function(err, responseBody) {
+
+  if (err) {
+    throw new Error(err, {cause: err.cause});
+  }
+
+  // in this case, responseBody will be a String
+  console.log(responseBody);
+},
+
+// passing true as the second argument will cause httpHandler try and decode the response body into a string
+true)
+```
+
+
+
 ## FAQ
 
 - Why is my server's JSON response not parsed? I returned the right content-type.
diff --git a/http-handler.js b/http-handler.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6255b27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/http-handler.js
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+var window = require('global/window');
+
+const httpResponseHandler = (callback, decodeResponseBody = false) => (err, response, responseBody) => {
+  // if the XHR failed, return that error
+  if (err) {
+    callback(err);
+    return;
+  }
+
+  // if the HTTP status code is 4xx or 5xx, the request also failed
+  if (response.statusCode >= 400 && response.statusCode <= 599) {
+    let cause = responseBody;
+
+    if (decodeResponseBody) {
+      if (window.TextDecoder) {
+        const charset = getCharset(response.headers && response.headers['content-type']);
+
+        try {
+          cause = new TextDecoder(charset).decode(responseBody);
+        } catch (e) {
+        }
+      } else {
+        cause = String.fromCharCode.apply(null, new Uint8Array(responseBody));
+      }
+    }
+
+    callback({cause});
+    return;
+  }
+
+  // otherwise, request succeeded
+  callback(null, responseBody);
+};
+
+function getCharset(contentTypeHeader = '') {
+  return contentTypeHeader
+    .toLowerCase()
+    .split(';')
+    .reduce((charset, contentType) => {
+      const [type, value] = contentType.split('=');
+
+      if (type.trim() === 'charset') {
+        return value.trim();
+      }
+
+      return charset;
+    }, 'utf-8');
+}
+
+module.exports = httpResponseHandler;
diff --git a/index.d.ts b/index.d.ts
index 0de08c2..812d756 100644
--- a/index.d.ts
+++ b/index.d.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+export type BodyCallback = (
+  error: Error,
+  body: any
+) => void;
+
+export type HttpResponseHandler = (
+  callback: BodyCallback,
+  decodeResponseBody: boolean
+) => XhrCallback;
+
 export type XhrCallback = (
   error: Error,
   response: XhrResponse,
diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index e2ca108..7382544 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ var window = require("global/window")
 var _extends = require("@babel/runtime/helpers/extends");
 var isFunction = require('is-function');
 
+createXHR.httpHandler = require('./http-handler.js');
+
 /**
  * @license
  * slighly modified parse-headers 2.0.2 <https://github.com/kesla/parse-headers/>
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 038a4f3..30bd01e 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -38,7 +38,9 @@
   },
   "license": "MIT",
   "scripts": {
-    "test": "run-browser test/index.js -b -m test/mock-server.js | tap-spec",
+    "test:index": "run-browser test/index.js -b -m test/mock-server.js | tap-spec",
+    "test:http-handler": "run-browser test/http-handler.js -b -m test/mock-server.js | tap-spec",
+    "test": "npm run test:index && npm run test:http-handler",
     "browser": "run-browser -m test/mock-server.js test/index.js"
   }
 }
diff --git a/test/http-handler.js b/test/http-handler.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..357e41d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/http-handler.js
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+var window = require("global/window")
+var test = require("tape")
+var forEach = require("for-each")
+
+var httpHandler = require("../http-handler.js")
+
+function toArrayBuffer(item) {
+  const buffer = new ArrayBuffer(item.length);
+  const bufferView = new Uint8Array(buffer);
+
+  for (let i = 0; i < item.length; i++) {
+    bufferView[i] = item.charCodeAt(i);
+  }
+  return buffer;
+}
+
+test('httpHandler takes a callback and returns a method of arity 3', function(assert) {
+  const xhrHandler = httpHandler(() => {});
+
+  assert.equal(xhrHandler.length, 3);
+  assert.end();
+});
+
+
+test('httpHandler returns responseBody to callback if no error and success http status code', function(assert) {
+  const xhrHandler = httpHandler((err, body) => {
+    assert.equal(body, 'hello');
+  });
+
+  xhrHandler(null, { statusCode: 200 }, 'hello');
+  assert.end();
+});
+
+test('httpHandler passes error to callback', function(assert) {
+  const error = new Error('the error');
+
+  const xhrHandler = httpHandler((err, body) => {
+    assert.equal(err, error);
+  });
+
+  xhrHandler(error, null, 'hello');
+  assert.end();
+});
+
+test('httpHandler passes error to callback', function(assert) {
+  const error = new Error('the error');
+
+  const xhrHandler = httpHandler((err, body) => {
+    assert.equal(err, error);
+  });
+
+  xhrHandler(error, null, 'hello');
+  assert.end();
+});
+
+test('httpHandler returns responseBody as cause for 4xx/5xx responses', function(assert) {
+  const xhrHandler = httpHandler((err, body) => {
+    assert.equal(err.cause, "can't touch this");
+  });
+
+  xhrHandler(null, { statusCode: 403 }, "can't touch this");
+  xhrHandler(null, { statusCode: 504 }, "can't touch this");
+  assert.end();
+});
+
+test('httpHandler decodes responseBody using TextDecoder for 4xx/5xx responses', function(assert) {
+  const xhrHandler = httpHandler((err, body) => {
+    assert.equal(err.cause, "can't touch this");
+  }, true);
+
+  xhrHandler(null, { statusCode: 403 }, toArrayBuffer("can't touch this"));
+  xhrHandler(null, { statusCode: 504 }, toArrayBuffer("can't touch this"));
+  assert.end();
+});
+
+test('httpHandler decodes responseBody using TextDecoder for 4xx/5xx responses', function(assert) {
+  let xhrHandler = httpHandler((err, body) => {
+    assert.equal(err.cause, "");
+  }, true);
+
+  xhrHandler(null, { statusCode: 403 }, toArrayBuffer(""));
+
+  xhrHandler = httpHandler((err, body) => {
+    assert.equal(err.cause, null);
+  }, true);
+  xhrHandler(null, { statusCode: 504 }, null);
+  assert.end();
+});
+
+test('httpHandler decodes responseBody using fromCharCode if TextDecoder is unavailable for 4xx/5xx responses', function(assert) {
+  const TextDecoder = window.TextDecoder;
+
+  window.TextDecoder = null;
+
+  const xhrHandler = httpHandler((err, body) => {
+    assert.equal(err.cause, "can't touch this");
+  }, true);
+
+  xhrHandler(null, { statusCode: 403 }, toArrayBuffer("can't touch this"));
+  xhrHandler(null, { statusCode: 504 }, toArrayBuffer("can't touch this"));
+
+  window.TextDecoder = TextDecoder;
+  assert.end();
+});
diff --git a/test/index.js b/test/index.js
index d8d1e68..df02fc7 100644
--- a/test/index.js
+++ b/test/index.js
@@ -376,3 +376,8 @@ test("XHR can be overridden", { timeout: 500 }, function(assert) {
     assert.equal(xdrs, 1, "created the custom XDR")
     assert.end()
 })
+
+test('httpHandler is available on XHR', function(assert) {
+  assert.ok(xhr.httpHandler)
+  assert.end();
+});