ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Twenty-six percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck in the US today, and according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, there are now more than 20,000 payday lenders across the country. But some new pay options are letting workers access their money faster than your average two week pay period.
In the world of ride-sharing, same day payouts to the drivers have become an industry standard. Both Lyft and Uber offer the option of cashing out immediately instead of waiting for their weekly payday.
The New York company DailyPay, lets workers collect their earnings faster for fees around one dollar per day, and has enrolled thousands of clients so far.
A San Jose start up called PayActiv, uses employers wage and hour information to estimate their earnings. For a fee of five dollars per transaction, of which a company could pay half as courtesy to its workers, pay-active advances the cash.
Activehours in California offers an app that lets hourly workers snap photos of their time sheets and cash their wages in advance. Then on payday, it withdraws the money from the workers’ checking accounts.
And FlexWage, out of New Jersey, is a pay card that also advances part of employee’s unearned wages, but it pulls cash directly from the employer to fund the transactions.
Almost all fast-cash borrowing options have service fees. Depending on which you choose, the fees can be steeper than credit cards. But these costs can be lower than bank overdrafts and payday loans. Having more options, is always a plus.
Contributors to this news report include: Gabriella Battistiol, Producer; Roque Correa, Videographer and Editor.
