Published 06-06-2019
| Article appears in June 2019 Issue

FINANCIAL WELLNESS APP AIMS TO BANISH PAYDAY LOANS

04-06-2019

A novel Silicon Valley financial technology product has been launched in Australia following huge success in the USA. PayActiv is a mobile app based “financial wellness” product that gives employees immediate access to earned-but-unpaid wages, helping them to avoid financial stress.

Working on the basis that a workforce with reduced financial stress is a more productive workforce, any employer can sign up for PayActiv free of charge. The platform takes less than 48 hours to set up. And once installed, employees can access their wages – before payday – using the mobile app.

“This platform offers immediate and sustained workforce engagement benefits by reducing employee financial stress which we know causes more sick days, 60% more job accidents and a loss of almost 7 hours of productive time per week,” says PayActiv Country Manager Michael McLauglin.

“PayActiv is astonishingly easy to implement, in just a few hours Australian businesses can have the leading global financial wellness product that costs nothing to establish or run,” McLaughlin adds.

The app allows employees to check their earned wages in real time and withdraw up to $1000 per pay period for a $5 flat fee to pay for urgent or unforeseen expenses. There is a maximum of two withdrawals per pay period as part of a suite of safeguards to promote responsible money management.

“We know from research that more than 50% of Australians suffer financial stress and often seek short term, high-risk, high interest loans to make ends meets,” says McLaughlin.

“Payday lending is now a billion-dollar industry in Australia and in my view it’s feeding a vicious debt cycle that I’m committed to disrupting with a product like PayActiv.”

“I don’t pretend that PayActiv is a silver bullet, but I believe it’ll play a key part in stemming the tide of people flocking to outrageously expensive, short term finance solutions that inevitably have long term, devastating consequences.”

PayActiv
0423 117 239
payactiv.com.au

 

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