Helping hourly workers gain access to penalty-free cash advances.

Context:

Many hourly workers on the Homebase app struggled to maintain a weekly bank balance of over $100, frequently resulting in costly bank overdraft fees. To address this issue, we introduced the Cash Out service, which provided users with a penalty-free cash advance. Users who could wait two days to receive the cash could access the service for free, while those who needed the money instantly could do so for just $3.99, which was more cost-effective than a bank overdraft fee. Our goal was to offer a straightforward and effective solution for users to access a portion of their paycheque when needed, helping them avoid unnecessary charges.

Target users:

Hourly working employees on the Homebase app who found themselves in need of a cash advance.

Problems and opportunities:

In general, users didn’t understand how Cash Out could benefit them. More specifically, the problems and opportunities we decided to prioritize were:

First, based on data, we saw a significant drop off during onboarding of users making it to the Plaid onboarding screens. We used the platform Plaid to connect the user's bank account to our app to deposit the money directly into the user's bank account.

Also, based on interviews, users didn't understand how much money they could get through Cash Out. The money you received was directly related to your earnings made within a pay period.