At one point in every taxi-driver’s vocational life, there is a moment when a particularly ungrateful fare makes the driver pine for payday, and ask why me? as they calmly circumnavigate the passenger’s quotidian woes.
Today, Uber and Green Dot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) announced a new version of its GoBank mobile checking account for Uber’s drivers. The new account — Uber Checking — is a customized business account that allows drivers the ability to access their earnings instantly.
This new development was deemed prudent, considering Uber drivers’ perpetually fast-paced, tech-fueled lifestyle. Green Dot’s founder and CEO Steve Streit had this to say:
The partnership marries technology, banking and payments in an innovative way to give Uber driver-partners the flexibility to receive their pay instantly, and also provides an alternative to traditional banking.
But how does it work? Once the driver has entered his Uber account information, he is asked if he would like a GoBank account. Once the account is opened, it is linked to the driver and the payments Uber sends him. Upon completing a fare, a driver is notified through the Uber app the money is sent to GoBank. That money is then made immediately available in the driver’s account, so they can go about their day in real-time, without waiting. The difference in balance is settled between Uber and GoBank the next day.
There is an $8.95 monthly account fee, but it is waved for six months with at least one direct deposit to the Uber Checking account. Can’t get behind the wheel for while? Just make a number of other payroll or government direct deposits totaling up to at least $500. There is no minimum balance, no penalty fees or NSF fees, for example.
However, driver-partners banking elsewhere must still go through the usual ACH delay to see their funds in other banks. “If they wanted to deposit it into their traditional account, then that would do ACH to their traditional account,” another Green Dot spokesperson said.
To be clear, this will be a test-run pilot program centralized in San Francisco. While the Uber spokesperson could not give a precise date for expanding the service to other cities, the company is aiming to make pay-on-demand more widely available as soon as possible.
The GD-Uber partnership marks the first on-demand banking system offered in the on-demand economy, according to Green Dot’s Streit:
While we don’t expect revenue from this new partnership to be material to our 2016 financial guidance, we believe the Uber partnership is an example of the kinds of opportunities we have in serving America’s fast growing, on-demand workforce with our market-leading fintech banking products and payment solutions.
Streit declined to say whether Green Dot would cross-sell its consumer products through this partnership to Uber drivers.
Green Dot and Uber are anteing up the transactions sector of fintech. Earlier this week the industry saw some other forms of mobile finance integration when a new app named Lenny launched to help millennials improve their credit score with near-immediate loans based on nontraditional standards like geographic location and social media presence.