How Americans Can Say Goodbye to Expensive Payday Loans Forever

A Pew Charitable Trusts studyin 2015 found that nearly 12 million Americans rely on payday loans. Each year, they pay about $7 billion in loan fees and interest. Altogether, the annual percentage rate (APR) people end up paying on payday loans varies between 300% and 500%.

Based on this study, it is evident that though they provide the borrowers with short-term relief, payday loans are financially catastrophic in the long run. By comparison, APRs on credit cards range from 15% to 30% and personal loans come with an interest rate of 10% to 25%.

Therefore, we can assume that American workers taking out payday loans have exhausted all other options including credit cards, as payday loans come with a significantly higher APR than other options.

Americansgo to payday lenders when they dont have any alternative avenues for financial relief.. When going in for a payday loan, they usually have a certain number of hours that they have worked during the new pay cycle. They could easily ease the financial burden they are facing if only they could access their earnings before payday, without incurring any financial penalty.

With Clair, a New York-based fintech, employees have the option to access their earnings without any costs to them or their employers. Clair works through integrations with workforce management solutions where it records hours worked for a business’ employees. Employees get a Clair Debit Mastercard that they can use at any time to access the money theyve already worked for, before payday.

Employers can join Clair without paying anything and offer this service to their entire workforce. Not only does this help existing employees, but it also acts as an employee recruitment tool, incentivizing the best and the brightest to work at Clair-enabled businesses in the midst of the current labor shortage. This cost-free alternative to payday loans provides employees with a financial cushion to put their minds at ease.

Employees are able to do their jobs better and more efficiently when they don’t have to worry about not having enough cash to make it until their next paycheck. This improves their overall performance as without the stress, they are able to better focus on their jobs.

The way Clair’s business model works is that instead of charging employees or employers, Clair gets paid a portion of the revenue that flows through Clair Debit Mastercards. This practically ensures that there is no downside for employers to extend this service to their employees.