SAN FRANCISCO, April 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GoDo, a fintech company offering same-day, no-fee advances to wage earners, has partnered with Highnote, the world’s most modern card issuance platform, to create the GoDo Card, a new card program that offers underbanked workers immediate access to interim wages with no-fee advances.
Powered by Highnote’s card issuance platform, the GoDo Card enables financial inclusion with the following benefits:
- No Fee Financial Account: FDIC insured accounts with no minimum balance and no monthly fees.
- Fully Functioning Debit Card: The GoDo Card can be used to access cash at ATMs, pay bills on time, and make online and in-store purchases.
- Interim Wage Access: GoDo offers earned wage access, meaning cardholders can access a portion of their wage as soon as they finish work, as opposed to waiting on a traditional pay cycle.
- Payment Parity: The GoDo Card provides working Americans who previously lacked access to card and digital payments, the same payment experiences enjoyed by well-banked Americans.
Some banks charge a fee for account holders that are unable to maintain a minimum balance. According to a US Postal Service Study, this causes the average underserved household to spend 9.8% of their earnings on fees and interest charges, and often resort to payday loans and other predatory lenders. The GoDo Card improves financial wellness by eliminating minimum balance and overdraft fees, and giving members earned wage access to avoid predatory lenders and minimize debt.
“Our mission is to create economic inclusion by making banking easy and affordable for hard-working Americans that need access to interim earnings and no-fee financial products,” said James Ray, GoDo’s CEO. “The GoDo Card is the cornerstone of that effort, and Highnote was the only card platform that could deliver what we need, including future capabilities for our users that wouldn’t have been possible using any other solutions in the market today.”
The GoDo card was created using Highnote’s modernized platform, which provided key benefits, including:
- Speed to Market: By serving as both a processor and program manager, Highnote provided GoDo with a market-ready card at a speed unmatched by other virtual card platforms.
- Differentiation: Highnote’s modular capabilities allow GoDo to build the functionalities that set them apart from competitors.
- Reduced Cost: The Highnote platform allows GoDo to provide no-fee access to interim wages by reducing operational costs while generating revenue from interchange fees. With the Highnote ledger, GoDo can minimize bank transfers and thus save costs and avoid charges to cardholders.
“We built Highnote to enable companies like GoDo to create truly unique and game-changing payment solutions for their customers,” said John Macllwaine, Highnote’s Co-Founder and CEO. “The earned-wage-access market needs modernized payment solutions that can power innovative digital experiences and we’re here to deliver that.”
This partnership is a significant milestone for Highnote, as they launch with GoDo as the first customer in the earned-wage access vertical. This is a $12 billion market that Highnote aims to address by building more innovative payment solutions for financial inclusion.
To learn more about the GoDo Card, visit GoDo’s website.
GoDo Mastercard Debit Card is issued by Sutton Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to a license by Mastercard. Mastercard is a registered trademark, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated.
About Highnote:
Highnote is the world’s most modern card platform, purpose-built to realize customer loyalty and engagement through embedded card experiences. Its fully integrated tech stack provides every service needed for innovative companies to launch new ways to use card payments. Utilizing the developer-friendly Highnote platform, product and engineering teams at digital enterprises of all sizes can easily and efficiently embed virtual and physical payment cards (commercial and consumer prepaid, debit, credit, and charge), ledger, and wallet capabilities into their existing products, creating compelling value for users while growing revenue and building a unique and differentiated brand. The company has raised more than $90 million from leading investors and strategic partners and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For additional information, please visit www.highnoteplatform.com.
About GoDo:
There are over 80 Million under banked adults in the US who are unable to get ahead due to predatory drains on their finances including payday lending, check cashing, and bill pay fees. In fact, the average financially underserved household has an annual income of about $25,500 and spends $2,412 annually on interest and fees—equivalent to 9.8% of their income—for alternative financial services, according to a report by the U.S. Postal Service.
GoDo aims to disrupt this industry by bridging the gap between earned wages and the cost of living - eliminating minimum balance and overdraft fees, providing access to earned wages without fees, and additional product offerings designed to reduce reliance on payday loans. GoDo provides workers with instant access to their wages in the form of a no-fee earned wage advance via a GoDo debit card and the GoDo app. For additional information, please visit www.godolife.com.
Media Contact: Jon Keller, jon@propllr.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9894d08c-8907-4efd-bc34-c90a2f6fc863
