Accurate Home Care this week began offering a new benefit for all employees called Tapcheck, an easy-to-use service providing early access to one’s paycheck before payday. It also provides educational resources regarding investing and finances.
The service is offered to provide employees greater financial flexibility and a way to cover unexpected costs, according to Accurate Chief Financial Officer Pete Empanger. “When we looked into this type of offering, we learned an estimated 85 percent of workers nationwide recently indicated they have difficulty paying surprise, unforeseen bills of $1,000 or more when they pop up. Tapcheck can help folks if they face such a situation,” he said. “This is a nice option to have if used correctly.”
Another potential use is when one decides to join Accurate after working elsewhere. The time between their last paycheck and their first with Accurate can be three weeks. Using Tapcheck can help bridge that gap.
Employees using Tapcheck can receive up to 70 percent of their daily wages (daily limit of $200) per day. “We understand that life can be unpredictable and encourage our employees to use Tapcheck as the necessity arises. Having access to wages early still comes with guidelines, though, to ensure one doesn’t bite off more than one can financially,” Empanger said.
Tapcheck is not a payday-loan provider charging interest, late fees and overdraft fees. Rather, it is an easy to use service on demand providing four ways for employees to “tap” it. Two involve paying a low processing fee; the other two methods are free. (Accurate does not receive any type of financial benefit for offering this service to its employees.)
For those who want to tap their upcoming paycheck immediately, Tapcheck requires a $4.95 processing fee each time funds are advanced. In a situation where an employee needs $1,000 before payday, he or she could tap $200 a day for five days paying a total of $24.75 for immediate access. Another option is to have the funds deposited on the next day at the rate of $3.50 per advance (a total of $17.5 in processing fees in the example above).
Two other options allow funds to be advanced for free. The first is to sign up for a MasterCard debit card through Tapcheck and use its digital wallet. Funds are available within 24 hours and one can use this approach limitless times (still capped at $200 a day/70 percent of daily wages) without incurring processing fees.
The other free option is to “prize out,” where one applies to funds toward a gift card and receives a bonus gift card. An example would be to buy a $100 gift card and receive a second gift card worth $10 or in some cases, $20.
Other features of Tapcheck include on-demand pay, which allows users to create their own pay schedule, and financial tools to learn how to create a budget, avoid overspending and pay off debt.
Tapcheck joins Accurate’s robust line up of other benefits including a 401k match for full-time employees (averaging 30 or more hours a week) and to employees who have worked at least 1,000 hours in the last 12 months, health insurance, tuition assistance, access to a financial advisor, on-the-job-training for nurses right out of school, a referral bonus program, and TicketsatWork.
