NCR and Payfare Team to Help Gig Workers

Payfare, a FinTech serving gig workers, has expanded its partnership with digital banking provider NCR.

Under the new collaboration, NCR will offer “self-service financial solutions for Payfare’s cardholders across the United States for both cash in and cash out transactions,” the companies said in a Wednesday (April 12) news release.

Payfare, which provides payouts and rewards for platforms that include Lyft and DoorDash, had already been working with NCR through its Allpoint ATM network. With the extended partnership, Payfare cardholders can access to Allpoint+ cash-accepting ATMs, allowing for cash deposits as well as cash withdrawals.

The companies say Payfare will also begin leveraging NCR Pay360, an API solution that allows cardholders to access cash in their account via Payfare’s digital banking apps, so that Payfare cardholders can withdraw cash without needing a physical debit card.

“With the addition of Allpoint+ and NCR Pay360, gig workers across the country will be able to access cash with greater flexibility, ease and speed at convenient locations they know and trust,” the news release said.

The expanded partnership is happening at a time when many Americans are taking on gig work as a side hustle to make ends meet, as shown in the latest entry in the long-running survey series “New Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report — Supplemental Income Edition,” a PYMNTS and LendingClub collaboration.

The series measures the financial health of working U.S. consumers, more than 60% of whom live paycheck to paycheck, while comfortably paying their bills or struggling to meet expenses.

Discussing the new data with PYMNTS, LendingClub Financial Health Officer Anuj Nayar was struck by the sheer scale of the money generated by employed people taking on side gigs, and the ripple effects created, suggesting the advent of a new normal.

“The thing that jumped out to me is they’re generating over $50 billion a month from these cash-based side gigs, which is a huge amount,” said Nayar.

Looking just at consumers with full-time jobs, the report found that 29% have begun picking up extra income in a variety of ways in a trend that kicked in strongly in early 2022 as COVID malingered and inflation began running wild.

This crisscrossed with another pandemic trend — remote work — which had many people working from home but still comfortable earning money “after work.”

“The data shows that this is going to continue,” Nayar said. “Even those who are not currently deriving an additional income, when asked if they plan to in the next three months, 51% said they did. You can see that some of those people are starting to shift, and it makes sense.”