Challenger bank Current rolls out brick and mortar cash deposits
- Current serves people who live paycheck to paycheck.
- Based on user feedback, it's making it easier for its clients to deposit money.
Current CEO Stuart Sopp is speaking at Tearsheet’s upcoming Challengers Conference.
Current members can now make cash deposits to their bank accounts at major brick-and-mortar retail chains across the country. Current serves individuals underserved by the current banking system.
The big idea: The ability to make cash deposits was the most-requested product feature according to a recent survey conducted with Current’s 1.4 million members.
- This new feature will enable Current members to deposit cash to their accounts at 7-Eleven, Dollar General, and Family Dollar.
- This cash deposit solution is powered by InComm’s VanillaDirect platform, which delivers a barcode via the Current mobile app that users scan at the register of participating VanillaDirect retailers to instantly deposit cash to their accounts.
- Handling over $50 billion in annual transactions for global brands, InComm recently said it would power Venmo and PayPal QR-code contactless payments in CVS stores.
- Current focuses on providing its audience with what it deems are customer-friendly banking products.
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Bridging online and offline: Current has experienced record growth in 2020, surpassing one million members less than a year and a half since the launch of its personal checking accounts.
- Current expects to surpass two million members by the end of this year.
- This feature is now available to all Current customers and will roll out to approximately 60,000 participating retail locations in the VanillaDirect network by the end of 2020.
“Over 130 million people in this country live paycheck to paycheck and are not being properly served by traditional banks built on legacy infrastructure,” said Stuart Sopp, CEO and founder of Current.
“Our rapid growth speaks to the demand for alternative banking solutions and we are committed to helping provide all Americans better access to their money, including the ability to deposit cash to their Current accounts. InComm’s technology is the perfect fit for our members who wish to conveniently and reliably digitize their cash.”
Whole-heartedly support the ability to provide deposits via a retail branch/store, however, I’m wondering where the catch is. Other challenger banks have started similar initiatives, which includes fees for people who want to deposit money via a drugstore, for example. If we are doing this to better help people living paycheck-to-paycheck, we need to keeps fees to a minimum (or $0).