Award bonuses with gift cards - a growing trend

An article in today's Washington Post announced the new FDA chief's suspension of their gift card program to award informal bonuses. He wants to be sure that there is a clear criteria for receiving the cards, 160 of which were ordered at $250 apiece "to reward employees for their hard work." They'll start the program up as soon as the chief is assured that everything was done "by the book."

Using prepaid cards for incentive pay is a proven way to reward employees. Rather than run bonuses through payroll, the cards are stockpiled, to be handed to employees when goals are met, or superior performance is rewarded. Cards in small denominations can be used for spur of the moment "attaboys" that increase employee loyalty.

Thought you understood who the Unbanked are? Think again!

I recently read a synopsus of a report by Aite Group LLC. It's titled "Debunking the Myths About the Unbanked and Underbanked".

The article written by their research group, illustrates the fact that Underbanked people are not unbanked for cultural or attitudinal reasons yet for more practical reasons. Credit problems and cost issues seem to be the drivers in a study performed in Aite's survey with check cashing customers.

As a result, it's up to the marketer to present a better price/cost solution for this consumer.

Directo serves this marketplace with a low cost, convenient and safe payroll card at the worksite. For over 10 years, Directo has been 'carving out a niche' helping low income, unbanked people obtain access to basic financial services such as ATM, POS and mobile financial offerings. http://www.directocard.com/.

Directo's commitment is to offer its program with savings of 50% or more over traditional check cashing services and is a viable alternative for serving this segment of the population. It's program are also less costly that Wal Mart's walk-in services
BH