Earnin Announces HealthAid and Cash Back Rewards, Two Products to Help Its Community Fight Financial Unfairness
Earnin Helped People Save an Average of $100 Per Medical Bill with HealthAid and Launched a Nearly 400,000 Person Waitlist for Its Cash Back Rewards Program
PALO ALTO, Calif., May 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Earnin, a community-supported financial platform, is launching two new products – HealthAid and Cash Back Rewards – as part of its mission to give people the tools to take control of their financial future. Medical bills – especially unexpected ones – are one of the most likely reasons people end up in financial trouble. Forty-one percent (41%) of working-age Americans have medical bill problems or are paying off medical debt, up from thirty-four (34%) percent in 2005.1 In the United States, just $5002 in unexpected bills can lead to bankruptcy and medical debt is the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy.3
To help its community take control of their financial future, Earnin is introducing HealthAid, a new medical bills negotiation product where Earnin works with medical providers to lower a member's unpaid medical, dental, vision, or mental health bills. They can also work to negotiate a favorable payment plan or financial aid option. To use the service, a member submits their unpaid medical bills through the app and gives an Earnin agent permission to negotiate on their behalf and a result is delivered within two business days. Members can pay what they choose for the service after they are presented with savings options.
"Earnin was very helpful. They reached out to each of my medical providers and came up with some reasonable payment offers which were really helpful to me," says Colene, a community member who recently used HealthAid. "I did not know how to go about resolving my medical bills. I would completely go through them again in the future and highly recommend them to anybody looking to get some support and help."
In the beta trial of HealthAid, Earnin found savings for about 90% of people. Based on the savings the company has seen until now, Earnin estimates that HealthAid negotiators can save community members an average of $100 per medical bill. In one extraordinary case, Earnin was able to get a community member's $48,000 bill 100 percent forgiven.
Earnin is rolling out HealthAid to community members in the coming weeks. The company opened a waitlist for the general public at www.earnin.com/healthaid and the product is scheduled to be available to everyone later this year.
Earnin is also introducing Cash Back Rewards, a rewards program that puts its community first.
"Cash back rewards were designed to benefit the most affluent people in our country, not people living paycheck-to-paycheck who are left subsidizing the costs," says Ram Palaniappan, founder and CEO of Earnin. "Our community deserves to be recognized and rewarded for the money they spend and be able to get cash back immediately."
With Earnin's Cash Back Rewards program, people can earn up to 10% cash back at approximately 9,200 restaurants and stores. To participate in the program, members link their preferred debit or credit card in the Earnin app and whenever they shop they will automatically earn rewards that can be immediately cashed out. To date, nearly 400,000 people have joined the waitlist. Cash Back Rewards is rolling out to community members at the end of the month.
To learn more, please visit www.earnin.com/rewards.
About Earnin
Earnin is a community-supported financial platform with multiple products that put people first and give them the tools to take control of their financial future. Earnin started out by solving one of the greatest – and least discussed – inequities in the American financial system: the practice of employers paying workers bi-weekly. Earnin's core product, Cash Out, allows people to access the pay they've already earned. There are no loans, fees or hidden costs. People pay what they choose. Other products include Balance Shield which helps prevent overdrafts and a financial calendar that helps people budget and schedule payments.
Current funding partners include: Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, Ribbit Capital, Felicis Ventures and March Capital.
To learn about Earnin and how we are building a financial system that works for people, please visit www.earnin.com.
1 The Commonwealth Fund survey
2 Bankrate survey
3 An article published in the American Journal of Public Health
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SOURCE Earnin