A&L Launches Wages Pre-payment Card

by Gill Montia

Story link: A&L Launches Wages Pre-payment Card

Alliance & Leicester has developed a new system that is designed to allow migrant and temporary workers to have access to wages that, in the majority of cases, are being paid in cash or with a cheque.

The bank is launching a Visa pre-paid card, which will also have a number of benefits for companies and could allow them reduce the cost of payroll production by cutting back on administration.

Under the new method, temporary and short-term workers are issued with cards which their employees credit with their wages. This will be of particular benefit to companies that employ workers with no bank account, or a temporary bank account, and have so far been unable to regularise payment methods across the entire workforce.

It also has the benefit of reducing fraud and can be a way of dealing with reimbursements, such as expenses (or even bonuses), which can be instantly transferred to the card.

According to a recent survey by the Assessment Network, the UK employs approximately 1.2 million temporary workers in any one week.