Is automatic bill pay a middle-of-the-road solution for Guaranteed Basic Income?
As the U.S. leads the way in GBI testing with more live sites than the rest of the world combined, the controversy continues to swirl as not everyone agrees (or is convinced) that GBI programs and their variations (from strings to no strings attached, to lump-sum and piece-meal payments) actually help
What’s Happening and How Rellevate Can Help
Automatic Bill Pay is proving to help low-income households achieve financial stability
For low-income families, fluctuating bills can be a significant financial burden. Programs like automatic bill pay can help make budgeting easier, save users hundreds of dollars in fees and penalties and make life more predictable
On-time payments bring more financial stability and an improved sense of self-worth by reducing anxiety from not having enough to pay the bills, uplifting them from the endless and depressing cycle of the shut-off/turn-on effect
Plus, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the methods that low-income households use to pay their bills can cost up to 20% more, as they are ‘more likely to pay bills using costlier payment methods, even when they have access to cheaper bank account-based methods. Digital exclusion, cash flow constraints, and lack of trust in or familiarity with electronic payment methods explain low-income consumers’ reliance on costlier bill payment methods such as third-party providers, bill pay services or money orders’
Rellevate’s Advanced and Free Bill Pay
Sponsors and underwriters of GBI programs can use Rellevate’s intuitive free bill pay (that automatically links to thousand of vendors and utilities) by directly depositing a portion of an individual’s GBI funds into a turn-key, FDIC-insured account that ensures prompt and on-time bill payments that build the individual’s credit score
Rellevate is at the forefront of providing low-income households with groundbreaking disbursement innovations, ranging from the State of Georgia, UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and school districts across the country
