SUNNYVALE, Calif. and DALLAS, Tex. –7-Eleven and financial services technology company PayNearMe have joined forces to introduce an app that empowers people to use cash to pay their bills at participating 7-Eleven convenience stores.
The app, which consumers can download for free via Google Play or iTunes, gives them barcodes to use at local 7-Eleven stores to pay their bills with cash, so they won’t have to access a bank account to pay. Since the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC) reports that 28% of U.S. households have limited or no access to bank accounts, this app can help many unbanked and under-banked Americans who lack such access to pay their bills conveniently.
Retailers may benefit from the app if it attracts new customers to their stores who like the convenience of paying their bills at any time of day or night—by cash—without having to visit a bank.
More than 17,000 different billers—from utilities providers to insurance companies—accept payments through the app. After downloading the app, users take their mobile phone to any participating 7-Eleven store and display the barcode it generates for each biller. Then customers tell cashiers the amount they want to pay for each bill, and pay with cash, and then receive printed receipts as proof of payment. The cost is about $1.99 per payment, and varies slightly according to the type of biller and payment amount.
Most billers receive payments within four business days after consumers pay cash using the app, but some receive payments as soon as the next business day.
“7-Eleven Bill Pay app builds on 7-Eleven’s portfolio of products and services that are affordable and convenient for financially underserved customers,” said 7-Eleven’s vice president of innovation and omnichannel strategy, Raja Doddala, in a statement. “This app is one in a series of innovations that will take 7-Eleven stores from being convenience stores to ‘convenient’ stores.”
Danny Shader, founder and CEO of PayNearMe, said the app’s goal is to make the bill paying process easier for everyone involved—including retailers. “There is a lot of buzz around the potential of digital payments, but you can’t push cash into a smartphone or a computer,” said Shader. “We are digitizing cash transactions to make it easier for consumers to pay, for billers to accept and for retail partners like 7-Eleven to process.”