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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Sarah Butler and Kalyeena Makortoff

‘Financial wellbeing’ app targets low-wage workers with high-interest loans

A hand holding banknotes caught in a trap
As with its salary advance service, Wagestream automatically deducts loan payments from wages. Composite: Alex Mellon for the Guardian/Getty Images

Low-wage workers are being offered a controversial new type of high-interest loan of up to £25,000 through the “financial wellbeing” app Wagestream, a specialist lender that has signed deals with some of the UK’s best-known employers including Asda and Pizza Express.

The app is pitched as an employee benefit, and gives workers access to loans with a representative APR of between 13.9% and 19.9%, meaning at least 51% of borrowers will get that rate.

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