TULSA, Okla. -- Providing customers with financial service options such as bill payment and check cashing draws customers into a store on a regular basis. CashWorks, a GE Consumer Finance company, is offering both bill payment and check-cashing services through its new mini-kiosk platform. The check-cashing and bill payment mini-kiosk is being launched at 34 QuikTrip c-stores in Wichita, Kansas, at the end of July.
The CashWorks bill payment feature gives convenience, grocery and big-box stores the ability to provide a risk-free, income-generating service, [image-nocss] the company said.
Customers, including those with cash, but not a CashWorks card, can pay bills to more than 4,400 companies including utilities, cable and phone service providers.
Our easy-to-use kiosks provide users step-by-step instructions, said Will Sowell, general manager of Frisco, Texas-based CashWorks. The CashWorks mini-kiosk provides a safe, convenient, competitively priced way for consumers to cash payroll or government-issued checksand nowto pay their bills, as well. We are excited to partner with a top-tier retailer like QuikTrip and to bring needed financial services to their customers.
The mini-kiosk platform is in addition to the CashWorks PayPort Point-of-Sale system, which currently provides all-day, everyday check-cashing convenience to 800,000 customers at 3,000 locations in 41 states.
The CashWorks program provides the ability to quickly approve new customers for check-cashing and bill payment, said the company. The CashWorks Central Decision Enginea proprietary software systemcan approve transactions for first-time users in minutes. Once a customer is enrolled, transactions typically take less than a minute. The system uses PayPort POS technology, created by CashWorks.
We've known for some time check cashing and bill payment were services we wanted to provide, said Paula Cotten, vice president of finance and treasurer for QuikTrip, Tulsa, Okla. We asked [CashWorks] to work with us on a solution, not sell us their package. They delivered the mini-kiosk with both check cashing and bill payment options.
According to research conducted by CashWorks, 45% of consumers who use the CashWorks check-cashing service make purchases on the spot. The survey also shows 81% say they will return to the same c-store for service in the future.
In some applications, customers receive cash. But CashWorks also offers a card-based solution. Instead of cash, customers receive their funds on a CashWorks prepaid debit card. Customers then have the flexibility to convert all or a portion of their funds immediately to cash at an ATM. Balances can also be kept safely on the card, avoiding the need to carry large amounts of cash. CashWorks cardholders can access their FDIC-insured funds at ATMs as well as use the card for store purchases anywhere that has PIN-based debit capabilities.
CashWorks is an operating subsidiary of federal savings bank GE Money Bank FSB, which has enabled expansion of the CashWorks' operating region to all 50 states.
QuikTrip currently owns and operates 446 retail outlets in nine states.
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