Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
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Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
#2I'm just gonna bet that the amount of money Walmart makes in interest on those "vaults" is a lot more than the few thousand bucks they dole out monthly to random users...
Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
#3I'm just gonna bet that the amount of money Walmart makes in interest on those "vaults" is a lot more than the few thousand bucks they dole out monthly to random users...
So? The people targeted for this card are those who otherwise aren't saving anything. The same people would be subject to larger fees at a bank and get sub-1% rates on a savings account. They benefit from this program. Why should Walmart not see that hole in the market and exploit it? Isn't that what this community is all about?
Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
#4tricking people to save paltry sums of money meanwhile using the gains in interest to fund your company's most recent marketing campaign to trick people into buying more useless garbage they don't really need.
what's wrong with this picture? in any case, i suppose this is good -- in the same way a slave owner providing food and shelter is good for the slave. you even have to pay to deposit and withdraw money.
Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
#5I'm just gonna bet that the amount of money Walmart makes in interest on those "vaults" is a lot more than the few thousand bucks they dole out monthly to random users...
That's how a win-win works. If Wal-Mart can make a profit by getting people to save money there's nothing wrong with that. Especially when compared to the banks that make significant money fining you for being broke.
Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
#6I'm just gonna bet that the amount of money Walmart makes in interest on those "vaults" is a lot more than the few thousand bucks they dole out monthly to random users...
So? The people targeted for this card are those who otherwise aren't saving anything. The same people would be subject to larger fees at a bank and get sub-1% rates on a savings account. They benefit from this program. Why should Walmart not see that hole in the market and exploit it? Isn't that what this community is all about?
Capital One 360 pays 0.20/0.75 APY (checking/savings respectively) with no fees or minimums (I'm sure others do too, I just happen to be a customer ^).
So... they are not benefiting. They are losing out on interest and a real bank account, and Walmart is seducing them to stay with a lottery.
Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
So? The people targeted for this card are those who otherwise aren't saving anything. The same people would be subject to larger fees at a bank and get sub-1% rates on a savings account. They benefit from this program. Why should Walmart not see that hole in the market and exploit it? Isn't that what this community is all about?
Capital One 360 pays 0.20/0.75 APY (checking/savings respectively) with no fees or minimums (I'm sure others do too, I just happen to be a customer ^). So... they are not benefiting. They are losing out on interest and a real bank account, and Walmart is seducing them to stay with a lottery.
They're benefiting because before they were not saving in the first place.
Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
#8I'm just gonna bet that the amount of money Walmart makes in interest on those "vaults" is a lot more than the few thousand bucks they dole out monthly to random users...
So? The people targeted for this card are those who otherwise aren't saving anything. The same people would be subject to larger fees at a bank and get sub-1% rates on a savings account. They benefit from this program. Why should Walmart not see that hole in the market and exploit it? Isn't that what this community is all about?
Yeah, I doubt it's much of a money maker for WM, even at WM's scale, as the transactions are so tiny. The bigger win is presumably that their customers might have some money to spend later on.
Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
#9I'm just gonna bet that the amount of money Walmart makes in interest on those "vaults" is a lot more than the few thousand bucks they dole out monthly to random users...
That's how a win-win works. If Wal-Mart can make a profit by getting people to save money there's nothing wrong with that. Especially when compared to the banks that make significant money fining you for being broke.
Except that by giving walmart money that could be invested conservatively, you've actually losing money to inflation. True, this is exactly what most people do with their banks, but banks aren't win-win either, they're both businesses that offer these services because it makes them money.
Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's how a win-win works. If Wal-Mart can make a profit by getting people to save money there's nothing wrong with that. Especially when compared to the banks that make significant money fining you for being broke.
Except that by giving walmart money that could be invested conservatively, you've actually losing money to inflation. True, this is exactly what most people do with their banks, but banks aren't win-win either, they're both businesses that offer these services because it makes them money.
The people who use the WalMart debit cards are not the kind of people who invest money, or even normally save it. They are poor people who often have zero cash savings, and now they have some.