{"id":209201,"date":"2019-06-27T17:32:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T16:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/?page_id=209201"},"modified":"2026-03-25T09:57:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:57:51","slug":"salary-advance-services","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/personal-loans\/salary-advance-services","title":{"rendered":"Earned Wage Access (EWA)"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Earned Wage Access?<\/h3>

Have you ever considered that midway through the month you have a stash of cash you\u2019ve theoretically already earned but can\u2019t spend because you\u2019re only paid at the end of the month? It\u2019s so ingrained in most people\u2019s financial routines that they don\u2019t even think about it. But what if it didn\u2019t have to work that way? What if employees could access at least part of their hard-earned wages early?<\/p>

A few startups are trying to make this happen, so employees who run into an unexpected expense have an affordable way to face it without going into high-cost debt. It\u2019s generally referred to as a salary advance or earned wage access (EWA). It\u2019s not a new concept, but while 50 years ago it meant going cap-in-hand to your boss, now it can be a tech-driven process initiated and authorised in seconds by the employee themself.<\/p>

What\u2019s in it for employees?<\/h3>

Asking for a salary advance is normally way cheaper than the alternative \u2013 which coud be an expensive overdraft or high-cost, short-term loan.<\/p>

But better still, since technically the money is already earned, credit checks can be avoided (depending on how the EWA service actually powers the advances). The money technically doesn\u2019t get \u201cpaid back\u201d and technically nobody\u2019s going \u201cinto debt\u201d.<\/p>

The flip side is that if you\u2019re not borrowing from a lender, you\u2019re sort-of borrowing from yourself, depending on how you look at it. The money might already have been earned\u2026 but nonetheless the next month following a salary advance is going to feel like a long one!<\/p>

What\u2019s in it for employers?<\/h3>

Employers have the chance to offer an extra perk that both makes them more competitive when it comes to the hiring process and helps them reduce staff turnover at the same time.<\/p>

Many companies also do it to take care of the financial health of their employees, who, in turn, tend to be less preoccupied and more productive. When people are worried about debt, it can become more difficult for them to stay focused on their jobs.<\/p>

What\u2019s in it for the startups providing these services?<\/h3>

They\u2019ve found different (but complementary) ways to make money. Some charge a fee to the employer, the employees or both (the fee is still lower than the interest rate you\u2019d get with a payday loan). Others also offer actual employee loans to which they apply an interest rate (again, usually cheaper than what you\u2019d get with a regular loan).<\/p>

How do they work?<\/h3>

It depends. Normally, the employer has to register with one of these providers. Then, employees can download an app that tells you how much of your salary you\u2019ve already earned and how much you can borrow. If you decide to try it, you can request the salary advance from the app and will be charged a fee in return.<\/p>

However, different companies offer different services and work in slightly different ways. Let\u2019s take a closer look at some of the players in this emerging market:<\/p>

The key Earned Wage Access (EWA) players in the UK<\/h3>

Stream (formerly Wagestream)<\/h4>

\"Stream
Stream<\/a> was founded as \u201cWagestream\u201d in 2018 by Peter Briffett and Portman Wills. It offers both salary advances and financial education resources that employees can access. Employees are charged a \u00a31.95 fee every time they withdraw part of their salary in advance, and they can withdraw up to 50% of what they\u2019ve earned. There\u2019s also a monthly withdrawal limit of \u00a31,000. In September 2018, the company staged a funeral for payday loans as a publicity stunt (which may have been a tad premature, but you get where they were going\u2026 and in fairness they weren\u2019t wrong).<\/p>

Dev effort to implement\/maintain<\/h5>

Medium upfront, low ongoing. But Stream leads on the implementation process, so you\u2019re not on your own there. You can supply payroll info via the API or via SFTP \u2013 whatever suits you. The main dev task is mapping to align your workforce management (WFM) systems data model to Stream\u2019s. Turnkey integrations with common platforms like SAP, Sage, Workday, Iris, ADP and more are available. There\u2019s minimal ongoing maintenance to worry about (and very little ongoing impact to your payroll team, who won\u2019t need to make any manual deductions, thanks goodness!).<\/p>

Ultimately Stream is one of the most (if not the most) widely-adopted EWA services in the UK.<\/p>

Salary Finance<\/h4>

\"Salary
Salary Finance<\/a> was founded in 2015 by former head of Google UK Dan Cobley, together with Asesh Sarkar and Daniel Shakhani. The company offers salary advances, employee loans and also Help to Save, a service that automatically takes a portion of the employees\u2019 salary and puts it into a savings pot for a rainy day. This savings pot is held with National Savings and Investments (NS&I), and at the end of each 2-year period, savers get a bonus from the government. For salary advances, employees can access up to 50% of their earned pay and are charged a \u00a31.69 fee per withdrawal.<\/p>

Dev effort to implement\/maintain<\/h5>

Actually the burden is more on the payroll crew. They\u2019ll use Salary Finance\u2019s HR portal and tools like its EVA validation application to verify employee eligibility, download deduction files, upload confirmation reports, and remit bulk payments each cycle. That said, Workday API integration is available to automate ongoing administration for Workday clients. Zero integration is zero hassle for devs, but your payroll person might hate you. And if there\u2019s one person you don\u2019t want to hate you\u2026<\/p>

Hastee<\/h4>

\"Hastee
Hastee<\/a> offers financial education resources, rewards and cashback, savings tools and, of course, salary advances. Employees are charged a fee of around 2.5%, and how much of their salary they can access early is set by the employer. The company was founded in 2017 by James Herbert and Simon Draper and is especially convenient for employers. Setting up the service is free, and Hastee itself funds the advances, so there\u2019s no impact on the company\u2019s cash flow.<\/p>

Dev effort to implement\/maintain<\/h5>

How much upfront and ongoing hassle there is depends on whether you use API, SFTP or a zero-integration approach (i.e. your payroll team use Hastee\u2019s portal). Hastee supports 80+ payroll, WFM and time\u2011&\u2011attendance systems, so many data feeds can be automated. You\u2019ll map employee IDs, worked hours\/wages and pay data into their schema and test syncs.<\/p>

FlexEarn<\/h4>

\"FlexEarn
FlexEarn is another salary advance service that lets employees access the money they\u2019ve already earned early. Employees pay a \u00a31.75 fee per withdrawal, and once they\u2019ve signed up, they can also access a range of financial wellbeing services with Money Helper and StepChange. FlexEarn is free for companies to join and has partnered with Sage to integrate its payroll software. FlexEarn is keen to clarify that it\u2019s not a lending product, and employees do not take on any debt.<\/p>

Dev effort to implement\/maintain<\/h5>

FlexEarn claims implementation can take half an hour, though this assumes you use Sage. It pulls employee and earnings data directly from Sage, so nobody has to manually adjust payroll. Smaller or highly custom payroll setups may need extra mapping or manual feed preparation.<\/p>

Level<\/h4>

\"Level
Level markets itself as a Stream alternative. Like Stream, there\u2019s no need for payroll teams to make any manual deductions with Level. It emerged in 2020 and its mission is \u201cgiving employees control to access, save and manage their money as they earn it\u201d.<\/p>

Dev effort to implement\/maintain<\/h5>

Medium upfront, low ongoing. Very similar to Stream\u2019s. Like Stream, Level leads on the implementation process, and you can supply payroll info via the API or via SFTP. The main dev task is mapping to align your payroll fields to Level\u2019s schema. Turnkey integrations with common WFM platforms are available, which automatically sync approved hours. There\u2019s minimal ongoing maintenance to worry about.<\/p>

Is this happening across the pond?<\/h3>

Glad you asked. Yes, this kind of employee benefit is also becoming a thing in the US. PayActiv and DailyPay are companies that operate in a similar way, offering salary advances in the US.<\/p>

Any catches?<\/h3>

It\u2019s still early days, but there are a couple of things to be aware of:<\/p>