, with the intention to provide a more valuable bank account for middle-class Americans who may have a tight budget or live paycheck to paycheck.
Under normal circumstances, One members can access a line of credit interest-free for one month. The Assist program increases the interest-free period to three months for members who have experienced a job loss or been hospitalized.. When the interest-free period ends, you'll pay 1% on your outstanding balance, making the Assist program more affordable than using a credit card and maybe more affordable than paying overdraft fees, depending on how much you overdraw.
This means that if you tap into your line of credit at the beginning of the month, you could have up to 3 months and 21 days to pay back the money without interest.There are two ways to access your line of credit through Assist. "It's pretty easy for us to be both customer-friendly and very flexible with the program," Hamilton said. "There's not supposed to be a bunch of red tape and 'gotcha' fine print around it. It really is if you're having a meaningful hardship of some kind, whether it's coronavirus-related or not, that this product is there for you."Hamilton's team started developing the Assist feature before the coronavirus outbreak began.
Anyone else can sign up for the waitlist, and One will be gradually granting people on the waitlist membership throughout May. Once you have access to your account, you can apply for a line of credit through Assist. "The amount that people qualify for is based primarily, but not solely, on their income, i.e. their direct deposit amount," Hamilton said. "We use multiple factors to determine eligibility at various stages of the relationship."
Assist is available to One customers who have suffered a job loss or hospitalization, so they may need access to more funds than they've budgeted for. This could be especially useful as people lose work and suffer from health issues due to the coronavirus.The first is by overdrawing from your One account. Once you've applied and been approved for Assist, the line of credit acts as overdraft protection. All One members who qualify for Assist can access funds in this way.