I recently heard about Oxygen, a new challenger bank in the US. Oxygen is designed for freelancers and gig-economy workers who lack a predictable salary, which results in the inability to gain credit.
As a freelancer, you might have weeks or months working on a project without getting paid – but you know the next paycheque is around the corner.
This new income model doesn’t necessarily fit with traditional banking. Banks want to prove that you’ll be able to repay any money they lend you, and without suitable indicators (property, stock, credit history) that you will repay, then it’s often a “no way, Jose” to requests for credit.
However, the world of work is changing, and for many people, and an increasing number of people, this way of working has become the norm.
The industry needs to keep up with changing expectations about work and money by using human-centred design and the power of UX to make banking easy.