Most consumers head into Walmart for groceries, cheap socks, or other right-priced items. Soon they will also be able to pick up something else that's useful — a digital checking account that offers money back, too.
Though Walmart aims to make checking accounts available for its 1.6 million U.S. employees and shoppers, the retailer is starting with a beta test by offering the accounts to thousands of employees and a small number of customers, according to Bloomberg.
It's just the first step for Walmart's fin-tech unit, One, which the retailer hopes will become the place for customers to turn to for everything from loans to investing.
Digital bank accounts will join Walmart's other financial-services products, including MoneyCenter, which offers check cashing and tax-preparation services, and MoneyGram International and Euronet Worldwide, which allow customers to send money overseas.
Walmart is going to make digital checking through One more than just convenient — soon the One app will give 2% back on every dollar spent at Walmart, drugstores, and gas stations. And employees who set up direct deposit can get paid as soon as their shifts end without paying a fee for the convenience.
