Is Instant Pay secure?

Instant Pay is a type of earned wage access (EWA) program from KOHO that helps hard-working employees get access to their wages throughout the workweek. With Instant Pay, you can get up to 50% of your paycheque paid out to you at the end of each workday so you can pay bills and master your savings. Sounds pretty great, right?

But signing up for a program that gives a third-party direct access to your money is a big deal and you shouldn’t trust just any company with your wages.

That raises the question: Is Instant Pay secure?

The short answer is yes, Instant Pay from KOHO is a secure way to get earlier access to your wages. KOHO takes account security very seriously and our team works hard to keep your money as safe as possible. Plus, KOHO works with federally regulated banking institutions like Peoples Trust, which are also backed with Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) insurance.

We here at KOHO are big fans of transparency in everything we do, so we want you to feel confident that your money is being handled with the utmost care and security when you sign up for Instant Pay.

In this article, we’re going to discuss the ins and outs of how Instant Pay works and what security measures KOHO has in place. That way, you can feel more confident using this awesome payroll benefit to take control of your finances.

How does Instant Pay work?

To understand why Instant Pay from KOHO is a secure form of earned wage access (EWA), you first need to know how the program works and how your money gets from your employer’s payroll department to your KOHO account.

The idea behind Instant Pay is that you’re simply getting earlier access to the wages you’ve already earned. Instead of having to wait until your bi-weekly or monthly payday, up to 50% of your wages will be deposited into your KOHO account on a daily basis.

How this works is simple: If your employer offers Instant Pay from KOHO and you have a KOHO account, you need to follow your HR or payroll department’s instructions for signing up.

Once you sign up, KOHO will start depositing your funds into your account on a regular basis. You can think of this as a sort of advance on your paycheque. But unlike predatory payday loans, KOHO doesn’t charge you interest or fees on the money you’ve already earned.

When payday rolls around, you’ll continue to receive your paycheque like normal through your company’s payroll department.

Of course, the part of your wages that you’ve already received through Instant Pay will be automatically deducted from your paycheque (unfortunately, we can’t pay you twice!). KOHO will then get reimbursed for the wages that it already paid you using the funds that were deducted from your paycheque on payday. This cycle then continues with each pay period, all without any hassle on your end.

As you can see, the only change that occurs in how you receive your pay cheque with Instant Pay is that KOHO enters the picture and does a lot of the heavy lifting for both you and your employer. You’ll still receive the same amount of money for your work, but part of it will be paid out to you throughout the workweek.

All of the account and financial security-related aspects of Instant Pay are taken care of by the team here at KOHO in conjunction with our financial partners. The good news is that KOHO is a well-established and reputable fintech company that only works with other reputable organizations to help keep your money and personal information safe.

Up next, we’ll take a closer look at what strategies KOHO uses to keep your information and finances secure so you have the peace of mind to make the most out of everything a KOHO account has to offer.

How KOHO keeps your information & money secure

When you sign up for Instant Pay, you put a lot of trust into KOHO to keep your personal information and money secure.

We understand the responsibility that this level of trust entails. That’s why we here at KOHO strive to be transparent in everything we do. It’s also why we only work with regulated and reputable partners to ensure that your money and information are protected at all costs.

Here’s how the team at KOHO keeps you safe whenever you use Instant Pay or any other feature that comes with your account.

KOHO is backed by a team of strong investors & partners

When compared to the big five banks in Canada, KOHO is a relatively young company. But even though we’re a fintech start-up, we’re backed with full funding from a strong group of well-established investors.

KOHO’s list of investors is pretty extensive at this point and it includes a number of big-name players such as Eldridge, Portage Ventures, Greyhound Capital, Drive Capital, and National Bank of Canada. All of these investors provide the financial backing and resources that help us at KOHO provide innovative and useful financial tools to hard-working Canadians like you.

KOHO partners with federally regulated banks & top-notch organizations

In addition to our ever-growing list of investors and backers, KOHO partners with federally regulated banks, like Peoples Trust, to provide financial services to Canadians across the country. The money in your KOHO account is actually stored with Peoples Trust for safekeeping.

This might not seem like a big deal, but it means a lot as far as your account security is concerned. Canada’s federal financial laws are some of the strictest in the world, and partnering with regulated banks helps us protect your funds from bad actors and market instability at all costs.

For our Instant Pay feature, we also partner with ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.). ADP is a US-based and publicly traded company that’s been in the payroll and HR business since the 1940s. They provide us with the infrastructure and support we need to securely process Instant Pay requests for employees of companies that use the ADP Marketplace.

In other words, reputable partners like ADP and Peoples Trust help us at KOHO get you early access to your earned wages as easily as possible. Sounds like a win-win to us!

All KOHO accounts have CDIC insurance coverage

Partnering with federally regulated banks like Peoples Trust to securely store funds in KOHO accounts comes with an awesome benefit: CDIC insurance coverage.

The CDIC, or Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation, is a federal Crown corporation that works to protect all of the money that’s stored in regulated banks within Canada. CDIC insurance is really important for maintaining customer trust in the Canadian banking system because it offers up to $100,000 per insured account category to individuals should a bank fail.

Thanks to CDIC insurance, your funds will be paid out to you should any reputable bank that you work with go under.

In the very, very, very unlikely chance that KOHO fails, your funds will still be returned to you through Peoples Trust. If in the even more unlikely chance that both KOHO and Peoples Trust fail, the CDIC will have your back. They’ll pay out the funds that you’re owed (up to $100,000) for your KOHO account, just like they would if you had an account at any other CDIC member institution.

Put another way, the risk of having an account with KOHO is no greater than having an account with any federally regulated financial institution because of this CDIC insurance. But when you have a KOHO account, you get access to awesome features and tools like Instant Pay and Credit Building that you can’t find elsewhere.

Every KOHO account comes with powerful security features

If all of the above-listed reasons aren’t enough to assure you that KOHO is a reputable fintech company and that Instant Pay is safe and secure, then maybe the extensive list of security features that come with a KOHO account will convince you otherwise.

Each KOHO account includes a plethora of built-in security features. This includes secure passcodes and passwords to log into your account, the ability to lock your KOHO card in seconds from the app, and required security questions whenever you want to transfer money out of your account.

Plus, we have a truly awesome customer service team that’s ready to help you at a moment’s notice. You can chat with the KOHO customer support team in-app 7 days a week and you can even reach out to a dedicated fraud management team (fraud@koho.ca) if you suspect that your account has been compromised.

Instant Pay is safe & secure: here’s how you can sign up

We understand that it can be a bit nerve-wracking to trust your hard-earned paycheque to a third party, but the reality is that Instant Pay is both safe and secure. At KOHO, we’ve worked hard to create a robust security system to protect your account and we partner with some of the best organizations in the business to provide you with innovative new financial tools.

If you’re an employee who’s interested in signing up for Instant Pay at KOHO, your first task is to see if your employer currently offers this awesome payroll feature. Should you find that Instant Pay isn’t yet offered at your company, you can refer your employer to KOHO and we’ll take care of the rest. That way, you and your fellow co-workers can use Instant Pay to make the most of your paycheque and take control of your finances.