Prize Savings Brings Prize-Linked Savings Nationwide

Walmart and Green Dot in partnership with Commonwealth today announced the introduction of “Prize Savings,” a Prize-Linked Savings (PLS) incentive program available to the millions of Walmart MoneyCard-holders.

“According to The Federal Reserve Board of Governors, nearly half of all U.S. families can’t cover a $400 emergency with their savings. That’s a reality we don’t want our customers to have to live with, and we thought we could help,” said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president, Services, Walmart U.S. “Along with Green Dot and Commonwealth, we think ‘Prize Savings’ can help drive change and address an important issue in a new, innovative way.”

Walmart and Green Dot enlisted the help of Commonwealth to design the program. “Saving is the first step to ensuring financial opportunity and security,” said Tim Flacke, executive director, Commonwealth. “Prize-Linked Savings programs have a proven track record of helping financially vulnerable Americans start and build savings and we are thrilled to collaborate with Walmart and Green Dot to expand the power and reach of PLS across the country.”

“Prize Savings” is the first national and first retail offered Prize-Linked Savings (PLS) program. With this new offering, Walmart MoneyCard customers can now enter a monthly sweepstakes that awards hundreds of cash prizes just by saving. Learn more about how Prize Savings works.

Prize Savings, which officially launched in August, has already made a difference. Since the launch, usage of the MoneyCard Vault, the savings feature on the card, is up more than 130 percent. MoneyCard Vault users are, on average, saving 35 percent more. Fifteen hundred customers have won cash prizes.

For centuries prizes have motivated people to act. Americans spend $70 billion on lottery tickets each year in the hopes of winning a prize. The possibility of winning creates excitement, anticipation, and engagement. At Commonwealth, we apply this insight to motivate positive financial behaviors. Our research results have repeatedly found that prizes provide the motivation needed to get people to start saving and build a savings habit and that having savings can lead to better financial outcomes. Commonwealth has spent a number of years developing various PLS products on prepaid cards, as well as at banks and credit unions.