Say goodbye to the bank: NetSpend offers bank-free money management

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A study conducted by Chain Store Age in 2014 found that Americans under the age of 35 carry an average of 2.3 prepaid credit cards in their wallets. This is an attempt to free themselves from debt and manage their money on a real-time basis without being tethered to a traditional bank. A key player in the self-banking trend is the Austin-based personal financial services company NetSpend, which has capitalized on the rise of GPR (general purpose reloadable) debit cards by enabling its card users to manage their money independently.

Launched in 1999 and funded by IA Capital Group and Genifor Capital, the company was acquired in 2013 by payment processor TSYS for a reported $1.4B.

"We empower consumers to be self-banked, whether you're talking about cash-based consumers getting their first payment cards or cashless consumers looking for more features and flexibility for managing their money," said Chuck Harris, NetSpend's president. "We do that by delivering financial services through web and mobile channels and working with retailers like grocers and gas stations to stand in for things you'd normally do at a branch like a cash deposit."

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Focusing on customers who don't have or want a traditional bank account or would prefer alternative financial services, the brand serves more than three million cardholders through more than 130,000 distribution locations and 80,000 distributing employers and merchants. Offering FDIC-insured Visa and MasterCard prepaid cards issued by state- and federally-regulated financial institutions, it offers features for adding, spending, withdrawing and managing money, including free direct deposit, text and email alerts and online and mobile account centers.

As for what's ahead in the new year, Harris told Built In, "We're seeing a real shift to self-banking that mobile has really accelerated by making web access affordable to anyone and appealing to consumers demanding anytime-anywhere access. In 2015, mobile will continue to be a major focus for innovations that address the major drivers in our market like security and self-service."

In 2014, TSYS — of which NetSpend is a wholly-owned subsidiary — was named to The Civic 50 by the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) and Points of Light for improving the quality of life in the communities where it does business, and it also earned awards for its corporate social responsibility practices, adoption-friendly workplace, and support of the National Guard and Reserve, as well as its customer response time and sustainable business practices.

Headquartered in Austin, the brand has additional offices in Atlanta, Charlotte and San Mateo. It's currently hiring various Austin positions in the realms of engineering, accounting, marketing and operations. 

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