Branch Brings Gig Worker Savings to Uber Drivers and Couriers

Branch, a company that builds banking tools for hourly and gig workers, has launched a new savings account aimed at people whose paychecks change every week. High Yield Savings, announced on October 1, lives inside the Branch app and in partner versions of it such as the Uber Pro Card. Drivers and couriers who hold a high enough average balance can earn up to 3.25% APY, according to the company, making it the rare savings product designed from the start for gig worker savings.

For workers paid by the trip, the shift, or the tip, setting money aside is not hard in theory. The hard part is that most savings products were built for salaried workers with predictable direct deposit. People who drive for Uber, deliver food, or pick up restaurant shifts can watch their income swing by hundreds of dollars from one week to the next, which makes a rigid savings schedule feel out of reach. PYMNTS reported this month that Branch founder and chief executive Atif Siddiqi sees that mismatch as the central problem his team set out to fix. It is the gap Branch says its gig worker savings product is meant to close.

The mechanics are simple on purpose. The account pays its top rate to anyone who holds an average daily balance of at least $500, with no requirement to set up direct deposit or hit a card-spending target. Balances below that line earn 1.25% APY starting from the first cent, and the account charges no fees and has no minimum to open. Automatic contributions can run daily, weekly, every two weeks, or monthly, and interest is paid out monthly. Workers can pull money out at any time, and Branch says transfers typically carry no fee.

Built for paychecks that change every week

Most high-yield accounts quietly assume a steady paycheck. Many require a monthly direct deposit or a set amount of debit-card spending to unlock the advertised rate, conditions that are easy for salaried workers and punishing for people whose income shifts with demand. Branch drops those conditions entirely: the only requirement is the balance itself. The savings account also sits in the same app where Uber Pro Card holders already receive their earnings, which cuts out the extra step of moving money to a separate bank, and for gig worker savings that missing step was half the battle.

In a statement announcing the launch, Siddiqi described the company's goal as helping working Americans grow financially, and said the new account delivers a competitive rate that workers with irregular income can actually reach. PYMNTS quoted him saying the company wants Branch to become the place where its users' financial lives happen, with savings as one more step in that direction. That framing puts the gig worker savings crowd at the center of the product.

Part of a bigger bet on gig workers' wallets

High Yield Savings starts with Uber drivers and couriers, but Branch plans to roll it out to the rest of its user base and to other companies that run its white-label financial tools. The company has also signaled that credit products are on its roadmap, which would put borrowing next to earning and saving in the same app. For anyone stacking delivery shifts and freelance work, that amounts to a small ecosystem forming around money that arrives in irregular bursts.

That irregularity is the defining feature of gig work, and it is also what most banks ignore. Side hustlers who combine driving, delivery, and freelance gigs often leave everything in a checking account, where the money is easy to spend and earns nothing. Gig worker savings needs a home built for irregular income. A tool that lives in the pay app and pays a real rate without punishing a thin week gives that money a place to wait. Whether Branch's product becomes the default will depend on whether workers trust it, but the design shows that at least one fintech is finally building for paychecks that never arrive on the same day twice.

Branch's launch announcement was distributed through PRNewswire, and PYMNTS covered the rollout in an interview with Siddiqi the same week. Coverage and the full announcement are available at PYMNTS and in the company announcement.