We believe that access to transportation shouldn’t be a barrier for anyone, including those who are cash-preferred. According to the FDIC, in 2019, 7.1 million US households are unbanked or have limited access to traditional financial services. Furthermore, this limited access to traditional financial services disproportionately impacts communities of color.*
To further our work to improve transportation access for more people, today, we’re announcing a new way to pay for Lyft rides: with cash. Riders can now conveniently add cash to their Lyft Cash balance at more than 35,000 retail locations nationwide including Walmart, ACE Cash Express, Kroger Family of Stores and more. Learn more here.
Riders can simply present a barcode or unique ID number from their Lyft app and add cash, turning physical cash into Lyft Cash. Lyft Cash can then be used in their Lyft account to book rides with no added fees or charges.
With this new payment option, Lyft is expanding transportation access to cash-preferred riders so they can easily pay for Lyft rideshare modes to get where they need to go even if they don’t have a bank account, credit, debit, or prepaid card.
“Lyft is committed to making sure more people have access to affordable, reliable transportation, and we can help achieve that by expanding payment methods for our services. We know cash is the primary form of payment for many people, and we hope this helps people get where they need to go more easily.” Kaushik Subramanian, VP of Enterprise Platforms at Lyft.
“We’re excited that Lyft is working to expand the accessibility to transportation across the country, specifically for the cash-preferred and unbanked population who have often faced roadblocks when it comes to getting where they need to go.” Antoine Holman, NAACP Vice President of Corporate Relations.
To help ensure riders have sufficient funds to complete their ride, a minimum of $30.00 is required to purchase Lyft Cash. Riders looking to take a bike or scooter ride will need to have an additional alternative payment method, such as a credit card, attached to their account to use their Lyft Cash balance for the ride.** For rideshare, new Lyft riders will not be required to have a payment method besides the Lyft Cash balance, and will instead need to scan an approved form of identification to their account once they request their ride.
Riders can find a local store to purchase Lyft Cash for their Lyft account by navigating to the Payment section within the Lyft app, selecting Add Cash, In-Store, and clicking on Find a Store. For more info, riders can visit https://www.lyft.com/rider/load-cash.
**Bikes and scooter rides will require an alternative payment method to use the Lyft App. Subject to Lyft Terms of Service available at lyft.com/terms. For questions, please contact customer service at https://lyft-bikes-scooters.zendesk.com/hc/en-us.
For full terms visit https://www.lyft.com/terms/lyft-cash