Fairpinch

How it works

From signing up to paying less, with nothing hidden in the middle.

FairPinch asks for one genuinely sensitive thing — proof of what you earn — so it is worth being precise about what that means. Here is every stage, what we read, what we keep, and what we can never do.

Read-only bank access Revocable in one click No credit check No card number stored here

  1. Step 01

    Create an account

    A name, an email and a password. No address, no date of birth, no identity document, no credit check. At this point you are in the network but not yet in a tier, so nothing is discounted.

    We store: name, email Takes about a minute

  2. Step 02

    Prove your income, once

    There are three ways in, and you pick the one that suits your work. Most people connect a bank because it is the fastest and needs no paperwork, but nobody is locked out for being paid irregularly, in cash, or by a bank that is not connected.

    Connect your bank

    Through Wych, an accredited recipient under Australia's Consumer Data Right. You approve it on your bank's own website. Usually approved in minutes.

    Fastest

    Upload a payslip

    A photo or PDF of a recent payslip. It is read by an AI model that pulls out the employer, the pay period and the gross amount, then annualises it. You confirm the figure before it is submitted.

    No bank needed

    Enter it by hand

    Type your annual income and explain your situation. This always goes to a person to review rather than being approved automatically, so it takes longer — but it exists so that nobody is shut out.

    Always reviewed

  3. Step 03

    The bank consent, in plain words

    This is the part worth reading slowly. The Consumer Data Right is the Australian law that lets you tell your bank to share your own data with a business you choose. You give that instruction on your bank's website, using your bank's login — never ours.

    What the consent covers

    Granted by you
    • Read-only access. It can look; it cannot move money, change your details or set up a payment.
    • Ninety days of transaction history on the accounts you choose — enough to see a pay cycle repeat.
    • One purpose only: finding the regular credits that look like wages, so we can work out an annual figure.
    • Revocable whenever you like, from your settings or directly with your bank. It stops immediately.

    What it never covers

    Out of scope
    • Your banking password or your login. Wych and FairPinch never see either.
    • Moving, withdrawing or authorising money out of your account.
    • A stored copy of your statement, your balance or what you spend it on.
    • Sharing anything with the shops you buy from, or with a credit bureau.

    What we keep afterwards: the salary credits used as evidence, the assessed annual figure, the institution name, and the date. That evidence is what a reviewer looks at if the assessment is ever questioned. In this demo environment the bank connection is simulated end to end — no real bank is contacted.

  4. Step 04

    You see the number before anyone else does

    Whichever route you took, FairPinch shows you the assessed annual income and the evidence behind it — the credits it found, how often they landed, which employer name sat on them. If it has read your situation wrongly, correct it there and say why. A corrected figure is flagged for a human rather than accepted quietly.

  5. Step 05

    A person reviews it

    Every submission lands in a review queue with its evidence attached. A reviewer can approve it, adjust the figure with a note, or reject it and tell you what would help. You are told the outcome either way, and a rejection is never the end of it — you can submit again with a different source.

    While a submission is pending, your account works normally. You simply pay full price until it is approved.

  6. Step 06

    You land in a tier

    The approved figure drops into the published table and that is your discount. Nothing is negotiated and nothing is personalised. If tiers change, your discount changes with them on your very next purchase — there is no stale copy of a rate sitting on your account.

    10% <$30k
    7.5% $30k–$45k
    5% $45k–$60k
    2.5% $60k–$80k
    0% >$80k

  7. Step 07

    Attach a card

    Your card details go straight to Pinch, our payments provider, and come back as a token. FairPinch stores the token, the brand and the last four digits — that is all we have, and it is all we need. There is no card number in our database to lose.

  8. Step 08

    At the counter

    Order the way you always would. When it is time to pay, scan the small QR card standing on the counter and type in the amount the till is showing you. Your discount comes off before the charge is made, so the money that leaves your account is already the lower figure.

    The shop sees a payment arrive for the full ticket price. There is no coupon to produce, no code to read out and no prompt on their terminal about who you are or what you earn. The queue behind you learns nothing, because there is nothing to learn.

    This is the whole point

    Concession schemes usually work by making you identify yourself as someone who needs help, out loud, in front of other people. FairPinch moves that moment off the counter and onto your own phone, where it belongs.

    Your receipt

    Every line, every time

    Ticket price $12.50
    Your discount (10%) −$1.25
    You paid $11.25

    Kept in your savings history
    for as long as you want it.

Afterwards

If your income changes

Re-verify whenever you like. A drop in hours, a job ending, moving to part time — those are exactly the moments re-verifying pays off, because they move you down into a larger discount from your next purchase onward.

If you want the bank link gone

Revoke it in your settings or with your bank. Access stops immediately. Your verified income stays on your account until it expires or you replace it, so revoking does not knock you out of your tier mid-coffee.

If you want to leave

Remove your card and stop using it — nothing is owed, because nothing was ever lent. There is no membership, no minimum spend and no exit fee.

Ready to find out which band you are in?

The top tier is currently 10% off everything, at every shop in the network.

Join free Read the questions first