Hospitality, service staff, gig workers and musicians can now earn more tips and get paid faster, straight into their account, with a revolutionary new tipping app from Hull fintech thankyü.
The app allows tips to be tapped by a customer’s phone via a wearable tipping band called the TipTap.
It comes as hospitality businesses face a triple whammy in April of National Insurance for employers increasing to 15%, Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief being reduced from 75% to 40% and the National Minimum Wage increasing to £12.21 an hour.
The National Insurance increase alone means a café earning £20,000 in tips a year may have to pay NIC of £3,000 from April 6th.
But British Fintech-for-good start-up thankyü has developed the first decentralised peer-to-peer tipping platform, powered by payments tech pioneer Viva.com and Mastercard Move.
It means staff can receive and manage their tips quicker, employees don’t have to pay tax or NIC at source and employers don’t have to pay National Insurance on them.
It also provides a downloadable financial record of tips to help hospitality and service staff fill in self-assessment forms and use as a credit reference to help them secure a loan or a mortgage.
The thankyü app can be downloaded for free in app stores now.
The thankyü system has been trialled in Hull’s Nibble café to help waiting staff collect tips electronically and the Polar Bear Music Club in Hull, where gig-goers can ‘tap-to-tip’ performing musicians after their sets. It’s available to download and use for free in the app store now.
thankyü was designed to help employees and employers following Government legislation that came into force last October. The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, also known as the Tipping Act, requires employers to all share tips, gratuities, and service charges fairly and transparently with their employees. The government claim it will see an extra £200 million go back into the pockets of workers.
Before the act, tips were often collected centrally when the bill arrived and then distributed up to 60 days later by the employer, sometimes with very little transparency or a fair representation of the service provided.
The thankyü app allows tips to be collected by hospitality and service staff directly and keep them in their own personal wallet and, if they wish, share them with fellow employees, family or friends or transfer them to their own bank account.
thankyü, which is part of Hull’s burgeoning tech sector, developed an NFC (Near-Field Communication) wearable called the ‘TipTap’ band which allows customers to tip by tapping the band with their phone, taking them straight to the individual tipping account for the employee serving them. Tips can also be received using an in-app QR code.
Customers enter the amount they’d like to give, provide a star rating and then the tip is sent into their thankyü personal wallet in the app and settled into their bank account every Tuesday, or sooner if they want.
Payments are managed by Viva.com, powered by Mastercard Move’s money movement capabilities, and thankyü is currently offering a TipTap band for free to the first 1,000 people to download the app, as well as a free weekly prize draw in the app to earn £50 to top up their account and discounts and vouchers for those who take the premium version of the app..
thankyü founder Gerard Toplass, a successful tech entrepreneur with 20 years’ experience in building technology and services businesses, said he was driven to develop the platform to give hospitality service staff and musicians a better deal and the respect they deserve: “This is a tough time for the hospitality and service industry. Rising National Insurance and reduced business rates relief will make it harder for businesses and an increasingly cashless society means there’s less money for physical tips that go straight to staff, which can account for 40% of their income.
“But surveys show over 80% of customers want to tip using their cards or integrated wallets but want to make sure the person serving them actually gets the tip.
“That’s why we created thankyü. We want to ensure staff have the ability to keep up to 100% of their tips so they can earn more money and get paid faster. We want to treat hospitality and service staff as the key workers they are.
“thankyü will allow staff to share their tips with co-workers, bandmates, family or friends and choose how they spend or save. We’ve even introduced a free weekly prize draw that will help to top up their tips.
“For employers, thankyü is safe and secure and compliant with HMRC and the Tipping Act. It reduces the administrative burden of managing cash tips, will help staff recruitment and retention and saves them paying National Insurance as the tips go straight to the server.
“thankyü will ensure staff finally get the credit they deserve for their excellent service.”
