As Thanksgiving and December approaches our wallets get a little thinner and our cravings for seasonal delicacies (aka the Pillsbury holiday cookies) get a lot bigger. And as we get wrapped up in shopping for gifts or planning out how to fit all of a Thanksgiving meal onto one plate, going to the gym takes a backseat. But with this app called Pact, you can stay on top of your workout and get paid!
How? After downloading the app onto your phone and creating an account, you will be prompted to enter a debit card or PayPal account (this is the where the money will go into). You will then be asked to create a health and fitness goal for yourself. For example it may be going to the gym 4 times a week, or making sure that you are eating healthy. So every time that you go to the gym, open the app and the GPS on your phone will locate the gym. You must check-in for at least 30 minutes for your visit to count. Can’t make it to the gym? Pact considers 10,000 steps the equivalent of a gym visit. Have an injury or too sick to exercise? Pact enables the user to schedule a break for their goals and also allows the user to email details of why they could not work out.
So let’s get to the money part. If you complete your weekly pact, you get paid! You get money just for going to the gym. But where does this money come from? This is the catch with the app. When you first create your personal goal you agree on the amount of money that will be withdrawn from your account for every day you said you were going to the gym, but didn’t. So in other words, the money you receive for completing your goal comes from other Pact users who did not complete theirs.
This is an extremely motivational app when you’re at the crossroads of deciding whether or not to lug down to the Dana Center. Would you rather lose money and not go to the gym or go and get paid? This app makes the decision a lot easier because as college students extra cash goes a long way and the idea of losing your potential coffee funds to a stranger is quite heartbreaking. So download Pact from the App Store and get rewarded for working out!