And although the concept's savings requirement had some attractive aspects, she says, it didn't always appear to mitigate the cycle of debt, and in some cases exacerbated the situation.
"The word innovation gets thrown around a lot to insulate bad practices, and we need to encourage the right kind of innovation, and not the wrong kind," Saunders says.
But Sorbe defends TandemMoney's concept as a financially healthier alternative to payday loans, which he says are structured to trap borrowers.
Adam Rust, who as the author of the BankTalk blog wrote several posts about the TandemMoney saga, expresses a general opposition to the commingling of credit and prepaid features in the same financial product. But he regards the savings requirement that TandemMoney came up with as a positive innovation.
"They had an idea that perhaps will be revisited," he says.
-Heather Landy, Editor in Chief, American Banker Magazine