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Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

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Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#341

Post by tedmiston »

hart_russell wrote: post #226
pdelbarba wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really like all of this. In particular I wish there was a way of setting your own fraud prevention constraints instead of having the bank try and figure out what your patterns are. I assume they don't because they're afraid of Average Joe disabling everything because they're annoyed and know the card company will reimburse it all anyway.

I had someone buy $200 worth of jeans 800 miles away from my home a few months ago... for some reason Visa did not find that suspicious. I was smart enough to thoroughly read my statement that month and dispute that charge.

At some clothing stores that's one pair of jeans.

You can call the credit card provider and have your card locked down to just your state, etc.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#342

Post by defined »

kuschku wrote: post #236
mavidser wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I always imagined a future where there would be an oAuth scopes like gateway for banks. Something like - This website requires the following permission: [x] Monthly recurring payments of $20 [o] Automatically get the payments [ ] Send me the link to deposit every month > Proceed > Cancel Life would have been so simpler then (Obviously I haven't thought this through completely, but something similar to this w…

Well, this is a thing in the EU. You usually pay via SEPA recurring transfers, and just authorize a company to take $n money monthly (and can easily revoke). Or you set up an automated recurring transaction to transmit that much money. Or you allow a company to take just any amount, at any time, but you can revoke each transfer. This last is how you usually connect debit cards, credit cards, Amazon, PayPal, to your a…

I developed a serious allergy to what were called "debit orders" when I used to live outside the USA many years ago. You would sign a form to allow the merchant to debit your bank account every month for (say) a subscription.

Cancellation was theoretically possible by calling or mailing the merchant, but too many times, an extra payment (or two, or three...) went through and it was hell to get the money back. The banks were not much help - you would have to try to get the debit reversed, and it was no fun.

I think I had a few similar experiences here in the USA, but I can't recall specifics. Now I pay everything in "push" mode via online banking, as silly as that may seem.

I hope things like SEPA work better at revocation than what I experienced back in the day!

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#343

Post by defined »

dheera wrote: post #146
louwhopley wrote: post #54

Founder here :) Feel free to ask me any questions

- Do you have programmable international wire transfers in the works? That would be an instant sell to me. My current bank requires me to show up in person, and then verify the transfer by phone, both of which require making time out of a busy schedule. - Do you have programmable virtual credit card numbers? - Have you considered virtual bank account numbers as well? For example, I have had issues with organizations…

> Do you have programmable international wire transfers in the works?

Unless things have changed recently, please watch out for the money laundering laws if you are in the USA. It is easier than you might think for absolutely innocent people to fall foul of them, making life miserable (speaking from experience).

https://edfine.io/blog/2015/12/20/how-bofa-froze-my-account-...

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#344

Post by nkristoffersen »

cortesoft wrote: post #249
hart_russell wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had someone buy $200 worth of jeans 800 miles away from my home a few months ago... for some reason Visa did not find that suspicious. I was smart enough to thoroughly read my statement that month and dispute that charge.

With Chase, and probably others, you can have them send an SMS message for every purchase. It is really helpful for discovering fraud.

With simple I get push notifications :-)

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#345

Post by pteredactyl »

graedus wrote: post #130
hasbroslasher wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The example of your son's school is fine, but imagine that your son lives in another country. Cash has other problems beside being slow. It's insecure - a person could steal your $20 bill from your mailbox or his, or from the Post Office. It's untraceable - if your son's school says "We never got your payment" but your son swears he gave them the cash, you're stuck in a situation where either your son or the school i…

> It's untraceable Feature of cash, not a bug. It's not the best choice for every situation, but neither is digital, which is why it's important that people have both options available.

This.

'Cashless' as in 'cash is illegal' terrifies me. It's nothing more than a force multiplier for the power brokers (banks, govs, etc.).

There will always be corruption, theft, etc. But in one scenario, anyone can do it. In another, only the third (one) party can do it. Tell me which is better, oh starry-eyed Valley dreamer?

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#346

Post by pteredactyl »

hasbroslasher wrote: post #243
trowawee wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the ability to make payments outside of the scope of the panopticon is one of the better arguments in favor of cash and against a completely cashless society.

I'd like to think that in time someone will solve this too by some kind of clever obfuscation, but it's not going to be BoA doing it. It's going to be someone who wants to fuck with their status as a state-sponsored usurer. Or at least I hope. Also consider Bitcoin as a "cashless society" alternative to the financial panopticon - no one's looking over your shoulder there and it's definitely not "cash".

If it's digital, it's traceable. If it passes through DARPA wires, or FCC waves, it's traceable. There are ways to obfuscate. But never completely like an 'air-gapped', transaction wherein I hand a cashier $5 in exchange for ice cream.

I'm clearly in the 'it's nobody's business except for the parties involved' party...

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#347

Post by voltagex_ »

hetspookjee wrote: post #232
hart_russell wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had someone buy $200 worth of jeans 800 miles away from my home a few months ago... for some reason Visa did not find that suspicious. I was smart enough to thoroughly read my statement that month and dispute that charge.

In all honesty, that sounds reasonable for a holiday purchase.

Yeah, but if transaction 1 is in person (card present) in your home area, then transaction 2 is card present 800 miles away in a short amount of time, shouldn't that raise a flag somewhere?

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#348

Post by andrewflnr »

curryhowardiso wrote: post #302
Someone wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5. Due to a bug in _your_ code, accidentally have your mortgage payments bounce because of lack of funds, and get evicted from your home. With great power comes great responsibility. The number of times you say 'perhaps', 'unless', 'so if', or 'could' is so high that you would have to thoroughly review your code before trusting it.

Mate it's called a sandbox and reviewed apps... We're not talking about hooking up some PHP script to your bank account... and I'm not even affiliated with them!

Mate the entire point here is that it's your own code, not reviewed by anyone else.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#349

Post by halfdgvfyjjuc »

apostacy wrote: post #241
moftz wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I could just have the ability to create virtual credit card numbers. I would be able to fill it with a certain balance, set up recurring balance refills, change the expiration date, keep a merchant whitelist, and cancel the number at any time. This gives me the opportunity to make sure that even if my card number was stolen or abused, the charge won't go through. If I sign up for a free trial or a service I on…

I use entropay.com, which lets you create virtual credit cards, and pre-charge them. And if the account runs out of money, the transaction is declined, and the merchant has no way to get your money after that. As a warning, there are some problems with entropay.com though. Over the last year, some merchants have been able to detect that entropay.com virtual credit cards are prepaid, and require a plastic card. Also,…

Netflix gives access to content based on the country you (or rather your IP) are physically present in.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#350

Post by rkv »

Since the very beginning of online banking I've wanted two things: IP whitelisting and a master switch to enable/disable withdrawals. I've settled for 2FA but even top banks in Canada are still not offering it.

I work in security and have witnessed some extremely well-crafted endpoint malware that can intercept banking sessions.

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