What's a "reference"? You can enter arbitrary info during a transaction? Genuinely curious. Is this a UK thing or available everywhere?
[deleted]
I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
91–100 of 562 posts
Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're a European teenager transfering money to someone you know, it's customary to enter something like "Payment for the drugs and the firearms".
Same with Venmo in the US. There is literally a whole website that polls the front-page API for Venmo, scans for some keywords that could indicate a "spicy" transaction description, and displays them.[0] P.S. I have zero affiliation with the website or the owners/developers, I just thought it was entertaining. 0. http://www.vicemo.com/
You have to be careful with "naughty" words, like if your description includes the name of a company on the Dept of Treasury's shitlist[1]
Some of them are fairly generic terms. I remember when this was posted[2] on HN (payment troubles caused by writing "Blue Sky" on the memo field in a check, because a company called "Blue Sky Industries" was caught doing business with Iran).
Supposedly Venmo will also flag your payment if you put "ISIS" or something like that in the description
[1]: https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdnlist.txt
[2]: http://anildash.com/2014/02/21/here_is_a_thing_that_happened...
Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
#93I hate it when my cynicism alarm goes off, but this feel-good tweet about hacking payment transfers for good is written by a guy who's twitter bio says he's a PM at Transferwise ("We’re building the best way to move money around the world.") All the replies are people contrasting shitty experiences they've had with their own wallets and money transfer services. His top pinned tweet is: > Reasons to work at @TransferW…
Isn't this a success story of a regular bank account though? I would find this super far-fetched as some sort of weird promotion, especially where OP's company is never mentioned and not actually posed as better than a regular bank account (or a regular bank account as bad). Let's just enjoy nice stories that we come across.
Marketing is not a banner ad or billboard anymore.
A viral tweet like this could land him 5 minute segments on any number of local-news stations that need a feel-good piece. He'll then have the opportunity to talk about his company.
And followers. As this tweet makes it's rounds through the media, he'll get more. He can then use that following to promote his business.
It opened the door for people to openly bash their existing bank or financial provider, and he (and his company) didn't have to say ANYTHING - their followers did it for them.
AND... a bank card without a name on it of any kind? A wallet without any identifiable information? No license, no other credit cards, no shopper cards, not a business card???? Nothing?
Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
#94[deleted]
Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
#95It reminds me of the automated collect calls of yore. "You have a collect call from 'GAME IS OVER PICK ME UP MOM THANKS'. Would you accept the call?"
That's a classic Geico commercial, one of my favs.
Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
#96In Czech Republic, during presidential elections, one of the participants (winner, Milos Zeman) opened a transparent as part of their marketing. That meant that every transaction was visible along with donor, amount and a short message.
Because Zeman is controversial person, it turned out badly. People started spamming it with lowest amount possible (about 0.01 CZK) and wrote funny messages. There were people selling their bike or computer, sending messages to their mother from a trip. Two people even played boats there [1]. Even ASCII Pikachu picture appeared there apparently [2].
[1]: https://1gr.cz/fotky/bulvar/19/041/anime/KIT7a6caf_imgbauer_... [2]: https://1gr.cz/fotky/bulvar/19/041/anime/KIT7a6caf_imgbauer_...
EDIT: Transparent account was apparently mandatory for every candidate by law.
Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
#97I hate it when my cynicism alarm goes off, but this feel-good tweet about hacking payment transfers for good is written by a guy who's twitter bio says he's a PM at Transferwise ("We’re building the best way to move money around the world.") All the replies are people contrasting shitty experiences they've had with their own wallets and money transfer services. His top pinned tweet is: > Reasons to work at @TransferW…
Hi, I’m the guy who lost his wallet! I agree it’s a convenient overlap and understand your cynicism but I assure you that it’s genuine. I can even provide you with the receipt from me riding a jump bike around for an hour looking for my wallet! :) EDIT: spelling + I did pin the tweet about transferwise after it blew up, and I also changed my bio to share my small side project: Podmast.com - check it out :)
That's what someone who does this kind of thing would say.
I'm not saying I think it's fake, but I think it might be. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and posting a defense isn't evidence.
Edit: I wondered if I got this slogan right, and it turns out to have a name - The Sagan Standard! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagan_standard
Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
#98Wouldn't it be much easier for the finder to just get in touch with the bank and ask them to notify the owner?
I once got a call/mail from my bank giving me the contact details of someone who had found my lost keys that had an RSA SecureID token generator thing on them and the finder called the hotline imprinted on it.
I don't remember much details around it since it happend in the mid 2000s.
Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
>How do you do something like transfer your friend some money? Or pay someone who did some work for you? Venmo mostly.
Interesting. But the service provider takes a cut that way, right?
NZ expat here :) Venmo doesn't charge for sending or receiving money like this to or from people. They make money through other means; from the top of my head one is paying by credit card - they take 3% if you use credit card. Another way they make money (1% per transfer) is by doing an "instant transfer" directly from your Venmo account to your bank (the other option is ACH transfer which is usually next-day delivery.) I tried this on a Sunday night which was also part of a long weekend and the money instantly appeared in my US bank account and I got a push notification from my bank that a deposit was just made. It was awesome and makes NZ look out of date.
Venmo is amazing. It's so fast and practically everyone has it. It's the Google of payments. I wish New Zealand had something like that. Sending money to friends in NZ is slow and painful - not terribly so, but compared to Venmo they really are.
Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
in practice, no one uses the banks directly to send money like that: we use apps like Venmo / CashApp that take your debit card/bank info and act as an intermediary for sending/receiving money.
A lot of US based startups make a lot more sense to us Europeans in case we move to the US and notice how broken all infrastructure is. Banking still uses cheques, so you have Paypal, Venmo, CashApp and so on. Public transport is bad or even non existent which is why Uber and Lift exist. The programm of over-the-air TV sucks and you get Netflix, HBO, Hulu and so on.
Over the air has the newest stuff. Streaming is for yesterday's hit.
Uber exists because taxis suck.
Cheques are safer and more portable than give me your bank account because you choose where to deposit.
Paypal is for websites no stores accept it and doesn't replace a cheque