Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
1–10 of 56 posts
Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
#2Is anyone aware of any direct competition in the credit card "scanning" space?
Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
#3This looks even smoother than Square, but I'm curious to see how it handles credit cards with the silvery ink worn off of the numbers, or cards with complex graphics on the front.
Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
#4Is anyone aware of any direct competition in the credit card "scanning" space?
I mean, there's Square... but they use a hardware piece. I'm interested to understand why the hardware piece is better than the photo scanner. Is it more secure? More reliable?
Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
#5Is anyone aware of any direct competition in the credit card "scanning" space?
I mean, there's Square... but they use a hardware piece. I'm interested to understand why the hardware piece is better than the photo scanner. Is it more secure? More reliable?
I might be wrong, but I seem to recall that credit card companies charge less in fees for magnetic strip readings than just entering in the number, which the photo scanner would be analogous to.
Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, there's Square... but they use a hardware piece. I'm interested to understand why the hardware piece is better than the photo scanner. Is it more secure? More reliable?
I might be wrong, but I seem to recall that credit card companies charge less in fees for magnetic strip readings than just entering in the number, which the photo scanner would be analogous to.
No, you're right :) Swiping a card makes it a card present transaction, which have lower rates than keyed entry. Some processors will even shut you down if too many of your transactions are keyed (worried about fraud).
From what I can tell, this just does the scanning and doesn't actually process the transaction though? Could be wrong on that. Also, 15 cents per scan seems expensive.
Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
I might be wrong, but I seem to recall that credit card companies charge less in fees for magnetic strip readings than just entering in the number, which the photo scanner would be analogous to.
No, you're right :) Swiping a card makes it a card present transaction, which have lower rates than keyed entry. Some processors will even shut you down if too many of your transactions are keyed (worried about fraud). From what I can tell, this just does the scanning and doesn't actually process the transaction though? Could be wrong on that. Also, 15 cents per scan seems expensive.
At the same time it's possible that they cut deals with the processors to be certified in some way, so that if the numbers are retrieved using their service the card is considered present.
Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
#8(Full disclosure, I'm a stock holder in Square)
There are two good reasons Square doesn't do this that I can think of off the top of my head.
First, CNP vs CP card processing rates. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_not_present_transaction
Every credit card has the CC number encoded in to the back of the card, but in addition to that, it has a couple bytes of extra information. That extra information qualifies the merchant for a lower processing rate if they SWIPE the card. That means, when you take a picture, you are paying closer to 3.5% instead of 2.75% for every transaction. (rates quoted are square's cp vs cnp rates)
Some merchants are extremely sensitive to this, other aren't. The larger a merchant is, the more likely they are going to care. On the other hand, no merchant wants to lose a sale, 3.5% of a sale is still better than 100% of a lost sale.
The other reason is based on UX. It feels really weird to have someone take a picture of your credit card using their cell phone. The apps that use this technology might be doing anything with that image.
Otoh, more people should take credit cards!
(edit: Sidenote, Square considered doing this before the swiper was invented, during the very first month or so. Doesn't mean it is a bad idea, just that Square moved away from it in favor of a swiper.)
Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
#9Interesting. I was talking about this idea 2 weeks ago with some friends. Here in France Square doesn't work since only chip cards are accepted, not magnetic stripe cards. So card.io could have a greater market penetration worldwide than Square.
Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning
#10Hi gang, this is Mike from card.io.
socmoth, CrazedGeek, and tbgvi are right that this is considered a CNP transaction and rates are higher. However, our focus is on mobile developers, not retail merchants. By taking friction out of the mobile checkout flow for those developers (because customers don't have to type out their cc number), conversions are higher, and thus revenues are higher.
Regarding the user experience: folks are used to scanning barcodes with RedLaser, business cards with CardMunch, and checks with PayPal and the Chase mobile app. If we can make credit card purchasing easy and fast on the phone, that's a good user experience.
Thanks for the feedback!