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Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

reuters.com

121–130 of 374 posts

Re: Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

#121
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Frame of reference: US only) That's a shame, given 18-25 is just the age where a credit card skimmer or online card fraud causing a big fraudulent withdrawal from your checking account, and weeks of waiting to get it back, could be devastating. This has happened to people in my family (likely from gas stations) but we only use credit cards except to pull cash from ATMs, so we only suffer a temporary dip in our avail…

fraudulent withdrawal from your checking account, and weeks of waiting to get it back I've had this happen to me twice in about 25 years. Neither bank made me wait weeks. The most recent one (with a giant megabank) issued a provisional credit in under an hour. There seem to be a lot of people in this thread who have never actually been through this and are just apeing what other people say online. U.S. banks largely…

I have a friend that got a call/notification that her card was being used suspiciously. It may not have been from the bank. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but then very shortly after, someone else got her newly issued debit card and then used it at an atm in her area. The bank didn't believe that she wasn't involved. And despite filing a police report and giving them all the information that she could, she was out 2.5 grand, which was a big deal for her. BofA if anyone is wondering.

Re: Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

#122
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit cards are many products rolled into one. Despite the name, many people use "credit cards" simply for rewards and enhanced purchase protections, with only incidental use of the credit facility. In the US market, it is surprising that someone would choose to use a debit card over a credit card (if they have the choice) because they are giving up the rewards and enhanced purchase protections, which are available…

Not to mention the grace period. Especially with high interest rates, it's another perk to have thousands of my dollars stay in the bank all month while my credit card bill piles up. This matters less when rates are super low.

One thing I didn't truly appreciate until my wife and I consolidated our spending and had children - having nearly every expense flow through a credit card puts total spending into perspective without having to look through bank statements or keep up a spreadsheet. Getting a $10k bill when you're expecting $8k (or a $30k bill when you're expecting $20k) can be a pretty jarring event and is a built-in monthly touch point to review budgeting and spending.

It wouldn't be quite the same impact spread out over 5 cards paid out of multiple checking accounts with slightly different billing cycles.

Re: Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

#123
post #90
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Majority of EU population. Even in US debit is more popular than credit in 18-25 age bracket.

(Frame of reference: US only) That's a shame, given 18-25 is just the age where a credit card skimmer or online card fraud causing a big fraudulent withdrawal from your checking account, and weeks of waiting to get it back, could be devastating. This has happened to people in my family (likely from gas stations) but we only use credit cards except to pull cash from ATMs, so we only suffer a temporary dip in our avail…

That's way less common in Europe. Most places are chip and pin or NFC and that limits skimming quite a lot.

Re: Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

#124
post #118
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the play they're making is that putting millions of new Discover cards out there will be a tipping point, pressuring the remaining merchants who don't take it, as a play to break the Visa/MC duopoly. This could be not that hard to pull off. American Express historically was less accepted because of their high fees, but I don't think Discover has or had that problem.

Maybe I just don't use it enough but I can really only remember one time in the last ~15 years that I've tried to use my Discover card and been told they don't take Discover. I wonder if there's a geographical component, or if certain industries are less likely to take anything other than Visa/MC?

There is a geographic component. Outside the U.S. acceptance of Discover is not nearly as universal as in the U.S. So much so that in the letter that accompanied the new Discover debit cards they sent out, they had something to the effect of “maybe you should bring a backup card” if you were planning on using it internationally.

Re: Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

#125

Years ago I took a chance on hiring an engineer fresh out of a software bootcamp. Turned out to be one of the best engineers I have ever worked with - so much tenacity and thirst for learning new things. They went on to join Brex when the company was just starting out. What an awesome exit!

Now I'm wondering if I should've accepted an interview with them. For a while Brex was spamming me with recruiter emails like no other company had done before it.

If it was in the last half decade, your potential stock would be halved with this purchase by C1

Re: Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fraudulent withdrawal from your checking account, and weeks of waiting to get it back I've had this happen to me twice in about 25 years. Neither bank made me wait weeks. The most recent one (with a giant megabank) issued a provisional credit in under an hour. There seem to be a lot of people in this thread who have never actually been through this and are just apeing what other people say online. U.S. banks largely…

The key with debit cards is the incentive misalignment. With credit, it’s the bank that loses out, not you. With debit, it’s you. Until the consequences are equaled by legislation, there’s no world where they get equal treatment by the bank

To add on to that: if someone fraudulently uses your credit card, it's the issuer's money that's now missing and they need to get it back. If someone fraudulently uses your debit card, it's your money that's now missing that you need to get back. Hopefully things don't start overdrawing your account in the meantime.

Re: Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

#127
post #90
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Majority of EU population. Even in US debit is more popular than credit in 18-25 age bracket.

(Frame of reference: US only) That's a shame, given 18-25 is just the age where a credit card skimmer or online card fraud causing a big fraudulent withdrawal from your checking account, and weeks of waiting to get it back, could be devastating. This has happened to people in my family (likely from gas stations) but we only use credit cards except to pull cash from ATMs, so we only suffer a temporary dip in our avail…

I wish I could scream this from the rooftops. People should keep their debit cards locked/frozen, and only use them to get money from ATMs when needed.

All other spending should go onto credit cards, for numerous reasons that have been bought up throughout this thread.

Re: Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who in the world uses debit cards

Other than merchant transactions, the CapitalOne MC card was one of the recommended cards for overseas ATM withdrawal, so the transition to a different network with almost zero international coverage has been very jarring.

I'm overseas and have a Capital One MC card which I've never had a problem with regarding ATMs and frictionless payments, so I find this news fairly alarming. Wait—they're planning on killing their MC card and converting all their card accounts to Discover?

That doesn't sound good.

Re: Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B

#130

They refused my business because I didn't have SV VC money Chase got it instead, but they are losing it next month because of their shenanigans and greed Wish crypto hadn't been co-opted by the same people and worse

> Chase got it instead, but they are losing it next month because of their shenanigans and greed

Well, on a related note: https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bont...

"Capital One marketed its 360 Savings accounts as “high interest” accounts with “one of the nation’s best savings rates”...However, while interest rates rose nationwide...Capital One kept the interest rates for its 360 Savings accounts artificially low...Instead, Capital One created “360 Performance Savings,” a nearly identical type of savings account that provided much higher interest rates than 360 Savings..."

“Capital One misled consumers through false marketing and a lack of transparency regarding its savings account system, cheating consumers nationwide. Given an opportunity to make loyal customers whole, Capital One sank their teeth in even more, attempting to underpay people it harmed and continue its deceptive practices"

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