There's been another company working on this for many years: http://www.dynamicsinc.com/ I've seen the working models, they are decent, but it's a surprisingly hard problem.
Also this: https://walla.by/the-wallaby-card
Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
31–40 of 182 posts
Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
#32Looks pretty cool. Too bad the holograms are not included :)
Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
#33This seems a great way to steal other people's credit cards. You can literally duplicate someone's card on your "coin". Now there's a super easy way for someone working in a restaurant to get your credit card information and sell it.
Easier than pen and paper? Or the camera on their phone?
Its a bit hard to read the mag stripe by eye - unless your a mutant in which case call in Phil Coulson's team stat
Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
#34Super cool idea! but, terrible name choice, no one is ever going to call it just "Coin" they're gonna call it their "coin card". "Coin" is already slang for money in general like, "dough" or "clams" and is also already a form of money.
Do you have a coin?
I lost my coin.
Check out my coin.
I paid for that with coin.
Coin is so convenient.
I got rid of all my credit cards, I just use coin.
Similarly, I have an account at Simple. And while it's a product I absolutely love it's hard to explain to people what I mean by "I do my banking online at Simple" or "I like simple because they charge no fees" It seems like I'm just being grammatically incorrect and I honestly feel like it contributes negatively to peoples perception of the company. Also search is a bitch when you've got such a crappy name.
Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
#35This is potentially useful for the US market as chip/pin is very new to us and only recently rolled out via major banks this year (I literally just got my new Visa card with a chip). I can see how Europe is far ahead of the curve. My initial questions/concerns are as follows: Will this be usable in ATMs? I can't visibly tell if it's too wide to fit. Is there any planned security functionality to lock the card via you…
Based on Coin's FAQ:
1. Yes, it should be usable with ATMs without issue.
2. You cannot lock your coin with a password, but it will deactivate after it loses contact with a phone after a user-specified amount of time. In theory, I'd assume you can disable Bluetooth on your iPhone and it will effectively "lock" your Coin until it can pair with your device again.
Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
#36Moving beyond all the security concerns and potential technology shifts in this space, I'd be concerned with durability. By the time my credit cards expire, I typically have had to replace them at least once due to wear.
I'm not charged an additional fee to get those cards, but this would cost me.
Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't tell from the site if your card data is stored on your phone or not. If it is, then you're going to have to replace all of your cards if you lose your phone. Also, shouldn't the merchants be checking the signature on the card?
This is the biggest downside in my opinion. Theoretically any merchant should deny any card without a signature, End of Story. In the merchant agreement they sign with Visa and MasterCard, they agree that any fraudulent charges where they did not check the signature are their responsibility.
How often are the cashiers checking the back of the card? Many of the card readers I see are on the customers' side of the counter, and I swipe it myself, often because I'll enter a pin. Also there are self-checkout kiosks with little or no supervision. I don't think that the lack of a signature line is the _biggest_ downside.
Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
#38A lot of places ID you when you use a card. I wonder how that would work. I don't see a name on it.
Requiring ID is against the rules of every major card network; so are things like adding surcharges, and having minimum transaction amounts. Think about it, anything that adds friction to using a card makes it more likely you might use cash, eating into the card network's revenues. Anything that does that is likely to be frowned upon or prohibited.
Report merchants that do that.
For Visa, call your card issuer.
For Amex, call them.
For MasterCard - http://www.mastercard.us/support/merchant-violations.html
Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
#39This seems a great way to steal other people's credit cards. You can literally duplicate someone's card on your "coin". Now there's a super easy way for someone working in a restaurant to get your credit card information and sell it.
Easier than pen and paper? Or the camera on their phone?
I assume it's easier in the sense that your waiter could add your card to his Coin, then immediately go buy a TV at the store with it. Not having to make a fake card or needing the address of the card holder to use it online.
Re: Meet Coin (YC W13), a startup creating a universal credit card
#40This seems a great way to steal other people's credit cards. You can literally duplicate someone's card on your "coin". Now there's a super easy way for someone working in a restaurant to get your credit card information and sell it.
Pretty sure a magstripe writer isn't really that hard to get.