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Coin

onlycoin.com

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Re: Coin

#111

Post by kintamanimatt »

emhart wrote: post #102
kintamanimatt wrote: post #68

I wonder how this would fare in an ATM. What happens if the ATM accidentally presses the card selection button? If the ATM gobbles the card, now you've effectively lost your entire wallet. What happens if the cashier presses the card selection button while running your card too? Oops, now your boss wants to know why you've just paid for your groceries on the business credit card and why you've cloned your business cr…

As far as "gobbling the card" is concerned, their FAQ states that they can only be used with "dip" ATMs, which may also address the button pushing issue. EDIT: More details from the FAQ: Q. Can someone accidentally change which card is selected on my Coin? A. We’ve designed the button to toggle cards in a way that makes it difficult to trigger a "press" unintentionally. Dropping a Coin, holding a Coin, sitting on a C…

That pretty much rules out a lot of ATMs, and all ATMs I've seen outside of the US.

Re: Coin

#112

Post by RandallBrown »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #68

I wonder how this would fare in an ATM. What happens if the ATM accidentally presses the card selection button? If the ATM gobbles the card, now you've effectively lost your entire wallet. What happens if the cashier presses the card selection button while running your card too? Oops, now your boss wants to know why you've just paid for your groceries on the business credit card and why you've cloned your business cr…

From the looks of it, it will handle rewards cards and whatnot just fine. If I could just store my Qdoba, Panera, Gameworks, Dave and Busters, REI, Best Buy, Safeway, Kroger, etc. cards on one single card.

Now I can keep as many rewards cards as I want, without having to stuff my wallet full of junk I don't need 99% of the time.

The money I save from rewards cards I wouldn't normally carry would probably pay for the price of a Coin, even if I don't use it for any of my credit or debit cards.

Re: Coin

#113

Post by Dirlewanger »

Personally, I'm not into a single point of failure device. Same reason why I eschew paying with a cell phone. More convenient? Sure. But lose your cell phone and you have a lot of things to account for, doubly so if you have no form of remote wiping it.

Re: Coin

#114

Post by unfletch »

I'm guessing the Coin pre-order is why Protean sent me an email yesterday reminding me they exist: http://getprotean.com

Their Echo card is exactly the same idea, with some minor variation in implementation. It has not yet launched.

As far as the concerns voiced here (accidental button presses, etc.), Chris Bartenstein, a Protean co-founder, has addressed some of that in the comments on this TechCrunch story: http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/02/the-protean-echo-reduces-al...

Re: Coin

#115

Post by ars »

wadetandy wrote: post #76
guipsp wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app holds infinite cards, as long as you carry your phone.

Yeah, pretty easy to just store all cards in the app and switch out the infrequently used cards for things like loyalty programs when you actually need them.

If you do that the battery runs down faster, and since you can't replace the battery or charge it, once that happens you are out $100.

I was really thinking of buying one but $100 every two years is too much for this.

Re: Coin

#116

Post by threedaymonk »

Osmium wrote: post #91
fryguy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in the UK with my non-chip and pin card and there was a similar response. It took like 5 people at Tesco to figure it out.

Yeah, I can't remember the last time I saw someone sign for or swipe a credit card in the UK: it's all chip-and-pin now, all the time. This looks like cool technology but it just wouldn't work here.

It depends where you are, I suppose. I live in an area with a lot of transient foreign nationals working in banks nearby, and they're used to dealing with non-chip cards at my local Tesco. The person in front swiped a Venezuelan Visa with no trouble the other day.

Re: Coin

#117

Post by kintamanimatt »

RandallBrown wrote: post #112
kintamanimatt wrote: post #68

I wonder how this would fare in an ATM. What happens if the ATM accidentally presses the card selection button? If the ATM gobbles the card, now you've effectively lost your entire wallet. What happens if the cashier presses the card selection button while running your card too? Oops, now your boss wants to know why you've just paid for your groceries on the business credit card and why you've cloned your business cr…

From the looks of it, it will handle rewards cards and whatnot just fine. If I could just store my Qdoba, Panera, Gameworks, Dave and Busters, REI, Best Buy, Safeway, Kroger, etc. cards on one single card. Now I can keep as many rewards cards as I want, without having to stuff my wallet full of junk I don't need 99% of the time. The money I save from rewards cards I wouldn't normally carry would probably pay for the…

I think you've misread what I wrote. It might be able to handle rewards cards, but the card itself becomes a bottleneck because it can only function as one card at a time. I'd have to select the rewards card, have that swiped, then fumble with the card again to select my payment card and proceed to pay. It seems like a ghastly hassle.

If I had this I could see myself using this for rewards cards only. But then again, I don't have a lot of rewards cards that are fattening up my wallet.

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