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Coin

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171–180 of 720 posts

Re: Coin

#171

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.

A wallet is a single point of failure device. It's a lot more of a hassle to remotely wipe my wallet (remember all the cards, cancel them all individually).

A wallet contains many different things that can be added and subtracted at will. If this Coin thing is to be used as I think it is, it is all your cards, all the time. I can't just bring one card, it's all of them.

Not to mention the fact that now one service has all of my cards and their information? Coin better know what they're getting into. I'd prefer the hassle of many sites than one with everything, just not worth it to me.

Re: Coin

#172
post #160

I worked on a product like this at Amex about 20 years ago and while it was a totally neat concept it was completely stupid in practice. All those plastic cards are marketing vehicles that can also transmit a number. And, really, are they that difficult to manage?

Hey, the cool hipster dude with a beard says it's cool, so it has to be. Seriously though, they did a fantastic job with the overall experience of the landing page/video. The product, however, is not that great.

I don't know about the landing page. Maybe it works better on touch screen devices, but using the wheel on my mouse left many of the different section badly aligned. I had go back and forth several times which I found to be quite annoying and I still have no idea what the site is about.

Re: Coin

#173
post #160

I worked on a product like this at Amex about 20 years ago and while it was a totally neat concept it was completely stupid in practice. All those plastic cards are marketing vehicles that can also transmit a number. And, really, are they that difficult to manage?

Hey, the cool hipster dude with a beard says it's cool, so it has to be. Seriously though, they did a fantastic job with the overall experience of the landing page/video. The product, however, is not that great.

Is "cool hipster dude" necessary? Not that your second sentence was informative either, really.

Re: Coin

#174

Don't forget there is also Loop, which reached it's Kickstarter goal already: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loop/pay-with-loop Personally, I like the idea of using my phone over the coin thingy. Also, I'm curious about how sturdy this thing is. Maybe it's my wallet or maybe I just shop too much, but I tend to wear out my debit card really quickly (< 1 year).

This is incredible. I like Loop a lot more than Coin, but I would not be comfortable handing my phone to waitstaff to take it to the back of the house. If they had an android case I'd buy immediately. I'm just not a fan of presenting my phone with the fob.

For what it's worth, my cards last have lasted indefinitely in my wallet.

Re: Coin

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It prevents skimming and other types of fraud (less cost == lower fees).

> less cost == lower fees In a perfect world...

We've used pin (and now pin+chip) as long as we use cards.. I pay exactly 0% transaction fees and only a few euro per quarter. Merchants pay exactly 0% transactions fees and a small monthly subscription. It just works.

Re: Coin

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oops, now your boss wants to know why you just paid for your groceries on the business credit card and you have to explain that you cloned your business credit card and there was a mistake!! I'm not sure how every corporate card works, but I have accidentally made purchases on a Corporate Amex before and it's not a problem. I just pay that part off myself and don't mark it to be expensed. Don't see this as a proble…

OTOH in other companies you might be in serious hot water. Or, if you work for the government, potentially going to jail for putting personal expenses on a government card.

This is a bit hyperbolic - mistakes like this happen all the time and I have serious doubts you'd ever go to jail or even lose a job over something like this, as long as you get it corrected once you recognize the problem. The issue in my mind is that the hassle of correcting this kind of error quickly negates any convenience you'd have gotten from using the card in the first place.

Re: Coin

#177
How is this different from Wallaby Card? Is this a live product? My understanding is that the networks were not allowing such products. For example, Google and PayPal both planned to issue dynamic "wallet cards" but were blocked by V/MC.

Re: Coin

#178
post #72

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…

I agree - I don't see the comments here as Hater News, but rather the exact sort of questions pretty much any consumer or business user would ask. There's a glint of "oh this is useful" and then there's the "oh, but what about this... and that...". That's not Hater News - that's pretty much exactly what any non-technical person would inquire about this product.

I think Coin is going to be wildly successful.

I was looking at my wallet the other day, and wondering why i can't slim it down even further to carry one digital card instead of multiple. i even thought it would make a good startup. and here we are.

the only drawback in my mind's eye regarding coin as a business is that there will be no reason to have "swipes" anymore if you can just scan a smartphone, as with the starbucks card.

however, the widespread use of scan technology is years away, whereas the swipe is ubiquitous now.

ergo, IMHO, coin will be a success if they can execute on the product.

Re: Coin

#179
post #25

How would you prevent mass credit card theft in this case? Couldn't an unscrupulous person, say a waiter at a restaurant, take your card, use his/her own Coin to make a copy of your card, add it to their own Coin, and then use that card at their leisure at a future date? I know, the same question was asked re: Square and the like, but the difference is that you need a Square account to steal other people's cards, and…

You can already steal credit cards really easily. When you hand your card to the waiter, there are machines that will save that number and you can write it to a blank card easily. They can also jot down your security number. This might make it marginally easier, but it is on one service and tracked.

Yeah, and even without that machine you can just look at the number on the card

Re: Coin

#180
post #102

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…

Wait, is it easy to toggle cards or hard to toggle cards? I don't think you can have it both ways.
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