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Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

plastc.com

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Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#151

Post by cxr344 »

Chaebixi wrote: post #21
xiaodown wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't going to be so much that, as a card that you could put multiple credit cards on, but that still functioned entirely like a credit card - meaning it could be swiped in vending machines, by waitresses, and everywhere that accepts cards, without the need for an apple pay or google pay or whatever NFC payment hardware. It's for people that keep multiple cards in their wallet.

Wasn't that exactly what Coin was? http://blog.onlycoin.com/

Pretty much. And 3-4 other, very similar startups- most have ended the same way in failing to get anything to market. Dynamics has been around for a while with a similar product, but B2B sales strategy, though they don't seem to be getting much traction. Cool idea on the surface, but clearly has some fatal flaws. Just funny to me how VCs are willing to fund essentially the same company that has failed multiple times before... though in this case, maybe their VCs actually did the diligence and that's what led them to back out (total speculation).

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#152

Post by xeromal »

faet wrote: post #59
cschep wrote: post #45

I wonder if this has anything to do with Final ( https://getfinal.com ) shipping?

Final has been shipping for 6+ months. Theyre also fairly different markets.

Yeah, I've been using Final since October of last year.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#153

Post by sbarre »

flashman wrote: post #122
NamTaf wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeh, this always seemed doomed outside the US, which in general appears to be ahead of the US for card security. Especially in AU, I don't even really go to bars with cash any more, I just use contactless payment with my card literally everywhere. Coffee, lunch, bars, etc. - pretty much everywhere has paypass/paywave now and has for years. Even three years ago, the writing was surely on the wall that they were exploi…

Even though I have a contactless card, I still prefer cash because it reminds me how much I'm spending. It's all too easy to tap away $40 several times a month and wonder where it all went.

I found the opposite was true.. Having cash in my wallet meant I didn't know where it got spent (not specifically in bars though, just in general so maybe we're talking about different things).

With tap + debit, I can track all my individual transactions via services like Mint, plus my bank sends me an email on every transaction that happens to my accounts, so I have redundant logging of where all my money goes.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#154

Post by engx »

moeadham wrote: post #60
Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chip & Pin is an interesting beast. Canada went straight to Chip & Pin, skipping over Chip & Sign. Since credit cards generally didn't have PINs at the time, there was a little work on the part of the issuing banks to assign PINs. One of my cards came with a letter that said "Use the same PIN as you use with your regular bank card", another came with one that said "Here's your new PIN, you can change it at any of our…

Chip + Sign reduces 80% of classic fraud. Chip + PIN reduces ~98% (last I heard in 2016). Someone I spoke to at capital one said that Visa/MS decided to do Chip+Sign in the US due to the increased support costs of forgotten PINs.

But fraud is up. Chip & Pin has just motivated them to use online methods. Or load other pay to load cards without a chip.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#155

Post by joncalhoun »

As much as I'd love to see something like this succeed, I can't see it happening.

CC companies have too many incentives to force you to carry their physical card, so they will keep on producing things like the chip-and-PIN tech. That means we will always have one force pushing us to carry their physical card, and until I NEVER need to pull out that real card I have to carry it with me, so I might as well just use it.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#156

Post by MandieD »

srssays wrote: post #62
jahnu wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a system has been in use in Singapore for more than 15 years. Vienna does away with all of this fuss by simply doing random checks, issuing on the spot fines for fare evaders, and not having to manage the expense of turnstiles etc.

How do you pay for tickets in Vienna then? I kind of like the barriers, if you are on the station platform, then you have definitely paid. For me, the stations that don't have barriers are more stressful, as you run the risk of forgetting to tap your card (or the tap not registering) and incurring a maximum fare.

In Nürnberg, you can either buy paper tickets from ubiquitous automats or in the local transit app (with a pre-configured credit card or current account). I love it.

Local bus drivers will sell tickets, but there are also ticket validation machines in the middle of most busses. Local trains and subways are trust basis, but I've seen more random ticket checks recently. Ticket checks are more frequent on long-distance trains, but still, no barriers. I have yet to travel on local or long-distance trains in Germany or Austria that aren't trust-based.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#157

Post by MandieD »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #73
srssays wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you pay for tickets in Vienna then? I kind of like the barriers, if you are on the station platform, then you have definitely paid. For me, the stations that don't have barriers are more stressful, as you run the risk of forgetting to tap your card (or the tap not registering) and incurring a maximum fare.

Maximum fare?? The fine for fare evasion should be well above the maximum fare.

Fine on Nürnberg's system is 60 EUR - plus maximum fare.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#158

Post by phreeza »

randrews wrote: post #100
mrbabbage wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Berlin has a similar proof-of-payment system, where there are no physical barriers between the street and train platforms. Most people have multi use tickets; you can buy week, month, or year long tickets. I definitely prefer the proof-of-payment setup more. London (which has turnstiles) can get crazy backups with people trying to tap into / out of the system, and the Berlin system lets you engineer more convenient a…

That's what caused me to get stopped by the police my first day in Berlin a few years ago. I wanted to go to a board game store, so I looked one up on Google in the hotel lobby, walked to a u-bahn station, paid a couple euros for a ticket, walked downstairs and got on a train. And promptly got pulled off the train at the next stop for not paying. They were very understanding when I explained I had only been in the co…

FWIW the police does not perform ticket checks in Berlin. Traditionally it was done by employees of the public transport company and now increasingly by third party contractors.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#159

Post by recursive »

ascorbic wrote: post #131
recursive wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I cannot remember PINs. At all. That means I can never use debit cards. If chip and pin were a thing, I guess I would have to get a tattoo or something.

It's a four digit number! How hard can they be? Set it to something memorable. Even something "insecure" like a memorable date is more secure than a signature.

That worked up until I was required to change it the first time, or until I was assigned a PIN.

Re: Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders

#160

Post by recursive »

ascorbic wrote: post #139
douche wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If two letters of my credit card signature are distinguishable, that means I was focusing hard on it. It's basically just a squiggle.

How often do they even check it though? And of those times, how often would they refuse it? I know that pre-chip and PIN in the UK I had a card for years where the signature strip had been rubbed off, and I was never challenged on it. When I've visited the US they've also very rarely checked.

I've been using credit cards without ever signing them for about a decade, and have been questioned zero times about it.
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