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Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

root.co.za

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Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#331

Post by kbenson »

ic4l wrote: post #323
derefr wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like intentional malice rather than an accident. If you can't bounce a cheque safely, you don't really have a bank; you have a loan shark.

Was a legit large bank. They did lose the case, and forked over for it but still... Had nothing to do with who was right or wrong and made shit very complicated. NEVER go 3 months without paying your payments no matter what anyone says the risks are way too high. Oh and always have a friend that is a lawyer ;)

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by sufficiently entrenched bureaucracy. Often they are indistinguishable.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#333

Post by kbenson »

coding123 wrote: post #251
jacksnipe wrote: post #215

At first I was wondering what I could possibly use this for, but as I sat and thought about it, I realized the possibilities are enormous. I'd like to know if the following are possible: 1. Forcing me to stay on budget, unless there's an emergency (perhaps allow purchases over budget after the third attempt). 2. Automatically distribute paychecks or other income into different accounts (some to retirement, some to sa…

I think stepping up 3 would be to specifically tie your API to something with GPS like your phone, and the authorization could be based on that. (I travel a lot). Or better yet, an app on the phone to just "enable transactions for a minute" since many addresses of POS systems are likely far from the actual POS.

How are restaurant tips charged? The card is run, and then you add a tip, and at some point they enter in the tip amount I assume. Would that charge show as going through at the original time, or at the time they revised the total? I imagine if they come through as special revisions, allowing those up to a certain time after the original charge and up to a certain percentage over the original amount might be sufficient, as long as there's not multiple different ways that different vendors (restaurants) do it because they don't know what they are doing...

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#334

Post by kbenson »

scardine wrote: post #245
louwhopley wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi RangerScience, the APIs are based on REST, so any language that can handle https are supported. We're also working on libraries for a bunch of popular languages :)

I would like to volunteer writing bindings for Python.

I would like to volunteer writing binding for as many languages as you can come up with, but I can't guarantee I won't shave off a fraction of a cent in transactions. Or that I'll get the decimal placement right when dealing with that "fraction"...

In all seriousness, I would be fairly worried running someone else's code on my bank account unless it was very straightforward. Even forgoing malice and incompetence, there's plenty of "wow, that's a crazy interaction between systems that wasn't obvious" to go around.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#335

Post by throwanem »

kbenson wrote: post #333
coding123 wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think stepping up 3 would be to specifically tie your API to something with GPS like your phone, and the authorization could be based on that. (I travel a lot). Or better yet, an app on the phone to just "enable transactions for a minute" since many addresses of POS systems are likely far from the actual POS.

How are restaurant tips charged? The card is run, and then you add a tip, and at some point they enter in the tip amount I assume. Would that charge show as going through at the original time, or at the time they revised the total? I imagine if they come through as special revisions, allowing those up to a certain time after the original charge and up to a certain percentage over the original amount might be sufficie…

They obtain an "authorization" in some amount, probably the bill minus tip, then fulfill it later for the amount of the bill plus tip. This is a ubiquitous practice with payment cards - for example, when you pay for gas with one, the POS authorizes some small amount to ensure the account can accept debits before unlocking the pump, and later fulfills the authorization for the price of the fuel you purchased.

Authorizations of this sort count against your available balance, and time out eventually if not fulfilled; when you look at your account and see "pending charges", this is what they actually are. Not all charges use this process - when the total amount is immediately known, it's generally immediately charged as well. But in any case where the amount may change or the account requires validation before a transaction can proceed, this is how it's done.

Presumably, since a valid authorization constitutes an agreement to pay the charge (hence the language under the signature line on your bar tab), the "enable" step you perform via the API would permit the authorization to occur, and fulfillment would work the same way it does now.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#337

Post by zouhair »

Someone wrote: post #267
jacksnipe wrote: post #215

At first I was wondering what I could possibly use this for, but as I sat and thought about it, I realized the possibilities are enormous. I'd like to know if the following are possible: 1. Forcing me to stay on budget, unless there's an emergency (perhaps allow purchases over budget after the third attempt). 2. Automatically distribute paychecks or other income into different accounts (some to retirement, some to sa…

5. Due to a bug in _your_ code, accidentally have your mortgage payments bounce because of lack of funds, and get evicted from your home. With great power comes great responsibility. The number of times you say 'perhaps', 'unless', 'so if', or 'could' is so high that you would have to thoroughly review your code before trusting it.

So just set it that every money movement made by a script when going over a certain threshold must be validated before happening.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#338

Post by ajdlinux »

hart_russell wrote: post #226
pdelbarba wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really like all of this. In particular I wish there was a way of setting your own fraud prevention constraints instead of having the bank try and figure out what your patterns are. I assume they don't because they're afraid of Average Joe disabling everything because they're annoyed and know the card company will reimburse it all anyway.

I had someone buy $200 worth of jeans 800 miles away from my home a few months ago... for some reason Visa did not find that suspicious. I was smart enough to thoroughly read my statement that month and dispute that charge.

IDK, unless you were using the card in your home location a few minutes prior, that wouldn't look too suspicious to me. 800 miles is flyable in only a couple of hours.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#339

Post by nodesocket »

This looks incredibly awesome. A few questions though.

  1.) Can I open a business account?
  2.) FDIC insured?
  3.) Out of South Africa makes me very nervous. What protections/assurances are offered for US customers?
Reminds me of when I first saw /dev/payments (Stripe) launch. Great potential.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#340

Post by mattchamb »

chocolatebunny wrote: post #238
EGreg wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is cashless. Stores don't accept your cash much. And you have to show a government id to buy anything. And they track you. But it gets worse than that. If the government wants to punish you, they can just cut you off. Can't buy food, can't pay rent. Oh you think your friends can help you? China has that covered too, with its shiny new credit system. Being associated with - let alone helping - people cut off fro…

Wait, is China really cashless now? A coworker of mine was just telling me that he used go with the accountant at his workplace to withdraw millions of dollars in cash from the bank to pay all the employees in cash. He hasn't worked in China for at least over 10 years but I didn't expect a change from million dollar cash transactions being commonplace to cashless in that time.

I dont think he knows what he is talking about. I spent 3 weeks in China in February, and used cash for pretty much everything including accommodation. Admittedly, there are lots of options for paying for things with wechat, etc. but it was nowhere near cashless.
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