Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

card.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 56 posts

Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

#41

Post by mmettler »

kyleslattery wrote: post #31

I'm a little unclear on this--does Card.io handle the payment processing too, or just the card capture itself? If they don't handle the payment processing, how does the card number get passed along?

Hi Kyle, we're just doing the card capture today. Many of our developers already had merchant accounts and were just looking to get rid of the pain of having their customers type in the card number. We scan the card and return the number via SSL to the developer who finalizes the transaction.

-Mike from card.io

Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

#42

Post by chrisbolt »

richcollins wrote: post #24
socmoth wrote: post #8

(Full disclosure, I'm a stock holder in Square) There are two good reasons Square doesn't do this that I can think of off the top of my head. First, CNP vs CP card processing rates. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_not_present_transaction Every credit card has the CC number encoded in to the back of the card, but in addition to that, it has a couple bytes of extra information. That extra information qualifies the me…

Otoh, more people should take credit cards! We should be moving away from credit cards. They are becoming an archaic technology.

What do you propose we replace them with?

Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

#43

Post by pbreit »

timjahn wrote: post #23
socmoth wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CardMuch, Checks are both examples of me taking a picture of something I own (check, biz card) using my own cell phone. Card.io is someone else taking a picture of my credit card, using their cell phone. In the first two examples, I have control and ownership. In the last example, I have ownership (of the data/card) but no control of the software. Anything that increases conversions is great! Best of luck! I look for…

I may be wrong, but I believe the premise behind card.io is that you buy something in an app (a good old in app purchase), and instead of typing in all your credit card info, you simply take a picture of your credit card for payment. Doesn't seem that card.io is trying to get merchants to use this as a Square replacement at this point.

Invariably, anytime someone writes "simply" what they mean is "quite a bit clumsier than the alternative".

Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

#44

Post by ryanhuff »

richcollins wrote: post #24
socmoth wrote: post #8

(Full disclosure, I'm a stock holder in Square) There are two good reasons Square doesn't do this that I can think of off the top of my head. First, CNP vs CP card processing rates. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_not_present_transaction Every credit card has the CC number encoded in to the back of the card, but in addition to that, it has a couple bytes of extra information. That extra information qualifies the me…

Otoh, more people should take credit cards! We should be moving away from credit cards. They are becoming an archaic technology.

While low-tech, credit cards are very flexible. I worry that the more high tech approaches (NFC, etc) are motivated not because its a step forward, but because its an opportunity to grab more control of the market, and leave consumers more exposed to fraud.

Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

#45

Post by biot »

mmettler wrote: post #10

Hi gang, this is Mike from card.io. socmoth, CrazedGeek, and tbgvi are right that this is considered a CNP transaction and rates are higher. However, our focus is on mobile developers, not retail merchants. By taking friction out of the mobile checkout flow for those developers (because customers don't have to type out their cc number), conversions are higher, and thus revenues are higher. Regarding the user experien…

This is completely from left field, but should you ever move the project to an alternate domain name, card.io would be a perfect domain for a fitness-related app focusing on cardio workouts.

I can see the title on HN: "Card.io - fast and easy workouts"

Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

#46

Post by thinkcomp »

chrisbolt wrote: post #42
richcollins wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Otoh, more people should take credit cards! We should be moving away from credit cards. They are becoming an archaic technology.

What do you propose we replace them with?

http://www.facecash.com

Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

#47

Post by ericd »

timerickson wrote: post #26
rottencupcakes wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The other reason is based on UX. It feels really weird to have someone take a picture of your credit card using their cell phone. The apps that use this technology might be doing anything with that image. To be fair, any company that gets my credit card number (restaurants, Walmart, Amazon, every random e-shop on the internet) could be doing anything with my credit card, so this concern isn't exactly new or very sc…

To you, no. Consumers have an irrational understanding that swiping a credit card is safe. Taking a picture of it is likely the sketchiest action a merchant could take, in the eyes of the average uneducated consumer.

This cannot be overstated. Companies live or die based on the perceptions they create, technical details be damned.

Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

#48

Post by mbrzuzy »

biot wrote: post #45
mmettler wrote: post #10

Hi gang, this is Mike from card.io. socmoth, CrazedGeek, and tbgvi are right that this is considered a CNP transaction and rates are higher. However, our focus is on mobile developers, not retail merchants. By taking friction out of the mobile checkout flow for those developers (because customers don't have to type out their cc number), conversions are higher, and thus revenues are higher. Regarding the user experien…

This is completely from left field, but should you ever move the project to an alternate domain name, card.io would be a perfect domain for a fitness-related app focusing on cardio workouts. I can see the title on HN: "Card.io - fast and easy workouts"

I honestly thought that this was a fitness related site. I can't help but still think of it that way even though I know what it is now.

Re: Card.io - fast and easy mobile credit card scanning

#50

Post by richcollins »

chrisbolt wrote: post #42
richcollins wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Otoh, more people should take credit cards! We should be moving away from credit cards. They are becoming an archaic technology.

What do you propose we replace them with?

Our phones
Post reply on HN