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Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

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Re: Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

#71

Post by andrewdietrich »

rjf1331 wrote: post #52

I can't help but think this must be vaporware. I worked in the credit card industry for several years. A credit card company is not something anybody can just start from scratch - you need data to model chargeoffs, fraud, spend, ect in order to be profitable. And unlike Robinhood, you need a source of capital to fund the cash you float, usually securitization or deposits. I may be completely wrong, but I simply don't…

I'm happy to say that we're not vaporware. We're partnering with a bank that provides all of the pieces you mentioned. Our model is similar to that of Simple, which partnered with Bancorp Bank to launch their product.

Re: Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

#72

Post by n72 »

mcdavis wrote: post #41
crimsonalucard wrote: post #21

The guy in the video is the exact same person in the coin video. https://onlycoin.com/ I'm really pissed off I paid for coin. I'm not going to pay a dime for plastc or this until it's released.

It's Adam Lisagor whose video production company Sandwich Video works on lots of startup videos http://sandwichvideo.com/

Which I don't understand. All their stuff has such a hipster aesthetic. I'm not knocking the hipster aesthetic (I don't like it, but that's a whole different conversation), but it's certainly not an everyman aesthetic, which I would think one would want for an advertisement which is supposed to appeal to a wide audience. I'm sure other industries have put a ton of research into this and I assume this is why people in most ads are so ultra-generic. So, why go with these guys? Path of least resistance? Do people in SF not realize that the rest of the country is not like them? Do they think the rest of the country wants to be like them? This isn't snark, but genuine curiosity.

Re: Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

#73

Post by andrewdietrich »

untog wrote: post #4

Having panned Plastc yesterday, this is like night and day - where Plastc is trying to solve "I have too many credit cards in my wallet" with an overdose of technology, Final is solving an actual real problem (credit card fraud) with an intelligent use of technology. In fact, I don't even want a physical card (chip and pin will make that difficult anyway), I just want an online service that will generate a new credit…

Awesome! We hope you'll try us out.

Re: Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

#74

Post by eli »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #69
eli wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all collections agencies are so sloppy and unscrupulous. If you do owe the money and they do have the documentation to support it, you may well have a judgement against you and that definitely will hurt your credit score. Some companies (like say gym membership) have internal collections departments that can be quite aggressive. They would certainly be able to back up any lawsuit. In general, you really want to t…

You're right; occasionally you'll find a collection agency that has their act together. Luckily, collection agencies purchase their debt for pennies on the dollar, so they're happy to get anything. Start by offering them 10% of the debt, and go from there up to no more than 25% of the debt, stipulating (in writing) that its "Pay For Delete". This will require them to remove the negative credit information from your c…

That isn't really something I would brag about, but good for you I guess.

Re: Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

#75

Post by Karunamon »

mraison wrote: post #54
untog wrote: post #4

Having panned Plastc yesterday, this is like night and day - where Plastc is trying to solve "I have too many credit cards in my wallet" with an overdose of technology, Final is solving an actual real problem (credit card fraud) with an intelligent use of technology. In fact, I don't even want a physical card (chip and pin will make that difficult anyway), I just want an online service that will generate a new credit…

> I just want an online service that will generate a new credit card number for me on demand. I'm wondering why it's not more widespread. My (small) bank has been providing me a unique card number for every purchase for at least the last 5 years, and they're not usually on the cutting edge regarding banking technology. You can also give a maximum amount that can be withdrawn on the card, and once someone has withdraw…

There's a service called MaskMe that offers on-the-fly credit cards like this. It's a paid service, but what they do is you right click on a field, and generate a new card number. This card is basically prepaid - the service provider charges your real card for whatever the value you say, and the person you're buying from gets the number you just created.

Only real downside is that the generated cards are all MasterCard, and some merchants don't take anything but Visa.

Re: Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

#76

Post by downandout »

Chip and PIN, at least in the US, is useless right now because virtually no merchants have the equipment. As for the browser plugin that generates a unique number for each transaction, PayPal had this in 2008 and closed it down. I'm not exactly sure why, but if they couldn't make it work, I have my doubts about newcomers being successful with it.

The one interesting thing this card can do is disable charging to the physical card number when it is seperated from the phone. Of course that will be annoying when someone wants to buy something after they have left their phone in the car or had their phone lost or stolen. It's also unclear if simply running out of battery on the phone would disable the card. If my understanding of their system is correct, it would.

Re: Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

#77

Post by arfrank »

otoburb wrote: post #3
arfrank wrote: post #2

CTO/Co-Founder of Final here. Final is what we built to take back control of our own credit cards for how and when we’re charged, instead of leaving it up to merchants. That led to merchant-specific numbers and limits, managed automatically, as well as transparency in statements. It’s our stake in the ground, a way to shift the culture in credit towards consumer friendliness. Happy to answer questions

Will the physical card have a number embossed on it, similar to other cards? Or can the physical card number be changed in some way (e.g. Plastc's demo supposedly leveraging e-ink display on the card[1])? Also, does Final aim to become a credit card payments processor similar to Visa, Mastercard, et. al., or will you be leveraging a banking/credit institution in the backend to start with? [1] https://news.ycombinator…

Card design standards have been changing in the last year. We'll be issuing a card over the V/MC/Amex network, which requires the card to have a network logo on it. Exact branding is battle we know we will have to fight with the networks and our partner bank, but ultimately 100% acceptance at all merchants is our goal.

Re: Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

#78

Post by arfrank »

arielpts wrote: post #28
arfrank wrote: post #2

CTO/Co-Founder of Final here. Final is what we built to take back control of our own credit cards for how and when we’re charged, instead of leaving it up to merchants. That led to merchant-specific numbers and limits, managed automatically, as well as transparency in statements. It’s our stake in the ground, a way to shift the culture in credit towards consumer friendliness. Happy to answer questions

Hello. Will Final actually partner with a financial institution to issue a card that I'll have to apply and have its own limits. OR I'll be able to use my own credit card, and Final is just a proxy? Thank you!

We're partnering with a banking institution to issue a new line of credit to consumers.

Re: Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

#80

Post by zippergz »

Animats wrote: post #63
gdilla wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BOA had this. I used to buy MP3s off a russian site that I didn't trust. It makes a temp credit card number (a pop up basically) with an expiry date you can set, and an amount you can set. So I would do 30 day credit cards with like $20 on them. I think it was called shopsafe.

Bank of America still has this. Log into your BofA account, then go to Accounts->Credit Card->Information and Services. Look under Features for ShopSafe. I use it when I buy from Alibaba.

Does it still require Flash? I always found that incredibly annoying.
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