Final eliminates the hassle associated with a cancelled card, fraud, or theft. Don't waste time re-establishing your payment relationships. Don't worry about missing important bills or about constantly checking your statement.
@marothstein just signed up, looks like an awesome product. How similar is your approach to issuing your card to Wallaby Financial's? They've encountered delays with getting their card to market, and I'm wondering if you may face some of the same challenges.
@marothstein I'm sold! What's your launch timeline and geo-rollout look like? How hard is it for you to start operating in a new country? Is it a matter of finding a local bank for credit checks?
@nikitakorotaev Awesome! We're working to get Final out as fast as we can, but we're starting in the USA first. There are a lot of pieces to launching a credit card in any market, but that's a portion of it.
@aj_mihalic +1 on part of that. We're actually removing a lot of the need for the consumer too closely by front-loading fraud prevention. Most of what you need to do now is detection and reaction, rather than true prevention.
looks cool. I use Abine's DoNotTrack me, which is one of my favorite products in the world; generating on the fly virtual credit card numbers. This looks like a real-world version of that.
Its been awhile since I dealt with the credit industry so apologies in advance if I misunderstand the full concept here.
If I am applying/opening multiple new credit cards for each retailer. how will that affect the users credit score as they continue to add cards for each place they want to use this?
@dswiese Nope! You are only opening one credit account, but we are generating multiple numbers that all map to that same account. You should expect applying for a Final to affect your credit in much the same way that applying for any other credit card would.
We are explicitly NOT trying to hurt your credit score.
As a victim of 13 credit card thefts in 10 years (and never once lost my wallet), there is definitely a need for this but I want my points/miles/cash back. Care to share any light on a rewards program?
P.S. Why the heck would you copy the devil's (Comcast) payment screen?
@mzuvella We'll be offering competitive rewards and plan to release details about that later.
There is a lot that needs to improve about credit cards, especially for the people whose chief concern is not rewards, but rather managing their credit usage. We care a lot about making sure that our product offering isn’t just about giving you marginally better points, but rather drastically more control in your financial life.
That, by the way, is EXACTLY why we used Comcast. Despite people’s relative dissatisfaction with their business practices, everyone uses them. We are a consumer advocacy company whose spearhead is credit cards. What better way to illustrate that than offer you a way to control the access that merchants like Comcast have to your credit line?
@mzuvella And by the way, you're in good company regarding those thefts... I've seen fraudulent charges on my card far too often over the last few years. It's a huge pain in the ass and a big reason for why we got started.
"Final lets you give a unique credit card number to every merchant, or a disposable one-time use number for one-off purchases." <<<< THIS (sold!)
I've always wondered why Paypal hasn't done anything like this. There are so many times where I want to have a disposable credit card number, this is absolutely great.
Question though @marothstein: does this work in Europe? i.e can I use Final "on top" of my existing creditcard (connect them), or use my Dutch bank account?
@bramk Glad to hear you're on board!
It won't work on top of your existing card, but we'd love to have you as a customer of ours :)
And the physical card will be chip-enabled, so you should have no problem using it in Europe.
Love new approaches in card/payment space and the easy integration of different numbers for different merchants is a great feature (& good timing given so many recent security breaches.)
It seems to me the level of detail & control would appeal most to the type of user who's already fairly financially responsible & pays off their card every month. Credit card reward programs are a huge draw for this audience - do you have any plans to eventually offer rewards of some sort?
@ecetweets Thank you for the enthusiasm!
Check out the comment below for some detail here, but we definitely have plans to offer rewards. That said, we think there is significant value to add for many audiences outside of accruing points.
Love the concept. Great video! How do you guys plan to break above the noise with all the Apple Pay, Coin, Stratos Card, etc. hullabaloo? What makes Final final?
@jacobsmith88 Thanks!
One huge, fundamental difference between them and us is that we're actually a credit card. We'll work with all of those awesome products - they provide a wonderful experience at the point of sale, but leave out all of the other aspects of dealing with a credit card. We’re covering the bases there and everywhere else.
Ex. with Coin or Plastc, a breach still means you have to cancel your card and re-enter payment information with every card-on-file relationship. With us, your relationships are siloed through different numbers, so one number being compromised means you never lose every relationship. You can also cancel an individual number at your leisure.
For some additional color, we also control the authorizations, which allows us to place intelligent restrictions on your card numbers. A number you give to Netflix cannot be used anywhere else. None of the products you mentioned allow someone to do this.
@dmgodbout as a consumer I think this is game changingly amazing, but as a merchant I'm horrified at the prospects of fraud where an agreement is in place with a customer and they cancel their card. What protections do you have in place for this situation? What if a hotel puts a pre-auth on my card, I check-in and then cancel my number? Can the hotel still charge the pre-auth?
@arush Obviously, we're not advocating for consumers to cancel their agreements and/ or contracts, but we think its important that consumers have a way to remove the power over your line of credit via one 16 digit card number. With regards to a pre-auth situation, the consumer is still contractually obligated to pay the amount, and the merchant is within their rights to send something like this to a collections agency. That being said, there are still restrictions and protections that will be in place for consumers in this scenario.
@arush By definition, you can't debit a line of credit, a pre auth is essentially just "reserving" those funds to pay the merchant. In the long run, this scenario looks a lot like what a chargeback is, but without all of the power in the merchants hands, there will still have to be a decision made by the bank whether or not to honor the pre-auth and protect the consumer.
Heck, today I just found out that I had been charged for the past 7 years onto my debit card account by a merchant - emusic.com, that I didn't even know existed (I only found out about it because of billguard, although I couldn't do anything about it)! It made me realize that by them having access to my number that merchant had complete control over my account unless I spent 20 minutes talking to a banking agent. As we're building out Final, I seriously can't wait to use the product myself, and give myself some real control.
@dmgodbout thanks for clarifying. I understand now, this is not a debit card. I think for the consumer it is amazing, but I can see professional fraudsters abusing this and leaving a lot of merchants out of pocket.
One more fraud question: Some merchants don't accept prepay credit cards due to the inherent fraud risk. I assume they do this by validating the number ? Will it be possible for merchants to block Final cards from being used?
@arush Final is not a prepaid (debit) or secured (credit) card. There is no reason for a merchant to reject a Final credit card as it will have the same traditional 16 digit number format and will be on one of the major networks - Visa, MC, or Amex.
So how will you track new purchases for fraud against purchase history? Since I use cards for work and play, I often get flagged by one card or another for something that looks "off" but is part of an overall history.
(Worst I had was getting declined at a wine store in London for buying too much wine. They told me "no one buys that much alcohol, so be blocked the transaction")
@SacBookReviewer Anyone who blocks your transaction because it's for too much wine didn't enjoy college.
The interesting thing about Final is that purchases have an element of intentionality to them, because the customer establishes relationships proactively. That, and a number of other things give us some enhanced abilities to evaluate fraud. It also helps quite a bit to be legitimately communicative with your customers.
@itsthisjustin From what I gathered they'll be issuing a physical card with the same functionality. Therefore, you get the same protection while swiping.
@tacomanator I'm hesitant to agree as the website doesn't state this anywhere. I think there's some inherent technical issues they would need to overcome to allow for this to happen..
On another note, I'm curious how the card works with returns that need to go back to the same card number or need to be looked up via the same card number. A lot if times if i don't have my receipt, I use my credit card to look up a transaction at a retailer.
@itsthisjustin on their website, the FAQ section "Is There a Physical Card?" reads:
"Our Chip & PIN card is the security standard used by the majority of banks in Europe, which has shown to reduce card fraud from in-person transactions by up to 80%. It produces one time numbers for every retail transaction."
My guess is the card is reprogrammed on-the-fly. Merchants don't clear transactions directly. As long whoever clears the transaction is setup to handle the numbers, it should work. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying it.
See also Plastc Card http://www.producthunt.com/l/1d8...
Great question on returns. Maybe handled by the phone app (program the card to a specific transaction)? Or perhaps there is more involved than just the CC# when looking up a transaction?
@tacomanator Plastc also doesn't say they support dynamic EMV. They claim a software update is needed to unlock that capability. Smells fishy. Just a lot of issues, both legal and technical with loading multiple cards onto a EMV chip.
All EMV chips produce one time numbers. That's not something unique to Final.
@AddisonHuddy Thanks for asking! Chase and many banks issue fraud alerts after they suspect a charge has occurred on your card. But they don't do anything to protect you before a fraud event occurs. When fraud occurs (or you simply lose your card) you need to get a new card number, identify all of your fraudulent transactions and replace it across all of your subscriptions and cards on file. With Final, a stolen number is useless to a thief, so no fraudulent charges occur, and you don’t need to replace your payment information everywhere else.
I posted Plastc yesterday. I couldn't see myself using it..especially pre-ordering it. Now this is something I could see myself using. I hope you guys execute on this @marothstein
@erictwillis That means a lot! We're putting everything we have into this. I honestly believe that Final needs to exist, and comments like yours make us more determined to execute well.
That all said, I do hope Plastc, and many of these other companies do well. There are a lot of backwards aspects to payments, and I find it hard to believe that one group can solve them all to the satisfaction of every consumer.
This is very cool, I had the same issue happen to me twice. A card cancelled without even a moments warning due to merchant security breach. 2nd time was just last week and due to me recently moving to a new state the bank wouldn't mail to the new address without a notarized letter, for "security purposes" - massive hassle. Hope Final comes to fruition soon.
@kyleverywhere That is pretty ridiculous... I'm sorry about the bad experience. Thank you for the enthusiasm - we're bringing Final to market as soon as we can, and you'll surely be one of the first on it.
@sbyrnes Yes I really liked this feature when Discover had it, and I told lots of others they should use it too. Very excited that this could come to a physical card as well.
Does anybody have Insight as to why Discover discontinued the service? I ask because I'm curious if there was any obstacle that might also trip up Final.
@tacomanator@sbyrnes As far as I understood, they did not want to maintain the product due to cost/complexity and believed their fraud detection was more than good enough to catch any bad transactions. I don't work at Discover, however, so I don't know for sure.
This might seem like a silly question but why does every tech startup video have the same guy in it? I feel like PH needs /e/ with startups that use the same guy.
@johnnyquachy Honestly, he just does an awesome job. He's hilarious and a pleasure to work with. Plus, Chris Sacca thinks he's worth buying lunch for, so there's that. (https://twitter.com/lonelysandwi...)
@TimDalrymple Not at all. Coin isn't a competitor of ours - it's honestly a complimentary product. The only thing we really worried about was confusion over the visuals. Adam did a great job avoiding that, though.
@marothstein@TimDalrymple Absolutely, the videos look great. I mean I get that you would hire the same companies (because the production looks awesome) but to pick the same actor is a bit confusing at times I guess. But regardless, great job.
As for Coin. I really don't see myself carrying coin and this. If that's the case than the messaging is sending mixed signals.
I was thinking about credit cards the other day, how great would it be if the credit card statements gave back more information. Like a full receipt, which would be accessible via an online system. Every year a shit ton of receipts are printed to transfer just a few kilobytes or even bytes of information, it's redic.