Hi Hackernews,
Gil here, co-founder at Astra. Would love to hear what you think about this new technical architecture for your bank accounts! With Virtual Sub Accounts, you can partition your cash or give your dollars purpose – and you can transfer funds to and from those virtual accounts with programmable routines.
I don't want to give anyone my real account info which is why I rarely set up auto pay on anything. If you had a feature where we could generate multiple virtual bank account numbers (ACH ready) that could be linked to 3rd parties AND be revoked at will on your site - that would be something I would pay for. Can you imagine what a company like Comcast would do with your account info when you try to quit them? They'd probably bill you forever and then force you to ask for a refund every month. BUT with a virtual account number you can put the power back in your own hands.<p>The virtual accounts as they are offered now don't really offer me any benefits.
I must be a dying breed but I will never give any external service access to my bank account. And I still remember the days where you actually had piece of software to run locally for such things. Crazy eh.