I am an European, so maybe it's different in US, but is too many cards problem that people actually have? Judging by the top 2 stories on HN right now, it probably is.<p>I have a card. It is hooked up to my bank account. It works.
Pretty interesting. Here's my guess at how this works:<p>Wallaby is both a card issuer and (working with) a processor. The merchant's processor routes the charge to them like a normal card. Then Wallaby selects the appropriate card number and proxys the charge via their own processor to that card's issuer. I.e. the same round-trip transaction, they're just a man-in-the-middle swapping out card numbers. The issuers never see a difference.<p>Couple issues they'd have to have worked out for this:<p>1. Getting approval from the card network to proxy a transaction like this. Given the founder's background with Green Dot I can see them having the pull to drive that.<p>2. Dealing with chargebacks. The merchant will have a record of the Wallaby card number because that's what's swiped through the POS. But the customer will see it on their actual card's bill (let's say Chase). If they file a dispute, and Chase contacts the merchant, there's a card number mismatch. I wonder what their solution is for this. Perhaps they instruct cardmembers to initiate disputes with them and they proxy those as well.<p>Overall I have to say I like this a little better than Coin, if only because it's simpler. You don't have to make any decisions each time you pay, you just configure it through the cloud, which can actually make smarter decisions for you. And it's not $100.
I'm stumped as to how this can work. The logic can't be embedded in the card, as the card doesn't know what you're charging to it -- the merchant's category code (i.e. gas station, restaurant) isn't programmed into their terminals, that data gets relayed through the various backend networks between banks.<p>So this can't be sending a card swiper the number of one of your cards, which means it must be a valid credit card itself. It has to be issued by some Visa/MasterCard/Amex/Discover member-bank to be widely accepted, though none of those logos appear on the website's mockup.<p>If that's the case, I still haven't a clue how they turn a capture against their card into a capture against one of your "real" cards based on the type of store you used it at. They can't be charging your real cards themselves, as all the charges would come from a single category code, whatever one was assigned to their own merchant account, so you won't get the right rewards. They'd also lose money on every transaction that way, as they'd have to pay card-not-present fees to charge your cards themselves, while only collecting lower card-present fees when you use the Wallaby card.<p>Puzzling. They must be trying to get some kind of relationship somewhere else in the network that no other company has (either direct relationships with issuers, or permission from Visa/MC to sit on the processing network somewhere and do some kind of MITM).
Slightly off topic, but it's sad to see so much brainpower and energy go into "innovation" in the financial sector.<p>We (society) have created a complicated game involving credit cards and we have to continue playing the game otherwise we lose. Merchants charge higher prices because they need to pay a 2% merchant fee, then the credit card "rewards" us with 0.5% back. Madness.<p>If the blizzard of credit card features--cash back, reward schemes, loyalty plans, interest options, perks, airline points--all disappeared, it would be a huge <i>net</i> benefit to society.<p>I realize it won't get fixed. It's sort of like simplifying income tax legislation. Almost everyone would benefit even if the amount of tax collected remained the same, but there's no mechanism to even start doing it. Same thing here with the credit cards.
I don't understand how this could work. How can they 'forward the purchase' to the appropriate card in such a way that the receiving card still sees your purchase as being from a 'gas station', or 'grocery store'.
Their security page [1] needs some work: apparently they "use SHA 256-bit encryption across all of our solutions" and "your personal account information is never compromised". SHA-256 is a hash algorithm, and it's not very clever of them to state that users' PII is <i>never</i> going to be compromised. Someone with an ounce of computer security knowledge needs to rewrite this page, quickly.<p>[1] <a href="https://walla.by/security" rel="nofollow">https://walla.by/security</a>
Sorry, but ccTLD domain hacks and financial services don't mix well. Financial services should be stable and secure, their front page even embeds a Vimeo video over plain http.
Interesting... Suppose it is a Visa card on the frontend and then on the backend I have Amex linked. Will the merchant be hit with Amex fees? Will it be accepted if merchant doesn't accept Amex?
Launched in Summer of 2012. <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4161916" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4161916</a><p>I had signed up and was in the second batch of users. First 1,000 users got it for free for life. Next batch got it one year for free.<p>I never got the card though. Something related to demand was too high and then nothing.
I wish I could see some customer validation videos where they went on the street and asked random consumers and merchants if they would find this product (and Coin and others like it), useful as well as hear their concerns. Since I doubt that sort of customer validation work was done in that way (random users vs. specific focus groups, if at all), my impression is that it would be a video full of people saying "eh, maybe, but what about..." or "no, I don't have that problem" or "yeah, it's interesting, but I don't use my card(s) that much or in that way"... or "yeah, but I won't pay extra for that" or maybe "sure, I like it as a consumer" or "sure I'll accept that as a merchant".
Could I put all my credit cards in a Wallaby Card, and then put my Wallaby (and debit and reward cards) on a Coin Card? If so, I'd have just one card (Coin's pain point), but I'd also get Wallaby's "smart routing" for miles (Wallaby's pain point).
Interesting that every payment card solution but the one that I actually find interesting is on the frontpage right now [1]<p>[1] Loop - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6737688" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6737688</a>
For me, and for many others I'd imagine, maximizing my credit-card-rewards does not trump having control over which account I'm using. Coin is better suited to my needs.
WallaBy + Loop will make a good combo - put all your cards in one WallaBy card and put one WallaBy card in to Loop. So your phone will have only one card and your point of control will be WallaBy. Hiding all other cards details - block one card and you are safe. Coin card is not going in the right direction i feel. Time to loose the card stuff now...
The main problem with cards, isn't necessarily the number, rather the speed. Nfc is the fastest implementation so far and both my credit and debit card have it, and I will gladly carry around an extra few millimetres in my pocket to speed up the transaction process.
I can't understand why you people use more than a single card for payments? That solves all the problems that these Coin and Wallaby cards are trying to address. Rewards are bullshit anyway, I buy stuff from honest companies without any kind of reward systems.
The value they offer seems to be: get you the most rewards by using the right credit cards.<p>I'd like to see some numbers. Are there beta users? If so, how much are they saving? If not, how much does Wallaby predict they'll save their customers? .1%? .5%? 2%?
Sounds like one of the top stories from yesterday:<p>[Coin a step in the wrong direction](<a href="http://www.techendo.co/posts/coin-a-step-in-the-wrong-direction" rel="nofollow">http://www.techendo.co/posts/coin-a-step-in-the-wrong-direct...</a>)
Great concept, but I don't know how comfortable I am giving them access to all my accounts when all they do for me is choose which card to charge. And how do the purchases show on my card statements? Are they all from Wallaby now?
At Costco, you can only pay with American Express and at their gas station and store register, the card also doubles as a membership card, so since they don't explain how their card works I doubt that it would work for Costco.
It looks like this product has been around for a year already:<p><a href="http://imgur.com/C2A1vYQ" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/C2A1vYQ</a><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/44223249" rel="nofollow">http://vimeo.com/44223249</a>
What if i'm doing an online purchase? How do I charge the Wallaby Card when my only options are Visa, MasterCard and American Express.<p>Really interesting concept. Canada, just get it to Canada!
the wallaby card sounds pretty awesome. i just checked out their mobile app and tested a few places out and the rewards were accurate on my Chase Freedom (which has rotating categories each quarter).
This is getting to remind me of XKCD on standards. The wonderful thing about having too many standards is that somebody comes along to create a new standard intended to unify and replace all the other ones. Then you have N+1 standards to choose from.<p>That said, I do think adding an extra level of indirection to any customer/merchant transaction event is a Good Thing. Allow the customer to pay in any manner he chooses that otherwise satisfies the merchant. While doing so in a way where the customer can be confident his payment identity/authorization is not hijacked and repurposed, or reapplied, or <i>TRACKED</i>, without his permission or knowledge. We still seem to be in this era where POS payments are catching up with what software engineers knew at least decades ago would be a smarter solution.