> Final lets you give a unique credit card number to every merchant, or a disposable one-time use number for one-off purchases.<p>This is something I have been asking for since forever! People on here claimed it was "impossible" because of how credit cards work, I guess not...<p>> Tired of your monthly yoga pants subscription? Or a two-week "free" trial that lasted four months? Just deactivate that card number. It's that easy.<p>They need to be careful what they advise. That advice could (and likely WILL) result in people getting taken to collections.<p>Don't like your ISP? Just cancel the CC number, then 12 months later get a bailiff turn up and seize your stuff...
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 <i>intelligent</i> use of technology.<p>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 card number for me on demand.<p>The budget tracking etc. is nice (and I understand why you want to add it for customer engagement and blah) but I'd love a totally stripped down service that gives me card numbers and pings me when they're used - and I would happily pay for it.
CTO/Co-Founder of Final here.<p>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.<p>Happy to answer questions
The guy in the video is the exact same person in the coin video. <a href="https://onlycoin.com/" rel="nofollow">https://onlycoin.com/</a><p>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.
As some have pointed out, Citi had this[1] since about 2004, Fleet/Bank of America [2] had it in their setup as well for as long as i can remember.<p>The problem is going to be PCI compliance - the rules that govern merchant procedure for accepting physical credit cards. Specifically, the last 4 digits must be visually validated on the card and typed in to avoid cloned cards (chips largely solve this) in most stores.<p>Furthermore, giving a new CC number to each transaction is going to deplete the pool of available CC numbers rather soon (as im sure everyone knows, CC number is not just random collection of 16 numbers 0-9).<p>As other people pointed out, this solves a non-problem: if i don't want to be liable for a fraudulent purchase, i just use a credit card, not a debit card. In case of CC fraud, it is the MERCHANT who is responsible, not the customer or the bank.<p>Monitoring software that flags "odd" purchases is all that's needed - and banks have been running such things for ages.<p>Yes, there is hassle if your CC gets lifted/swiped, but chances are, its not an evil hacker doing it, but that cute waitress at your local bar with a $30 ghost reader in her hand.<p>Unless the physical card generates a new number on EACH swipe, it is just another example of technology looking to complicate an otherwise streamlined process.<p>/rant over :)<p>[1] <a href="https://www.cardbenefits.citi.com/Products/Virtual-Account-Numbers.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://www.cardbenefits.citi.com/Products/Virtual-Account-N...</a>
[2] <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5831160/use-virtual-credit-card-numbers-to-shop-safely-online-keeping-in-mind-the-downsides" rel="nofollow">http://lifehacker.com/5831160/use-virtual-credit-card-number...</a>
[3] <a href="http://www.getcreditcardnumbers.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.getcreditcardnumbers.com/</a>
I was very interested in something like this few years back. But, my quick research showed me that<p>(a) A company called Orbiscom (acquired by MasterCard) had patents in this space [1], and they are the ones behind Bank of America's ShopSafe and a few other such services offered by various banks.<p>(b) Almost all of those services (except for ShopSafe) are now discontinued. Which indicates that either users don't care about something like this, or that banks don't like offering something like this for some reason. Maybe that explains why nobody knows about MaskMe [2] etc.<p>I would be curious how Final guys are overcoming those issues.<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_payment_number" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_payment_number</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.abine.com/maskme/features/cards/" rel="nofollow">https://www.abine.com/maskme/features/cards/</a>
Using always the same guy for every single product launch is not that appealing. Specially when this guy also made the video about onlycoin.com.<p>It's getting weird.
"A credit card built for the 21st century" is an oxymoron. It's like saying a car phone built for the 21st century.<p>For the love of all that is holy and sacred, please eliminate the need to carry cards at all. Just let me pay with my phone. Put my drivers license, health insurance card, membership cards, gift cards, car keys, and payment methods into my phone. All of this already exists in some form or another, but Apple and Google have utterly failed to make it work in the real world outside of a few outliers like Starbucks.<p>It's 2014: there is no reason I should have to carry keys and a wallet when I have a modern cell phone. Eliminate paper receipts while you're at it; email them or aggregate in some other way digitally. Save 10 million trees.
Ugh... I'm not doing the "There are X people ahead of you. Get access sooner by inviting your friends!" thing again. I got tricked into doing it for RobinHood.io over a year ago, convinced a bunch of friends to sign up, but there's still no product in sight.
> Tired of your monthly yoga pants subscription? Or a two-week "free" trial that lasted four months? Just deactivate that card number. It's that easy.<p>I'm a little wary of this functionality. Although most responsible businesses just cancel the subscription after a declined payment, some will sic a debt collection agency on you because they claim you owe them the money. My Google-fu is failing me now, but I know I've read of this happening recently.<p>I'm also wondering how the magnetic strip on the back works. Does that get changed with each swipe as well? That would be really nice functionality to have, though I understand the complexity of implementation.
This is similar to ShopSafe from Bank of America. ShopSafe let you create temporary reoccurring or single use CC number. <a href="https://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy/accounts-cards/shopsafe.go" rel="nofollow">https://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy/accounts-cards/shopsaf...</a>
Love the concept but I don't think I fully understand it. Am I opening a new credit card account with Final or is it a front end to my existing cards.<p>If it's the former what kind of card is it (Visa, Mastercard, or something different)?
> Tired of your monthly yoga pants subscription? Or a two-week "free" trial that lasted four months? Just deactivate that card number. It's that easy.<p>Is it really that easy though? Sure, they won't be able to charge you anymore but that doesn't mean that you didn't enter a binding contract.<p>What you are suggesting here sounds neither legal nor ethical.
If anyone wondered why the same actor was used in the coin (www.onlycoin.com) intro video.<p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-05/adam-lisagor-silicon-valley-startups-favorite-video-director" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-05/adam-lisagor...</a>
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.<p>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.
Am I crazy or doesn't this (temporary credit card numbers) already exist with a lot of major credit card vendors? I remember getting an Amex Blue card back in the early 2000's because it could do just that thing...
This is awesome! I love the idea and was actually discussing a couple months ago why this doesn't exist yet with current CC companies like AMEX or Visa.<p>All these all-in-one "supercards" coming out are cool, but this is beyond cool and serves a real purpose.<p>I imagine they'll add a sharing component to purchases eventually too. This way you just spin up a new credit card number that is split between a group of people (e.g.: at a dinner for the check) and set percentages for everyone. You no longer have to ask waiters to split bills, Venmo friends after, etc.
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.<p>I may be completely wrong, but I simply don't buy it. There's so much more to a credit card product aside from the nice-sounding features they have on their landing pages.
I really like this concept, it's great for using sites that you want to buy from but aren't too confident on their security, but it's not exactly new.<p>I had virtual card number generators in the UK 5+ years ago with cahoot (unfortunately they shut that service down) and you can get this kind of thing with Entropay and similar providers at the moment.<p>That said the app+management features look pretty nifty, so this could be a nice advancement of the concept.
Essentially your credit card number is like a transaction token now. If the token is compromised, no big deal the transaction is over and that token is no longer valid. But it has some backwards compatibility built in so you can re-use the token for systems that are setup to charge one number / token every month. Your credit card number is essentially an implementation detail of your card. Very cool.
No scrolljacking, beautiful colors, product screenshots, nice imagery and typography.. this is a successful execution of the ubiquitous "startup site" style. Not a comment on the product, but I had to commend you for getting this right when so many others get it wrong.
All these multi-number payment card offerings go against the age-old truism that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.<p>If people really cared about avoiding a fraudulent transaction depleting their bank account, they would use credit cards instead of debit cards.
From what I understand, each 16-digit credit card number has 9 digits for the account number. With only 1-billion combinations don't you risk using up all the numbers if everyone gets a new number for every transaction?
Huge feeling of déjà vu after having just watched the marketing video[1] for Slack yesterday.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6zVzWU95Sw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6zVzWU95Sw</a>
What about confidentiality: I assume you collect what I purchase, when, where, and the cost. What do you do with this data? (Of course this question applies to every credit card vendor, not only to Final.)
This looks like the right solution to work around the current craziness of sharing a single credit card number across all purchases. (An ideal solution would involve some kind of assymetric crypto for authorization, but this seems like the best we can do with the current credit card infrastructure.)<p>The biggest question the FAQ doesn't answer: Will this interoperate with (at least one of) MasterCard, Visa, or American Express? Because if not, it isn't going to work with most merchants.
Bank of Brazil (BB) released something very similar called Ourocard-e to all 33mi customers in April 2014. It's very cool this idea gaining more acceptance in other markets.
If you recognize the guy in the ad, he is the CEO of the ad company <a href="http://sandwichvideo.com/" rel="nofollow">http://sandwichvideo.com/</a>
Citi cards had this for a while, but got rid of it. It was quite nice, but needs more organization. Also the paypal model has it right. Even though I, like many others, loath paypal, I've been using them everywhere just to save time entering my CC. This doubles as security as merchant never get your CC in the first place.<p>Apple pay will probably fix the organization of the random CC # generation. Final seems to be a little late in the game.
As a U.S. citizen, next time I hear about a major credit card breach I will definitely relax as federal regulation limits my liability to $50 (and that is if the physical card is stolen). If only my credit card number is stolen, I have ZERO liability.<p><a href="http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0213-lost-or-stolen-credit-atm-and-debit-cards" rel="nofollow">http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0213-lost-or-stolen-cre...</a>
If you have to partner with a bank can you guarantee the interest rate will be below 10%?<p>Unless you're offering a 9% or lower rate for everyone and no annual fee this is not a truly customer friendly product, it's like every other bad bank. How can you say you're customer friendly if ANY customer has even a small risk of getting charged more than 10% interest.
How is this different from what BoA's ShopSafe? I've been using "virtual" cc for a few years now, that is the main reason I'm with BoA at the moment...<p>The only thing is that it's a bit of hassle to use their tool.<p>Also, I get a notification when my cc is used online or phone...
The site doesn't say anything about if this will be available world wide or just in the us?<p>Even so, I have used virtual credit cards for several years already as my bank provides a service for it. It works really neatly tbh even if the UI isn't as nice as in the video promotion.
I don't know if its just me, but the person in the video looks very similiar (if not the same guy) from the Coin (<a href="https://onlycoin.com/" rel="nofollow">https://onlycoin.com/</a>) video. Similar industry, similar beardy face?
This is neat idea, but I primarily use credit cards (over debit cards) for their benefits--in my case, airline miles. Why would I forfeit these benefits that save me hundreds of dollars a year in airline travel costs for this card?
In the video, Adam glances at the guy behind him in line as he says "checking my statement for sketchy charges". Dude looks a lot like weev. Not sure if it's the guy himself, but that has to be intentional.
I wonder if it would be possible to integrate this into existing online banking. Being able to use this through an existing bank account could be a good selling point to privacy-aware customers, at least in Germany.
I want a next-generation payment card shoehorned into the same form-factor as legacy credit cards about as much as I want to access the internet with an acoustic modem.<p>(Which is: only if there's absolutely no other way.)
Interesting concept that solves an actual problem. It will be interesting to see what kind of pricing they will adopt.<p>P.S. The button next to the "Reserve your card" looks pretty similar to Telegram's app icon.
Not only do they need to work with every single party in the ecosystem to succeed (they have no leverage), but have they heard of umm, Apple Pay and Visa's/MC/AMEX new TSP?
One question: Does it cut in 'payment processors' or other financial institutions for a percentage of every transaction?<p>If so, then it has absolutely no place in this century. Transferring numbers does not get more difficult when the numbers are larger, and any percentage-based system is unjustifiable. Transferring numbers is also terribly easy now, so such a service does not even warrant a significant flat fee.<p>We are rapidly moving toward a situation where virtually every single transaction in our economy gets skimmed by banks for 5% or so. This is giving a ridiculous amount of economic control to banks for absolutely no reason.
something I've always wanted, just wasn't sure if it was feasible enough to implement. If it works like in the video, great job guys!<p>PS: am I imagining things or do all startup videos have the same actor?
bigboxesofwine.gov doesn't exist. I am disappoint.<p>This is awesome though. It's like what 33mail.com does for email addresses, but even better.
<i>Tired of your monthly yoga pants subscription? Or a two-week "free" trial that lasted four months? Just deactivate that card number. It's that easy.</i><p>It really isn't, and you just publicly encouraged people to commit a criminal offence.<p><i>Please</i> talk to an actual lawyer before making that kind of statement, or your business is likely to be short-lived regardless of any other merit it has.