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Visa Launches PayPal Alternative
That's pretty big news. Some healthy competition in this space will probably be benefitial.
Although if Amazon and Google didn't manage to dethrone Paypal in this space, I wonder how Visa will approach the challenge.
- byoung2 16y agoI've often wondered why the credit card companies haven't gotten into this business already. My bank (Bank of America) offers a program called ShopSafe, where you can generate temporary credit card numbers to use online. You can set the limit and expiration date, even for recurring transactions. The numbers are only valid for the first merchant that authorizes a charge. I wonder why there hasn't been a credit card company that offered a version of this with the option to prepay or link to a bank account or existing credit card. That way people could shop online and merchants who are already set up to accept credit cards wouldn't have to modify their code to interface with yet another payment API. The credit card companies would still get money from the fees charged to merchants, and they could also earn interest on the balances users keep.
- sandaru1 16y agoWe have the same thing in Sri Lanka called a "Web Card". You don't even need to have a bank account to get a Web Card - just pay some amount, and get a card for that value. Then you get a temporary VISA number which can be only used in internet transactions. It's actually quite convenient actually.
- someperson 16y agoThe generic name for this is a prepaid credit card. They seem to exist around the world, but I've never seen them being sold in any shops where I live.
- patrickk 16y ago3V Cards in Ireland by Visa, one of the Irish banks and a company (3V): https://www.3v.ie/about_3V_vouchers.html https://www.3v.ie/about_3V_vouchers.html AFAIK, this was one of the first ever 'disposable' credit cards to come out. It's pre-paid - you get a new credit card number whenever you top-up. Great way to make a large, once off purchase (e.g. a new MacBook mmmmmm) that is over your existing card's credit limit.
- barrkel 16y agoI find it easier to overpay the credit card account, so that you generate positive (or negative, depending on how you look at it) balance. The bank's usually unhappy about it, but it works. This was one of the cheapest ways of turning my cash in my Irish bank account into cash in foreign countries. By loading up my Bank of Ireland credit card, I could withdraw cash from ATMs at Mastercard's exchange rate, and no other fees (or with no loss at all if in Euro). Since the cash advance isn't actually a loan, BoI doesn't charge interest on it. Unfortunately, the same trick doesn't work for most banks in other countries; almost every other bank charges interest on cash advances even when the bill is already paid, much less paid before due.
- adrianwaj 16y agoCiti and AOL tried something called C2IT between 2000-2003 http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=10099 http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=10099 I suppose it's all about 3rd party support and building an eco system, and that starts with a solid offering.
- jules 16y agoThe iDEAL system is very good also. It works like this: 1. You click checkout 2. You are sent to your bank's website 3. You login 4. You get a screen that shows the amount you have to pay, you verify this 5. You get an SMS with a code that you have to enter 6. Purchase completed The nice thing about this is that it's very quick and the seller doesn't get your credit card number; steps 2-6 happen on your bank's website. And there is no intermediary: it's just the seller's bank and your bank. There is nothing to set up, you just have to have a bank that supports it (almost all banks in the netherlands do) The nice thing for sellers is that chargebacks are not possible. This is a much saner way to do online payments.
- hippich 16y agothis is a no way a paypal alternative. in paypal you pay to arbitary email. and in this "alternative" - you actually need to go thru some screening process to open seller account..
- r0s 16y agoSeems glaringly obvious, the reason Paypal exists is the fluidity it gives to transactions. Visa could simply match features and clean up, but no.
- InclinedPlane 16y agoPrecisely. PayPal's core functionality is the ability for anyone to receive money. The ability to give money to a select few electronically is 1970s era technology.
- aymeric 16y agoI got my comment deleted on this thread. Is it forbidden to comment on the link you submit? (The comment was neutral, nothing aggressive)
- alexkay 16y agoIt wasn't deleted, you cannot submit both the link and the comment (see the FAQ)
- sjs 16y agoAs a Canadian who uses PayPal to pay for things directly from my bank account, I'll believe it when I see it. No PayPal "alternative" that I've heard of will let me do this.
- mistermann 16y agoAgreed, as a Canadian, we are usually a few years behind, and as for Visa, almost every time I use my credit card online I have to reset my "verified by visa" password, because I can't remember the password from the last 20 times I had to reset it, but luckily all it takes to reset it is the skill testing question of what is my mothers maiden name. So I have to go throught this BS reset every time, and whenever someone wants to steal my credit card, all they need is my mothers maiden name. What irks me though is that visa knows this is a security flaw, I wish I had the paper to link the fully explains what isn't immediately obvious.
- jmah 16y agohttp://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/fc10vbvsecurecode.pdf http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/fc10vbvsecurecode.pdf (via Schneier http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/02/online_creditde.html http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/02/online_creditd... )
- danudey 16y agoThe only time I've ever had to use Verified by Visa is when ordering online at Future Shop. What's worse is that Future Shop would be a GREAT place to use Interac Online so I could pay straight out of my bank account, but so far the only place I've seen that offers it is NCIX. As someone who has a credit card only because I need one to pay for things online, this bothers me to no end. Get with it guys!
- dmd 16y agoWhen they ask for your mother's maiden name, you should map that phrase to "your password, unique to this company" in your head. Now it's not quite as insecure.
- EvilTrout 16y ago
- aymeric 16y agoIt is good to see some competition in this space. Amazon and Google tried before, it will be interesting to see what approach Visa will take to dethrone Paypal.
- ramy_d 16y agowell it's about fraking time
- Groxx 16y agoThe amount of money held in a payclick account must be between $20 to $1000 and withdrawals to a bank account are not allowed. Payclick also supports recurring transactions WTFno. That's not a PayPal competitor. That's a way to guarantee that you spend money - a credit card company's wet dream.
- grok2 16y agoFrom their FAQ's it appears this is available only in Australia: Is payclick available to use outside of Australia? No. Australia is the first country to launch this new product.
- JacobAldridge 16y agoAustralia: Testing ground for new products, sideways move for past-it executives, and loads of pretty beaches. Come use our internet while we still have it.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- r0s 16y agoWhy bother re-branding? Visa must not put much faith in this venture, or at least wants to retain the option to dump it.
- nopassrecover 16y agoIf they make it any easier on developers it'll be a hit.
- known 16y agoI hope it's not worse than PayPal.
- lenni 16y agoMaybe I'm a little biased but being a payment solution and having a URL ending in Home.aspx shouts "Hack me!".
- bosch 16y agoGood troll post, with the up votes it looks like there are other trolls here. If you're going to say something like this then please back it up with some data. Visa is a financial giant within the credit card industry. I'm sure they have created a secure platform or they would be held liable for any mis-appropriated funds. Also, Visa would be aware of the fact that any bad press regarding a hacked platform would cause users not to use it. So I'm fairly certain they would have taken their time to implement a robust security design, even though you have misgivings about the .aspx URL.
- terra_t 16y agoit's pretty different; for one thing, they want people to use it to pay for downloadables. You can, ~in theory~ sell downloadables through Paypal, but just try selling $100k in downloadables and withdrawing the money from your Paypal account...