5 ms·

This is a lovely consumer-empowering move. Every service should be cancellable without going through a Rentention Specialist. I will plug a service I use (no o

This is a lovely consumer-empowering move. Every service should be cancellable without going through a Rentention Specialist. I will plug a service I use (no other relation): privacy.com. It creates credit cards with pre-set spending limits, one-time or recurring. 1-800-hold-forever? No thanks, I'll just send the email and disengage the money hose. Hopefully this sort of service becomes widespread, and services become less dependent on high-friction in cancellation.

saagarjha 8y ago
Presumably, the merchant I'm dealing with gets enough information about me to identify me. Couldn't they maintain a "blacklist" of people who use Privacy cards?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  Hell, I have enough trouble with my normal cards being rejected by US/UK services (I'm in Australia), let alone cards that may give me a higher "risk score" with merchants.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- igetspam 8y ago
  Privacy works by buying large blocks of gift card numbers and issuing them on demand. A vendor can (and some do) reject gift cards. For those that don't, you can use any billing name/address you'd like and the cards will verify. Privacy uses the car number + expiration + cvv2 code to validate the card. I've had a single merchant reject a purchase because I used "${merchant_name} Customer" as the billing name. I also us a blackhole mailing address to avoid the seemingly natural inclination of various vendors to send paper mailers that I don't want.
tomnipotent 8y ago
I'll also point out Teampay.co that creates single-use CCs (with specific limits) through Slack similar to "I want to buy a MacBook Pro from Apple for $1,845.50". It's been an amazing tool. Also supports recurring weekly/monthly/annual charges and sends a Slack message every time the cards you approve are used.
laurieg 8y ago
Is there a non-US alternative to privacy.com?
dawnerd 8y ago
I have trouble trusting privacy.com when they want my bank account information up front. I see them as just a ticking time bomb waiting to be hacked.
- boling11 8y ago
  Hey there! One of the Privacy.com cofounders here. I hear you on the login concern. It was something we launched with and releasing new bank flows is tricky, so we've been doing so slowly. That said, we do have alternative flows (including micro-deposits). If you're open to giving us another chance, drop me a note (bo@privacy.com), and I'd be happy to set you up.
  - dawnerd 8y ago
    Is that fairly recent? I remember when I last tried to sign up I was kind of blind sighted by it just asking for banking information without prior knowledge. I’ll probably give you guys another shot. Although I’d still put a mention of how to fund your account on the homepage.
    - boling11 8y ago
      Yeah - that makes sense. We're working this into our FAQ / help desk copy, but it should be more prominent. We're releasing it slowly for risk management reasons (so not everyone sees it). Happy to activate it manually on your account though if you'd like.
fro0116 8y ago
I like the concept of Privacy.com, but dropped off after signing up because they require linking a bank account through Plaid, which requires you to hand over your online banking credentials, which makes you liable for any fraudulent charges to the account according to the policy of most banks, and gives them access to all the confidential financial information available from your banking dashboard. A routing number + deposits verification system still gives push/pull access, but offers recourse in the case of fraud, and doesn't expose all of your financial history in the process. It's a tried and true system used by many other reputable online payments businesses. It amazes me that they still don't offer routing number based verification as an alternative, quite ironic considering that the company has the audacity to name themselves Privacy. Final was a much better product in that regard, because it was a credit card, so you could pay from your bank's bill payment page in a push-only manner without giving away any access whatsoever to your bank. Plus the rewards were much better, and you get access to 30 days of float on your purchases by nature of it being a credit card. Too bad the company behind it was acquihired by Goldman Sachs: https://www.fastcompany.com/40523758/goldman-sachs-buys-credit-card-startup-final https://www.fastcompany.com/40523758/goldman-sachs-buys-cred... I'm still hoping something similar pops up again eventually.
- boling11 8y ago
  Hey there! One of the Privacy.com cofounders here. I hear you on the login concern. We've been rolling out alternative flows (including micro-deposits). If you're open to giving us another shot, drop me a note bo@privacy.com, and I'd be happy to set you up.
arkh 8y ago
From the link it does not look like anything changed. There will be more communication from the vendor to the buyer. That's all.

saagarjha 8y ago

Presumably, the merchant I'm dealing with gets enough information about me to identify me. Couldn't they maintain a "blacklist" of people who use Privacy cards?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
voltagex_ 8y ago
Hell, I have enough trouble with my normal cards being rejected by US/UK services (I'm in Australia), let alone cards that may give me a higher "risk score" with merchants.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
igetspam 8y ago
Privacy works by buying large blocks of gift card numbers and issuing them on demand. A vendor can (and some do) reject gift cards. For those that don't, you can use any billing name/address you'd like and the cards will verify. Privacy uses the car number + expiration + cvv2 code to validate the card. I've had a single merchant reject a purchase because I used "${merchant_name} Customer" as the billing name. I also us a blackhole mailing address to avoid the seemingly natural inclination of various vendors to send paper mailers that I don't want.

tomnipotent 8y ago

I'll also point out Teampay.co that creates single-use CCs (with specific limits) through Slack similar to "I want to buy a MacBook Pro from Apple for $1,845.50". It's been an amazing tool. Also supports recurring weekly/monthly/annual charges and sends a Slack message every time the cards you approve are used.

laurieg 8y ago

Is there a non-US alternative to privacy.com?

dawnerd 8y ago

I have trouble trusting privacy.com when they want my bank account information up front. I see them as just a ticking time bomb waiting to be hacked.

boling11 8y ago
Hey there! One of the Privacy.com cofounders here. I hear you on the login concern. It was something we launched with and releasing new bank flows is tricky, so we've been doing so slowly. That said, we do have alternative flows (including micro-deposits). If you're open to giving us another chance, drop me a note (bo@privacy.com), and I'd be happy to set you up.
- dawnerd 8y ago
  Is that fairly recent? I remember when I last tried to sign up I was kind of blind sighted by it just asking for banking information without prior knowledge. I’ll probably give you guys another shot. Although I’d still put a mention of how to fund your account on the homepage.
  - boling11 8y ago
    Yeah - that makes sense. We're working this into our FAQ / help desk copy, but it should be more prominent. We're releasing it slowly for risk management reasons (so not everyone sees it). Happy to activate it manually on your account though if you'd like.

fro0116 8y ago

I like the concept of Privacy.com, but dropped off after signing up because they require linking a bank account through Plaid, which requires you to hand over your online banking credentials, which makes you liable for any fraudulent charges to the account according to the policy of most banks, and gives them access to all the confidential financial information available from your banking dashboard. A routing number + deposits verification system still gives push/pull access, but offers recourse in the case of fraud, and doesn't expose all of your financial history in the process. It's a tried and true system used by many other reputable online payments businesses. It amazes me that they still don't offer routing number based verification as an alternative, quite ironic considering that the company has the audacity to name themselves Privacy. Final was a much better product in that regard, because it was a credit card, so you could pay from your bank's bill payment page in a push-only manner without giving away any access whatsoever to your bank. Plus the rewards were much better, and you get access to 30 days of float on your purchases by nature of it being a credit card. Too bad the company behind it was acquihired by Goldman Sachs: https://www.fastcompany.com/40523758/goldman-sachs-buys-credit-card-startup-final https://www.fastcompany.com/40523758/goldman-sachs-buys-cred... I'm still hoping something similar pops up again eventually.

boling11 8y ago
Hey there! One of the Privacy.com cofounders here. I hear you on the login concern. We've been rolling out alternative flows (including micro-deposits). If you're open to giving us another shot, drop me a note bo@privacy.com, and I'd be happy to set you up.

arkh 8y ago

From the link it does not look like anything changed. There will be more communication from the vendor to the buyer. That's all.