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This seems to do a lot more than canceling trials, and I really like the idea. Unfortunately, you can't even get into the app without providing your phone numb
by lawnchair_larry 7y ago
This seems to do a lot more than canceling trials, and I really like the idea.
Unfortunately, you can't even get into the app without providing your phone number and then entering your banking information.
Nope, not happening.
It's not that I don't trust the kid making this app. I mean, I shouldn't trust him, but that's not even the issue. He is using a personal developer account, doesn't seem to have a proper company, is involving third parties for app functionality (including the banking info).
Even with the best of intentions, he's likely to get hacked or bought out, or his third party SDKs are, and there's no way to protect yourself from that.
You would have to be seriously foolish to type your bank username and password into this thing.
Maybe someone can make a virtual bank app, so you can sign up for virtual credit card apps...
- sansnomme 7y agoIn a lot of European banks, single issue virtual credit cards through app already exist.
- Sylamore 7y agoprivacy.com allows you to do this, you can generate virtual credit cards that are one use only, one source only, with spending limits, etc. The only gripe I have is that it's linked to your checking account and not your actual credit card.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y agoIt's because they're acting as a 'credit card processor'. If it was card to card, they'd be eating credit card costs... they currently profit from your usage (interchange fees)
- Sylamore 7y agoI figured that was the case, but I would seriously consider paying a reasonable annual fee to use my actual other credit cards, not every thing I buy online is cheap.
- judge2020 7y agoPrivacy only makes money from interchange so it's understandable that they wouldn't forego their revenue model by having to pay the interchange themselves (merchant pays interchange for each transaction). I assume this business model is also why it's not available in the EU, as they regulate Visa/MC by limiting how much interchange they can take.
- tribby 7y agoI've heard a lot about privacy.com for this kind of thing lately (seems similar to bank of america's "shopsafe" feature?), and I have a question: even if your card fails to process, if you've entered a contract to a pay a subscription fee to a service provider, are you not legally bound to pay up? not that most services would bother trying to collect, instead opting to shutter your account -- but, in theory, is the legal liability still there?
- mfkp 7y agoSure, and some companies could send you to collections or something similar, but not many would over a $10/month subscription.
- londons_explore 7y agoMore and more have realised that a $10/month subscription is actually the perfect thing to send to collections. They sell it off to a collections company, often for $50 or more. That company adds fees, interest, and charges to the bill ($50 for each letter, etc), and finally takes you to court when the amount owed gets to $3000 or so. The court can't chuck out those extra charges, since they can be seen as a legitimate consequential expense.
- homero 7y agoI throw in a fake name and address
- the_seraphim 7y agowell see now thats mail fraud
- londons_explore 7y agoThats the high risk strategy... After sending 50 letters and court summonses to your fake address, they finally get a court to order your ISP to give the real details, and suddenly you have a $10k claim with the added charge of fraud...
- timwis 7y agoLove privacy.com, but I can't seem to use it outside the US :(
- r00fus 7y agoThis is likely due to anti-money-laundering / know-your-client (AML-KYC) US regulations (similar in many other countries).
- timwis 7y agoCan you elaborate? I'm no longer US based, so it's not about me travelling.
- nullify88 7y agoWould you be in a country that Revolut operates in? Not exactly the same, but you can get "Virtual Cards" that is different from the physical card attached to your account. You can change this "Virtual Card" after each purchase so the card number changes. Your name is still attached to the card number but if you dispose after use, attempting any additional transaction on it will fail. This will catch these free trial out and other fraudulent activity caused by sharing card details with shady online businesses.
- sdan 7y agoThey go through Plaid, no? Isn't that safe?
- xhgdvjky 7y agoif you hit a key on my UI I will know regardless of the intended receiver
- testvox 7y agoI don't think that is true with iframes, which is what plaid uses to allow users to enter their banking information. So plaid still can get all your keypresses but an app that uses plaid does not. To be clear you have to trust plaid, and you have verify that the web app is actually using an iframe and not just faking the plaid interface. But you are not just trusting a random web app with your banking credentials.
- wp381640 7y ago> is involving third parties for app functionality (including the banking info) like credit card processing the bank connection is something you want to be done via third parties. it would be a much bigger deal if he was intercepting bank logins and scraping.
- whoisjuan 7y agoIt's weird that the app is still under his personal account especially when he just raised like 5MM from institutional investors: https://twitter.com/jbrowder1/status/1146544737622433792 https://twitter.com/jbrowder1/status/1146544737622433792
- aussieguy1234 7y agoI once worked at a large company, where half of the IP addresses in use were personally owned by one of the infrastructure guys
- codingdave 7y agoWhy would they need your bank info at all, when the whole point of this is to not pay for something? I can see putting in a real credit card for a subscription fee of some kind, but there is no way I'd give out bank info when the entire point of the app is to do exactly the opposite.
- homero 7y agoSo he can see who's charging you
- codingdave 7y agoSeems unnecessary. If the point is to not pay after free trials, why not just have a card that declines everything. It is still valid to sign up, but never will actually accept any payment request.
- PacketPaul 7y agoBecause they are giving you a real credit card number with real charge capability. What if you use the CC to make an actual purchase?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]