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> Another answer: because regular banks are awful to deal with. They don't have nice APIs to just move money around. They apply velocity limits at surprising ti
by ProAm 7y ago
> Another answer: because regular banks are awful to deal with. They don't have nice APIs to just move money around. They apply velocity limits at surprising times. They can terminate your account suddenly for opaque reasons.
Do you think Google is going to do any better at this? They already have no customer support, close accounts without notice....etc... The article is right, this is about engagement.
- mjevans 7y agoIt seems like they're making the point that this will be better for Google and for things like Google Pay/Wallet which can now operate at a bank level rather than at a customer of a bank level. For the rest of us, I agree with your view.
- superfrank 7y ago> Do you think Google is going to do any better at this? Google's new checking account isn't really Google. They don't currently have the licenses needed to act as a bank. It's basically a Google branded checking account from Stanford Federal Credit Union. From what I've read, Google's checking account will be similar to Uber's credit card in that you will sign up and get some benefits through Google/Uber, but pretty much all maintenance will be handled by the issuing bank. Source: https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/11/17/why-is-google-about-to-launch-checking-account-for.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/11/17/why-is-google-abou...
- MetalGuru 7y agoAnd this is intentional. Google definitely doesn’t want to be regulated as a bank. It just wants your financial data, so it can send better targeted ads.
- thepangolino 7y agoIsn’t access to that financial data extremely well regulated? I’ve often thought of launching a credit card company solely for access to people’s transaction data. That provides tremendous insight into many companies turnovers allowing to anticipate earnings.
- rrix2 7y agoNot regulated well enough, imo, MasterCard is already willing to sell data to these same actors: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/17801880/google-mastercard-data-online-ads-offline-purchase-history-privacy https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/17801880/google-mastercar...
- vkou 7y agoHalf of Visa's, and MasterCard's business model is selling payment flow. This isn't some novel development for these processors - they've been doing it for decades. Shockingly enough, people don't care enough to shred all their credit cards! Even people who tend to get outraged on the internet about these sorts of things still have, and use at least one. (And before someone brings up that EU is not heavy on credit cards - the function of European debit cards in this space is not one whit different from that of a credit card.)
- rrix2 7y agoLive too live in a debt based society!
- icebraining 7y agoWell pointed out, Mister Gotcha.
- scottlocklin 7y agoOr you could just open a checking account with a credit union that doesn't sell your data to Google.
- mmanfrin 7y ago> Do you think Google is going to do any better at this? They already have no customer support, close accounts without notice....etc... The article is right, this is about engagement. Absolutely. I say this as someone who is still angry with them over Reader. I don't trust Google, but I trust them a hell of a lot more than Wells Fargo, Bank of America, et al.
- kjs3 7y agoReally? Wells Fargo isn't mining my search history using a black-box algorithm to decide without transparency whether to close my account or decline a transaction because I might have become a risk of some sort. Not that they would ever do such a thing.
- plorkyeran 7y agoI'd rather have my bank abruptly close my account for opaque reasons than fraudulently open additional accounts in my name.
- qzw 7y agoWhy not both? With Wells Fargo you can have it all!
- kjs3 7y agoWell...latter is illegal and the former isn't (usually) so I think there's a bit of apples-to-oranges, but yeah you got me, as we've seen being a regulated institution isn't a guarantee of good behavior. I still think the incentive, opportunity and the inclination of Google to not act in my interest is pretty high.
- LordDragonfang 7y agoYou literally just described fraud protection, which is something most banks nowadays use. It might be opt-out (or even opt-in) but that's very much a thing that banks do, and they get plenty of false positives with it.
- 7y ago
- Iv 7y agoI think Google can be awful and still fare better than most regular banks.
- kjs3 7y agoI work for a bank. As bad as we can be, there's always a recourse of some sort (not always useful, but sometimes). There's always a regulator (not always activist, but sometimes). There's always an alternative (not always equivalent, but sometimes). With Google, it's up to Google whether the answer is 'screw you' (unless you're spending tens of millions, it is).
- Iv 7y agoIf Google does banking, it has to obey to banking regulations. Like you say, the banks ignore the regulators, shortcut the recourse and the alternatives, really, are all equally awful.
- kjs3 7y agoI will bet, without any specific inside knowledge, that the reason that Google hasn't already gone into banking is that they are looking at how to construct a "financial service company" that does bank-like things without being subject to the full force of OCC oversight.
- anongraddebt 7y agoThe traditional banking system is about 150 years old by now. Increasingly, it seems to serve a smaller segment of society, regardless of its half-hearted attempts at innovation. I have a number of friends working in finance. Lovely people. Absolutely arrogant, though, when it comes to the question of whether their industry will face non-trivial disuption. Maybe Google and other current tech giants will not be the ones, but someone is going to come along, take a chunk out of financial services, and start the ball rolling on a non-trivial amount of disruption in that space. I often see people questioning why others would want a new finance/banking system. Yes, the traditional one has some negatives, but how could you want something almost completely new? I think this line of questioning misses the phenomenon underway. The banking system works for well for me, so it can seem counterintuitive to see people pushing for quite major changes. But, clearly enough people are fed up that things are starting to move in that direction. At what point do I just say, "does it matter whether these people can provide a litany of reasons?" Either traditional players sack up and satisfy current and potential customers, or someone else will.
- Aloha 7y agoBranch banking as we know it was effectively invented by AP Giannini in the 1920's - arguably modern banking didn't exist till the computer and ATM networks arrived in the 1970's.
- bryanrasmussen 7y agoI'm pretty sure that whoever disrupts banking will do it the Uber way, by disregarding all the laws that they are required to follow and trying to claim not to be what they actually are, with the same eventual success this route has had for Uber.
- joosters 7y agoUber is succeeding? Its finances don't think so.
- satanspastaroll 7y ago