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I recently signed up for adobe CC to test out premiere for some video editing work (side note, Final Cut is better) and instead of inputting a real card I used

I recently signed up for adobe CC to test out premiere for some video editing work (side note, Final Cut is better) and instead of inputting a real card I used a privacy.com one. When I decided I didn't want it, I just disabled the privacy card. I only have to deal with a few annoying emails from adobe. I didn't even bother trying to cancel. Reading your comment makes me realize how smart that was.

derwiki 6y ago
I recently started using privacy cards and encourage others to give it a shot!
Brajeshwar 6y ago
As usual, I got invited to the early beta of Privacy quite a while back. Unfortunately, being an Indian resident we have no alternatives that works like Privacy nor Apple Pay.
sharadov 6y ago
I am going to check it out..
pfundstein 6y ago
I wonder if OP could have changed his CC number to a disposable CC instead of paying out 11 months to cancel? You can also buy prepaid debit cards at supermarkets, post offices, etc (at least in Australia) which allow you to do the same thing.
- pfranz 6y ago
  The rub with all of these services is that your account is burned in addition to your credit card. You can walk away from the remaining 11 months of Lightroom as long as you don't need to continue using Premiere for a project or rely on them for any other ongoing service like downloading stock photos you purchased through them (I think I remember seeing that service?) Similarly, doing this to a Steam account or iTunes account cuts off your access to all your previously "purchased" content.
  - rangibaby 6y ago
    A reminder that you never have to worry about ANY of this bullshit if you pirate the software
    - nsomaru 6y ago
      Except the peace of mind and running arbitrary code part
      - quantummkv 6y ago
        I don't know about software, but pirated games are generally more secure, stable and performant with less spyware than the official games with all the DRM.
        nsomaru 6y ago
        Citation needed. I guess you’re probably right but companies are way more accountable than random internet person who modified the dll/binary to work without copy protection.
        morsch 6y ago
        Now you have customer support to complain to when they lose your photos.
        quantummkv 6y ago
        https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/evidence-continues-to-mount-about-how-bad-denuvo-is-for-pc-gaming-performance/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/evidence-continues-to... https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/crackers-say-denuvo-drm-caused-slowdown-on-rime/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/crackers-say-denuvo-d... That's the point. Companies have proved themselves not accountable to their customers.
        hosteur 6y ago
        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_roo...
- lostlogin 6y ago
  My card allows me to switch off online purchases. Not very helpful but possibly prevents the complete killing of an otherwise functional card. It would be good if cards had a white or black list option.
- mcyukon 6y ago
  Not likely, I tried that route about 2 years ago... they started calling and leaving threatening messages every day until I paid up. Not sure what would have happened if I kept ignoring them.
Aachen 6y ago
Is that legal in the USA? Entering into a purchase agreement ("koopovereenkomst", not sure if I'm translating the jargon correctly) and then just not paying? Because that's certainly not legal where I live. I understand that the odds of repercussions are small and that there are no damages on Adobe's side since you haven't physically taken their goods so it would probably have to be taken up by the public prosecutor rather than become a civil case... but still, I'd not be happy having my name on a "doesn't pay their bills" list, nor is it quite honest. Or am I misunderstanding the situation and did they advertised with monthly cancelable? (False advertising) Nobody mentioned that in the thread though, and from this comment it sounds like it was very clear that you were agreeing into a year-long subscription: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24232282 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24232282
- AdamJacobMuller 6y ago
  Maybe it's technically illegal. I don't care. In the USA, it would be civil issue not a criminal one anyway. They can sue me if they like. As far as the morality portion of things is concerned, I don't consider what they are doing moral anyway and I sleep fine at night.
- berkes 6y ago
  From "koopovereenkomst" I assume you are Dutch or Belgian. In the Netherlands, a "koopovereenkomst" most often means you have a "payment obligation" (betaalverplichting). The whole invoicing system where people pay afterwards, hinges on this principle. Disclaimer: IANAL (But I helped as software developer at a factoring company: which buys unpaid invoices from freelancers for a fee or a percentage of the invoice-amount)
  - vosper 6y ago
    > a factoring company: which buys unpaid invoices from freelancers for a fee or a percentage of the invoice-amount Getting way off-topic here, but I’ve never heard of this. Is it like a bill-collector for freelancers? Who do the non-payers tend to be - is it companies who think they can stiff a freelancer, but who will pay up when someone with teeth comes knocking? Also, can anyone sell an invoice on to someone else to collect it, or does that possibility have to be written into the initial contract between the freelancer and the employer?
nullify88 6y ago
For those not in the USA and with a Revolut card, you can activate a virtual card in the app, register with and then dispose of. I did this for the free month of linkedn gold or whatever its called.
- rimliu 6y ago
  You do not even have to dispose it. You basciall have a single-use card. When it is used, another one is generated.
  - nullify88 6y ago
    I see now the disposible virtual card is available on the free tier. Previously this was only available on premium.
muldvarp 6y ago
> side note, Final Cut is better For anyone not doing professional video editing work I can definitely recommend DaVinci Resolve. The basic version is completely free and is extremely powerful.
- AdamJacobMuller 6y ago
  Really? I will try it. I always thought DaVinci was extremely powerful and overkill. I need something which can handle HDR and is a bit better than iMovie, but, both FCPX and Premiere were too much work for me to learn.
- rietta 6y ago
  And works on Linux! I still have a working MacBook Pro (now 6 years old) to do FCPx on, but when/if it bites the dust I am not planning on replacing it with another Apple.
  - arvinsim 6y ago
    I almost bought Final Cut Pro but opted for DaVinci just in case I might want to go back to Windows.
- gerhardi 6y ago
  DaVinci Resolve free version should provide enough functionality and powerful features for even most professional work! DaVinci is a product I'll happily promote. I feel that the software somehow flies "too much under the radar": if you don't know where to look for and seek free video editing software, you end up easily in a swamp of terrible freemium software even when DaVinci Resolve is easily available.
- capableweb 6y ago
  I second this recommendation, especially if you deal a lot with 4K footage (no need for proxy videos that both Premiere and After Effects needs to not be janky) and color grading, as it's amazing in DaVinci Resolve.
- extradesgo 6y ago
honzzz 6y ago
Are card numbers from privacy.com not recognizable as prepaid cards? Why I am asking - recently I was trying to use my Revolut card to register MS Azure account but it threw an error saying something about prepaid cards not allowed. I had to use the card I have from my bank. I am wondering whether it would be like that with cards from privacy.com as well.
rimliu 6y ago
For video editing you can always try DaVinci Resolve. Free and very powerfull. There are some limitations, but they will very likely not be important for "some editing" work.
MrDresden 6y ago
The privacy policy of Privacy.com makes me question if they should be trusted with the detailed transaction information of their users. The policy does make it clear that they share personal data with third parties under, what they call, "controlled circumstances": "With third parties, within the United States and in other countries, who may access data about you to perform functions on our behalf" Here it would be nice to get a clear picture of what these functions are. If they are only for the processing of payments then this is fine (they actually mention this case in the second bullet point so my example does not hold). If these functions are to data mine my data for reselling to a third party advertisment network that would not be alright.
- jiveturkey 6y ago
  if one has to ask ... clearly they cannot. they are based in the US. it's like VPNs. or DOH. it's not a matter of absolute privacy, it's a matter of privacy wrt a certain party. if privacy.com really were private, you'd fund an account with bitcoin. which afaict you cannot. so you need another level of abstraction/privacy to keep your details from privacy.com.
eigenvalue 6y ago
Thanks for flagging this service, I just signed up. Looks very sleek and easy to use. Not sure what I would do with it, but nice to have as an option, especially when working with sketchy merchants.
hnrodey 6y ago
Recently did the exact thing with a Privacy card and SiriusXM (fuck that company). I have a plot twist tho, SiriusXM continued to extend my service after my trial period ended and payment declined then tried to make me pay $10. Turns out, I still had to manually jump through all of the hoops of manually cancelling my SiriusXM account and the $10 is the pro-rated bill between the end of my trial and when finally cancelled. Seriously, fuck that company. edit: seems I have a fancy for run on sentences. sorry
kweks 6y ago
Does anyone know of any EU / international alternative to Privacy.com?
- qubex 6y ago
  I know Revolut don’t have the best reputation et al, but one handy feature is generating one-time ‘virtual’ credit cards for use online. Use it once and it deducts from your balance and is ‘burnt’.

derwiki 6y ago

I recently started using privacy cards and encourage others to give it a shot!

Brajeshwar 6y ago

As usual, I got invited to the early beta of Privacy quite a while back. Unfortunately, being an Indian resident we have no alternatives that works like Privacy nor Apple Pay.

sharadov 6y ago

I am going to check it out..

pfundstein 6y ago

I wonder if OP could have changed his CC number to a disposable CC instead of paying out 11 months to cancel? You can also buy prepaid debit cards at supermarkets, post offices, etc (at least in Australia) which allow you to do the same thing.

pfranz 6y ago
The rub with all of these services is that your account is burned in addition to your credit card. You can walk away from the remaining 11 months of Lightroom as long as you don't need to continue using Premiere for a project or rely on them for any other ongoing service like downloading stock photos you purchased through them (I think I remember seeing that service?) Similarly, doing this to a Steam account or iTunes account cuts off your access to all your previously "purchased" content.
- rangibaby 6y ago
  A reminder that you never have to worry about ANY of this bullshit if you pirate the software
  - nsomaru 6y ago
    Except the peace of mind and running arbitrary code part
    - quantummkv 6y ago
      I don't know about software, but pirated games are generally more secure, stable and performant with less spyware than the official games with all the DRM.
      - nsomaru 6y ago
        Citation needed. I guess you’re probably right but companies are way more accountable than random internet person who modified the dll/binary to work without copy protection.
        morsch 6y ago
        Now you have customer support to complain to when they lose your photos.
        quantummkv 6y ago
        https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/evidence-continues-to-mount-about-how-bad-denuvo-is-for-pc-gaming-performance/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/evidence-continues-to... https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/crackers-say-denuvo-drm-caused-slowdown-on-rime/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/06/crackers-say-denuvo-d... That's the point. Companies have proved themselves not accountable to their customers.
        hosteur 6y ago
        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_roo...
lostlogin 6y ago
My card allows me to switch off online purchases. Not very helpful but possibly prevents the complete killing of an otherwise functional card. It would be good if cards had a white or black list option.
mcyukon 6y ago
Not likely, I tried that route about 2 years ago... they started calling and leaving threatening messages every day until I paid up. Not sure what would have happened if I kept ignoring them.

Aachen 6y ago

Is that legal in the USA? Entering into a purchase agreement ("koopovereenkomst", not sure if I'm translating the jargon correctly) and then just not paying? Because that's certainly not legal where I live. I understand that the odds of repercussions are small and that there are no damages on Adobe's side since you haven't physically taken their goods so it would probably have to be taken up by the public prosecutor rather than become a civil case... but still, I'd not be happy having my name on a "doesn't pay their bills" list, nor is it quite honest. Or am I misunderstanding the situation and did they advertised with monthly cancelable? (False advertising) Nobody mentioned that in the thread though, and from this comment it sounds like it was very clear that you were agreeing into a year-long subscription: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24232282 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24232282

AdamJacobMuller 6y ago
Maybe it's technically illegal. I don't care. In the USA, it would be civil issue not a criminal one anyway. They can sue me if they like. As far as the morality portion of things is concerned, I don't consider what they are doing moral anyway and I sleep fine at night.
berkes 6y ago
From "koopovereenkomst" I assume you are Dutch or Belgian. In the Netherlands, a "koopovereenkomst" most often means you have a "payment obligation" (betaalverplichting). The whole invoicing system where people pay afterwards, hinges on this principle. Disclaimer: IANAL (But I helped as software developer at a factoring company: which buys unpaid invoices from freelancers for a fee or a percentage of the invoice-amount)
- vosper 6y ago
  > a factoring company: which buys unpaid invoices from freelancers for a fee or a percentage of the invoice-amount Getting way off-topic here, but I’ve never heard of this. Is it like a bill-collector for freelancers? Who do the non-payers tend to be - is it companies who think they can stiff a freelancer, but who will pay up when someone with teeth comes knocking? Also, can anyone sell an invoice on to someone else to collect it, or does that possibility have to be written into the initial contract between the freelancer and the employer?

nullify88 6y ago

For those not in the USA and with a Revolut card, you can activate a virtual card in the app, register with and then dispose of. I did this for the free month of linkedn gold or whatever its called.

rimliu 6y ago
You do not even have to dispose it. You basciall have a single-use card. When it is used, another one is generated.
- nullify88 6y ago
  I see now the disposible virtual card is available on the free tier. Previously this was only available on premium.

muldvarp 6y ago

> side note, Final Cut is better For anyone not doing professional video editing work I can definitely recommend DaVinci Resolve. The basic version is completely free and is extremely powerful.

AdamJacobMuller 6y ago
Really? I will try it. I always thought DaVinci was extremely powerful and overkill. I need something which can handle HDR and is a bit better than iMovie, but, both FCPX and Premiere were too much work for me to learn.
rietta 6y ago
And works on Linux! I still have a working MacBook Pro (now 6 years old) to do FCPx on, but when/if it bites the dust I am not planning on replacing it with another Apple.
- arvinsim 6y ago
  I almost bought Final Cut Pro but opted for DaVinci just in case I might want to go back to Windows.
gerhardi 6y ago
DaVinci Resolve free version should provide enough functionality and powerful features for even most professional work! DaVinci is a product I'll happily promote. I feel that the software somehow flies "too much under the radar": if you don't know where to look for and seek free video editing software, you end up easily in a swamp of terrible freemium software even when DaVinci Resolve is easily available.
capableweb 6y ago
I second this recommendation, especially if you deal a lot with 4K footage (no need for proxy videos that both Premiere and After Effects needs to not be janky) and color grading, as it's amazing in DaVinci Resolve.
extradesgo 6y ago

honzzz 6y ago

Are card numbers from privacy.com not recognizable as prepaid cards? Why I am asking - recently I was trying to use my Revolut card to register MS Azure account but it threw an error saying something about prepaid cards not allowed. I had to use the card I have from my bank. I am wondering whether it would be like that with cards from privacy.com as well.

rimliu 6y ago

For video editing you can always try DaVinci Resolve. Free and very powerfull. There are some limitations, but they will very likely not be important for "some editing" work.

MrDresden 6y ago

The privacy policy of Privacy.com makes me question if they should be trusted with the detailed transaction information of their users. The policy does make it clear that they share personal data with third parties under, what they call, "controlled circumstances": "With third parties, within the United States and in other countries, who may access data about you to perform functions on our behalf" Here it would be nice to get a clear picture of what these functions are. If they are only for the processing of payments then this is fine (they actually mention this case in the second bullet point so my example does not hold). If these functions are to data mine my data for reselling to a third party advertisment network that would not be alright.

jiveturkey 6y ago
if one has to ask ... clearly they cannot. they are based in the US. it's like VPNs. or DOH. it's not a matter of absolute privacy, it's a matter of privacy wrt a certain party. if privacy.com really were private, you'd fund an account with bitcoin. which afaict you cannot. so you need another level of abstraction/privacy to keep your details from privacy.com.

eigenvalue 6y ago

Thanks for flagging this service, I just signed up. Looks very sleek and easy to use. Not sure what I would do with it, but nice to have as an option, especially when working with sketchy merchants.

hnrodey 6y ago

Recently did the exact thing with a Privacy card and SiriusXM (fuck that company). I have a plot twist tho, SiriusXM continued to extend my service after my trial period ended and payment declined then tried to make me pay $10. Turns out, I still had to manually jump through all of the hoops of manually cancelling my SiriusXM account and the $10 is the pro-rated bill between the end of my trial and when finally cancelled. Seriously, fuck that company. edit: seems I have a fancy for run on sentences. sorry

kweks 6y ago

Does anyone know of any EU / international alternative to Privacy.com?

qubex 6y ago
I know Revolut don’t have the best reputation et al, but one handy feature is generating one-time ‘virtual’ credit cards for use online. Use it once and it deducts from your balance and is ‘burnt’.