Ask HN: How can we hack the credit card industry?

2 pointscdgreen12 comments

The credit card industry has a CLEAR problem. It sucks in every way possible (high interest, hidden fees, poor customer service, fraud). But it is clear that people NEED credit cards to help with cash flow management.

My question to HN is: How can we hack the credit/finance industry to make it better for consumers?

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Quite a few people are tackling DEBIT payments in innovative ways. Off the top of my head there's BankSimple (still in beta), ThinkComp (doing payment thru mobile along w/ their proprietary device), and another that I can't remember that does payment authorization using the audiojack from your iphone.

But if you're talking of supplanting the actual CREDIT industry itself(i.e., replaceing VISA/Mastercard), that's a pretty tough call. The industry is heavily regulated. In fact the credit card industry was borne out of regulation. It's also no small feat to deal with issues such as fraud, defaults, etc...

Great reply. Square, BankSimple, and Verisign is def. doing great things from the perspective of mobile payments. I'm thinking more from the finance perspective of credit. Silicon Valley has never let regulations get in the way of creating a disruptive model that is better for people.

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