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Comment by charcircuit | Hacker News Reader

Instead of selling magic paper why not use reloadable prepaid cards so you wouldn't have to keep magic paper in the machine?

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Kind of silly to use a magic rectangle to buy a different magic rectangle. Better to buy magic paper.

I've actually recently got a "travel" card (Wise) even though I don't have a plan to travel. But it allows me to top it up with say $200 and present it locally and online (with attractive exchange rates) and limit risk and potential lockouts on my regular bank issued card. I can use the physical card as well as via Google Pay on my phone. (In Australia contactless payments are pretty much ubiquitous and have low fees if any)

Not sure about Australia but in many countries (at least UK, SEPA countries, Singapore), Wise is a registered bank now and the card is just a Visa debit identical to those issued by any other bank. When you "top it up" you are just transferring money into another bank account of yours. Not to say Wise isn't great (it is), just dispelling the idea that it's somehow different from a bank account + debit card.

I guess I am just impressed by the features compared to my regular bank. While I don't earn interest in Wise, having things like the way you can categorise and annotate transactions, instantly freeze and thaw the card, quickly create purposeful accounts for putting aside funds in whatever currency, quick transfers

Yeah, they are fantastic. I am forever hopeful that their feature set will inspire other banks. So far I have seen that happening in UK/Europe, but not so much elsewhere.

Wise does offer the ability to switch your balance from Cash (safeguarded, no interest) to Interest (government-backed assets) or Stocks (index fund) while still having access to spend it. This might be gated by currency or by the country of your verified address.

Funnily enough, this is very common in Japan via so called "e-money" stored value cards such as Suica[1], Pasmo, Waon, Nanaco. Those four you can even provision right now into Apple Wallet and load with money via a card if you've got an iPhone made in the last few years.

Accepting them in a sane payment system is a bit of a nightmare however.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica

Loading Suica with a foreign credit card was unfairly good because there was no fee and it’s coded as travel, so that’s maybe 5% back with the right card.

I say was because it’s currently broken apparently, as they switched payment providers to one that requires 3D Secure in an way Apple Pay can’t do.

Certain businesses only take the magic paper. Namely dispensaries and roadside taco stands.

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