Bit confused with the difference between this versus something like an Amex pre-paid card. Why would someone use True Link over one of the existing pre-paid card options? A web interface?
A key difference is that the True Link card has built in protections against specific cases of elder fraud, not just the general cases of fraud that something like Amex targets.
Just to give a concrete example: there are bunch of charities that sound like legitimate ones but aren't. An example is the Cancer Fund of America, which spends less than 1% of their income on charitable activities (see [1][2]). These charities specifically target the elderly, sometimes calling them over and over again to take advantage of cognitive decline (cf. [2][3]).
[1] http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/ [2] http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities [3] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-15/financial-abuse-vic... [4] http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-07-16/opinions/36887...
$20/year? Well. Worth. It. Don't even give me the first year free. I'll give you guys the $20 today.
From what I can see, this acts as a bit of a buffer between scammers and your "real" account.
"All this goes through a pre-paid True Link Visa card, filled through the person’s checking account, which is free for the first year and costs $20 annually after that. True Link acts as the preauthorizer, giving it the power to see incoming charges and approve or deny them accordingly."
What does really interest me is this part...
"True Link is currently working on building its list of fraudulent and potentially fraudulent organizations..."
There are blacklist organizations for merchants like Bad Customers et al. which I'm very skeptical about since they charge you to be taken out of that list. Of course they don't claim to be "blacklists" since that's too negative, but they essentially are since any company using their services can deny your purchase. I hope these guys have a better vetting and arbitration process or this will end up being another Bad Customers except as a blacklist of merchants.