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Comment by untog | Hacker News Reader

Having panned Plastc yesterday, this is like night and day - where Plastc is trying to solve "I have too many credit cards in my wallet" with an overdose of technology, Final is solving an actual real problem (credit card fraud) with an intelligent use of technology.

In fact, I don't even want a physical card (chip and pin will make that difficult anyway), I just want an online service that will generate a new credit card number for me on demand.

The budget tracking etc. is nice (and I understand why you want to add it for customer engagement and blah) but I'd love a totally stripped down service that gives me card numbers and pings me when they're used - and I would happily pay for it.

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Is credit card fraud really a big problem (for consumers I'm asking, not banks or merchants)? In my experience, chargebacks are pretty easy, debit or credit. Same with reporting a lost or stolen card and voiding any purchase made on it. And every credit card I've ever had has been remarkably proactive about alerting me to possible fraudulent activity.

There's also an issue of anonymity and trust. There are plenty of websites from which I'd like to make purchases (some of an unflattering disposition) that may continue to bill after cancellation requests (because they know nobody would take them to court for fear of having their names associated) or that I just don't want bound to my name.

How many times have you found yourself shying away from a site because you were worried about what they'd do with your credit card number? This isn't a perfect solution (especially with the limited pool of numbers), but it's nice.

When banks have to pay millions of dollars a month in credit card fraud, it impacts consumers. And there is peace of mind that there is no POSSIBLE way your card can be used for fraud.

You're tempting the gods when you say "no possible way." Recent history has shown repeatedly that when it comes to hacking especially access to funds, defenses are good for only short periods of time.

It's one of those things you never really think about until it happens to you.

It happened to me but I got lucky with my CU's fraud detection (froze the card after 2 hours), but took about 8 hours of my time to sort out. Now when I'm at that random liquor store on the corner I tend to ask myself, "Could this be another compromised card reader?"

Last month my Visa debit card was cloned at an ATM and several hundred dollars were withdrawn. It happened on a Friday and my bank had to cancel my card leaving me without access to any funds. It took about five days to get a new card created and shipped to me.

If I had a local bank it wouldn't have been much of a problem as I would have been able to withdraw funds in person. I agree that chargebacks are pretty easy but in my experience the card itself had to be canceled and reprinted causing an inconvenience. Luckily I have credit cards for emergencies such as this.

All things considered it wasn't a huge deal to me personally but I could see how fraud could potentially be quite the problem for some.

Edit: To add, I also needed to print out, sign, and fax an affidavit form for my bank along with a scan of the card itself to prove it was still in my possession.

Is credit card fraud a real problem for consumers? My experience has been that my number gets stolen and American Express overnights me a new card.

It's mildly inconvenient to update my recurring billing info, but it's not something I feel like I need a product to solve.

When you have to update 15 different recurring accounts, and it happens 2 or 3 times a year, it gets to be a burden. Despite it happening that often to me, I almost invariably would find some account I forgot to update every time until they got mad when charges started getting declined. I finally fixed this situation for myself by using a dedicated card just for recurring charges, and thus far (knock on wood), it hasn’t been compromised while my primary cards have.

Also, three out of the last four times my card was compromised, it happened during a trip or once the day before I left (on a Saturday). So an overnighted card didn’t really help me. I have backup cards, but it’s still a hassle.

Finally, because fraud is so rampant, the banks seem to have gotten super paranoid about suspicious charges. I’ve had my card declined at the grocery store I shop at multiple times per week. My spouse had her card declined at a local clothing store. Again, not a huge deal because we have backup cards, but it’s both annoying and embarrassing when this happens.

This. The Target breach cost me a late fee. I have numerous things on reoccurring subscriptions. When I was sent a new card I remembered most of those subscriptions, but it only took forgetting one. Only a few months later did I realize I hadn't updated that account.

You don't even have to bother updating your old recurring accounts -- Amex seems to recognize those transactions and continues to allow charges to go through to the old number.

> I just want an online service that will generate a new credit card number for me on demand.

I'm wondering why it's not more widespread. My (small) bank has been providing me a unique card number for every purchase for at least the last 5 years, and they're not usually on the cutting edge regarding banking technology. You can also give a maximum amount that can be withdrawn on the card, and once someone has withdrawn money using that number, no one else can do it.

There's a service called MaskMe that offers on-the-fly credit cards like this. It's a paid service, but what they do is you right click on a field, and generate a new card number. This card is basically prepaid - the service provider charges your real card for whatever the value you say, and the person you're buying from gets the number you just created.

Only real downside is that the generated cards are all MasterCard, and some merchants don't take anything but Visa.

I have had this via neteller for many years; one off mastercard numbers.

Too bad they got caught up in the stupid anti-online poker bollocks a while back and can't service US customers.

Awesome! We hope you'll try us out.

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