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dyernews · 6 years

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Comparing the Growing List of FinTech Debit Cards

It’s hard to believe there was once a time when your payment options were mostly limited to cash, credit card, or the dreaded check. Finally the debit card was introduced, giving customers access to their checking funds via a piece of plastic that looked and functioned much like a credit card. While the majority of consumers now cite debit cards as their preferred form of payment, there are many ways in which traditional debit products are lacking.

Enter the scrappy FinTech startups, who have strived to create better financial products for Millennials and everyone else. Noticing that most debit cards came with several fees and no real perks, a recent trend finds peer to peer payments apps, micro investment tools, and other FinTech firms introducing their own twist on debit cards. In addition to erasing many of the most common fees that customers incur, some of these cards also add some enticing bonuses to lure new users.

With that, let’s take a look at the growing roster of FinTech debit cards, including some of the best perks each one has to offer.

PayPal Cash Mastercard

Cost: Free Status: Available Biggest perk: Easy access to PayPal funds

Peer to peer payment services are an obvious app type to introduce debit cards as many users carry a balance in their accounts. With that in mind it’s really no surprise that PayPal offers a debit card that allows users to access their funds and spend them wherever Mastercard is accepted. On top of that, cardholders also have access to 33,000 MoneyPass ATMs nationwide with no fees.

My thoughts: Aside from those basic features, the PayPal Cash Mastercard doesn’t have much else to offer. In fact it’s actually one of the least intriguing products on this list. Then again, given PayPal’s long history and mass popularity, the company might not have to resort to gimmicks to gain users like some of the younger startups.

Venmo Card

Cost: Free Status: Available Biggest perk: Easy access to PayPal funds

Like PayPal’s debit card offering, the biggest selling point of Venmo’s card is the ability to access you Venmo funds without having to transfer them to an external bank account. Moreover a website promoting the offering notes that using the Venmo card makes it easy to track your purchase and split them with your Venmo contacts. Plus, if you’re in need of cash, the card also provides fee-free access to MoneyPass ATMs.

Being the younger, hipper alternative to PayPal that it is, Venmo’s debit cards come in a variety of bright colors such as yellow, pink, blue, and green in addition to the more standard black and white. Interestingly, although the PayPal Cash card alludes to foreign transaction fees, Venmo’s FAQ notes that the card can only be used in the U.S. This also means that you can’t use your Venmo card to purchase from a foreign retailer online, even if the transaction is made in USD.

My thoughts: Once again, there’s not a whole lot to Venmo’s debit card. That said I can easily seeing it being of value to hardcore Venmo users. At the end of the day it is free so, if you’re interested, go for it.

Square Cash Card

Cost: Free Status: Available Biggest perk: Boosts (Discount offers)

Another peer to peer service that’s diversified into debit cards in recent years is Square’s Cash app. Although Square is best known for its small business payments and point of sales solutions, the company launched Cash as a rival to Venmo, PayPal, and the like. The Cash Card then followed in 2017.

The Cash Card is the one product on this list I have some personal experience with. I’ve been using the card for several months now and have become a fan of its Boosts feature. Boosts allow cardholders to instantly earn discounts on select restaurant and retailer purchases. In some cases these discounts are a percentage off (e.g. 10% off at Chick-fil-A) while my personal favorite Boost grants a $1 off at any coffee shop. Thanks to this Boost, I’m able to reload my Starbucks card with $10 and have only $9 be deducted from my Cash card balance.

My thoughts: As a Cash Card user myself, I may be a bit biased, but I find this offering to be the best of the three P2P options on this list. For what it’s worth, Square Cash is also my favorite P2P app to use in general, so perhaps that also plays a factor. In any case, the Boost feature shows that companies can create value for their customers by partnering with other brands (something that will come up again later). Because of this I definitely give Square credit for creating a debit card that’s actually worth using.

SoFi Money

Cost: Free Status: Available Biggest perk: 2.25% APY on savings balance

SoFi is a FinTech startup that seems to do a little bit of everything these days. While the company might be most associated with loans, they’ve recently pushed active and automated investment accounts as well. Elsewhere, they also offer their SoFi Money account and Visa debit card.

Billed as a hybrid account, SoFi Money boasts that it currently pays users a 2.25% APY on their money without charging them any monthly fees. But the lack of fees doesn’t stop there — according to their fee schedule, the card offers free or reimbursed ATM fees worldwide, $0 foreign transaction fees, and no overdraft fees (note: the transaction will just be declined in most cases).

My thoughts: Sure 2.25% might not be the absolute best APY available but it’s also not far off — not to mention that this is actually a hybrid checking account. Plus the ability to use any ATM domestic or abroad is another winner in my book. All this means that, although SoFi may be the most out of left field app on this list to have a debit card, it does make a compelling case for itself. Full disclosure: I actually signed up for a SoFi Money account while writing this, so I mean what I say.

Acorns Spend

Cost: $3 a month Status: Waitlisted Biggest perk: Instant Round-Ups

If you’re not familiar with Acorns, the app has made a name for itself with its round-ups concept for micro-investing. The app’s pitch is that users can start investing just by saving up their digital spare change. Following the success of that basic premise, Acorns has since expanded their offerings to include, among other things, a specialty debit card called Acorns Spend.

One of the features that comes with Acorns Spend is instant round-ups. Currently, without the debit card, users need to accrue more than $5 in roundups before funds are transferred to their investment account. The company also says that cardholders will have access to additional “Found Money” offers that allow users to earn cash back from retailers and restaurants that is then deposited into users’ investment funds.

Acorns has only recently started shipping out the first 100,000 of its Spend cards, which they say were all claimed in just four days. Still, they are currently allowing other interested individuals to join a waitlist. These cards come at a cost of $3 a month, although this fee also includes Acorns Core (the app’s flagship investment product) as well as Acorns Later (their retirement savings option).

My thoughts: Ultimately $3 may be a steep price, but this does include three products. The key here actually isn’t the card itself but the Acorns Core and Acorns Later features that come with it. Those who have sizeable balances in each of these accounts might not find that monthly fee to be much to fret over. Meanwhile those who aren’t heavy users of Acorns or don’t plan to build up their accounts to a notable balance any time soon will likely want to pass.

Stash

Cost: Card is free but Stash account is $1 a month (or 0.25% annually for investment account balances over $5,000) Status: Available Biggest perk: Stock-Back rewards

Next up is another investment app who’s come out swinging in the debit card game. Like Acorns, Stash allows users to start investing with as little as $5. Now they’re also offering customers a new way to build their portfolios by adding a clever perk to their Stash debit cards.

This week, Stash announced Stock-Back for its debit card product. Now users will be able to earn fractional shares of stock in the companies they shop at using their Stash debit cards. In fact the company says cardholders will be able to earn Stock-Back at any store in the United States. Obviously not every shop in the country is publicly traded, so Stash says it will instead issue users a stake in “Stash-approved ETFs” when a corresponding public stock is not available.

According to MarketWatch, the amount of Stock-Back shoppers will earn will depend on the retailer. For example they note that Netflix and Spotify will offer 5% on purchases, while Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks purchases will net users 2% back. As for everything else, cardholders will either get 0.125% back by default or 0.25% if users enable a direct deposit to their Stash account.

The concept of Stash Stock-Back is somewhat similar to FinTech app Bumped. However that service allows users to link their existing credit and debit cards in order to earn stock for their purchases. Of course the other major difference between the two is that Bumped currently allows users to choose a total of 14 companies (one from each category) among more than two dozen options instead of opening the field to every store like Stash is.

My thoughts: Overall Stash’s Stock-Back perk will undoubtedly earn some attention. Unfortunately I fear those who may be excited by the premise may be disappointed in the small percentage they’ll actually be earning — unless the company beefs up its participating partner roster as they say they plan to. Still this may be one to watch and hopefully gets many younger adults interested in investing.

Robinhood

Cost: Free Status: On hold Biggest perk: 3% APY (potentially)

At the end of last year, yet another investment app made a splash announcing their own debit card. Robinhood originally revealed that it was launching a “Checking & Savings” product that would pay users a 3% APY on their funds, give them a swanky looking Mastercard debit card, and wouldn’t charge them many of the fees banking customers have come to know and loathe. It all sounded pretty great until the startup more or less got called out by SIPC and was forced to partially backtrack on their plans.

You can read more about the whole debacle but, long story short, it’s currently unclear when the rebranded Robinhood Cash Management will arrive or what the product will entail. Currently the feature is still listed as “coming soon” on Robinhood’s site and in their app, so stay tuned for if/when it arrives.

In just the past couple of years, several debit card offerings from FinTech ventures have hit the market. Although some of these products merely provide customers with an easier way to spend their peer to peer payment balance, others are employing interesting perks and gimmicks to give users a reason to choose them over rewards credit cards and other options. With these early adopters seemingly catching on, it’s only more likely that additional players and perks will follow. Stay tuned!

The post Comparing the Growing List of FinTech Debit Cards appeared first on Dyer News.

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thefinalprose · 6 years

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Episode One: I Lost to a Chicken.

Well, here I am. Again. Long story short, I wrote recaps for several seasons and needed a breather. Good thing I took one because from what I’ve heard Arie’s season was about as exciting as the intro paragraph to this recap.

When the Bachelor suitor bios came out, I just couldn’t resist and decided to write about them. The response was enough of an ego stroke that I have decided to recap Becca’s season, just a little differently. This time, no one will edit for me; they may take a week to post (sorry this took so long, I was out of town) and I might write whilst enjoying a cocktail. Regardless, I promise the same judgmental snark.

The first episode of the season is always a fan favorite. We get to re-live the new lead’s sad story of heartbreak; we’ll likely see past contestants show up to offer advice on finding everlasting love on national television in less than 90 days and it’s our first official look at the new suitors as they arrive at the mansion. A few will do something over the top for attention; a few will be too nervous to form a sentence that makes sense and one will definitely get blitzed. And probably half naked.

As though I’ve watched this before, the episode starts with the (first) reminder that Arie dicked Becca over last season. He proposed, she said yes and during one of their secret romantic getaways before they could officially go public as a couple, he breaks up with her with cameras rolling so he could go be with the runner up from his season. Who he had already spoken to about the idea. I want to say I’m surprised ABC let this happen, but they stopped surprising me with bad ideas when they let Nick try (and fail) at love 107 times.

Becca arrives at the mansion to be greeted by Kaitlyn, JoJo and Rachel; the most recent Bachelorette’s who are there to inspire success as they are all still engaged to the winner of their seasons. JoJo says, “it’s about to be bigger and better” and I hope that’s a dig at fantasy suite Arie.

The Bachelorette’s sage the mansion and I wonder if anyone outside of LA knows what that means.

SUITOR PREVIEWS

Before all 25ish suitors step out of the limo, we are made privy to a few of the standouts from the season. A little teaser, if you will.

First up is Clay, a professional football player who doesn’t fucking cuss. As unsure as I am about a person that doesn’t swear, I’m more leery of an NFL player that needs The Bachelorette to find “love”.

Garrett, the guy who does Chris Farley impressions, is next and guess what? He does a Chris Farley impression that I bet you can’t guess I hate.

I do.

He lists off a bunch of made up winter activities he enjoys because, you know, Becca is from Minnesota and it’s always winter there.

We see Jordan, the guy who is definitely a self-proclaimed “Instagram model”, having a photo shoot. He shares that his “brand” is “the pensive gentleman” and I’m going to guess that’s also his Grindr handle. He claims being a male model is taxing because he has to go to the gym year round. I don’t see modeling in my future and I, too have to go to the gym year round. Check out my Instagram page; I talk about it every once in a while. He also says he can see him and Becca, in sweats, on a couch with a tub of chocolate and a chick flick which is definitely the rest of his Grindr bio.

Lincoln, who apparently was named after honest Abe, is seen walking along Hollywood Boulevard with a huge smile on his face. If you’ve ever walked along Hollywood Boulevard, you know that no one should be smiling. I don’t trust him.

Joe, the grocery store owner, has been practicing his grocery store humor and I’d like to check out.

I’m not even sorry for that terrible joke.

Jean Blanc, the guy who loves cologne enough to call himself a Colognoisseur, tells us he’s going to blow Becca’s nose away and I hope it’s because he’s bringing an eight ball to the mansion.

I was certain that the joke about Colton, another pro football player, would be about his YouTube date ask to Aly Raisman out but oh, was I wrong. The joke is that he’s wearing a velour hooded vest over a shirt with leather sleeves. You know those men who make too much money too early on so they spend it on really dumb shit? That’s Colton. Who let him wear this? Who recorded this video for him letting him wear this? Why does he own this? What is happening?

LIMO EXITS + INTRO’S

It’s time for the men to arrive at the mansion and of the first five men, three of them have said, “Let’s do the damn thing” which became annoying even before the season aired.

The next five all make a joke about Arie, because every woman wants to talk about her shitty ex with a potential new love interest.

The five after that are the five that met her at After the Finale Rose when she was announced The Bachelorette.

We are fifteen dudes deep and I’m pretty sure only one of these guys is wearing socks with his loafers. Is this a thing men do? Is there a reason for it? Gross.

David, the guy that loves guacamole but hates avocados, comes out in a chicken costume and makes more chicken jokes than I knew even possible and yet none of them are cock jokes. Impressive or disappointing?

Disappointing.

The rest of the entrances were actually pretty lame and I suddenly remember that there is a drink limit on this show now.

Once everyone has arrived, Becca enters the house to greet the suitors for the first time and the drama among the men begins. The Bachelorette is way more fun than The Bachelor because dude drama is so much more entertaining. Remember Shawn and Nick? JJ and Clint? Chad? Oh, Chad.

Clay, a professional football player who doesn’t fucking cuss, takes Becca aside to make dolls or something weird like that. John, the guy who created Venmo, immediately shares that he is the creator of Venmo because in San Francisco that definitely gets him laid every single time.

It’s Christon’s, the guy with a made up job and name, turn and he takes her outside to a basketball hoop, has her hold the ball above her head and then pulls a Harlem Globetrotter dunk move. I’m pretty sure every dude in the house has a semi after watching. I kinda do too, tbh.

Becca and Blake, the ‘modern romantic’, sit in front of the fire and do that thing where they hold hands, but not just with one pair of hands with both pairs of hands and I’m super annoyed by it. He wins her over by saying, “I just know that if I could love the wrong person so much [his ex], imagine how much I can love the right person” and I wonder how many times he Googled “quotes about love” before choosing that one to use.

Chris Harrison arrives with the first impression rose and now it’s time for the men to step up their game. And by stepping up their game I mean:

Lincoln, who apparently was named after honest Abe, gives her an ancient Nigerian bracelet and tells her she’s now part of the family. Nick, aspiring lead singer of a boy band, has a vibrating back massager that I am completely certain he uses for other things. David, the guy who showed up with chicken jokes wearing a chicken costume, asks Becca to do the chicken dance with him because this fucking guy still hasn’t run out of chicken jokes. Garrett, who showed up in a minivan, takes Becca to the pool to teach her to fly fish and what do ya know (said in an exaggerated midwestern accent) it makes Becca feel at home.

Chris, whose life goal is to retire by 40, has a dilemma and needs the advice of three dudes he just met. Apparently he knows Chase’s ex girlfriend who told him that Chase isn’t there for the right reasons. Chris is perplexed -- should he confront Chase about it? Remember when I said dude drama is hilarious? Exhibit A.

They have a boring confrontation about it and Chase runs to Becca to tell her. This is the least dramatic drama I’ve ever watched. Becca doesn’t understand the context, Chase brings Chris into the conversation and this is so dumb.

That conversation brought light to Becca that there may be men here with ill intentions and she shares that someone rubbed her the wrong way earlier in the night. Like all of us, she’s there to be rubbed the right way, so she wants to address it.

She asks Jake, a guy that she already knows as they have a shared friend group in Minnesota, to step aside to chat. She tries to send him home because in their several times of meeting he never pursued her and now wants to on national TV. He doesn’t make it easy for her and I’m afraid Minnesota will ban him for life like they did Arie.

There is a guy with a Harry Potter tattoo and this is why I feel badly for people who are trying to date. You have to worry about finding the perfect person only to realize he has a fucking Harry Potter tattoo.

Becca finally picks up the first impression rose and gives it to Garrett, the guy who showed up in a minivan. She leans in to kiss him and he goes for the cheek. She grabs him by the neck and he finally gets it. Maybe he really is Chris Farley.

ROSE CEREMONY

The only thing I don’t understand about the rose ceremony is how Joe was sent home. I still hope he’s the next Bachelor.

LINE OF THE NIGHT

“There are so many balls here” -- Becca, during the impromptu basketball game.

ELIMINATED

Jake, a guy that she already knows as they have a shared friend group in Minnesota,

Joe, the love of my life

Chase, a could-be serial killer

Kamil -- social media participant who I’m guessing won’t be participating in social media for a while after being sent home night one

Darius, who lives in the Valley

Grant, the electrician with electrician jokes

Christian, whose head was too small for his body

Okay, now I am going to watch episode two so the recap doesn’t take as long to post.

#thebachelor #thebachelorette #funny #tvrecap #humor #realitytv #beccakufrin #nickviall #comedy #writing

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