4 ms·

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 car

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?

outericky 13y ago
They aren't just stopping identity theft but allowing care givers to control spending habits. Or being taken advantage of by (legitimate) organizations taking advantage of the elderly.
eksith 13y ago
It mentions fairly extensive fraud protection, which other pre-paid solutions don't offer. I've used a few pre-paid cards while travelling and companies pretty much treat them as cash. If you lose it or get scammed, you've just plain lost it. 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.
- kaistinchcombe 13y ago
  Yeah, I've heard rumors that lot of those blacklists are shakedown operations. We're following our customers' lead on which transactions are unwanted -- if we're getting phone calls where people are saying (e.g.) that they signed up for a free sample and got billed 40 dollars of shipping and handling... well, I don't much care about what the company says, the point is, our customer feels deceived and our customer is who we work for.
clairethere 13y ago
Since it's designed for the specific needs of vulnerable seniors, The True Link card has features that are currently not available on other prepaid cards, namely the ability to preset spending limits for individual purchases, to proactively block purchases at individual merchants and categories of merchants (e.g., sweepstakes, unscrupulous charities, gambling institutions),and to send instant alerts about any suspicious transaction to family members. And yes it's all managed through an easy-to-use web interface.
zt 13y ago
(Disclosure: I'm an investor in True Link). 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/ http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/ [2] http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities [3] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-15/financial-abuse-victimizes-one-in-five-u-s-elderly-nonprofit-survey-says.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-15/financial-abuse-vic... [4] http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-07-16/opinions/36887605_1_financial-abuse-elder-abuse-senior-population http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-07-16/opinions/36887...
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  As someone who is signing up his mother today for this, #shutupandtakemymoney. $20/year? Well. Worth. It. Don't even give me the first year free. I'll give you guys the $20 today.
  - kaistinchcombe 13y ago
    Haha, thanks for that. Well taken. The goal is to make sure we've provided the value we promised before we bill you for it.

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?

outericky 13y ago

They aren't just stopping identity theft but allowing care givers to control spending habits. Or being taken advantage of by (legitimate) organizations taking advantage of the elderly.

eksith 13y ago

It mentions fairly extensive fraud protection, which other pre-paid solutions don't offer. I've used a few pre-paid cards while travelling and companies pretty much treat them as cash. If you lose it or get scammed, you've just plain lost it. 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.

kaistinchcombe 13y ago
Yeah, I've heard rumors that lot of those blacklists are shakedown operations. We're following our customers' lead on which transactions are unwanted -- if we're getting phone calls where people are saying (e.g.) that they signed up for a free sample and got billed 40 dollars of shipping and handling... well, I don't much care about what the company says, the point is, our customer feels deceived and our customer is who we work for.

clairethere 13y ago

Since it's designed for the specific needs of vulnerable seniors, The True Link card has features that are currently not available on other prepaid cards, namely the ability to preset spending limits for individual purchases, to proactively block purchases at individual merchants and categories of merchants (e.g., sweepstakes, unscrupulous charities, gambling institutions),and to send instant alerts about any suspicious transaction to family members. And yes it's all managed through an easy-to-use web interface.

zt 13y ago

(Disclosure: I'm an investor in True Link). 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/ http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/ [2] http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities [3] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-15/financial-abuse-victimizes-one-in-five-u-s-elderly-nonprofit-survey-says.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-15/financial-abuse-vic... [4] http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-07-16/opinions/36887605_1_financial-abuse-elder-abuse-senior-population http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-07-16/opinions/36887...

toomuchtodo 13y ago
As someone who is signing up his mother today for this, #shutupandtakemymoney. $20/year? Well. Worth. It. Don't even give me the first year free. I'll give you guys the $20 today.
- kaistinchcombe 13y ago
  Haha, thanks for that. Well taken. The goal is to make sure we've provided the value we promised before we bill you for it.