[HN Gopher] Privacy.com Reissuing All Cards
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Privacy.com Reissuing All Cards
        
       Author : AdamJacobMuller
       Score  : 106 points
       Date   : 2021-12-03 17:35 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (support.privacy.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (support.privacy.com)
        
       | slg wrote:
       | Can anyone figure out a reason why issuing new cards would
       | require a new terms and conditions or is this Privacy.com just
       | using this as an excuse to force users to accept new and
       | presumably worse T&C (if they aren't marketing the changes then
       | it is a safe assumption the changes aren't pro-user)?
        
         | regulatorynerd wrote:
         | Hi -- head of legal and compliance for Privacy.com. tl;dr is US
         | consumer card types have lots of rules and laws attached, and
         | we needed to have folks accept some new terms before we could
         | give you all access to the new card types. Thanks for using our
         | service!
        
       | kf6nux wrote:
       | I'm surprised I'm hearing about it here before getting an email
       | from them.
        
         | regulatorynerd wrote:
         | Thanks for using the product -- head of legal and compliance
         | here.
         | 
         | Emails are going out in phases. But if you log into your
         | dashboard, you should be prompted to accept the new terms and
         | re-issue any merchant locked cards.
         | 
         | Some folks will already be on the new product if they signed up
         | during our public beta period, so if you don't hear from us
         | you're likely already on the new card types.
        
       | jamestimmins wrote:
       | Maybe this is an example of "developer brain", but when I see
       | "reissuing all cards", it sounds like when a company has a
       | security incident and resets all passwords at once.
       | 
       | So as I scanned through, my read was "oh, Privacy.com had a
       | security incident", which it did not.
        
         | junon wrote:
         | To be clear to anyone who's reading along here instead of the
         | site, they're reissuing cards because they are changing the way
         | their card issuance works in order to improve merchant
         | compatibility (which is definitely needed).
         | 
         | As such they have to use, presumably, a different set of card
         | numbers/prefixes/whatever that the card issuers dictate. No
         | security incident prompted this.
        
           | epa wrote:
           | Typically privacy.com cards showed up as a prepaid card, and
           | most merchants online block these. Curious to see how it
           | improves acceptance rates.
        
             | mdesimone2 wrote:
             | Curious, why do most merchants reject those? How do they
             | impose more risk to the merchant?
        
               | judge2020 wrote:
               | For post-paid things like cloud offerings, prepaid cards
               | are much easier to get compared to debit/credit, so you
               | end up with a lot more fake accounts that just run
               | malware/use hundreds of dollars in resources in a month
               | only to have that card decline after the money on the
               | prepaid is already spent somewhere else.
        
         | wolpoli wrote:
         | I read it the same way as well, but my reasoning was that
         | vague/generic/neutral headlines tend to be associated with bad
         | news. E.g. Google's "spring cleaning"
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | mnisjk2 wrote:
       | Hi all - I'm one of the founders at Privacy. I'd like to provide
       | more context on why we're asking customers to reissue cards.
       | 
       | In an attempt to stay current with changes in card network and
       | bank requirements, we spent the better part of this year
       | investigating product adjustments and determined that changing
       | our cards from prepaid debit to charge cards is the best option
       | to preserve the customer experience. I recognize reissuing cards
       | can be a pretty big inconvenience - this isn't a decision we took
       | lightly. The silver lining is that this should improve merchant
       | acceptance and provide a better overall customer experience.
       | 
       | Functionally, cards will continue to operate exactly as they
       | always have - no fees, no interest, no selling of your data, and
       | no impact to your credit score.
        
         | bredren wrote:
         | > In an attempt to stay current with changes in card network
         | and bank requirements
         | 
         | What were the most important changes from the networks in banks
         | that precipitated this?
         | 
         | Requiring an SSN is an important change. Did prior requirements
         | not do enough to prevent abuse of their services?
        
         | Kye wrote:
         | Is this rolling out slowly, or did I join after this was
         | already implemented for new cards? I see no cards on
         | privacy.com/reissue and haven't gotten any notifications. I
         | signed up in October.
        
           | rachel_lithic wrote:
           | We rolled this product out to new users in early October, so
           | it's possible you signed up after that change and have been
           | issuing the new card type.
           | 
           | Reach out to our team at support@privacy.com and we'll be
           | happy to take a look at your account and confirm.
        
             | Kye wrote:
             | They confirmed I signed up with the new thing. Thanks. You
             | might want to add an FAQ entry to cover the situation where
             | someone finds out about the change but doesn't know if it
             | applies to them.
        
         | nikolay wrote:
         | I have hundreds of cards! Why are you forcing me to do this?! I
         | have no time! Honestly, I'd probably just move to my main card,
         | which almost never changes! Tomorrow you may decide to do
         | something again! I really don't have time to babysit this! You
         | should grandfather all cards and allow customers to change them
         | if they want, otherwise, they should be valid till their
         | expiration date! You're asking us to do a lot of work during
         | the holiday season - this is crazy, really!
        
           | boling11 wrote:
           | (I work at Privacy.com)
           | 
           | I'm super sorry for the inconvenience and for the limited
           | lead time. Unfortunately, this change wasn't fully within our
           | control and was required by our card partners.
        
           | neverendingsigh wrote:
           | I don't quite have hundreds of Privacy cards, but I have
           | quite a few, and many for subscription services. Though I
           | understand and welcome the core reason for the change,
           | forcing users to do this migration in December--of all months
           | --really necessitates a grim view of the value of our time
           | and energy.
           | 
           | The pre-paid debit product was limited, but far from broken.
           | This could and should have waited another month. And the news
           | shouldn't break on HN.
        
           | naikrovek wrote:
           | > I have hundreds of cards!
           | 
           | oh yeah, well I have 167 bajillion!*
           | 
           | *I really don't; I do wonder what you're doing with hundreds
           | of monthly payments though.
        
             | ezekg wrote:
             | You do realize that people use Privacy for business too,
             | right? And virtual cards are not limited to monthly
             | payments. I have one for a local coffee shop that I
             | occasionally do an online order for.
        
           | ezekg wrote:
           | I agree with this. Not having to fiddle with changing cards
           | was the main selling point that made me switch to Privacy,
           | after my debit card was canceled 2 times in a month for
           | "fraud" (it wasn't -- they were legit purchases). I also have
           | over a hundred cards, and subscribe to the paid plan. This is
           | a huge inconvenience, especially given the short timeline and
           | holidays. I wish this was handled better for older virtual
           | cards.
           | 
           | Also, I haven't received any email about this change.
        
             | nikolay wrote:
             | I got the email yesterday. Those people live in ivory
             | towers and probably don't use their own product! I have 4
             | weeks to move hundreds of cards, I'm a paying customer, and
             | they just twist my arms to do this without actually
             | thinking about making this easier for their clients! The
             | prepaid status of the card was an issue, but when Divvy
             | switched from MC to Visa, they had like 3+ months, when old
             | cards worked, and you got the option to reissue them as
             | Visa ones one by when at your convenience!
        
         | chuckdotis wrote:
         | It it possible to continue using Privacy.com without providing
         | an SSN?
         | 
         | As I commented in a thread below, I had started using your
         | service connected to a debit card via my credit union. Then was
         | required to attach a bank account/routing number as the source
         | for funding and didn't receive an adequate answer as to why
         | (which is fine, but it's slower to process and it requires that
         | I provide more sensitive information). I get that Privacy is
         | obligated to gather certain financial information for
         | regulatory purposes and fraud prevention, but it feels like I'm
         | widening my attack surface providing that info.
        
           | regulatorynerd wrote:
           | Hi -- I'm the head of legal and compliance for Privacy.com.
           | Unfortunately this is a bank partner requirement, otherwise
           | we wouldn't ask.
           | 
           | We do take customer privacy and security very seriously, and
           | have worked hard to have similar data security safeguards as
           | larger companies like Square and Stripe (both places I've
           | worked, so I would know!). You can read more about some of
           | our security practices here. https://privacy.com/security
        
             | ValentineC wrote:
             | Any chance Privacy could accept ITINs as well?
             | 
             | I've tried putting mine in, but it says (rightly) that it's
             | an invalid SSN.
        
             | danr4 wrote:
             | wait... what if I don't have an SSN? (not a citizen, have a
             | us bank account)
        
               | ranieuwe wrote:
               | US law requires your bank to collect and verify your
               | identity and crosscheck against a series of loste. It is
               | part of the Patriot Act post 9/11. Unfortunately for most
               | banks this means that they require an SSN. Technically an
               | ID or ITIN should suffice.
        
               | spindle wrote:
               | Right, this is crazy. I'm a US citizen but don't have an
               | SSN and couldn't get one last time I tried.
        
               | divbzero wrote:
               | Somehow I've assumed every US citizen has an SSN. Are
               | there obstacles you encounter from not having an SSN?
               | What is the process for opening bank accounts or applying
               | for loans?
        
               | jolux wrote:
               | Every citizen is supposed to be given an SSN.
        
         | fragmede wrote:
         | Why force the change onto customers though? Most people
         | understand the difference between a debit card and a credit
         | card, and as someone who's had Privacy.com cards denied because
         | it was a prepaid MC debit card and not a real CC, I've
         | experienced what the problem was. But for merchants where the
         | prepaid debit card _works_ , why can I not continue using that
         | card number there?
         | 
         | Privacy.com is a _wonderful_ service, but it already
         | automatically locks to the first merchant the card is used on.
         | If it 's already working for that merchant, Why do _I_ have to
         | change the card number? Use the credit card updater mechanism
         | (the same mechanism for when a CC gets stolen but my Netflix
         | keeps working and they get the new number somehow) for all
         | merchants that support that - that should keep the customer
         | load down.
        
           | rachel_lithic wrote:
           | I hear you on this. We're really sorry for the inconvenience.
           | Unfortunately, this wasn't fully within our control. To stay
           | compliant with our bank partner's requirements and network
           | rules we were forced to make this change to existing Visa
           | cards too.
           | 
           | We did explore the card updater[1] and were hoping to be able
           | to use it. Unfortunately it's not a viable option due to
           | technical limitations. If we could do the updating for you we
           | absolutely would! If you have questions or there's anything
           | we can help with, please reach out to support@privacy.com
           | 
           | [1] https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/vau
        
             | dabber wrote:
             | It's always great to see candid comments like these from
             | the people involved. I appreciate you all and I know I'm
             | not alone.
        
           | prophesi wrote:
           | > but it already automatically locks to the first merchant
           | the card is used on.
           | 
           | Just a minor correction: I'm able to use the same Privacy
           | card for x merchant for any number of y merchants, so long as
           | it stays under the charge limit I've set for that card.
        
             | hnrodey wrote:
             | That has not been my experience and runs counter to their
             | core product offering. Just my two cents.
        
               | prophesi wrote:
               | So a privacy card you used for one merchant was denied by
               | another merchant? And it wasn't due to them rejecting
               | prepaid cards, setting your card to single-use, or
               | setting too low of a dollar limit?
        
               | kingaillas wrote:
               | Not OP, but yep, my cards have been locked to the
               | merchant.
               | 
               | I've only experienced this with Kickstarter and then a
               | secondary payment collector (BackerKit, etc) where some
               | extra charge had to be finalized, typically shipping or
               | maybe I threw in some extra doodad, and then had it fail
               | because that second charge wasn't technically the same
               | merchant.
               | 
               | But this was fine and I was happy - working exactly as
               | intended. I just created a new privacy card and updated
               | payment.
        
               | greyface- wrote:
               | Not OP, but yes, this has been my experience.
               | https://support.privacy.com/hc/en-
               | us/articles/360012404053-W...
        
       | peanut_worm wrote:
       | Seems weird to label a massive inconvenience as an "Exciting
       | Update"
        
       | ghshephard wrote:
       | I loved the idea about privacy.com - used them for a while - but
       | a significant (>40%?) of the vendors that I tried to use them
       | with didn't accept pre-paid cards (which I guess what these
       | appear as) - and almost 90% of the vendors that I really needed
       | them for would not accept them.
       | 
       | Perhaps this re-issue will make them more useful - here's hoping,
       | because I think the idea is brilliant.
        
       | ssalka wrote:
       | I had been using privacy.com for around 6 months to pay my
       | Xfinity internet bill. Last month, it stopped working randomly. I
       | wonder if this change will fix my issue.
        
       | AdamJacobMuller wrote:
       | Seems like they are changing bank partners and will use cards
       | that code as "charge card" instead of "prepaid card" which is
       | great (some places block "prepaid" cards) but they are forcing
       | this change on everyone (as much as I could see) and doing it
       | with only 30 days of notice, which is much less great.
        
         | morpheuskafka wrote:
         | It looks like they have added a manual payment option, though
         | certainly not preferred, so that they can technically comply
         | with some definition of charge card perhaps?
         | 
         | https://support.privacy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4414521565719-...
        
         | m0ngr31 wrote:
         | Always bugged me when I tried to use a Privacy card on Digital
         | Ocean
        
           | donmcronald wrote:
           | I thought DO had an option to prepay via Paypal.
        
             | singlow wrote:
             | Yes which means you prefund your expenses. If you provide a
             | prepaid card as a funding source it is likely to not have
             | funds when they attempt to debit you for services already
             | rendered. I'm sure they'd be fine with you prepaying on a
             | prepaid card.
        
             | ipaddr wrote:
             | They do
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | If you're trying to use something like Privacy.com, it's
             | probably because you don't want to have your details shared
             | with others. Using PayPal is not going to to that.
        
           | julianlam wrote:
           | I don't blame them, though. DO is a "bill-after" company, so
           | if you racked up server time, they're out that money if you
           | attached a pre-paid card with $0 on it.
           | 
           | We use DO as our provider, and we offer trials in our product
           | offering, so if they attach a prepaid card to _our_ service
           | (which people do, all the time), we're out that money, but
           | it's $5 for us, so we eat it.
        
             | netr0ute wrote:
             | > DO is a "bill-after" company, so if you racked up server
             | time, they're out that money if you attached a pre-paid
             | card with $0 on it.
             | 
             | Then if they don't want that, don't be bill-after or
             | companies like Privacy will just engineer around that
             | prepaid card limitation.
        
               | jrockway wrote:
               | Everyone is a bill-after company, though. If it was pre-
               | pay, you'd buy $200 of computing time, convert that into
               | 8 cents of today's hot shitcoin, and then initiate a
               | chargeback to get your $200 back. They could make you
               | wait 60 days or whatever, but that's an unpleasant
               | customer experience, so they don't.
               | 
               | With physical goods, there is always the possibility that
               | the merchant could compel you to return the physical
               | good, but with cloud computing, that's nearly impossible.
        
             | morpheuskafka wrote:
             | The thing is that every card has a limit, both regular
             | debit and credit. You can easily have a bank account with
             | no more than a couple dollars in it and DO would accept
             | that just fine.
             | 
             | If you haven't preauthorized, you aren't guaranteed
             | payment. That's why these services also have usage limits,
             | of course--AWS doesn't want me to rack up a million dollar
             | bill without seeing a past payment history that would
             | indicate I can actually afford that.
        
           | awslattery wrote:
           | Weird, I must have added my Privacy card to DO before they
           | made a backend payment processing change. Been using it since
           | July 2016, with a new card in August 2020.
        
         | judge2020 wrote:
         | For reference:
         | 
         | > On December 31, 2021, we will close all Visa Privacy Cards
         | that have not been updated. In order to continue using
         | Privacy.com without interruption, we need you to complete a few
         | simple steps. Visit our FAQs to learn more.
         | 
         | Via the popup transition tool when logging in.
         | 
         | Sad they couldn't keep existing cards open till they expire,
         | but just recently their card expiration dates jumped to lasting
         | till 2027 so I see why.
        
       | xd1936 wrote:
       | I've always been surprised by privacy.com's business model. Do
       | they really make enough money from those small credit card
       | processing fees to stay afloat, or are they coasting on investor
       | money?
        
         | morpheuskafka wrote:
         | So the processing fees (called interchange) are capped at a
         | $0.21+0.05% low rate for most banks, but very small banks and
         | credit unions are exempt from this cap, and charge ~2% similar
         | to credit cards. Fintechs always partner with a small bank to
         | issue their cards and split the revenue.
         | 
         | So the thing is, most of their customers are going to be
         | connecting a debit card from a large bank (they don't allow
         | credit cards as a funding source). A few will come from a
         | Durbin-exempt institution like a small credit union or a
         | community bank (including one issued by another fintech/bank
         | partnership such as Chime). But on the whole, they will mostly
         | be paying the low interchange and charging the high
         | interchange.
         | 
         | Since the new cards are considered credit cards, not debit
         | cards, they won't have to worry about Durbin amendment at all.
        
           | hobo_mark wrote:
           | I recognize another patio11 connoisseur.
        
         | jaywalk wrote:
         | I hope they're making enough money. They offer a fantastic
         | service, and they do have paid tiers as well.
        
         | AlbertCory wrote:
         | I hope the fees keep them afloat, but they are one online
         | service that I wouldn't mind paying a monthly subscription for.
        
       | sunir wrote:
       | We offer virtual cards too through AppBind and when I can't sleep
       | at night, sometimes I do game plan the possibility of what it
       | means if we had to change card partners.
       | 
       | I expect we will see events like this fairly frequently in the
       | next decade.
       | 
       | I feel for them.
        
         | ipaddr wrote:
         | Why not setup a backup system with another provider now?
        
           | pxx wrote:
           | The numbers would still need to change? The first six (soon
           | to be eight) digits of a Visa or Mastercard identify the card
           | issuer.
        
       | jrm4 wrote:
       | Having never heard of privacy.com, I reflexively laughed at the
       | headline. Just me?
        
         | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
         | Sorry, I don't follow but feel like I should. At the risk of
         | dissecting the frog[0], could you possibly explain?
         | 
         | [0] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/440683-explaining-a-joke-
         | is...
        
       | chuckdotis wrote:
       | I got this message last night. I started the process to reissue
       | the cards, but I was immediately asked to provide my social
       | security number. Privacy.com already has my bank account number
       | and routing details, but TBH I'm not super comfortable providing
       | even more personal info such as my SSN. Privacy.com has been an
       | amazing service, and although I'll likely cave to their request
       | for my SSN, I'm not all that happy about it.
        
         | chaikasumu wrote:
         | Maybe it's because you have your funding source as your bank
         | account, but I was never asked to provide my SSN with a debit
         | card funding source.
        
           | chuckdotis wrote:
           | > Maybe it's because you have your funding source as your
           | bank account I originally had it tied to a debit card, but
           | for some reason Privacy.com forced me to provide a bank
           | account about a year after I started it. I asked support why
           | and they couldn't give me a good answer other than my credit
           | union is no longer supported (though I think the agent I
           | spoke with was blowing smoke and it might have had something
           | to do with my always-on VPN).
           | 
           | Have you been asked to provide an SSN with the latest change?
        
         | aaomidi wrote:
         | If it makes you feel better, your SSN is dumped into thousands
         | of leaks already, most likely.
        
           | chuckdotis wrote:
           | > If it makes you feel better, your SSN is dumped into
           | thousands of leaks already, most likely.
           | 
           | Actually, this reminder does make me feel slightly better
           | about giving my SSN to Privacy.com.
        
             | aaomidi wrote:
             | Yeah at this point I assume my SSN is more of a UID
             | username that isn't just fully-public, but I need to
             | monitor credit and be pro-active about it, rather than some
             | secret value.
        
         | regulatorynerd wrote:
         | Hi -- I'm the head of legal and compliance for Privacy.com.
         | Unfortunately this is a bank partner requirement, otherwise we
         | wouldn't ask.
         | 
         | We do take customer privacy and security very seriously, and
         | have worked hard to have similar data security safeguards as
         | larger companies like Square and Stripe (both places I've
         | worked, so I would know!). You can read more about some of our
         | security practices here. https://privacy.com/security
        
           | chuckdotis wrote:
           | Hey, thanks for the response! Does this apply to both the
           | linking of a bank account (ie account number w/ routing
           | number) and linking a debit card?
           | 
           | Thanks for responding to these questions. Very much
           | appreciated.
        
             | regulatorynerd wrote:
             | Yes, it should be funding source agnostic. Anyone moving to
             | the new card types will be prompted to provide their SSN.
        
           | danr4 wrote:
           | What if i'm not a US citizen? don't have a SSN...
        
             | leephillips wrote:
             | "Unfortunately we cannot support international bank
             | accounts or non-US users at this time."
             | 
             | https://privacy.com/virtual-card
        
         | llaolleh wrote:
         | It's a little ironic that privacy.com is asking for your SSN
         | lol.
        
           | chuckdotis wrote:
           | Yeah, a bit. Despite that, I still perceive them as a good
           | barrier (and defense) between my personal financial account
           | and random online businesses whom I would very much like to
           | not provide any personal info whatsoever. An example is
           | wanting to buy a LOSSLESS album from Bandcamp, I can use
           | Privacy and I don't even need to give the musician or
           | Bandcamp my real name or actual financial details.
        
           | toomuchtodo wrote:
           | Privacy.com is to firewall you from service providers, not
           | the government. There is no way around KYC/AML if you're
           | operating legally.
        
       | therein wrote:
       | I had created an account with them right away when they first
       | started, had given them all my information as they required.
       | After a month or so they closed my account due to abuse. All I
       | was doing was to use their service as intended.
        
       | spooneybarger wrote:
       | As a fairly active user, I'm extremely irritated with this being
       | how I am finding out about this change.
       | 
       | Wrapping up something that amounts to extra work for me in bubbly
       | language is kind of infuriating but in keeping with a couple of
       | my experiences with them.
       | 
       | I'm not sure if I'll continue as a user given my existing unease
       | with how I feel their existing pitch and documentation are
       | misleading.
       | 
       | I appreciate the service but I'm not sure it's worth it to me to
       | switch the cards I have given the my other experiences.
        
       | password4321 wrote:
       | Maybe time to check out OneFinance for multi-card/ACH
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28247788#28248539
        
       | Kye wrote:
       | It says something about a helper tool, but I don't see it in my
       | dashboard.
        
         | UnlockedSecrets wrote:
         | It is located at privacy.com/reissue
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | ibdf wrote:
       | "You can pay in more places! Our first version of the Privacy
       | Card worked well for creating one-time use cards, setting spend
       | limits, and locking cards to specific merchants. However, some
       | merchant policies prevented our cards from being accepted online.
       | The new version of our Privacy Cards maintains all of the privacy
       | and security features you love while expanding the places where
       | our cards are accepted."
       | 
       | Google was one of those merchants. I've been using this service
       | for a few years now and it has saved me from so many headaches.
        
         | chillwaves wrote:
         | I liked the idea and always wanted to use it more. I actually
         | only used it once because I was dealing with a potential
         | subscription hassle and that card actually got stolen! A bad
         | charge was reported from privacy.com (and of course did not go
         | through).
         | 
         | Pretty cool service.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | fossuser wrote:
       | Does anyone on HN have experience with this service or a personal
       | comparison with Blur?
       | 
       | I've used delete me which works well enough (from the people that
       | make Blur), but I've ended up just using the Apple Card which has
       | a tiny amount of the privacy guarantees without a lot of the
       | hassle (and good software).
       | 
       | I've been tempted to switch to one of these services though, but
       | I think your data still gets resold by the card processor?
        
         | junon wrote:
         | Never heard of Blur, but I've used Privacy.com successfully
         | for... man, maybe five years?
         | 
         | Never had any issues with them. Not one. They always Just Work,
         | their app doesn't change every six months, I hardly ever have
         | to log in. Everything 'Just Works'. They've been great.
         | 
         | The card reset is a tad unfortunate but isn't really an issue
         | since they're all named/branded accordingly.
        
           | zhynn wrote:
           | Adding my voice to this experience. I have been a user for
           | about 2 years, and I love it. I also appreciate that they
           | support non-txt 2fa for login security.
           | 
           | My only quibble is that I wish I could generate a card that I
           | could give to a someone else that had a limit cap but could
           | be used at more than one site/vendor (the current method
           | really wants you to use them at only a single vendor, which
           | is generally exactly what I want). Like an allowance card
           | basically.
        
         | mattnewton wrote:
         | Privacy.com has been fantastic for me - AMA.
         | 
         | However I am such a heavy user that this announcement is
         | actually rather annoying. I didn't see an email about it yet
         | either, and could have easily missed that I am going to need to
         | update 10 or so subscriptions this month :/
        
           | octopoc wrote:
           | Can you hook Privacy.com up to a budgeting app that uses e.g.
           | Plaid or Finicity to monitor transactions?
        
             | mattnewton wrote:
             | Not 100% sure since don't use those apps, I actually pay
             | for privacy.com to obfuscate what the money was spent on so
             | my bank doesn't know either in it's budgeting view. But if
             | you don't do that I think budgeting apps should be able to
             | work, since the merchant name is passed through in the
             | transaction metadata. Bank of America correctly categorized
             | transactions before I disabled this, so I imagine your
             | other apps might work.
        
             | andrewmunsell wrote:
             | All my budgeting apps work fine (merchant name can be a
             | little bit of a mess sometimes) since the transactions come
             | through individually in my bank.
        
       | lostcolony wrote:
       | Well. I seem to be unable to replace the card I created for a
       | purchase with Affirm using the new cards.
       | 
       | A lot of my use case for Privacy.com was avoiding giving out my
       | debit card (and thus, direct debiting against my checking
       | account). If this switch means it no longer enables that (just
       | replaces a credit card), my usage of them drops quite a bit. It's
       | nice to be able to cap a charge against the card I guess, but the
       | level of effort required doesn't really give me the peace of mind
       | needed to warrant it.
        
         | malfist wrote:
         | Affirm fully supports the use of virtual cards. You can use the
         | app to generate a new visa card for every purchase.
        
           | lostcolony wrote:
           | I did. Multiple cards, multiple times. And got rejected each
           | time. My actual debit card worked fine.
           | 
           | The prior Privacy cards worked fine; that's what I had
           | entered beforehand. It's just the new ones I reissued on
           | Privacy that aren't being accepted.
        
             | malfist wrote:
             | Oh I see, you're talking about linking your affirm account
             | to a debit card for payments? They might be being rejected
             | because they fall into a high fraud category.
        
               | lostcolony wrote:
               | No. I'm saying in Affirm, the only options for payment
               | are ACH cards, and debit cards.
               | 
               | I don't like either of those, so previously I used
               | Privacy.com cards. Yes, that meant Privacy.com had access
               | to my bank/debit card details, but they already did (and
               | in general it means one place has my debit cards, rather
               | than every place that eschews credit cards).
               | 
               | Affirm previously accepted cards created with Privacy.com
               | just fine.
               | 
               | However, to prepare for the old cards no longer working
               | (per the article), I just went and had new ones issued on
               | Privacy.com. When I went to put those into Affirm,
               | though, Affirm rejected them with "something went wrong".
               | Multiple cards, multiple attempts, no further data given
               | (both on the site and in the network request).
               | 
               | When I went "uh-oh; I need to actually make sure the
               | Affirm loan gets paid off next month when it goes to bill
               | again", and so inserted my bank's debit card details, it
               | went through fine.
               | 
               | So, Affirm rejected the new Privacy.com cards for me. It
               | accepted my personal debit card just fine.
        
               | iancarroll wrote:
               | It's annoying because many Affirm loans do indeed accept
               | credit cards, but you don't know if it truly will until
               | you have purchased it and set up AutoPay. It seems most
               | pay in 4/small monthly payments will accept credit cards,
               | but my Peloton loan does not allow it.
        
       | niij wrote:
       | I see the spending limits are still configurable on the new
       | cards.
       | 
       | Does the switch from a pre-paid cards to a charge cards affect
       | the ability for a merchant to collect on balances over the
       | configured limit in some way? Or will those still be declined as
       | it currently is?
        
       | FalconSensei wrote:
       | After moving to Canada, I definitely miss that in Brazil I could
       | just create a one-time card number directly from my bank site,
       | instead of having to rely on 3rd parties that sometimes don't
       | even offer the same service - Canadian privacy.com alternatives
       | seem to offer a pre-paid card, but no 1 time card numbers.
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-03 23:00 UTC)