You’d never guess that I was a prepaid card expert.\u00a0 It comes from having tried to do a startup back in 2005, 2006 when I became a member of the CFSA – the Community Financial Services Association – otherwise known as the lobbying group for the Payday loan businesses…<\/p>\n
So I’m always curious to see what’s new in cardland.<\/p>\n
AMEX has been making noise recently with their move into prepaid – they did do something smart – they bought a company called Revolution Money for about $300MM and that got them essentially a new platform, which has become Serve.\u00a0 They were selling the Serve card at Target, so I went and got one.<\/p>\n
![\"Servebb\"](\"http:\/\/blog.maclawran.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/a7c14-servebb-scaled500.jpg\")
<\/div>\nIt’s a nice card, with some very cool features.\u00a0 My favorite feature involves linking pre-existing financial accounts.\u00a0 So you can just link an existing bank, credit or debit card to your Serve card and move money between them quickly and painlessly.<\/p>\n
Finally, there are a bunch of social-media friendly banking 2.0 things attached too, including being able to deposit by taking a photo of a check, etc.<\/p>\n
Pretty well at the same time they did a soft launch of Bluebird last year at Walmart stores, and stopped the trial, probably because it sucked.\u00a0 (That’s the technical term).\u00a0 But it’s been relaunched… using the Serve platform.\u00a0 (Old crappy name, nice new platform).<\/p>\n
Now I wanted to see what the new Bluebird card was like.\u00a0 It’s based on the Serve platform, so I went into Walmart and picked one up.\u00a0 It’s the only card that comes in it’s very own box.\u00a0 It costs $5 for this “activation kit”.<\/p>\n
![\"Bb-front\"](\"http:\/\/blog.maclawran.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/83a0c-bb-front-scaled500.jpg\")
<\/div>\nSo I get to the cash register and discover (because it’s not mentioned anywhere), that the card has to be processed as a separate transaction, and that you have to load at least $20 on it right then and there.\u00a0 (Serve was $10).\u00a0 OK.\u00a0 First surprise.\u00a0 It’s not good to surprise users at the checkout.<\/p>\n
Bring it home and open it up.<\/p>\n
![\"Bb-openbox\"](\"http:\/\/blog.maclawran.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/e719f-bb-openbox-scaled500.jpg\")
<\/div>\nOK.\u00a0 Where’s the card?\u00a0 The box holds a little booklet, a little card, and the disclosure document, but no card.<\/p>\n
That was disappointing.\u00a0 No present in the box.<\/p>\n
Where’s the card?<\/p>\n
\n
![\"Bb-open\"](\"http:\/\/blog.maclawran.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/a956f-bb-open-scaled500.jpg\")
<\/div>\nt’s hidden.\u00a0 Hidden in upper flap above the box.\u00a0 With no simple way to get the card out of the package (even though it said “Pull tab to access”, there wasn’t a pullable tab… more like destroy package to access…<\/p>\n
But I got the card out.<\/p>\n
The card feels cheap.\u00a0 Same thickness as an ordinary credit card, but maybe 50% lighter with numbers printed and not embossed.\u00a0 I hope they send a nicer one in the mail.\u00a0 So they didn’t quite succeed with the Apple effect of unboxing.<\/p>\n
Onto activation.\u00a0 The usual process of name, address, social security number, email.\u00a0 Email was interesting, they really didn’t like my .CA domain name, so I had to use a .COM one.\u00a0 Another oddity is the “security code” they wanted during registration was the 4 digit code above the card number on the front of the card (and not the usual code on the back).<\/p>\n
The only worrisome comment appeared when I entered my phone number: “We promise not to call you too often”<\/span>.<\/p>\n So I get through the process and…<\/p>\n Thanks AMEX.\u00a0 I now have $20 stranded on an unusable card that I paid $5 for.\u00a0 This should be a fun phonecall.\u00a0 Maybe for the next blogpost.\u00a0 So I never did complete the activation.<\/p>\n \n Now I have a couple of patents… my favorite is my Telicash card and it’s spanish counterpart Teledinero.\u00a0 The startup never got going, but it did generate 3 really cool patents. US Patent 7,984,851 for a Consumer Self-Activated Financial Card<\/a><\/p>\n The coolest part of my patent is the part where you link it up with pre-existing financial accounts…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Hmmm… a screen shot from Serve’s activation, <\/span><\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span><\/span>claim 1 of my patent:<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n So just a reminder… I have 2 patents and an application for sale covering interesting stuff in the debit card space.<\/p>\n Patent 8,027,919: Method and apparatus for allowing secured overdrafts of reloadable debit cards.<\/a> – You want to do “Rent to Own” using only a debit card for payments?\u00a0 This will do it.\u00a0 There are very few patents covering overdrafts and prepaid cards, so this is pretty interesting (especially since you weren’t supposed to overdraft a prepaid card, at least not back in 2006!).<\/p>\n![\"Bb3\"](\"http:\/\/blog.maclawran.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/a1e5c-bb3-scaled1000.png\")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n\n
<\/a><\/div>\n1. A method for obtaining a new financial card for a user, the method comprising the steps of: <\/code><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\na) providing the user with a new card that is not yet associated with a pre-existing account of the user; <\/code><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nb) having the user provide sufficient identification information about the user and on the pre-existing account; <\/code><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n c) providing the financial institution controlling the pre-existing account with the identification information collected in step b), and having the financial institution evaluate this information; and, <\/code><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nd) activating the new card upon acceptance by the financial institution.<\/code><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n