One of the problem w/ traditional credit cards is that my interests are not aligned with those of the card issuer. It's better for me to pay off my balance every month, but better for my bank if I don't so they can collect interest.
Will this be any different with Final? If so, how do you plan to make money?
Don't worry, the banks love it when you pay the account in full every month. They make more money from merchant fees than they do from interest payments.
Banks work hard to make sure credit card holders are happy. After all, it's fairly easy to switch credit cards.
It's the merchants that have the short end of the stick in the three way relationship between banks, customers and merchants.
Speaking of which, how will you be different from other small credit cards when it comes to merchant relations? If I go to "Jo Shmo's Taco Shop" am I still going to need a back up Visa card because that's all they are willing to take?
Actually, ALL Visa and MasterCard cards are backed by some other institution. MasterCard and Visa are (well, were: it's more complicated lately) associations of banks.
We make money when our customers are happy. Yes, we still make money the traditional way - via transaction fees and interest on debt. But we make a lot more money if we have millions of happy customers - we can't win this market if we treat our customers like every other bank.
We're building this product for ourselves and for our friends first. And many of them are unhappy with how banks treat customers and optimize for fees and increasing debt.
We don't think encouraging conspicuous consumption is the only way to be a successful credit card company.
But you also make money from advertisers. From your privacy policy:
"you agree that we may provide any of the information we have collected from you in non-personally identifiable form to an Advertiser, in order for that Advertiser to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements and/or offers."
"Final is aligned with you"
No, not aligned with me at all.
Why can't we have a business model that is straight up, you know, where the ENTIRE relationship is between you and us, the end user, where your profit comes ENTIRELY by making us happy. The free-market works much better that way.
Will this be any different with Final? If so, how do you plan to make money?