RE: RE: RE: Prepaid Visa gears up for launchUnfortunately I disagree with you assessment, as you give too much weight to the virtual card. FYI, in early 2000, there was a European Company offering a similar solution - one time use credit cards numbers with an associated dollar value, which effectively gave you even higher security.
My comments are below, and I remind you that I highlighted accounting issues at Venktek over 18 months ago, and will be proven right about the limited economic benefit virtual credit cards will bring to Vendtek.
As to your comments to my comments I give the following feedback:
>>>400,000customers is not too shabby when you realize that a "customer" caninclude a multi-unit chain or a single point of retail. VSI has 15,000points of retail contact in Canada.
What makes you believe customers are retailers and not end users - if they meant retails you would think they would have used words such as "retailer" or "locations". At the end what counts is the number of "end users/consumers" as money is made from units sold, not "locations" offered.
>>>2)Why go for a virtualcard when you can get a physicalprepaidmastercard/visacard and use itonly? Most people in my opinionwill goafter the physical card.
There'sa world of difference between the two...different users and differentuses. I won't go back and repeat it all here, just read my previousposts. Virtual visa seems to be the next solution for prepaid on-linepurchases, and is more secure (I'm sure you're reading about visa theftin the newspapers). Just do a little more research and you'll see thedifference.
What is the difference Gladys - i can buy online with a prepaid Visa, as well as in a physical store location, I cannot buy at a physical store location with a virtual card. Virtual has limited points of use and is no more secure than a physical card used by a consumer for an Internet transaction - the data travels over the same pipes and is at risk of being intercepted; the voucher is at risk of being lost like a physical card. Don't get snowed by marketing messages, virtual is just a sub of physical with a narrower audience - meaning smaller market.
>>>>3) Fees - Visa/MC have very highdebitfees, andmany merchants and opting out. Consumers also getdinged alot more thanhaving a bank debit card. Yes, there are thosewho areunbanked, butrefer to point 2 above.
The unbanked are a substantialpopulation, including -- surprise surprise -- even wealthy newCanadians who cannot get a credit card because they have no provableincome. It extends beyond income to mindset: folks who don't truston-line security. Many are spending their money internationally atgambling and gaming websites. Others purchasing for family members inother countries. There are many uses that are beyond the vision of the"average" Canadian.
Why is virtual better than physical for what you stated. If i buy a physical card and send it to a relative, i can than top up and they can get access to cash as needed without them needing access to the internet to do online shopping. I don't know of may people in the developing world shopping online that are receiving assistance from family in North America. Imagination is not what will drive sales, its usability and explicit need.
>>>>Lastly,prepaid Visa and MC have beenaround a long time...Datawave (FirstData) has been selling them beforeDoug was even CEO, and when Vendtekwas 2 cent stock.
That'strue. If you check back thru the news, you can see when VSI launchedprepaid visa, I don't remember when, it was a loooong time ago. Thisis the next generation.
You may want to ask Doug how much he made from his past venture into Visa. I guarantee you it is limited. Nice product, but not enough market need to move the needle.