What do Target and Home Depot have in common? Both are massive retailers that got hacked during 2014. Hackers managed to get their hands on an estimated 96 million credit and debit cards. Think that’s bad? Target and Home Depot are just the ones that made it into the headlines, and that’s just in the United States. Imagine just how many credit cards are stolen (digitally) worldwide. The number is terrifyingly high. However, despite the dangers, the concept of the credit card is here to stay.
Following the Target breach, many lawful consumers wanted to use their credit cards even for the most simple transactions such as getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks, only to find that their card was canceled due to the Target breach. If you take a minute to think about it, it’s an absurdly outdated and worryingly passive scenario. Why should the fact that Target has been breached limit your relationship with Starbucks? Or worse, why should Target’s unfortunate compromise block an individual’s access to his own resources? It’s insane.
Warren Buffett was once quoted saying:
Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
When you use your credit card to buy online or at a major retailer, you don’t really know what’s going on. Are your details safe? Who exactly has access to them? How well are they protected? Ideally, in order to eliminate the risk associated with credit cards, we need to know what we’re doing. That’s where Final comes in. Final claims that the credit card was broken, and they fixed it. Instead of leaving all your power in the hands of the merchants and hoping for the best, now you can regain the power and control.
So how does it work?
Final gives you a unique credit card number for each merchant, or a disposable number for one-off purchases. It’s gets better though, as since each merchant has his own number, you can limit each merchant or subscription to a set monthly amount. If the merchant attempts to go over the set limit, you receive a push notification on your phone, keeping you in the loop. This allows you to act immediately whether it’s a hack or a dishonest merchant.
So the next time you hear about a big credit card breach, you can relax. Final eliminates the hassle associated with a cancelled card, fraud, or theft. You don’t need to waste time re-establishing your payment relationships or constantly checking your statements. You simply cancel the number associated with the specific merchant that’s been compromised and continue as normal.
Sounds great, where do I sign up?
Currently Final is focused on a U.S. launch, but it will work internationally for travellers. As of today, Final is taking signups for early access and currently have over 28,000 people signed up to use Final when it becomes available. The Final team is hard at work, aiming to launch during Q1 of 2015.
What about Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is a fantastic step forward in payment innovation. However Apple Pay covers a different security issue. Apple Pay protects the user from a front-end security breach. Put simply, at the point of sale. Apple Pay protects you against someone physically gaining access to your card and using it at the cash register. If Target, Home Depot or any other merchants get hacked in the future, Apple Pay isn’t going to help, as the problem isn’t on your end. You still need Final for the ultimate protection. Once Final goes live, a user will be able to load their Final card into Apple Pay and use it like any other card. Only this time, the combination of Apple Pay and Final gives you the ultimate protection. Apple Pay offers security on the transaction level, while Final compliments this by protecting you when the merchant is compromised.
In the meantime, sign up for Final and enjoy this great video:
