The problem that seems to be being missed here is that while fraud is one reason Visa has say over what they accept, the much much much bigger issue is ATF, Money laundering and Sanctions.
Cards like the Freedom card will never fly with either the Networks or the Issuing Banks as these kinds of payment instruments are immediately used to wash illicit funds.
Visa's stance with Steam is bollocks, and it is another example of the monopoly they hold over payment processing. They shouldn't have the ability to impact a legit merchants catalogue.
But the idea that we can have a Freedom card also doesn't checkout. The less known about what the money is spent on the higher the risk. And cost of complying with Suspicious Activity Reports regulations is really high (as the costs of you breach the requirements), so any attempts to create / run this kind of thing often don't stack up.
> I hear this all the time, and it's almost always wrong. Engineers and businesses are always convinced they're special and don't fit the mold. That's rarely the case, and the money used on these initiatives was probably better spent elsewhere.
That seems like big statement given you have no context about the person making it.
I also work on a team that has built large potions of this intentionally and willingly. And the results have been great.
The reason is we don't hand off our business to a black box part way through our business process. We own it. Top to bottom.
This means when we change the products we sell, how we sell them and how we support them, we know the impact on our back office, reporting, invoicing and accounting systems. And vice versa
Yes owning the whole stack is expensive. But we also have parts of our company that rely on ERPs and other similar products.
I can tell you very clearly that our ability to develop products is an order of magnitude faster and cheaper than those relying on an ERP.
I've found that this isn't the experience. Most options I'm after are available in multiple apps.
More to the point, all drivers seem to use multiple apps. I often get my food in bags from the wrong company. The barrier to switching for drivers _and_ the customers is zero.
As a result this feels less like money spent on a unique strategy and more like money spent buying the business.
Cards like the Freedom card will never fly with either the Networks or the Issuing Banks as these kinds of payment instruments are immediately used to wash illicit funds.
Visa's stance with Steam is bollocks, and it is another example of the monopoly they hold over payment processing. They shouldn't have the ability to impact a legit merchants catalogue.
But the idea that we can have a Freedom card also doesn't checkout. The less known about what the money is spent on the higher the risk. And cost of complying with Suspicious Activity Reports regulations is really high (as the costs of you breach the requirements), so any attempts to create / run this kind of thing often don't stack up.