EVOLVE MONEY IS STILL EVOLVING: The Freequent Flyer scored an interview with a VP at Evolve Money. It’s a good read if you’re into that particular payment system (I still haven’t signed up, but I know some of you have). Here’s a possibly relevant excerpt:
The good news is that yes, we are going to be adding the ability to pay your credit card. The not-so-good news for your readers, although I still actually think it’s good news, and it’s probably just a handful of your readers that aren’t going to like it as much, is that we are going to have to limit what sources of payment – that’s the only type of bill where we’re gonna have to limit what sources of payment you use. Gift cards are gonna be off the table for that.
But if you want to pay your credit card with your debit rewards card, you’ll be able to do that. If you want to pay with your standard debit card, you’ll be able to do that. We are still not sure about prepaid debit cards; we’re still looking into that. In terms of using gift cards to pay credit cards, the concern there is that there would be too much churning of that. Unfortunately for us, we have very good relationships with all the credit card companies and that’s just not something that as a company we’re able to enable.
BANANA REPUBLIC FOLLOW-UP: I got a Banana Republic credit card a few months ago solely for the sake of seeing if they would send some sweet marketing promotions my way. The latest offer from them was for triple points on all purchases outside of the Gap, Inc. brand family through April 30. Not bad, but not enough to get me to take it out of my credit card binder. Let’s wait and see what else they have to offer.
CRAIGSLIST IS NOT THAT DANGEROUS: Ryan at ReCraigslist had an interesting post about the safety of meeting with people from Craigslist. He makes his living solely from buying and selling on Craigslist, so he should know a thing or two about this stuff. Here’s what he had to say:
I’ve had probably close to 5 thousand Craigslist transactions in the past 3 years, as I earn my living on Craigslist. Out of those thousands, I’ve only had one transaction where the lady gave my wife counterfeit money for some tools we were selling. I was out at the store at the time. We lost a few hundred bucks. Life goes on.
And one tip:
I don’t recommend people meeting buyers or sellers in public parking lots. Thieves prefer public parking lots because they have an easy getaway and often can’t be traced back to a residence. It also gives them more control over the situation and environment. I recommend picking things up from people’s homes. If they don’t want you to meet them at their home, then pass on the item. The safest Craigslist transactions are carried out at the actual homes of the buyer or seller.
Full article here.
EDGE PREPAID FOLLOW-UP: Last week’s post drew some interest from from FatWallet Financial and Flyertalk. And an Edge representative named Stephanie Kuenn also stopped by and left the following note:
Hi, I represent the Edge Prepaid program, and we appreciate all feedback on our card, positive or negative. If you’ve had a negative experience with the Edge card, please get in touch with us with details at edge@restaurant.org so we can work to resolve it as a positive for you. If you are looking for more information about the card, and our extensive rewards program, I’d love to discuss it more with you at edge@restaurant.org. Thanks again for your interest in the Edge card.
AOL BACKS DOWN: Capital One isn’t the only big company to back down in the face of criticism from this blog. Last week I discussed AOL’s lousy 401(k) changes, and this past Saturday CEO Tim Armstrong announced an about-face. (To be fair, criticism from the rest of the country–not just from my blog–may or may not have played a part in the change of heart as well.) Armstrong, believe it or not, had blamed the changes on two babies.
JUST KIDDING: In case some of you manufactured spend junkies were concocting schemes, this homeless guy wants you to know he was just joking about accepting credit cards.
I cannot for the life of me figure out what possessed The Freequent Flyer to even call in and ask any of this. Geesh. Have we learned nothing? C’mon people!
Your BR promo was better than mine which is just 2x so won’t be using that at all. However let’s not give up, they always run these constant non-lucrative promos then drop in the odd stupid one along the way.
I wonder how many GE credit cards you can get in one app-o-rama? Might be fun to test some others.
C’mon MM I think at this point you are the one not learning anything… The conversation was actually very illuminating. But no, let me guess – you would prefer it kept quiet so that you and some buddies could run huge amounts through it without anyone else getting in on it. You’ll drop some hints about how others could get in on it if they somehow become part of the inner circle, which of course never actually happens. And then eventually it gets shutdown anyway because your volumes killed it. But this alternative… where we actually get a pretty good understanding of the lay of the land and get it to a point where it is actually useful for a lot of people, now without fear of being shutdown. I have a substantial mortgage and property tax bill and now I know I can pay them with gift cards it appears in a sustainable manner. If you wanted it just to run money to your checking account or 529 indefinitely… well tough luck.
I think you need to realize your are like King Canute of this business, popping up on blogs trying to drum up support for stopping the flow of this information from your “chosen” inner circle to those you deem less worthy of the info, hoping that bloggers will somehow want to impress you or keep in your good graces.
You nailed it! 😀
Didnt the guy at Evolve say that they’ve all read the posts about Evolve? I think its fantasyland to think they will continue to allow gcs and debit for CC pmts Mort etc etc. IMO they will follow the path of others and force you to their cash card for those types of pmts while allowing the privileged of using debit for bills such as your water bill, cell phone (and other pmts that already take CC or Debit) The is no sustainable method for paying a mortgage without a fee. And giving them ammo on what to take away doesnt help. The post could have been simple on Evolve. Evolve takes Debit. From there everyone should know what to do.
While I agree there is no way to offer these bill payments for free without losing money, I do think they believe they can offset the costs with other sources of income like affiliate money. Time will tell if that’s true. I wouldn’t bet my money on it, but there are a lot of people betting lots of real money in SFO these days on much more stupid ideas.
Even paying bills you can already pay with debit card is better as you can get better multiplier using Visa GC’s at a 1% fee.
But again appreciate the desire is just to milk for yourself and hope you can pressurize blogs into submission with nothing offered in return. Do you really think you guys hitting up for a mortgage and draining at the back end is sustainable for anything other than your short term gain?
I figured evolve would last a week longer than it did for my needs but even if there was short term gain, Id say some people plowed through so much darn money on that service that volume alone made up for length of time 😛
I didnt do the 529 think with Evolve. I thought it was a dumb idea on many levels. I only used Evolve for a few days before they eliminated my biller. All I was trying to do is pay down my debt and they closed my option.
I agree the 529 idea was exceptionally stupid.
It’s good you guys got some volume through. I still think it is going to work in the medium term as these guys think they can monetize other ways, and we are in an environment where success in business does not equate with revenue any more (AKA “Tech Bubble”). They will find more $$$ by getting huge volumes and that will work for all of us.
Could be, but then, that depends on which end of the tech bubble one finds oneself.
I think it is a matter of deciding to be a bullish capitalist over settling as a passive socialist 😀