In our Internet travels here at the office all of us are always finding new and interesting ways to save money, spend less and make financial habits and chores easier. One of the things that we found lately is a new startup called Card.com that’s offering mobile and online banking to their users with over 2000 different branded Visa cards.
Founded in January 2012 Card.com is an online bank that requires you to simply have a mobile phone and a debit card in order to maintain an account with them. Their founder, Ben Katz, had this to say about his new Los Angeles startup., “We’re the card that cares. Banking and the overall banking system is made for people with big savings. Not everyone has tens of thousands in savings. We focus on 90% of people out there,” Katz said.
A former senior director at Green Dot out of Pasadena California, Katz was in charge of the prepaid debit cards that the California-based financial tech company was offering at the time. An idea that he had while working for them was to offer people branded cards from the brands that they love the most and from there the idea for Card.com was born.
Another thing that Katz knew the average consumer wanted was to be able to let them “trick out” their cards and use different styles, logos and brands to express themselves. “Now we do that at Card.com with Visa cards. Through the branding, we hope to have a life-long relationship with our customers.”
His startup, as mentioned previously, offers more than 2000 different designs from popular brands, something that he believes will not only build an affinity for his company but also for the brands themselves as well as making banking just a little bit more fun.
The process to get started is quite simple. All you need is a verified ID to get yourself a card and since there is no credit check or sign-up fee you simply choose a card from their website that you like. It can be anything from a Van Gogh painting if that’s what you’re into or anything else in pop culture from Star Trek to My Little Pony.
Once you’ve put in your information about your telephone number, Social Security number and address they will mail out your new card to you within a week depending on where you live in United States. Once the card is delivered a person can immediately begin uploading money onto their card by either taking a photograph on their smart phone of a check and texting it to Card.com or linking a direct deposit from their place of employment.
The best part is that the Card.com card can be used anywhere that Visa is accepted and, just like with most debit cards there are no overdraft fees, no minimum balance and no late fees. The cards also have no monthly fee if a customer keeps at least $800 in their account every month. For those that can’t there is a very small monthly fee of only $5.95.
Card.com hasn’t paid us anything to endorse their card or their services and we don’t get any kickbacks from them whatsoever for writing about their new debit cards. We just think that it’s a great service and the ability to customize your debit card is something that’s pretty nifty.
