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Comment by dsjoerg | Hacker News Reader

For me, the remote-wipe ability is a killer app. Currently, when I lose a physical card, I have to go through a painful get-a-new-card procedure that involves going to my major websites and giving them my new card #.

With remote wipe, when I lose my card I just remote-wipe it and order a new one. Also, this card will warn me when I'm too far from it so I won't be as likely to leave it behind.

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This can be avoided today by using one card for subscriptions and other recurring payments, and another card for physical purchases.

I do something similar already, where I never carry around the debit card associated with my primary checking account.

I should never use a debit card for anything anyway.

You have awful fraud protection and zero to near-zero rewards.

Banks will give you net-30 terms for no cost, reward you with many benefits, and give you fantastic protection from thieves AND retailers.

The big problem with debit cards is if you get it stolen then your money is taken. Sure you'd get it back eventually, but until them you don't have access to your own money and can't spend it.

That's weird. I live in a country where 95+% of all payments are done with debit cards, and I don't know anyone who ever had a problem with fraud.

Maybe debit cards are a bit better at security than "oh let's copy this number and put a fake signature on a piece of paper"? Even the mag-stripe version of our payment system that we have had here since '79 required online PIN verification.

We're working on this exact headache, and we believe it's a killer app. Plastc can't solve this problem for you - the moment your card is swiped or entered into a merchant form, it's vulnerable to being stolen and can't be solved with a "remote wipe." What's needed is the ability to make payments with multiple numbers. To silo your merchant relationships and restrict how a number can be spent. And to also to deactivate your physical card when you're far away from it. Never go through a painful get-a-new-card procedure again. We're called Final, and we're launching tomorrow. We'd love your thoughts.

That's essentially how Apple Pay works.

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