Virtual Cards and the Decline

(Amar ) #1

Hi all , i noticed over the past 6 months that there are alot of fintech start ups closing down and even virtual card services which have been around for 10+ Years are suddenly closing down. I cannot seem to find a provider that provides visa virtual cards anymore apart from revolut. There were plenty of services such as entropay but they are closing.

It seems to be happening at a sudden moment anyone know the reason for this? I dont really like using revolut so id like to find another virtual visa alternative.

(Michael) #2

As I had to agree when becoming a Monzo crowdfunder recently, most start-ups fail

They likely either ran out of money or were bought out purely for getting hands on the staff

Monzo do what most of them do (and so do a lot of legacy banks too in their way) and they do not make an overall profit right now, but do have the backing to continue trying

(Michael) #3

As to “why now?”

Anyone’s guess, and I bumped straight into Monzo and Starling bypassing prepaid cards so no expert in the field and nothing to look out for myself

Brexit making raising money harder or lowering demand?

Other cards out there that are almost as good, but cheaper? I would put my money on this personally

VC money going elsewhere now that Fintech banks look almost viable?

(Amar ) #4

Good point. I was very surprised with the likes of Moneypolo and entropay closing down. They were extremely popular in terms of providing virtual cards. Possibly new visa regulations.

Id love more opinions on this.

#5

Those older services, generally charged a lot of fees and served a niche. New competition in the form of Revolut and the like don’t charge pretty much any fees and instead go for a large number of users

(Andre Borie) #6

Maybe there’s just more awareness around chargebacks and fraud liability and people are no longer scared into using these prepaid/virtual cards?

#7

I think one look at the fees are enough to explain the decline.

(Amar ) #8

I feel like its something to do with visa regualtions. Every single virtual visa card operator has stopped. In terms of fees that wasnt really an issue with some website like entropay which charged 1% to top up only