

T-Mobile's 'Mobile Money' blends prepaid Visa cards and no-fee checking features - swamp40
http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/22/t-mobile-mobile-money-prepaid-visa-free-checking/

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tadfisher
Why does anyone involved in payments not bother to QA their Android offerings?
I can point out about 20 UI issues just in the screenshots on Google Play.
Installed the app; hitting menu items in the drawer stacks Activity upon
Activity, breaking the interaction. Everything is non-standard or ported from
iOS, when it takes all of half an hour to pop in the support library and use
the official Action Bar and Navigation Drawer components. Even worse, the
entire app is locked in portrait orientation.

It's shit like this that degrades the Android experience, and _it needs to
stop_. Stop treating Android like the "second platform". Hire people who can
push back against shitty design. Use the tools that the platform provides.

~~~
untog
To counter that: what difference does it make? Are users going to abandon this
service because the Android app does not conform to UI norms? T-Mobile are
going to start caring about this when they have an incentive to spend the time
and money on it. So far that doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm the last person to defend Apple but their App Store review process will
often reject an app like the one you describe. Google won't. So people develop
better apps for iOS because _they have to_.

~~~
tadfisher
My objections come from supporting the platform as a whole, not T-Mobile's
bottom line. As more popular apps abandon official design guidelines in favor
of custom UI that doesn't work, it makes using _the platform_ an inconsistent
and jarring experience, and that hurts _the platform_ as a whole.

Really, I'm surprised that T-Mobile doesn't get this, as their business relies
in part on selling this platform to customers.

Google could do more, yes, but doing so would erode the relative openness of
Play Store app submissions. They provide the tools and the guidelines, and
that _should_ be good enough. I can't think of any other platform where a
straight port of another platform's UI is a standard or acceptable practice.

~~~
MBCook
> My objections come from supporting the platform as a whole

T-Mobile doesn't care. The same thing is common in the Apple world. I use an
app all the time that faked their own drop-downs to the point that the
'labels' are actually editable text fields.

They don't care. Been there for months and a few updates.

------
benologist
Actual source:
[http://multimediacapsule.thomsonone.com/t-mobileusa/mobile-m...](http://multimediacapsule.thomsonone.com/t-mobileusa/mobile-
money-by-t-mobile)

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ahomescu1
I'm surprised they didn't call it "T-Money".

~~~
toomuchtodo
Their domain, t-mobilemoneyservices.com, drives me nuts. Why not use
money.t-mobile.com?

Also, t-money.com looks to be taken by someone in South Korea since about
2004.

~~~
maxerickson
It's amazing what things have come to. They have disclaimer footnotes for 3 of
their 4 headline claims and the remaining one is conditional on being a
T-Mobile customer.

And there are so many fees, especially for people that don't have a T-Mobile
phone.

I guess when/if interest rates go up these things won't be very popular.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I think it'll still be popular among the unbanked, who are getting raped on
fees at check cashing facilities and whom are unable to get a traditional bank
account.

As a Simple ([https://simple.com](https://simple.com)) banking customer, I
don't see what T-Mobile offers that Simple doesn't besides someplace to load
cash in person. Fun fact: Simple and T-Mobile are using the same "real" bank
(The Bancorp Bank) to provide their services. Google also uses The Bancorp
Bank for their Wallet card.

~~~
maxerickson
Many of the people paying the most cumulative fees should be able to maintain
a no fee checking account (because regular direct deposits).

I do wonder what the breakdown is on access/credit
problems/awareness/willingness to deal with banks. Around here the credit
unions are inexpensive and about as close as anything else.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I'd Kickstart the hell out of that sort of study.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=unbanked+statistics](https://www.google.com/search?q=unbanked+statistics)

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mikestew
What I don't get is the intersection between "take a picture of a check with
smartphone" and "for people who can't get a checking account". I'm going to
assume that T-Mobile believes there is a sizable market of people with $600
phones who can't get a checking account, but really?

~~~
toomuchtodo
> I'm going to assume that T-Mobile believes there is a sizable market of
> people with $600 phones who can't get a checking account, but really?

Really. You'd be surprised what you can buy with financing (hello "Buy Here
Pay Here" loan shark car dealers). T-Mobile isn't doing it out of the goodness
of their heart, but they're definitely going to cannabilize check cashing
businesses.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=unbanked+statistics](https://www.google.com/search?q=unbanked+statistics)

~~~
MartinCron
Hey, if it hurts the predatory check cashing/payday loan industry, that's OK
with me.

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BrandonRead
It looks like a lot of unsuspecting participants blinded by effective
marketing are about to get ripped off hard. "Retail Purchase Fee: $4.00" From
[https://www.t-mobilemoneyservices.com/NeedHelp/Fees](https://www.t-mobilemoneyservices.com/NeedHelp/Fees)
Let's just hope folks using the service have a T-Mobile number! With the
average debit card holder making about 18.3 purchases per month (and likely
more for the targeted demographic because many in this starvation-wage tier
have to make more purchases due to lack of sufficient storage or time), it
looks like a nice $75/mo unannounced subscription fee.

~~~
kemayo
The phrasing of "No charge at participating T-Mobile stores; if purchased
elsewhere, the fee will be refunded to card account within 30 days" makes me
suspect that fee is actually just the cost of getting the initial card.

~~~
BrandonRead
Thanks for that clarification, I got pretty worked up thinking they were being
that scummy.

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gambiting
Checks? Visa card without chip-and-pin? Is this the nineties again?

~~~
Guvante
It is aimed at people how have difficulty getting a checking account, making
direct deposit complicated.

If you don't do direct deposit you get a physical check.

Also chip-and-pin is worthless in the US until they do a big push for it,
since merchants wouldn't accept it at the moment.

~~~
gambiting
And outside of US, cards which are magnetic only are refused in more and more
places, because of either company policy due to a large number of fraud,or
just straight up lack of terminals to process them.

Also, I think I've only had a single check in my entire life - I don't even
know what I would need to do to issue one, and I run my own company. So it
also must be an American thing.

~~~
TheCoelacanth
This is a service targeted at the US so it has to target the US's (antiquated)
banking system. Checks are on the way out, but most Americans still need to
write or cash them fairly regularly. Chip-and-pin cards are still not widely
supported in the US, but support for magnetic stripe cards is almost
ubiquitous. It does seem outdated by international standards, but for the US,
this is actually a step forward compared to the check cashing services that
many poor people use.

