
Show HN: Astra – Virtual Sub Accounts for your existing bank accounts - gakos
https://astra.finance/blog/virtual-sub-accounts-all-the-accounts-you-need-using-the-accounts-you-already-have/
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gakos
Hi Hackernews, Gil here, co-founder at Astra. Would love to hear what you
think about this new technical architecture for your bank accounts! With
Virtual Sub Accounts, you can partition your cash or give your dollars purpose
– and you can transfer funds to and from those virtual accounts with
programmable routines.

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making_things
I don't want to give anyone my real account info which is why I rarely set up
auto pay on anything. If you had a feature where we could generate multiple
virtual bank account numbers (ACH ready) that could be linked to 3rd parties
AND be revoked at will on your site - that would be something I would pay for.
Can you imagine what a company like Comcast would do with your account info
when you try to quit them? They'd probably bill you forever and then force you
to ask for a refund every month. BUT with a virtual account number you can put
the power back in your own hands.

The virtual accounts as they are offered now don't really offer me any
benefits.

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gakos
Thanks for the feedback!

Our Virtual Accounts are the first step towards exactly that – we were
thinking that virtual debit numbers tied to virtual accounts might make the
most sense from a payment flow perspective. And that would allow you to do
just what you described, provided the payment recipient takes debit vs ACH.
Having virtual account/routing numbers would be a great extension of that
capability too!

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rendx
I must be a dying breed but I will never give any external service access to
my bank account. And I still remember the days where you actually had piece of
software to run locally for such things. Crazy eh.

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gakos
Curious, what's the reason? Security? Do you have all of your accounts at one
bank?

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rendx
Yes, security/privacy. Banks are heavily regulated, and "I can't avoid them to
store my data" anyway. (I do mostly use cash, much to the irritation of shops
these days.) I have multiple accounts, which I manage offline without giving
any third-party service access to them. The transaction data for my bank
accounts is not very interesting thanks to me doing most things in cash. I
don't need banks (or credit card companies), tax authorities or tax advisors
to know how I spend my money, where I eat, what kind of services I enjoy.

I would however have an interest in some of what these fancy new "let us have
access to your account" companies are offering. If it was simply software to
use 'offline'.

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gakos
Gotcha. IMHO, cash provides a number of functions where f(x) = security,
privacy, or physical partitioning. And those are valuable!

For functions where f(x) is something one would want to program or automate in
the digital realm of money, that's where we hope to add value to the
experience of managing your finances.

