
ops it.
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Wow, the national press jumped all over the American Express and Walmart partnership to sell/service the Amex-branded Bluebird prepaid card nationwide (882 articles linked from Google news).
Analysts waxed eloquent about how Walmart is building out its “banking” services and how much cheaper the prepaid card is compared to a checking account.
But in fact, there will be little impact on Walmart shoppers, who can already buy a similar Walmart-branded prepaid Visa card in its stores. And that Green Dot-powered Moneycard will continue to be available, though it sounds like Bluebird could get more prominence. But that will depend on which company is paying the highest slotting fees/revenue share.
But what almost all the press coverage overlooks is that Bluebird is only good at locations that accept American Express (4.5 mil in US), whereas the Green Dot card is good anywhere Visa is accepted (8 mil in US). While most major retailers take both (note 1), that’s still a huge difference in value for many Walmart customers.
Look at the current Walmart financial services menu (pre-Bluebird). It already offers every money-handling service under the sun, including a general purpose reloadable prepaid card with no fees for heavy users (see screenshot below).
Walmart MoneyCenter homepage (9 Oct 2012)
Pricing
Pricing for both the Amex Bluebird (inset) and Visa MoneyCard are low (see below). The main difference is that BlueBird eliminated monthly fees, while MoneyCard charges $3 per month for anyone who loads less than $1000.
Bottom line: Amex got amazing press out of the deal that should help establish it as a leader in prepaid. But it’s a real unknown how many Walmart shoppers want to carry around an Amex card with less merchant acceptance.
I think it may even cause quite a bit of confusion in-store if the BlueBird card is pushed ahead of the Green Dot version.
And while American Express seems to have made important in-roads, it’s not possible to assess the ROI since we do not know how much it is paying Walmart for the distribution deal.
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Current MoneyCard fees (9 Oct 2012)
Note: Monthly fee is waived for those loading at least $1000 per month to the card
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Notes:
1. Costco takes only American Express, so score one for Bluebird.
2. Customers involved in the Bluebird pilot (sold this year at 80 western U.S. Walmarts) must close their old account prior to 8 Dec 2012 and open a new one. The company is offering a $20 bonus to cover the hassle (link).
3. Amex acquired the website Bluebird.com which currently redirects to BlueBirdMoney.com. A greeting card company operates BlueBirdCards.com, which currently ranks high on Google, but will get crushed by BlueBird.com once the product launches nationwide.
Today, we’re very excited to announce that FinovateSpring 2013, our San Francisco showcase of the best new fintech ideas from Silicon Valley will take place on May 14-15 next year.
In 2012, the conference grew almost 50% to 1,200 innovators eager to see the future of fintech debut live on stage via our fast-paced, demo-only format. For 2013, we expect the conference to be even bigger and better!
If you want to relive the demos from FinovateSpring 2012 to whet your appetite for next year, they’re all available free in the Finovate Demo Video Archives.
If you’re curious the type of people you’d meet at the conference, please check out this small list of sample organizations that attended FinovateSpring 2012.
Tickets for the event are now on sale at the low “pre-sale” price of $995 ($400 off list price). We’re expecting a packed house so please lock in your seat now to guarantee your ability to attend (and these savings).
We’ll see you in San Francisco in May (or Singapore in November)!
FinovateSpring 2013 is sponsored by: Financial Technology Partners and more to be announced
Today, we’re very excited to announce that FinovateSpring 2013, our San Francisco showcase of the best new fintech ideas from Silicon Valley, will take place on May 14 and 15 of next year.
In 2012, the conference grew almost 50% to 1,200 innovators eager to see the future of fintech debut live on stage via our fast-paced, demo-only format. For 2013, we expect the conference to be even bigger and better!
If you want to relive the demos from FinovateSpring 2012 to whet your appetite for next year, they’re all available free in the Finovate Demo Video Archives.
If you’re curious the type of people you’d meet at the conference, please check out this small list of sample organizations that attended FinovateSpring 2012.
Tickets for the event are now on sale at the low “pre-sale” price of $995 ($400 off list price). We’re expecting a packed house so please lock in your seat now to guarantee your ability to attend (and these savings).
We’ll see you in San Francisco in May (or Singapore in November)!
FinovateSpring 2013 is sponsored by: Financial Technology Partners and more to be announced
London-based Nutmeg, a startup that provides private investment management services to the public, launched out of private beta yesterday.
With a minimum investment of £1,000 ($1,613), U.K. residents over the age of 18 can use Nutmeg’s platform to help them choose the best portfolio balance. According to the Wall Street Journal blog:
“Users joining the service complete a financial profile including assets, income and expenditure, as well as a financial personality profile. For each fund a user sets a target sum to be raised, when they need it, how much, and how often, they want to invest, and the level of risk they are prepared to take.”
All funds are held by The Bank of New York Mellon.
To learn more about Nutmeg, watch its FinovateEurope 2012 demo.
I’m still digesting Chase’s radical homepage
redesign (see screenshots 1 & 2). While I love the focus
on just three product messages, devoting 50% of the page (above the fold
even) to the login button seems like a lost opportunity. Perhaps it’s a
temporary welcome area to ease users back onto the site.
Only existing customers get the half-screen
login. Non-customers get an additional marketing message on about two-thirds of that
space (see screenshot 3).
The new site looks great on an iPad (portrait or landscape), but it’s not
served to iPhone users at this point. They still see the ultra-trim mobile
screen <m.chase.com>.
The bank has drastically reduced navigation options. A single tab called
Products & Services launches a dropdown box with links to all the
product areas (see inset).
A second tab, Why Chase?, lays out the major benefits, the
missing tab at most banking sites. And the final tab, which seems completely
redundant, causes a drop-down login box to appear.
Although I missed it initially, Chase has not done away with the
Personal/Business/Commercial designations. Tiny links in the upper left
allow users to head to the appropriate business version. Biz services are also
listed on the Products & Services dropdown (bottom of inset).
Bottom line: Chase has moved past trying to be all things to
all people on the homepage. That’s huge, and I hope it becomes a trend. Both
Citi and Bank of America have taken similar
paths recently. But Citi uses
striking photography in the background to give it a more luxurious feel
(as does Salem
Five). And Bank of America exposes more product areas across the top
(Bank, Borrow, Invest, Protect, Plan).
All in all, I applaud the streamlining after what must have been an epic
battle. But I don’t think the bank has completely hit the mark. Make it an A-
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1. Chase Bank homepage on first visit (4
Oct 2012; with customer cookies; via PC Chrome browser)
2. Return visit
Note: Welcome to
our New Home Page replaced with Slate credit-card promo (lower-link portion of
page remains the same and is not shown below)
3. Chase Bank homepage with no customer
cookies
4. Landing page explaining changes (link)
Cloud-based point-of-sale system, ShopKeep POS, announced today that it has partnered with BlueStar, a distributor of mobility, POS, RFID, digital signage, and security technology solutions.
Through this partnership, ShopKeep POS is able to provide a complete POS system, with software and hardware that uses BlueStar’s bundled “In-A-Box” offerings.
It also gives ShopKeep POS access to more resellers. Now, 16,000 resellers across the U.S. will be able to buy the cloud-based solution directly from BlueStar and join the 3,000 locations that already use it.
To learn more about ShopKeep POS, watch its FinovateFall 2012 demo.