I really wanted to be a customer, but when I visited privacy.com and saw the number of 3P services they load up (thanks uBlock Origin) I realized that they talk the talk but don't walk the walk.
I use the service. The name of the service is sort of misleading advertising. In reality what you get is protection from theft of a card number when shopping online (this is what happened to make me decide to use the service), spend limits on reusable cards (for something you pay a recurring payment for, this comes in handy when a merchant raises their rates and doesn't tell you) and you can use any name and region and so protect your identity from being sold by merchants to advertising firms.
Your bank still has access to everything (and they sell everything, of course) and the service itself also has access to everything. But all in all it is a good layer of insulation from merchants and vendors and has some useful features. Think of it like a VPN service for card payments.
Another solution that's been around for a lot longer - and with more features, but less catchy name - is Abine Blur - https://www.abine.com
Disclosure: I was one of the co-founders
In general, there is a tradeoff between the anti-fraud and the privacy requirements in payment processing, and pseudo-anonymous onetime cards are a good solution.
They take your points/cashback and in return shield your transaction info from your bank and vendor, that's their business model unless you sign up for one of their paid plans.
Well that fee is what pays for points/cash back. So although they're not literally taking them, they are taking the fees that would have funded them. So they are in effect taking them.
You stand between the carnival operator and the riders holding up a curtain so they can't see each other. In exchange for this anonymizing service you take a 1% cut of each transaction, then spend it on a ride yourself at the end of the day. The 1% cut is priced into the operator's ticket prices so they still make enough profit, and is practically invisible to the rider, but if the service did not exist, then the tickets could be sold 1% cheaper. This is the model, whether or not you call it "taking" the 1% or "adding on" the 1% is inconsequential.
That merchant-facing fee is how you earn cashback/points when you're a credit card holder. Instead of passing it on to you in the form of points or cash back, Privacy.com keeps it.
> Card issuers can afford to pay cash back because merchants pay an interchange fee on each transaction.
Austin has the whole "supply chain" of startups - from accelerators to large & mid-size technology companies. The network is close-knit but easy to access and people are very friendly here. Combine all of the aforementioned with the cost of living (albeit, it's increasing) and you have a great city to live in.
Highly recommend.
If you end up coming out here, please let me know and I'll buy you a coffee and am happy to introduce you to others/local events.
I did not cross over from Software Engineering, but did transition from Engineering to Finance.
I would suggest understanding what part of Finance is the most interesting to you. Are you interested in Technical Analysis (i.e focusing on characteristics of the market as opposed to characteristics of the company) or do you find Fundamental Analysis more interesting (i.e interested in the core business of a company and their published financials)?
If you are interested in Technical Analysis, I would suggest taking a few courses online to understand trading strategies. If Fundamental Analysis is more appealing, I would focus on taking courses in Accounting.
Once you have a foundation in investment strategies, try producing content on Quantopian.com - build a portfolio and search for positions at firms.
If you have a strong enough interest, a firm will pick you up.
I currently have developed a product that handles the paperwork burden for c-corps, s-corps, llc, non-profts, etc.. imagine a registered agent that has a much better web interface.
Not always. Personally, I find annual billing a bit annoying to deal with because it introduces spikiness into our monthly revenue numbers. Whereas before I could tell you roughly what we'd bring in each month (by looking at the previous month and adding a bit), now it can vary by a few thousand dollars depending on where our Annual subscribers land in the year.
In the long term, it's probably better for the business, since it bumps Lifetime Value up a bit for those customers. But I'd actually prefer it if nobody took advantage of it, so that I could have a nice smooth revenue chart to look at.
Privacy and helps keep track of subscription expenses and helps me maintain/be aware budget and/or subscription increases.
The only downside occurs when you are trying to process a refund for a card that was already closed.