Credit card startup Deserve raises $17 million

[Anonymous]

Credit card startup Deserve raises $17 million to help young people build their credit in a system that makes it way too hard —

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/credit-card-startup-deserve-raises-160000280.html

[pipeguy]

I'm going to remain "positive" as far as this article and the shelf life of the startup concept.

I did find this line interesting: "Rather than issuing credit cards based on applicants' financial history, Deserve issues its credit cards to anyone in possession of any kind of American ID and a bank account."

What could possibly go wrong with that logic? 

[Anonymous]

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@pipeguy wrote:

I'm going to remain "positive" as far as this article and the shelf life of the startup concept.

I did find this line interesting: "Rather than issuing credit cards based on applicants' financial history, Deserve issues its credit cards to anyone in possession of any kind of American ID and a bank account."

What could possibly go wrong with that logic? 

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What's interesting about this is that the issuer of the card is Celtic Bank (the same issuer of the sub-prime Surge MasterCard), yet the card does not have an AF. 

I am not sure what to make of this. 

[iv]

The lending model sounds just like college-targeted cards were in the 90s. Are they including free toys or t-shirts with the applications?

The company name, though... boy, does that ever feed the "Millennial/Gen Z" stereotypes.

(I'm not saying that the stereotypes are accurate ...or "deserved"... but wow.)

If they manage to attract mostly the "blank credit report" demographic, rather than the "bad credit report" one, it could work out, though.

[wasCB14]

Based on their website, the emphasis seems to be on international students and visa holders (in the immigration sense, not Visa the payment network).

Maybe they'll get a lot of millennial US citizens applying, but that's not their apparent focus.

One of their three products does have a $39 AF, with a $1,500 max CL. The others go up to $5k and $10k with no AF. Rewards are only on the latter two, and nothing great.

All have phone protection, though.

[Anonymous]

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@pipeguy wrote:

I'm going to remain "positive" as far as this article and the shelf life of the startup concept.

I did find this line interesting: "Rather than issuing credit cards based on applicants' financial history, Deserve issues its credit cards to anyone in possession of any kind of American ID and a bank account."

What could possibly go wrong with that logic? 

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By those standards, Bernie Madoff can get a credit card.

[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

By those standards, Bernie Madoff can get a credit card.

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Maybe... did they let him keep a bank account? Not sure the prison commissary account counts!