CashApp Credit Card

[noblepa]

This isn't a "you've won the lottery" scam. I'm not even sure it is really a scam or not.

A couple of days ago, my wife received what looks like a credit/debit card in the mail. The card carries the Visa logo, but otherwise has no markings showing the issuing bank or sponsoring organization. Nor does the envelope or the paper the card was glued to.

There is just a QR code to scan to activate the card. I did NOT activate the card.

The card is almost entirely black. On the back, in very, very small print, in a dark grey font, making it almost invisible against the black background, was a line that said to go to cash.app/help.

That website gave very little information about what the card was or what services the company offered. Even the "Contact us" page didn't work. There was a snail mail address, so I drafted a rather testy letter and sent it off. Haven't heard back yet.

I also sent a complaint to Visa.com and got a very prompt reply, telling me that they couldn't mediate disputes with member banks, and gave me a phone number for Sutton Bank, who is apparently the issuer.

I did a little more research and found that CashApp is apparently owned by Square Inc. Again, their website offered little insight, except to point out that they dealt in, among other things, Bitcoin.

I was under the impression that it is against federal law to send, unsolicited, any instrument of credit through the mail.

Is this a scam, or just a business with questionable marketing ethics (or is that an oxymoron?)?

[eric]

Not a scam, but a few caveats. CashApp is a money transfer tool, part of Square, which is a legitimate business. Unlike Square, which requires you to have an account at a conventional bank, CashApp requires you to have an account with them. The card you received is not a financial instrument per se since it's useless unless you have an account with CashApp and activate the card. Just a marketing tool, Capital One in Canada used to do the same thing, mailing out useless credit cards to all and sundry as an invitation to apply for credit with them. I got so many I used to keep them to use as windshield ice scrapers. I shall refrain from commenting on the fees charged by CashApp or the ethics of their business model.

Aside..... I personally believe that pre-paid credit cards from a conventional bank are a better deal for when you have to use a credit card for certain situations, my bank charges me five bucks a year for one and most of the time my balance is about the same. Reserved for parking meters and online purchases from suspicious sites....

Further aside..... pondering how I could use a CashApp Bitcoin account paired to a burner phone as a money laundering tool

[noblepa]

Most of the prepaid debit cards I have looked at charged absurdly high fees.

Someone was trying to raise money (this was a person I knew and trusted) for hurricane victims in Florida. She suggested prepaid debit cards.

I looked into it and many charged something like $5.95 per month, which quickly reduced the remaining balance.

I suggested gift cards to Target or Walmart. Both stores carry most of the essentials for daily life that someone would need while temporarily homeless due to a hurricane, and they don't charge fees.

Someone gave me a prepaid Visa debit card once as a gift. I think it was for a moderate amount, like $25. My wife and I went to a restaurant and tried to use it. Our bill was around $35, so I told the waitress to try to run the gift card through for $25 and my personal debit card for the rest.

She tried several times and could not get it to go through. It wasn't until we got home that I figured out that restaurants routinely authorize the specified amount, plus an estimated tip. Then, when I sign the receipt and possible add a tip, they send it through for the actual amount.

The problem was that extra authorization. The restaurant's POS terminal was programmed to authorize (in this case) the $25 plus a 20% ($5) tip. Visa would not authorize $30.

I ended up using it at a retail store that did not add a tip.

So, I respectfully disagree about prepaid debit cards. Never again.

[noblepa]

I don't know how CashApp works. I don't think I want to know.

Even if I must deposit funds with CashApp before I can draw the funds, that seems to me to be a financial instrument. Unless they are absolutely strict about enforcing limits, it seems to me that it could have a negative impact on my credit rating, if someone else were to intercept delivery of the card, or have it delivered to them instead of me. If they allow spending money beyond what has been deposited, then it is most definitely a financial instrument.

I had a similar experience about 10 or 15 years ago. One of the old-line finance companies (it might have been Household Finance), sent me a real check for a significant amount that I don't remember. The letter accompanying it said that all I had to do was cash it. This was not an offer ("You're pre-approved") to apply for a credit card. This was an honest-to-god negotiable check. That was even worse that this episode. If someone had gotten it instead of me, they could have cashed it. After all, fake id's are not that hard to come by and, although IANAL, I believe that courts have ruled that a bank is not liable for cashing a check for the wrong person if the bank took reasonable precautions, such as asking for a driver's license.

[eric]

Most of the prepaid debit cards I have looked at charged absurdly high fees.
(snip)
So, I respectfully disagree about prepaid debit cards. Never again.

I understand where you're coming from... When I first looked into them, offered from the Bank of Upper Lower Somesuch or equivalent the fees were prohibitively expensive. It must be a Canadian thing but the big banks market very low fee prepaids as "student credit cards" or "travel credit cards". Send you child away at University a monthly sum so they learn to budget or you need a credit card for a trip sort of thing.