I, like many others, pre-ordered a Coin card when it first came on the scene back in November of 2013. I was intrigued by the technology behind it, excited by the idea of only carrying one credit card since it can store up to 8 credit, debit, loyalty and gift cards, and overall really curious. I referred it to a bunch of friends, and even got my initial costs down using their referral program. I’ve done the backer program before and have understood that while some products take longer than expected to come to market, like the Equiso Android Smart TV stick, which took about 6 months longer than initial projections, some other products, like the Ringbow, don’t make it to market at all.
And this is a risk you take as an early adopter.
So that is where I stand right now with Coin. Since I wasn’t one of the lucky ones (15,000 ones to be exact) to be a Coin Beta tester, I fully believe that I will receive one eventually. The latest blog post on their website from December 9th, 2014, says that they are now expecting to ship to the general population in Spring of 2015.
But the questions I ask myself now is do I really want it? Will I really use it? Is it really better than any of the other options that are coming to the surface now? As many of you know, I’m an Android guy, though not and iPhone Hater, there are already a number of options to pay for things directly from my phone using NFC technology, such as Soft Card (the artist formerly known as ISIS, and changed appropriately) and Google Wallet. I’ve had both installed for quite some time and haven’t really used it. The reason for that is mostly because of a lack of available merchants and POS (Point-of-Sale) devices available that accept the technology. This will most likely change in the near future since Apple introduced Apply Pay with the latest iteration of iPhone in iPhone 6 and 6+. The benefits of a real physical card is the ability, or expected ability to use at an ATM or pay at every merchant using a standard credit card reader, and not have to rely on NFC.
Now there are direct competitors with Coin just to heat up the marketplace. Plastc surfaced in October of 2014 and now another popped up last month called Swyp. Plastc can hold up to 20 cards (who uses 20 cards that doesn’t have a huge credit problem??), though it has a hefty price tag of $155, Swyp can hold up to 25 cards but is more affordable at an introductory pre-order price of $49. Plastc uses an e-ink display has has chip and PIN technology for more security. Swyp is made of metal, feels more durable and also has Chip and PIN.
There are definitely pluses and minuses to each type so if you haven’t jumped on board the Coin yet, maybe hold out to see which one works the best in the real world.
I’ll post back once (if) I get my Coin.
– Yak