Show HN: Killing credit cards – meet Bits, a privacy first borrowing app

http://www.getbits.app

13 11 7 years ago

krageon• 7 years ago

They're going to have to be making money somehow, yet they claim to charge no interest. I can't really find any information about this on their website. Does anyone know?

ialexpw• 7 years ago

There is a fee of some kind, it's not explained too well - "No weird charges, no complicated maths, no interest. Just a single simple monthly fee."

oarsinsync• 7 years ago

They're charging interest, just in real pound terms rather than percentages.

You request 'superpowers' to multiply the amount of money you have (a secured loan), and they advise what the monthly fee is and the repayment terms up front.

It's no different to any other secured loan, they just focus on presenting the actual £ amounts rather than % AERs, which is probably clearer for the vast majority of people.

rahimnathwani3• 7 years ago

"It's no different to any other secured loan"

It appears to be an unsecured loan. A secured loan is one where the lender takes a lien on (or physical possession of) collateral that can be repossessed or liquidated if the borrower fails to pay back.

"presenting the actual £ amounts rather than % AERs, which is probably clearer for the vast majority of people."

The consumer credit regulators don't agree with you[0]. In the UK, any promotion/solicitation for consumer credit that includes a cost of credit (e.g. the amount of a fee) must also show the APR. The intent of these regulations is to allow offers from different lenders to be compared on a standard measure.

[0] https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC/3/5.html

tzm• 7 years ago

Robinhood had a similar disruptive position, which earns interest on uninvested cash in customer accounts along with payments from order flow, etc. So I can imagine a similar economy of scale and pass through models w/ Bits.

Nilef• 7 years ago

This is a game changer - I don’t think enough fintechs focus on simple legibility of finance and this execution is simple but powerful

Signed up for sure!

timwis• 7 years ago

Very intrigued. The things that threw me off were:

1. It would be great if you could give an example of what the fees look like. For instance, borrowing £100 for 30 days costs £5 or something. Sounds like I have to sign up and load money into the app to get a sense of how expensive it would be.

2. The nicknames for common banking terms may cause more confusion than they're worth :/ I had to make a mental map between "pocket" = account, "bit" = loan, "superpowers" = also loan? before I could understand what I was reading.

Good luck!

rahimnathwani3• 7 years ago

A comment from the last time this was posted:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18075506

If the above is still correct, interest is charged at 1% per month, based on the credit limit, not the outstanding amount. So the APR might be something between 12.7% (if you borrow the maximum) and ~infinity (if you have a non-negligible limit, but borrow only 0.01 GBP).

faisalkhalid802• 7 years ago

Hello. That was a different product...

rahimnathwani3• 7 years ago

I looked up the company listed on the page (Fea Card Limited) on the FCA's register, but there were no matches:

https://register.fca.org.uk/shpo_nosearchresultpage?mainsear...

faisalkhalid802• 7 years ago

Hi! Founder here. Yes we’re in the process.

Show HN: Killing credit cards – meet Bits, a privacy first borrowing app

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