My Coin experience (after the first week)

Most people generally know me as an early adopter when it comes to tech. Kickstarter was the worst thing to happen to my wallet since SlickDeals.net. I have every Nest product they offer and am almost an Apple fanboy, but don’t think I qualify since the watch doesn’t appeal to me quite yet. I’m happy to beta test new products, applications, or websites and have a general expectation that it won’t be perfect. I also try to take the time to offer my feedback to those businesses so they know what they got right and what they got wrong. I especially enjoy testing things out and providing feedback to startups trying to launch an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and it’s a part of what I offer them (2 hours free every month) with my new company Corrobo. 

A lot of people have been asking me about my Coin. I didn’t make the really early adopter cut (I ordered mine mid November in 2013), and I received it last week (yes, over 1.5 years after preordering.) For those that don’t know what Coin is, it is a credit card that can store up to 8 credit/debit/loyalty cards in it. It has a physical button that you can scroll through your cards and pick the one you want to use. It is just as thin and light as a credit card with a magnetic strip and it syncs with your iOS or Android phone over Bluetooth (low energy). It comes with a reader that you plug into your headphone jack, so to store your credit cards, you simply swipe your physical card and it stores it in your phone, then syncs the information to your Coin card. Coin claims its battery will last 2 years, but I’m not so sure the laws around EMV adoption will allow it’s use that long anyway (more on that later.)

I legitimately have 8 cards, so the idea of carrying 1 card instead of 8 was very appealing. I didn’t always carry 8, but I’d always find myself wishing I had the card I wanted. For those of you horrified that I have 8 cards, here’s the breakdown. A Delta Amex I only use for travel, a debit card for my nonprofit (BeatCancerToday.org), a debit card for my business (Corrobo.com), a credit card I only use for gas because it gives me 5% cash back, a credit card I use for Amazon, a credit card I use for Best Buy, a personal debit card for ATMs, a credit card I use for everything else. Before you start to worry about me, it’s a very helpful system for budgeting and I pay them off every month, so it’s all good. :-)

I have recently experienced the joy of leaving my regular credit card at a restaurant and not realizing it until later that day. Unfortunately it was clear on the other side of town. One feature the Coin has is that it knows when it’s out of range of your phone. So if you leave your card on the table, by the time you get to your car, your phone is notifying you that you left your card behind. 

Another security feature is that the card locks itself after 7 minutes. When you first wake it up, it immediately says “LOCK”, but within a second it detects your phone (via bluetooth) and unlocks itself. If you don’t have your phone (or the battery is dead or your kid just won’t give it up because he’s about to hit a new level on Hungry Shark), you can actually use your own custom “tap code” on the button to wake it up. It’s a series of long and short taps that you program into your phone and that then gets synched to your card. I left my phone in my car one day and was still able to unlock the card to pay inside the gas station with my series of taps. Pretty slick, but hopefully your waitress won’t take longer than 7 minutes to swipe your card before it locks up.

My experience with Coin so far:

1st use?—?Parking ramp, had to swipe it twice, but then it worked.
2nd use?—?Gas pump, had to swipe it twice, but then it worked.
3rd use?—?Restaurant, she swiped it twice and it didn’t work. She also freaked out that the card didn’t have numbers that she could just read off and plug into the machine manually. Chase confirmed no attempts had been made from what they could see. I gave her a normal credit card to use.
4th use?—?Restaurant, worked first time just fine.
5th use?—?Restaurant, waitress brought it back and asked if I had another card, this one didn’t work. Said she swiped it twice. I gave her a normal credit card to use.
6th use?—?Parking ramp with an attendant. He flipped out and said he had never seen a card like that in all his years and that he’s seen nearly every card ever made. It worked flawlessly.
7th use?—?Gas pump, only had to swipe once and it worked the first time.
8th use?—?Inside the gas station where I swiped and it worked the first time.

I always carry a normal credit card as a backup and yes, I have sent my experience list over to Coin as general feedback.

A friend asked me about the chip and pin mandate in October of 2015. Good question. I don’t know. I was hoping to have a year to play with it before that became a reality, but it looks like I have more like 3 months. Here is Coin’s official answer: https://support.onlycoin.com/hc/en-us/articles/203484640-When-will-Coin-adopt-EMV-

I find this discussion to be far more entertaining, however: https://www.quora.com/How-will-Coin-deal-with-chip-and-pin-cards

Either way, I certainly think Coin will figure something out. Whether I have to buy another $50 device is an outstanding question. Let me know if you have any questions that I didn't address here and I’d be happy to do so!

Aaron Horn is the Director of IT at the Iowa Interstate Railroad. He is also the Founder of Corrobo.com and the President of BeatCancerToday.org, a nonprofit that raises funds for childhood cancer research and patient/family support programs. He is an all around tech enthusiast and fan of all things startup. @HornIT