“Other debit cards are closed-loop systems,” PrivateIcard founder Jerry Klein told XBiz. “This is a way to buy porn on the Internet with the same card you could use to buy flowers for the lady down the hall.”
Klein compares his product favorably to others on the basis that his card can be used anywhere, whereas others are limited to the content on specific partner sites.
The PrivateIcard is a Mastercard debit instrument that allows recharging online. Due to Patriot Act restrictions, the limit for daily recharges is $200.
“$200 a day is still a lot of content,” Klein said, adding that the company voluntarily checks applicants names against the government’s ChoicePoint database to make sure customers are not on any terrorist watchlists. “(But) no one is going to buy a car in secret with this card.”
That said, the card generates no bill, and is in fact paired with a cookie and cache eraser that keeps content viewing secret. Klein, who began test-marketing the card this year, has also developed online products with the Children’s Television Workshop and MCI.
One of Klein’s pitches for the product appealed to content providers’ fears. ”The bank called to tell you they’ve closed your merchant account,” read a press release. As Klein also has provided services to FirstData, the bank that pulled the merchant account of Internet Payment Services Provider iBill, Klein knows the effectiveness of such a tactic.
“But if you tell your IPSP that you’re migrating to a debit card, they’ll take you to lunch,” he said.