Per the Gane website ( https://gane.io/ ), the application supports the following main functions:
Tap & Pay - Spending made effortless. Use anywhere that accepts Apple Pay and Android Pay.
Receive Offers and Share - Be in the know about exclusive offers. Sweeten your spending — save money and share.
Send and Receive Money - Send and receive money to use instantly. Anyone, anywhere, anytime.
All the applications I have tested have the ability to send/receive money, but the other two aspects are pretty unique. You can do Tap & Pay with Square Cash via Apple Pay, but no similar ability exists for Android users (specific to Square Cash). As far as offers, I don't think any of the apps I have tested (so far) provide that feature.
Here is some feedback I have so far based on using the application.
Initial Setup of app
I went to the Gane website and put my # on the page for the free $1 offer. You just put in your # and hit "Collect", moments later you get a text message with a link. The app was simple to setup, initially I didn't have to enter any personal information. I did get my $1 free in the Gane app. I think the application built-in tutorial should do a better job of letting the user know what they need to enter for the application to be useful - I didn't realize the last 4 of SSN and other details would be required for anything to really work. I did do the option to register my #, so I can recover the account if needed.
"Discover" area of app
This is one area where the application stands out compared to the others I have tested so far. You can see high level activities of others, but more importantly you can "Collect" and "Share" offers. Some of these offers look pretty good - $3 off Chick-fil-A or 25% off Starbucks Coffee, for example. Even if you don't want the offer you can share it with someone else that may be interested.
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| Discover |
Like most applications, Gane has an activity log area. For me, it showed the initial $1 and then showed various offers I collected while playing around in the application. The offers you claim show up as "Completed" which is a bit confusing - the offer is collected, but not yet used so I think they should use a different term.
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| Activity |
The app has a "Load Funds" option, that seems to work with credit or debit cards. I am still trying to find out the fees for this app, but I am assuming debit is free and credit has a charge. I touch on the lack of being able to find the fees near the end of this post.
When I put my card info to test the "Load Funds" option, it then told me I was required to verify identity. I didn't complete these steps so I didn't fully test the "Load Funds" option.
Send Funds
The main interface doesn't have a simple "Send" button like most money transfer applications, you have to go into the top right 3 dot menu and choose "Send Cash". It gets a bit confusing here, you enter an amount ( I did 50 cents as a test ) and you choose "Cash" or "Starbucks Store Credit" as what you plan to send. There was no place to put in who it was going to, but I hit "Send" anyways. Next, a screen comes up saying you sent $0.50 and then the normal Android "share" interface comes up with various options. From what I can tell you share the money as a link, using whatever method you want (email, twitter, whatever). I have seen many people send money (on other apps) to old phone #s that no longer worked, so I think this is a creative approach to ensure it reaches the correct person since you communicate using whatever method is most current and effective.
There is no way to add a note to the payment - while you can send a note when you send the person the link, keeping it in the app is useful.
When you send money, it shows up as "Pending" and you have the ability to cancel it which most of the other apps do not offer. I don't now if the cancel option goes away after time but once the person collects the money, then it will show up as "Completed" and you can't cancel it anymore.
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| Send Funds |
Withdraw Funds
The app has a "Withdraw" option, which seems to only work with debit cards. Most of the other applications work with debit or a bank account (using account/routing info).
After going into "Withdraw" I clicked "Add Bank Source" where it asked for the normal debit card (card # and other details). After this step, I was asked for the amount to withdraw but was given a notice that I would need to verify my identity before I could withdraw funds. I didn't complete these steps so I didn't fully test the "Withdraw Funds" option.
Request Funds
You can't... at least not in the app itself.
The Gane application does not have an ability to request funds. Of course you can do it the old method of sending an email request, but having it done completely in the application (like most of the other apps) is actually convenient.
Since the application relies on the user to send a link to transfer funds, I would imagine even requesting funds would still require the person paying to do the normal "send funds" step - unlike other payment apps that make it easier to pay a request.
Balance Options
Based on the "Help" area of the application, it seems to have a few balances:
- Purchase Power balance: Used for tap & pay. It is withdrawn from your Gane Account balance.
- Gane Account balance: Available for transfers with friends.
- Premium Gane Account balance: This seems to be the combined balance after you verify your ID.
Per the help info if you complete your identify verification, your Purchase Power and Gane Account are combined. As of right now I really have no clue why there are 3 balances and honestly this just seems confusing.
Verify Identity
After playing with the application I realized that verifying your identity is pretty much required for any useful functions, so I wonder why that isn't just done at the start - or make it clear to the user what they will not be able to do in a limited mode w/o user identification.
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| Identity Verification |
- Cardholder Agreement: There is a section titled "Gane Gift MasterCard® Cardholder Agreement" and another one titled "Gane Prepaid MasterCard® Cardholder Agreement" but I don't know which is relevant.
- Privacy Policy: I was able to find a section with details.
- E-Sign Disclosure: There are multiple references to http://www.ganecard.com/ which isn't a valid URL.
I find it interesting that on Twitter, the Gane account bio says "Kind of like Venmo, but way better" but Venmo ( per https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/217532197-Social-Security-Number ) doesn't require the last 4 digits of your social until you hit certain triggers like sending more than $300 in one week ( as an example ). I am guessing the tap & pay aspect makes the last 4 of SSN necessary earlier in the process, but for users that don't care about tap & pay it could be a deterrent.
Fees
Great question. The FAQ doesn't even mention fees, which is odd because most services like this make it clear what the fees are either on the main page or in the support/FAQ area. I checked the terms page ( https://gane.io/terms.html ) and it was not helpful either. There are various $4.95 fees mentioned ( purchase fee, inactivity fee, card replacement fee ). What card? I ran across a mention of a complete list of fees at https://gane.io/fees, but that quickly led to disappointment when the page came up with a 404 error.
Overall impression?
Overall Gane seems interesting, and based on a quick look online it seems fairly new ( started late 2016 from what I can tell ). Any new option has a chance, but I think they need to focus on some key areas to really make progress:
- The application could use some care and feeding on the interface for the application. It should be easy to use, and not require you to dig around to figure things out. The application should also make it clear what will / will not work before you verify your identity.
- The website also needs to be cleaned up and fees need to be clearly listed out. I have a feeling that maybe Gane was originally going to include an actual physical card, but the business model changed and some of the website references still need to be revised but that is just my guess.
- The offers / special deals for the tap & pay ability are key features that none of the existing money transfer apps have as far as I know. I personally use Samsung Pay and it has offers from time to time that encourage me to use tap & pay. While the tap & pay savings does help, not every user will be able to use it or even care about that option - if Gane wants that target market (people not able/interested in tap & pay) it needs to figure out how to gain it. Providing a virtual credit card, like Square Cash does, might be an option to consider to increase how useful it is for customers who can't or don't want to use tap & pay. However doing any "me too" features isn't as impressive and will make it hard to get customers to switch companies.
- The ability to use funds is important. From what I can tell most users want the money on their debit card instantly, as far as I know only Google Wallet does this free and Square Cash does it for a 1% charge. Venmo and Circle Pay don't have an instant option. The ability to use the money via tap & pay does give instant access, but that will only entice some users. It could be a limited type of deal - one instant transfer for free per week or month.
- A meaningful referral program should be considered. From what I have seen, the money transfer applications are very tied to social circles. Most people use what their peers use, and aren't in a rush to try out new options. Mainly geeks will try the apps because they are the "new shiny toy" - the average user will not try a new application without incentive.
- Customer service is critical. I see people on Twitter all the time ranting about this application or that company, I personally have had issues with one of the money transfer applications. I know you can't make everyone happy, but there has to be an escalation team that can handle unique/odd situations.
I have submitted some comments to the company support, and will update this post as needed.
If you want to see freebies/offers, go here:
http://bigboystoys13.blogspot.com/2016/11/get-some-free-stuff-or-free-money.html
