FinTech Friday | 2 Guys and a Dog Discuss Payment Trends | B2B Vault: The Payment Technology Podcast

Hey, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the payment technologies podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, Allen Kopelman. And we'll be providing you educational information about fintechs, small business payment processing, and the technology businesses are using in the world today. And today is a special podcast. One, it's the day after Thanksgiving, and it's also FinTech Friday. Yeah, man. So Two Guys and a Dog podcast, better known, you know, a little alias for the podcast title, Two Dog— Two Guys and a Dog. Discuss painted trends. That's the tentative title for today's podcast.

We're just joking around.

Hopefully everyone had a thankful Thanksgiving, full of family, food, friends, frolicking, turkey, lasagna, whatever it is that you eat, steak. And if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a wonderful day, whatever, hanging out with your friends, maybe did it. You know, house project.

One thing I'll say is good is that at least, you know, in the last few years, the, you know, the malls kind of closed on Thursday, period.

Oh really?

Yeah, most, most places are closed.

I've seen Whole Foods is open until 3, so I mean, I get it, you know, because it is a pain in the neck when you forgot the turkey gravy and you have no gravy, right?

Or you forgot the onion.

SOL because there is no—

or you forgot to pick up a cake for dessert. Ha!

Oh, you forget the pumpkin pie, dude, don't even come to my house. Well, for me it's sweet potato pie. Like, I'm a sweet potato pie guy. I'm not a big, uh, pumpkin pie guy. But yeah, man, if you get the pie, don't come over.

So let's talk about some of the highlights, you know, payment trends and what's in the news. And, you know, I got this magazine in today. What was nice was I had an article in the magazine. Talking about the green sheet. The green sheet talking about— my article was— we'll post it on our social, but my article was about how ATMs are evolving for businesses. So that's what the article was about. And we'll—

random question.

Yes.

When they post that on the website, is it PDF or is it actually on their website?

It's on the website. It's on there. It's— there's a PDF and a flipbook, and then it's also on the website.

Like, the article is posted to their blog?

Yeah, it's posted to their blog.

Do they attribute you?

Did they what?

Do they give you, like, do they attribute—

did they—

yeah, written by Allen Kopelman.

Yes.

Does it point back anywhere?

No, I don't think so.

We'll have to fix that.

We'll have to ask them about that.

We're gonna have to make them fix that. Okay.

Yes. So that's kind of nice.

NAC, the ATM Reinvented, the National ATM Conference, right?

We did a pod. I went there, right?

We went there, right?

And we interviewed, um, Brian Crumpler from a cool fintech company called Pocketbook PAI, right? Brian Haynes. And then we interviewed Hyo Sung. Hyo Sung.

Yes.

We interviewed the guy.

I want to learn to speak Japanese so I can go on business meetings to Japan.

Okay. But there was a lot of interesting speakers and, you know, it was really cool. We'll post this article. And then in the magazine, there was a really interesting article because we've been talking about digitizing, you know, how banks need to digitize, right?

So in this research, digitization of banking, right?

Digitization of banking. So there was a research article, you know, research under industry updates, and it says BAAS providers cause fintech losses. So BAAS is banking as a service. And it said— and then I started reading it and it said 1 in 5 fintechs are losing $11 million a year due to delays in adding in their banking as a service. Wow. And then it goes into— where was it— key findings is that 82% of fintechs have banking as a service embedded into their platform. That's a lot.

What would be considered banking as a service?

So the ability to get some kind of credit card or a loan or, um, line of credit or a line of credit, or even open a bank account or have a savings account, like for instance, Robinhood, get a savings account, banking as a service. Betterment, you can open up a savings account, that's banking as a service. So, you know, these, these fintech companies are taking away money from the bank. And one of the other things that I saw was that— here was an interesting, another article that I read this morning that involved banks. One was— so, so that's pretty crazy. And it said 45% of the fintech's overall revenue comes from banking as a service. And 76% of fintechs, um, want to have, um, banking as a service as one of their primary uses. That's a real threat to the banking industry. So, and then here's some other stuff that had to do with the banks that was in the news.

Um, well, I mean, the secret's out on banks, isn't it?

Well, I don't think the secret's out on banks. I think that people don't want, you know, COVID kind of, kind of—

I'm talking about like the traditional banking, like you put your money in there, you, you know, it's trusted and, well, one thing to mention, add some money, right, interest on there, right?

But what I'm trying to say—

that's dead, right?

But what I'm trying to say is not all of these companies are FDIC insured, and people need to understand that if you're gonna put your money, mate, somewhere, make sure, like, oh, that's an FDIC insured—

I mean, I'm saying that to say this, is that banks need to step up their technology.

Yes, they do need to step up their technology. They need to make it easier for people to get a bank account, maintain the bank account, apply for credit cards, whatever it is that they offer.

It has to be easier, right?

It has to be easier, just like we did with our thing. 10 questions and you're approved for your account. No more paperwork.

Did what our what our application, our onboarding process.

Yes, onboarding process. We have simplified it and removed all the friction.

The onboarding process is the shit. Sorry.

Yeah, it's the shit. Yes. Okay, but so today there was a bunch of stuff going on involving— so Goldman Sachs got fined $4 million over investment policy failures. Credit Suisse, which is a huge bank, warned that they're going to take a $1.6 billion loss this quarter. And what was the cause of the loss is that their wealth management customers removed $66.7 billion off of their platform.

Why?

And a total— yeah, probably they're not investing with, you know, whatever, you know, they're moving their money into real estate, gold, Things like that.

People are buying gold.

Yeah, a lot of people are buying gold. In fact, I saw an email from Robinhood and they're like, oh, you can deposit money— I have to read more about it— into this account that's backed by gold and get like 3, this little thing, 4% interest. This one thing is, I—

it's kind of cool because they must know that I like, I like to collect things or something, right? Because they— for like, do you invest and they send you a little gold brick? Right, every time you invest.

Who does?

The company that you— that I can't remember the name of this company.

I'll remember of it.

Okay, I'll get the name of it for the next podcast. But so like you invest and they send you a little piece of gold like in a little container. Okay, it's pretty— it's really cool. I don't know if it's real gold.

So a total of $88.3 billion was removed off of their— out of their bank total between investments and cash. But they said that only represented 6% of the bank's assets, which are totaled at over $1.47 trillion.

Oh well, that's just a kick in the bucket then, right?

But I'm just saying it's a lot of money moving still.

Yeah.

And then JP Morgan had a trademark approved for a crypto wallet. I think that's a little late to the game, right? Yeah. And other crypto news was SoFi Bank, which is a California bank, was told by Bank Reg— regulators to divest its digital asset business, and they're being accused of being involved in a crypto pump and dump and involving Dogecoin and other digital assets. So that's a big— that's a big—

we met those guys, didn't we?

Um, we saw them at a booth. Yeah, we went by there saying we met at the— at a crypto show. Oh, at the Emerge. Yeah, Emerge show. They had a big booth there. Yeah, they opened up an office in Miami.

That's what I'm saying, we met We talked to them from the bank, right?

So that's pretty crazy. So, Jesus. And then, you know, other stuff in the news. Zelle still in the hot seat over at Congress.

FTX, of course.

Yeah, FTX, that's still a hot mess. This guy's down in the Bahamas. I mean, let me tell you, if that was me, they'd have me locked up in a supermax cell somewhere, pulling my fingernails off trying to ask me where I was.

Where's Justin?

No, they would want— I mean, they said that the guy illegally— they found illegal transfers now from FTX to some other company that he owns, right, of over something like $30 billion.

So this is funny to me, like, so he told the investors that he's going to recoup the money by selling all of his businesses. How does that work?

Yeah, I don't understand. He already bilked the money, right? I just—

if you're filing for bankruptcy, I, I don't know. I really—

I don't even know if any of the businesses he bought are worth any money. Like Voyager, he bought Celsius. Now Celsius has mortgages on all these houses that they lent money on, so who knows how that's going to shake out.

You know, we've talked about— you remember that little, that little, the little CEO for Ellen, man. She just started working there, basically, right, like right before this all started happening.

Yeah. And then we also talk about CBD all the time on the pot. We've talked about it on the podcast quite a bit. And today there was an FDA warning thing that went out. They sent warning letters to 6 CBD companies about their labeling of their products. Advertising and what's in the product, and they sent warnings to this company, 1111 Brands. Another one, Naturally Infused, new here, CBDfx Infusions with a Z on the end. This one didn't surprise me, they've gotten a bunch of warnings before, called American CBD American Shaman.

Why would you even have that in your name?

What, American Shaman? Yeah, I don't know, but they, they got a— they've been warned several times about advertising advertising, expiration dates, and all kinds of stuff. And they have retail stores. I like— there's— there, it's like a franchise, a CBD.

I've seen that before, right?

So the other thing in the news, which is kind of crazy— oh, so let's talk about scams for a minute. So today I get another—

you're all over the place.

No, I just— no, like, we'll just talk about this briefly because this is something that one of my friends called me about. So I got a letter in the mail Oh, you have this domain renewal, right? I'm gonna tell you about— there's a new domain scam going on. It's not new, but there's two of them. This is one where this company's sending you letters out saying you need to remove— renew your domain. If you have your domain registered at like GoDaddy, Bluehost, you're not gonna get one of these letters. Don't pay these people. They want $289.

One of the things I know, man, that they're saying that to you.

Well, it's one of the ones we own. So this—

did you actually buy it from them though?

No, I didn't buy it from them. That's what I'm saying. This is a scam to get money out of you for $289. This is a scam. Can I see this? So I would not be sending that in, and I got a bunch of them recently.

Annual domain slash business listing on domainnetworks.com.

Yeah, we don't even use that.

This website listing offers provided to leading websites throughout the website to enhance your website exposure, blah blah blah. Yeah, dude, listing. They're saying that you owe $289 for one domain, right?

That's crazy, right? So here's the other thing that I saw the other day. I get an email about domain, right? So then it says, oh, do you want to buy this premium domain?

So I get those all the time.

No, so I actually wanted to read what they did, right? So then I go into it because the guy was looking for a merchant account, but the guy's in another country, so I can't really help him. And it's in some, like, questionable country in Europe, right? One of these smaller places, and, um, like Estonia or something. And I said, which we can get a merchant account there, but it's— this is a little shifty, right? Okay, so it says, oh, you can rent this premium domain name, whatever it is, a le— You know, top ebooks.com, whatever, was one of them, right?

SEO Miami, right? That's a— I get that all the time. Hey, you want to buy our domain SEO Fort Lauderdale? $14,000.

No, no. So that— no, no, here's what they had. You could rent the domain name from them.

That's smart.

For like 3 months, 6 months, 9 months. They're not selling it, they're renting it out. But how many people are they going to rent it to? I don't know, like, how that works, right? So that's another domain scam. Do not— if your domain is registered somewhere, just make sure you have it set up for recurring billing. Make sure your credit card is on there. Make sure you check it, you know, check that thing. Don't not have your domain stolen, because I think, like, these companies could steal your domain.

Oh yeah, I mean, you give them that because you're gonna—

because they're good, because you're gonna give them that, you're gonna pay them And then they're going to want to— they're going to contact— like, ours is at GoDaddy. They're going to contact GoDaddy and want it transferred. What is this domain again?

123giftcard?

Yeah, it's a GoDaddy domain we have.

They're trying to hustle you out of it, right?

Exactly, that's what I'm saying. So the other thing that's in the news is Buy Now Pay Later. Now, I looked all over, I found a bunch of articles about Buy Now Pay Later. Now Apparently the Consumer Protection Finance Bureau came out and said that they want—

they're not happy—

the buy now pay later companies to explain to people what they're getting into and disclose all the terms and conditions. So I decided, okay, you know, I read their article, you know, about what they're talking about, and you know, they're also talking about some other stuff about open banking and decentralized open banking and what's going on in, you know, England, United Kingdom, with open banking. But they're looking at, you know, coming out with personal financial data rights in their rulemaking because they're worried about what all these big tech giants are doing and what's going on with these peer-to-peer payment companies and buy now pay later. Those are their three pretty much big focuses. So then I was reading another article about— so the, the lines are getting blurred with buy between credit cards and buy now pay later, right? So then in this article they're talking about how, you know, they— I don't know if I should name some of these, name this company, but whatever. So one company has a card and they're saying that they're tracking the user's credit score and all this stuff, and some of them are actually now trying to issue credit cards. But also the banks are fighting back now. So I saw where Chase and some other banks— and I guarantee all these banks are going to have it to where you can like see a payment, you know, like go into your roster. Let's say you carry a balance, so you go into your roster of charges and then you could click on the ones that you want to break up into 4 payments. That's cool, right? And then they would be broken up into 4 payments and then you would make 4 payments.

So that's what the bank is doing to combat, right?

So banks are doing that to combat it. And the buy now pay later companies— so they're talking about this one company is saying that they're tracking people's, um, credit score, but other ones are not doing that. And then they're talking about Affirm is going to issue their own card out so people can— basically every charge would be broken up into 4 payments. But they're also talking about like what's going on with, you know, how now Klarna is linking up to people's debit card. Before it was only limited to credit cards. Now they want to have it linked to debit card, so it's linked directly to your bank account. Yeah. And the other thing they're talking about—

will not leave me alone—

Klarna wants to charge people a $3— if you use Klarna, they want to charge the Consumer Now, $3.99 a month for the service, for the service to be using the Klarna service.

And oh yeah, buy now pay later sounds like they're out the door.

This buy now pay later thing is going to be a big problem. I think that it doesn't sound like these companies are losing a lot of money. So then I go look at another article, then this one was from Consumer Reports. Man, let me tell you, I started reading this thing, this Consumer Reports. I was like, wow, they're talking about— here's somebody, oh, I went into Chipotle and I was able to do a buy now pay later on a burrito. Uh, yeah, crazy stuff like that. So let me just tell you like what's in here. So a person in Ohio says they couldn't easily— oh yeah, this is some of the problems people are running into. So they're talking about Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna, PayPal, Sezzle, Zip, right? You know, and the PayPal thing called PayPal Pay in 4 is what their thing is called, right? So now they're—

that never works.

So now they're talking about the people not being able to get refunds, not being able to return stuff, having their credit court, uh, credit dinged. Right? And they're not checking your credit when they're making the decision, but now they're trying to ding your credit. So that's a big problem. And they're saying that, you know, this buy now pay later thing is exploding, but it's exploding in the— in a way because the consumer doesn't understand what they're getting into. So the CFPB and the Better Business Bureau complaints have skyrocketed. On these companies. So complaints, and I honestly don't— 28% of people who have used buy now pay later report having at least one problem, including being overcharged. So here's another thing: what happens when you miss a payment on buy now pay later? So they surveyed over 2,000 users that, that missed one payment. Okay, 53% said they were charged a fee. 28% said they were charged more interest than they agreed to. 21% said they had their debt sent to collections. That's after missing one payment. 15% said they saw a missed payment appear on their credit report. I didn't even know there's a Financial Technology Association. I didn't even know that existed. We find organizations all the time. Isn't that crazy?

The Financial Technology Association? Yeah.

Why are we not a part of that? I don't even— never heard of it.

How come you haven't contacted us, right, to be a part of your organization?

Any Lee, CEO. Well, we'll have to look her up on Facebook.

I'm on your—

on LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Well, LinkedIn. We'll link—

we'll link up on LinkedIn there.

So they're saying that consumers are choosing buy now pay later as a competitive alternative to high-interest credit products. That trap them in cycles of debt, right? But it happened— there's a lack of regulations in buy now pay later, and there is no— consumers are overextending themselves with too many of these loans and leave them with little recourse when there's problems with purchases, repayments, incorrect information reported to the credit bureau. So there's this other—

before you keep going, there's one thing that I really don't like that about their— about a few of the pay later things, right? I don't know, have you used it before?

One time, just to see how it worked, right?

Right. Did you notice how there's always like, when you go to the— after you click on, like, say you click Klarna, right, and you go to that screen? Yeah.. And when it says you enter the information and it says pay now, right? You ever notice that the installments isn't up there first? You have to click the dropdown menu.

Yeah.

So a lot of the times I can imagine how many people who are thinking that they're about to do the buy now, pay later, right?

But they did full payment. Exactly.

Because they didn't check the box, right?

You know, and then they're paying Klarna, and then the merchant's getting charged bigger— a big—

that's just crazy. I— that's one thing I don't like about it, but I don't have any complaints because I'm not—

well, that's what they're talking—

I know how to budget my money, and I'm not gonna overspend because that's what they're talking about, is that merchants are getting whacked fees.

Yeah, high fees.

Well, you just were explaining— the guy said he had $50,000 in—

yeah, in buy now pay later, uh, transactions over several months, and he didn't even know about it.

He didn't even know.

How that he was being charged 7% for those.

That's crazy, right?

And he doesn't know how many, you know, he doesn't know what the default rate is or any of that stuff. And then the whole thing is, and then a firm came out and says, oh, every company has some kind of protection. But apparently, like, there's no protection when you're using this. Like, you can't do a chargeback, you can't do any of that because it's not— you're not using a credit card. It's—

that's interesting because I didn't get a package, but I did get the package.

Right?

I got it later, it said that it arrived, blah blah. Anyway, when I contacted the, the merchant and they were like, you gotta contact Shop Pay, right?

Pay, right? Yeah, that's Shopify's product.

I was like, what? It's your merchandise though.

Yeah, because they— but then they take it over.

Yeah, but then I got the— I got the package and it was just how that company ships their stuff, whatever they shipped it through DSL, and then what, DSL takes it over? I mean, gives it to the UPS?

I mean, well, the United States.

Yeah, exactly. Really strange. Be careful buying stuff online.

Yeah, so they were talking about, you know, all these people. Let me find— so they're talking about that these companies need to educate people more, and they're not educating them more. And they're saying like—

I'm gonna be a devil's advocate on that, right? Is it really the company's job to educate the, the population on financial literacy? I'm gonna say a big no. Well, it's not their job.

No, no, I'm just saying the consumer needs— but they're saying what's the bigger fix, require buying it? This is what the Consumer Financial Protection saying require buy now pay later companies to clearly state the repayment terms and late fees in a standardized fashion. Because basically they're giving somebody a consumer loan and they should be required to follow the Truth in Lending Act, which they're not following right now. In my honest opinion, basically I don't see where they're not doing that though.

Yeah, but they send you an email with the four— with your payments they send you the—

yeah, but they're doing it after you get it. You're not doing— like, when you go to get a loan at the—

I see now when you say it like that. I wasn't thinking about that because you get it in front of you so you know what the terms are. So then that's why you buy the car.

They're saying they're giving you a loan, right? That's buy now pay later is a loan, and they're not following the Truth in Lending Act. So that's where the problem— the law applies to credit cards right? But it's not— there's no, there's no oversight on buy now pay later. And they're saying now that they want to classify it as a loan, just like it is when you get a credit card, right? If you don't— you know, if you don't pay it off, you're told, oh, the interest rate is 17%, right? Yeah. So you got to follow what it is, right? You got to follow this. So if you don't follow it, you're saying— and then they said it's a big trap, buy now pay later. Many people are getting overextended, especially if you get multiple loans.

Well, stop shopping, right?

Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, people aren't— they, they don't— people are just seeing it as like, oh, I'm getting this thing and I'm not having to pay a lot. Yeah, no, right? And then they don't realize that they get trapped in a loan.

I mean, last month I made a couple transactions and then I thought about— I was like, this This is stupid, right? I should, I should have just bought it, right? You know what I mean? Like, because then now it's taking it. I should have just spent all the money up front, but whatever.

Yeah, so they're saying now 45% of people use Buy Now Pay Later said they use it because they couldn't afford the purchase. That recipe is a recipe for trouble, right?

Yeah, I have some— there is another thing, but there's something on Amazon. Yeah, and I accidentally Yeah, hit that.

Hit it.

Yeah, and they're only charging me $10 a month. That's crazy for a $100 item.

Well, that's what I'm talking about. Somebody was able to go into a— somebody had it on, was able to get a burrito. That's just Chipotle's website. Buy, buy their meal on Chipotle's website and do a buy now pay later. Okay, I have a problem with that. I know, I'm just saying I have a problem with it.

That's not cool.

I don't think that that should be allowed.

No, it's not okay, right?

And then they're talking about more and more retailers. In recent— recently, in fact, they're, they're finding restaurants and grocery stores are doing this. I don't think that should be allowed in a restaurant or a grocery store. I mean, I have a problem with like where this is being used.

I mean, okay, because you know what, I, I recently just heard someone say about this buy now pay later at a restaurant. And the logic behind it blew my mind. It was like, well, can you imagine all the people who are unable to go to like Carbone and now like those type of restaurants?

What's Carbone? Is that really expensive? Yeah. Where is that?

Down in Miami. Oh, I don't know if they're taking it, you know what I mean?

But I'm just saying, like, you'd be like going to Prime 112.

Exactly. So like someone fancy steakhouse that no one could ever like, right, normally ever like would never be able to go to, and now they're able to go and break up a $10,000—

well, I don't know if it's that much, but whatever, it could be a $500 dinner.

Yeah, you know, and now they're buy now pay later that, right? That I guess, you know, if it's like a—

yeah, but just put it on your credit card and not even pay it off. I know, I get it, but I'm just saying. And then it's talking about that people are using multiple providers and then they're juggling all these multiple loans, multiple loan payments.

But that's because I go for— if I go on a website and I like—

no, I understand that, but that's—

and that's what they offer. And then they're using Zazzle, and that one's using Affirm, and that one's using Afterpay, and that one's using Klarna.

Yeah, no, PayPal never approves me, so screw you, PayPal. No, no, so I'm just saying, well, they— PayPal actually, like checking some financial data.

These other companies—

PayPal—

just have a really bad relationship.

Okay, they're not checking financial data, whatever it is. EIN number, probably. So they're saying that these companies need to base their decisions on whether to extend credit on the person's full credit history, which they're not doing. In addition, companies should also provide periodic billing statements to their customers, like credit card companies do, so users can keep track of when the payments are due. They're saying they're not all following those rules, and they're giving a loan, so they have to follow the loan rules.

When you explain it the way— like, you do definitely get it after the fact. I mean, they say like if it's $100—

no, but like, I get a—

I get them $25.

No, but I get a week— I get an email from my credit card company, oh, your payment is due in 7 days, right? So I know it's due, but But they're just saying they're not doing that now. All— not all the companies are following the rules, right? And then, so here's somebody else. They bought— they used the PayPal paying for purchase a vacuum. The vacuum didn't work, she returned it, but she already made 2 payments, and now she's had a whole hard time getting her money back from PayPal. And it was a— it was a nice— sounds like PayPal. Now, if it was a— if she had used a credit card, no problem, wouldn't have had that problem. She could have returned it, they could have put a credit back on her credit card. But because it's a third-party service and it was a loan, is the whole problem. And they would have gave her money back for the other payments that she made, right? Well, it took a while to get the payments back. Well, she would have got all the money back, so it would just be a credit on her credit card.

Yeah, no biggie deal.

So says people need to be wary of these buy now pay later, especially Now they have these like virtual credit cards that they give people, right? So you could use it like a regular credit card places. That's how people are using it in restaurants and others.

That's how they got to be using it, right?

So they're using it like they put it in their Apple Pay wallet and then they're using it in the grocery store. I mean, I mean, I think people are going to get themselves in a lot of trouble if you're putting— buying out your groceries and restaurants on buy now pay later. You're going to end up in a bit—

yeah, it's time to rethink what you're doing in life.

Well, I think there, you know, there needs to be some oversight on this buy now pay later.

I'm just saying, like, it's like Credit One giving everyone and their mom a credit card, right?

I'm just—

gave my daughter a credit card, you know.

I'm just saying, this is a real problem. And, you know, the other thing is, is that, you know, comp— these companies are not easy to get a hold of, and there's a big, you know, and there's a big problem with that. And this is why the, you know, they're getting— it would be interesting to go on the Better Business Bureau and look up these companies and see what people are complaining about.

I'm sure their accreditation has been dropping.

Well, probably. You never know, they might be paying the Better Business Bureau. But, uh, I mean, seriously, you join and they give you an A rating.

Yeah, I know, you know, be careful. Hey, whoa, we don't know if that's true.

We don't know, we don't know. We'd have to look it up.

This is Allen's, you know—

no, no, I'm just saying, like, thought process. I'm just saying you have to look it up. But I'm just saying it's very dangerous that these companies are basically giving people loans and the people that are getting the loans don't really understand what the, what the, what the consequences are of getting taken this buy now pay later. I mean, can you imagine, like, let's say somebody doesn't have much money, they get approved for this buy now pay later virtual card, they go in the grocery store, oh, I don't have to pay this right away, let's get the filet mignon, the lobster. Maybe this is not stuff that they normally buy, right? Oh, let's get this, let's get that. They go out, $500 grocery bill. Buy Now Pay Later. Well, you can't just keep repeating this cycle. No, because eventually the Buy Now— you're gonna owe so much money. And then people are using multiple Buy Now Pay Later companies, they can't keep track of all the payments and they're not following the rules. And I think that some of this is crazy. I think some of the stuff that they're doing, uh, the— and we don't even know if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or whatever. But I think, you know, right now, like, oh, they're not— they're violating the Truth in Lending, right? The Truth in Lending Act. Well, I think that, you know, Congress needs to step in and put, you know, put the brakes on these people because it, it, it's a little crazy.

I agree, man. You know, so we've had a lot of buy now pay later, right? We've been talking about buy now pay later a lot. It's been in the news a lot, uh, But it's also the end of Entrepreneurship Month, right? And, uh, we've been talking about that for back and forth. We, we had a Merchant Account Secret podcast. If you really want secrets, you need to subscribe to the YouTube channel and, you know, really listen to the show because that's when Allen drops jewels and gives secrets about, you know, ways, because I'll poke his brain that people don't normally poke his brain. Pause.

Well, unless it's— they're engaging me about getting a merchant.

Exactly. So, so yeah, man, I mean, the whole buy now pay later thing, if you have any questions, please hit up Allen or myself. We can answer pretty much— I would say we're experts in it. Uh, yeah, but what else has got going on as far as, uh, you know, the Entrepreneur Month?

You know, we talked about a lot of things about how to, you know, open your business, how to open a merchant account. We talked about, you know, different things you can do with your business. We've done a lot of podcasts about entrepreneurial activity, how to market your business, how to advertise your business, how to bootstrap your business, how to use—

what you should do before you start your business, right?

What to do, how to, how to create a digital footprint for your business. You know, we've talked about a lot of things on the podcast like that. You know, we're trying to put out educational information about, you know, the payments industry and how it affects, you know, everybody. Like, we look at products and we say, oh, here's a product, and then we look at it from both sides— consumer and the product and the mer— the business side. So what can the consumer do with this product? So if we had to rate buy now pay later, I would say that this is a very iffy product and consumers could find themselves in a lot of trouble, especially if you are—

I agree—

not financially savvy. For me, I'm going to give it a thumbs up because I think it's good product.

You— if you— if you're able to schedule out the payments and you can actually afford the stuff, right? Exactly. Then it's good, right? Because I mean, I'm not buying big ticket items. I bought my kids some clothes. No, no, but what I'm saying is, so it's like $200, so it's like $25 every 2 weeks. I'm okay with that, right? You know what I mean? Well, it's a little bit more than that, but whatever.

No, but I'm saying is that people need to really educate themselves.

Yes.

And, and not get themselves in trouble. That's why we talk about— yeah, financial literacy. In fact, we found a movie on Amazon.

I'm gonna have to watch it.

And we're gonna watch the movie on financial literacy, and then we're gonna talk about And it's aimed for kids, so we'll see. Yeah, we'll see what the movie is about. So it— but we— I think the public really needs to get some, you know, there needs to be financial literacy like classes starting in third grade. Yeah, they— kids need to really learn about money, making change.

I remember even that, like, like, yeah, you had the fake change, you had to do the fake dollar bills. That's why Monopoly, Monopoly was so important. Like game night in your, in your house, right? You could teach kids the importance of buying property. You know, Monopoly isn't just a game, like, right?

Yeah, it's a learning—

it's a really very much so a learning experience.

Yeah, it's a learning experience, but also like playing grocery stores.

Yeah, like Life, the game Life, right? When I was a kid, it wasn't— I don't know, I don't remember it as being so fun.

Because it was actually like, yeah, you had to get a job and you had to pay a bill and you had to have—

had a baby, right?

You had a baby. Yeah. Then people don't play these games anymore. Like, I mean, but life ain't a game.

Life's not a game, son. Get together, right?

So yeah, like I tell my kids, hashtag adulting. Yes, you got to be, you know, learn how to do adult things, car payments and things like that. But it's just disheartening when I read an article from Consumer Reports and they're sitting there talking about how people are getting themselves in trouble with this buy now, pay later thing. And part of it I blame on the companies. You can't, you know, listen, the government— that's— we've talked about this before, right? The government always says the same thing. Oh, innovation is outpacing regulation. That's because you guys take forever to do anything.

To regulate something.

Well, they make— they take them forever to make a decision, right? Like crypto has been around forever, right? 10. And now we have this whole—

it's going on a decade.

Yeah. And now we have— right, right. And then, and then all of a sudden now— and we've had a bunch of debacles, right? We got a bunch of debacles. Yeah. Voyager go bankrupt, right? They were loaning money to miners. Then you had other companies we don't even hear about anymore. Blockchain.com, where are they? You don't hear about them. They were loaning money to buyers. Crypto.com, we don't hear about them anymore. They aren't spending gazillion dollars on commercials.

Finance.

Binance. Well, that's from China. Then you hear— we don't really see them advertise in the US.

Oh, that's right.

But then you, but then you, you know, you see, uh, Celsius, right? Loaning money on crypto for houses, you know. And then the FTX guy bails out. Voyager bails out. Bails out. Celsius bails out. I don't even know. We saw a list. What was it, 147+ companies?

The guy, he— no, that's how many companies he owned, right?

But he bailed out a whole bunch of them. Oh, for a bunch of the 147 companies he bailed out. And now they're talking, you know.

So dude had a street, and then one of his companies was like Delancey Street LLC, whatever.

I don't know what's— all I know is that, that need— that guy needs to get investigated like there's no tomorrow as to what was going on with all these digital assets.

You know, he's in bed with the politicians, buddy.

Yeah, well, he gave like $30 to $40 million. He was the second largest donor to the Democratic Party behind George Soros. Yeah, there you go.

He's not going to serve a second in jail.

Well, we don't know that. Well, let's see what happens, right?

I'm not optimistic about that.

Neither am I.

He's going to get a little slap on the wrist.

Let's see.

Daddy's gonna get a phone call.

Well, Tom Brady's not probably too happy because Tom Brady might kick his butt. Yo, Gisele looks like she could make—

that's why they really got fucked. That's why they're really getting divorced.

You think so?

That's what I think. So I don't think it has anything to do with football. I think that they've known that this has been going on for quite some time, right?

And they lost their money.

Tom was probably irate that he let his wife talk her into this giant investment, and now he's stuck.

Like Chuck, you might have to play a couple more years of football. Offensive line block for Tom. No, don't block for Tom.

No, I don't care for that much, but I'm not a big football fan, man.

Okay, well, go Yankees! Go Yankees! Okay, go Yankees!

Go Brewers!

Go Brewers!

Baseball's over.

Baseball's over. Well, it has—

the Astros won.

The Astros won. Dusty Baker finally—

that is very cool. Ex-Brewer though. Right, that's cool, but I still don't like the Astros. Okay, besides Nolan Ryan. Nolan Ryan, greatest pitcher in Major League history.

He was on the Astros. I think he played on the Texas Rangers.

Played for the Rangers. Yeah, he played for a bunch of teams.

Yeah, for a bunch of teams. I would say strikeout leader and the leader in, uh, he's the leader in no pitch, no hits, no hitters, right?

That guy.

Yes. Yeah, he was amazing.

Well, enjoy your weekend, ladies and gentlemen, right?

Thank you for—

Thanksgiving Day after—

yeah, after Thanksgiving. So hopefully you didn't overeat on the turkey.

I'm sure everyone's still—

and the stuffing and the sweet potatoes, sweet potato pie, and the sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top.

Where do you get a bean pie down here?

A what?

A bean pie.

Bean pie? I've never heard of that. You never heard of a bean pie? No, what's a bean pie?

That's for a whole nother podcast, sir.

Well, we'd have to do a cooking podcast. I used to be a chef, and me and Justin, we could do it. We'll take the podcast equipment into the kitchen and we'll end— and we'll make some— we'll make some—

we'll make pies.

We'll make— I don't know, maybe we can cook something up. But we're always cooking something up here at B2B Vault. If you want to find out more about B2B Vault, come to the B2B Vault website. B2bvault.info. You need a merchant account, click Apply Now. You want to get in touch with us, there's Contact Us forms on there and get in touch with us. We can consult with you on whatever your needs are for merchant services.

I'm writing a really dope rap too, man. Hey yo, I got something to say, it's Nationwide Payment Systems trying to get paid.

Rocky, what do you give that rap? I don't know, Rocky, he gave a little growl. Yeah, I think Rocky liked it.

I think so, he did too. He didn't bark.

Okay, peace out, carpe diem, enjoy the weekend.

Hello everyone, we'd like to take this time to thank our sponsors Nationwide Payment Systems and NPS Printer. We'd also like to shout out the listeners and everyone that subscribed to our YouTube channel. Thank you for tuning in. If you'd like to reach Allen or myself, head over to B2BVault.info where you'll find two forms, one to contact us and another if you're interested in becoming a sponsor. If you'd like to sign up for a merchant account, click the Apply Now button located at the top of the page of B2BVault.info. Where you'll answer a few questions and you'll be on your way to processing payments in no time. The podcast is available on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, and other popular streaming networks. Thanks again for listening.