Flint Mobile Calls It Quits

Years from now, analysts might look back at the number of mobile payments startups in a similar way they do the dot-com boom of the 1990s. However, if Flint Mobile’s recent moves are any indication, it might not even take that long.

TechCrunch reported that, though there has been no official word from the company itself, Flint Mobile’s users are claiming in numbers that the service’s mobile payments functions have been suspended. It all started with a note sent to individual users in early February informing them of the impending shutdown of credit and debit card transactions. Flint also stopped accepting new user signups in an indication that things truly were not as they should be.

Despite the reasonable concerns that longtime Flint Mobile users had about the future of the platform, TechCrunch explained that there was no further communications from the company until Monday (Feb. 15), when Flint again went the email route to inform customers looking to process transactions that they’d have to head over to Stripe and sign up for an account there instead. As if that wasn’t strange enough, a Stripe spokesperson admitted that it was as confused about the orders to head its way as Flint’s users were.

“We’re in a similar boat as you re: Flint Mobile,” the spokesperson said in an email.

All signs point to a serious problem (or problems) that has too much momentum for Flint Mobile to turn around, and while Stripe certainly doesn’t hate the referral from its ailing competitor, it might not have needed the help anyway. Stripe has a long history of gaining customers from failed mobile payments platforms, and it seems as if Flint Mobile will join the likes of Balanced and others that have succumbed to the might of Stripe’s all-powerful application program interfaces.