What the Heck is the Bump Card?

A professional associate of mine alerted me to the Bump Card. The fundamental concept seems to make sense; replace the business card with a phone app that allows you to exchange professional information including links to your web site, or even a special purpose web page. This exchange happens over your near-field communications (NFC) radio in your phone. This can be phone-to-phone, or via a special NFC plastic card, or an NFC enabled finger ring. So is this better than a plain old printed paper business card? I must admit, most of the business cards I collect end up in a pile on my desk, eventually to be discarded later. Instead you can collect a database of electronic business cards on your phone.

One of the first things she shared with me was the price for this service; $1.66 per day. Sounds “cheap” enough, but do the math – that’s $605.90 per year. Then there are other start up costs for this program. The plastic Bump Card business card replacement is $40.00, the Bump Ring is $63.00. There are a number of combinations and packages to choose from.

A Basic Subscription is $19.97 per month or $0.67 per day, and the Premier Subscription, which offers most of the features a business user would want, is $49.97 per month or $1.66 per day. Last time I bought business cards, I got 2000 for about $200. That was a few years ago, and I still have plenty, so my cost per year for printed paper cards is more like $40 per year.

There is an affiliate program that you can join that I suppose gives you some sort of revenue sharing or sales commission. This does not appear to be yet another MLM scheme, but it gets pretty close. The associate must have alerted a Bump Card affiliate to my article, and she was kind enough to send me the following list of uses for the Bump Card.

Advantages

Text one-to-many
Never buy another business card again
Platform to store & present all of your businesses
Huge savings on your business operation
Carry your website in your pocket
Create your own website in under two hours
Enables you to share your business in under 30 seconds
Be your own web designer (or web master) in under two hours
Your own personalized website for less than a cup of coffee a day
Mobile website for non-techies
Powerful marketing tool that can be shared digitally via text, email, or a bump
Turn your cell phone into a lead generating machine
Get your message seen by 94-98% of your prospects within 4 seconds (unlike social media)
Use your cell phone as a mobile demo center
A digital business control center
Coolest gadget for your business that can grow your business AND earn you additional money on the side

If anyone wants additional information, they can reach out to Shawn on LinkedIn or they can get more information here: https://ShawnVougeot.thebumpcard.com

Disadvantages

Drawbacks are several, the principal one being that for this exchange to work, both parties need the phone app, and be willing to pay the monthly service fee. Another issue is keeping your account current and updated, so the exchange provides the latest business information. And here we go creating another huge, hackable database of personal and business related information for cyber-criminals to steal. What kind of security does this company use?

When I put on my paranoia-inducing cybersecurity googles, I have to ask what are the fine people at the Bump Card going to do with all this information? Certainly cross-marketing for other products and services should be expected. At $50 a month, you would hope they would not be reselling this trove to other companies, but I would expect that too.

All-in-all, this is something I think I will pass. First, there are the security issues, of course. Who dedicated to my privacy and security are they, and how well have they deployed security countermeasures? Second, there is the subscription problem. I have a subscription but you don’t so I give you my paper card and take yours. Third, in this pandemically-addled age, at just what networking event am I exchanging e-cards? All these meetings have gone virtual, and neither the physical card or the electronic card seem to be functional with Zoom. So Bump Card is a no for me.

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23
NOV

About the Author:

I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com

Shelly Johnson February 5, 2021

Obviously you didn’t actually check out the Bump Card before you wrote your “review.”
I say that because first and foremost you can share your digital business card with ANYONE. They do not need a subscription to the platform, or even an app. It’s a mobile website, you pay for your subscription to the digital platform. You setup your own site, no apps are needed. If someone can open a browser on thier phone they can see, download and save your Bump Card digital business card. There is no paper business card that can do what the Bump Card does. For example, share a video of say “your latest product in action.” This is way more than just a business card, it’s a simple mobile website anyone can use. You have totally missed the point of the product.
Secondly, they DO NOT sell or share any personal information with ANYONE. EVER. Also, there is no contract, if you decide the Bump Card isn’t for you then you just cancel.
Third, in this pandemic age the Bump Card is perfect! It’s not even necessary to be in the same room to use the Bump Card. You don’t HAVE to “bump.” It can be sent by text, email or just give the url over the phone. It’s so much cleaner and safer than handing someone a piece of paper that’s been in your pants pocket for months.
Lastly, the security issue. Your Bump Card has what information you put on it. You are in total control of that information, period. If you don’t want it on the internet, don’t put it there. You setup your own digital business card and can change what you have on it every day if you wish. As far as the security at corporate, your personal and billing information is secure and protected, they value their customers and do not take security lightly.
If you have any questions about the Bump Card I’d be happy to answer them.
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Nelson Sua June 10, 2021

Shelly is correct their is a ton of features that provide phenomenal value compared to the traditional card. Don’t forget to mention the cost of creating a website, managing, hosting, SSL Certificate, etc. its all included in the Bump Card. Awesome Product and Company!
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HeyTink April 6, 2022

So, if you’re at an MLM party and the host bumps your phone, and you’re dumb enough to hand it over to them unlocked, how much information can they take in a bump? Are there any anti-bump apps out there we should know about? Asking for a friend 🙁
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bobwyzguy April 7, 2022

Hey Tink – this is an excellent question you raise, and another collision at the junction of Privacy and Marketing. Presumably, all the Bump Card account information is in the hands of the app writer, and being resold to other entities for marketing (spam) campaigns.
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bobwyzguy April 7, 2022

It’s been a year and a half since I wrote this article. Are Bump Cards still a thing? I haven’t heard a peep about this in a while. Did the Pandemic kill this idea off because all the professional networking organizations (BNI, CoC, Meetup.com, Eventbrite?) were closed for two years
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HeyTink April 7, 2022

BobWyzGuy – Thanks for responding so quickly to an old article. The salesperson’s info showed up in my contacts – just her first name and a number. When she said “bump” I got the impression that she was using it as a generic verb, like “venmo”, or when people say they want a Coke but could mean a Sprite or Dr. Pepper instead. As a non-tech person, I started searching for whether this is a known problem or not and came across your article, yes dated now, but the closest thing I could find. Hoping that means it’s not an issue, and that phone companies have put controls in place so people can’t do nearby transfers (something I read while looking this up) without having some kind of positive confirmation that it’s ok first. I called AT&T and filled out a form for their fraud people, who aren’t taking calls right now *surprise surprise* for dumb people like me who didn’t think about the security issue before handing over my phone. My additional questions to AT&T are if there is any way to tell what information was taken or shared, and what should I do now? Is there a way to un-bump? Should I do a factory reset? What’s the appropriate level of concern? Given how MLM’s operate, I would think if this is possible, they are doing it. Unfortunately I need someone with a whole different skill set than I have to answer those questions.
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bobwyzguy April 7, 2022

Quick question – Tink from Peter Pan?
I wish I could help you more specifically. I am sorry about the lack of answers your phone company is providing. I will say that at this point, if nothing has happened, it is unlikely that anything will. When was this that you “bumped” into the Bump Card meeting? Recently?

When in doubt a factory reset usually cures all ills. It is important to manually remove all the phone apps you no longer use, need, or apps you may regret, first. Usually, in an attempt to be helpful, once you reset your phone, your service provider will “restore” all your old phone apps and settings whether you need them or not. So just get rid of the unneeded ones, wait a few days for the carrier to synchronize the phone backup, then let her rip.
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HeyTink April 7, 2022

Yes it was recent, within the last week. I respectfully disagree that if nothing has happened by now, nothing will. I look at in the same way as I would a data breach by a big box store, with the added complication that there may be saved usernames/passwords, notes in my contacts that contain sensitive information, a lot of private information from emails that could be used, and it may take time for that data to be used, whether by the person that (conceivably) took it, sold to someone else, It also makes me uncomfortable that the automatic answer isn’t – of course no one can do that – but rather the standard comfortable lingo one might find in a typical user guide. Nonetheless I’m very grateful for the comments, thanks for all the great information in the articles that you post. I work in fraud as well but on the financial side not the tech side, so this is just where my mind goes. P.S. – there is a story behind Tink but it is decades old and takes too long to tell lol.
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HeyTink April 7, 2022

AT&T said it’s not a problem. I’m all set!
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