Arrgh! The Mitsubishi news is scrolling along the ticker as I type this (got MSNBC on the television). Well, what did I say - the new car glow lasts about 3 weeks, and then its just another car - I’m two days shy of 3 weeks. The good news is I’m still only halfway through my second tank of gas. At least its a cheap car!
I wish stores WOULD offer a discount for cash, probably not enough people interested though since everyone’s been conditioned to not carry cash. I understand you may have more success offering cash to small, locally owned businesses. Some of which don’t necessarily report all cash sales to uncle pennybags - am I allowed to say that?
@VDCdriver : its a shame we can’t have a discussion about those “good dividend paying stocks” here. I cannot have a conversation like that with anyone I know because so many people want to hate you if they think you have more than 2 nickles to rub together. I’ve known about ‘dividend achievers’ and ‘dividend aristocrats’ for years, just before Christmas I found out the term “Dividend Kings” - turns out I own stock in 2 of them, and I fully expect a 3rd one to join that club in 7 more years.
@Ed Frugal–I’ll send you a direct message (or whatever they call it) regarding my favorite dividend-paying stock. I don’t want to take this thread any further off-topic, so I think that private communication would be more appropriate.
Handling cash has costs involved too. Mostly labor costs as a cash transaction involves several handling and counting of the cash where a credit card/debit card transaction saves on a lot of labor. It may not add up to the 2% that the card companies charge for a processing fee, but it is a valid expense none the less. This is why you don’t get a discount for cash.
I do think I should get a discount for using the self serve checkout lane though.
I remember reading somewhere that it’s illegal to offer a cash discount … probably a bill pushed through by the banks? Perhaps in some states only?
Online search indicates that it is not illegal, but however some states prohibit charging an extra fee for using a credit card. But that law doesn’t prohibit a discount.
@vdcdriver: I didn’t realize private communication was an option here. Cool.
@keith re: costs of handling cash - probably risk of employee theft also robbery chief among them. Agree I should at least get the employee discount for using the self checkout. Coming soon: 500 bonus points if you mop an aisle while you shop with us
Regarding cash discounts / surcharges for credit cards; the laws recently changed to allow it. I remember Suze Orman going on about it before she ended her show - telling people to ask for a discount if willing & able to pay cash for things like car repair. . .
The roof has another 20 years of life left. Our neighbor had asphalt shingles and is now on their third set, each one costing $10,000 to install.
This is the pennywise pound foolish approach many people get caught up in. Surely, these are the cheapest asphalt shingles because top of the line ones can last upwards of 25 years (unless you’re in an area where asphalt is completely the wrong choice for roofing material but that’s another issue). People get sticker shock at the replacement cost, scrimp on the materials and don’t factor in the more significant cost of labor required more often to keep replacing them.
all these pixels mean little by themselves, but when you put them all together it allows big data to build a psychological profile on you such that they know you better than you know yourself. We're moving into an Orwellian future one rewards card and RFID chip at a time, and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care, nobody is outraged
Why should I care?
In fact, it may benefit me.
Rather than a barrage of ads for stuff I would never buy, I get ads for stuff that actually might be interesting to me.
Companies are going to send junk mail, telemarket and continue to find ways to send me info on their products whether I want them or not. So I’d prefer if they are relevant to me in the first place…
Well, collected and saved data can be used not only for positive purposes but for negative purposes depending. “Now Mr. Turbo, please tell the court why you bought this hammer and drove through this neighborhood moments before Ms. Nice was assaulted. Well I bought the hammer to fix my fence and I was on my way home. Etc. etc.” Some of us believe there are many folks now locked away due to trumped up charges. Yeah I support the police but some political prosecutors I have some issues with and don’t get me going on the Justice Department.
“Costco cards accumulate points which results in a rebate at the end of the year that far exceeds to cost of the membership.”
And, what was already good is going to get better, very soon!
As of June 20th, Costco is terminating its credit card affiliation with Amex, and the new Costco credit card will be a Citibank Visa, which has more generous rebates than the old Amex card did.
The new card has no annual fee, and features the following rebates:
4% cash back on ALL gasoline purchases (Costco stations + all other stations, worldwide)
3% cash back on all restaurant purchases and all “eligible” travel purchases, worldwide
2% cash back on all Costco purchases (other than gasoline)
1% cash back on all other purchases
I think that it would be pretty difficult to do better than those rebates, on a no-fee card.
I really miss the days when stuff was either "On Sale" or "Not On Sale"
lol … yeah, I know what you mean. I visited a golf course pro-shop the other day, a local course I’ve never played before so trying to get the skinny, asking what the green fees were. Green fees – for those who don’t play golf – are how much they charge you to play. So I’m expecting him to say “It’s $45 weekend, $35 weekdays, and a $10 discount if you start after 3 pm”. You know, something like that.
No. It was a nightmare. How much it costs depended on where you lived, what exact day of the week and month it was, varied hourly by your starting time. And all that combined with restrictions on carts, sometimes you must rent a cart too, for an extra $45. Even if you don’t want one.
Oh, if you don’t like it that way, for the primo starting times, like weekends early mornings, you place a bid on their website for the time you like and the highest bidder wins!
I am a loyal Costco customer, and loved using my american express card for various purchases
I’m extremely disappointed that Costco is now moving to a Citibank visa card
I have nothing but contempt for Citibank. They have tried to shaft me several times over the years. American express is far easier to deal with, and more honest, at least in my personal experience
I don’t want to keep talking credit cards but when you mention Citibank my blood starts to boil. They moved their CC operation to South Dakota primarily to be able to charge whatever interest rate they wanted. I told them to pound sand many years ago. Plus there used to be a major Saudi ownership before the collapse and believe it still is. Some suggest the Saudi’s use CB to launder money. They wouldn’t get a penny of my money regardless of the rebate.
Wow, this discussion got interesting! Ford yielding 4.6%? Wow. Weren’t they on the ropes just a few years ago? I like a company that raises its dividend year after year through all economic cycles. If you like the auto industry, try Genuine Parts Company (GPC) parent company of NAPA auto parts and other companies. http://www.suredividend.com/dividend-kings-dividend-with-50-years-of-rising-dividends/
Scroll down to read about Genuine Parts Company. Full disclosure, I don’t own any shares.
@TwinTurbo , yes it may benefit you, you may miss out on some stuff too because they will pigeonhole you i.e.- if you like “A” you WILL like “B” and you WILL DISLIKE “C”. Well, maybe you, Mr. Turbo would like “C” but you will never hear about it because a computer algorithm has already determined you will NOT like “C”.
@VDCdriver , well, reading your posts. . . makes me consider other ways of doing things; its almost always healthy to be exposed to other ideas and other ways of doing things, otherwise we end up living in the proverbial echo chamber.
@GeorgeSanJose , Good Grief! See, that’s where if enough people would just throw up their hands and say, “To heck with you, we’re gonna go play golf somewhere else” - - that kind of thing would stop.
@Bing , ". . . collected and saved data can be used not only for positive purposes but for negative purposes. . . " EXACTLY. Here’s a few brief examples. Your GPS location history could be subpoenaed in divorce court proceedings to make you look like an unfit parent. i.e.- “Note how often the defendant’s car is parked in a known drug/prostitute area, in front of a bar / massage parlor, etc” "But your honor, I work for a contractor doing work in that area. . . " Yeah, sure you do. Your grocery buying habits could be used to deny and/or charge you more for health and/or life insurance in the future. People who buy the groceries you buy are 62.35% more likely to have clogged arteries according to our algorithm.
Some people will say if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about. But do you really want Big Brother looking over your shoulder ALL the time? I say, if you don’t let the data be gathered in the first place, you have nothing to worry about.
I guess I just don’t care enough about any of that to worry myself over it.
Most of the things that you guys have mentioned can and already have been done, just manually. For example, the divorce attorney just hires someone to follow you and dig up the dirt they need.
Computers have just made the process more efficient. I can tell you this, anyone following around snooping on me either physically or electronically is likely to get bored real quick. I don’t fancy myself a worthy target so I don’t care if it happens or not.
That being said, as you have pointed out, it’s a double edged sword. Keep yourself in a proverbial cave and out of view. At some point in your life, you’ll want credit to buy something large enough to require it. No history? No credit… guy like that at work. Wanted to buy a house. Never “exposed” himself to the world of data collection/credit. Loan? Sorry.
I’m not talking credit history or bill paying data. I started my credit file at 16, 50 years ago and no one ever lost a nickle on me nor have I ever been turned down for a loan. I’m not a cheater or law breaker (except for shooting rabbits in my back yard). However I am a student of European history and what happened there can happen here, especially in this crazy climate of speech restrictions. With drones free to film your house, data stored on everything you buy, and everywhere you go, data stored on your phone calls and computer use, and that data in both private and public organizations that can be called up by a local whiz kid prosecutor, its not good. Anyone with any police, investigative, or legal experience knows that if you dig hard enough, you can make a case on anyone for almost anything. A simple honest answer to a question can be turned around as an admission of guilt and if you don’t know that, you should.
Who was the poster here regularly stopped in Texas? And the Justice Department sees fit to allow confiscations of money and property to continue without trial or conviction and sees nothing wrong with it? Beware if you like to carry cash like I do, eat a poppy seed bagel, and happen to get stopped in the wrong jurisdiction.
Who cares what happened 50 years ago? So what, I’m in the same boat as you. The only difference is you want to let a part of the genie out of the bottle but keep the rest inside. That is not going to happen. People growing up TODAY are in the mix. You can’t have a credit file without the rest of this kind of data in there as well.
I’m not going to let fear rule my life. The “what ifs” and so on. The fact fear is ruling your life is evident in your last paragraph. What does that have anything to do with data mining? That kind of corruption has been going on forever, it’s not a new phenomenon as a result of the digital age…
@“Ed Frugal” writes, regarding golf course green fees pricing …
Good Grief! See, that's where if enough people would just throw up their hands and say, "To heck with you, we're gonna go play golf somewhere else" - - that kind of thing would stop.
It’s even worse than I described above. Finally, getting a headache from all the complications, I said “Could you please tell me a time this next week when I could show up and if there’s a spot available play for $35 without a cart?” The staff guy there at the pro-shop, he looks at his computer, then looks at the fee sheet, throws up his hands … says “Sorry, I don’t know. It’s Easter next Sunday, the pricing is entirely different on Easter week” … lol …
