I see no reason why I should use a credit card for anything I'm buying IN PERSON and I don't understand why anyone would recommend that to me. The more I use plastic the more exposed to possible fraud and theft I am. I don't care about 'fraud protection' or any of that, how about I eliminate the risk completely by not using it at all if I don't absolutely have to? That's what's safest, not relying on random chance.
What if PayPal, Apple Pay, and Amazon get hacked, like everyone else is lately? Now you're screwed. Letting more people store your payment methods is not more secure, it's less secure. You're trusting the wrong people.
I want to reduce plastic use for paying for anything as much as I can. Among other things it's reduced the amount of time I spend on my own bookeeping down to a fraction of what it once was, and I like that. It also reduces my exposre to risk.
For example, you could get hit by a car while trying to pay a bill in person and die or end up in the with hospital with thousands of $$ in bills.
Sorry, but that's one of the stupidest excuses I've ever heard for what I'm assuming is laziness. I am not a recluse, I do not have social anxieties, I do not avoid going outside my house at all costs, and I am not sedentary.
Why the actual f*** would I not want to know exactly to the PENNY how much money I have in my checking account? More to the point why don't YOU? Do you love your bank so much that you trust them with your very existence? Or live in some other reality where there is no fraud or theft? FYI I have an Excel spreadsheet I use for my checking account and I use that to track and balance everything, not leave it all up to chance or 'just check online' for how much money I (allegedly, AT THAT MOMENT IN TIME) have. I think that's the height of stupidity and don't understand how anyone can tolerate it, or avoid getting overdrawn.
Sorry, but I read the rest of your comment, and you're the last person I'd ever take any advice from. Your practices invite disaster and you should change them. You're leaving your finances in an open-loop state, where you have to trust that your bank doesn't screw up, and that no one is defrauding you or stealing from you. All it will take is ONE TIME that they screw up or someone steals from you, and you'll find out what a house of cards your finances are; you'll never at that point figure out what went wrong and would have to close the account and open a new one, start from scratch. Meanwhile you end up overdrawn and your life is a disaster. No thanks! Please, get a clue and stop trusting others with your finances.
It's chip-and-PIN, so they swiped the card not inserted it, and establishments that allow tipping post-process the transaction after you totalize the receipt, so basically I'm saying you're talking out the side of your mouth -- or just are sadly misinformed. This revelation might cause you to re-evalulate how you do some things. What's really sad is you apparently then don't audit your CC bill every month otherwise you'd see the tips go through, so you're actually at HIGH risk of being defrauded. You might think about that.
If I have to worry about my banks ATM machine being so compromised, then we're all doomed anyway and should go back to hoarding gold and paying with gold instead of paper money or electronic money anyway. Don't be pedantic and don't be so pants-on-head literal.
As sad a commentary as it is on America in 2017: I'm a middle-aged white man, I have little to fear from police deciding to paw through my wallet and 'seize' (read as: STEAL) the less-than-a-hundred-dollars that's in there. I don't know where you live that the first thing that comes to mind for you is 'getting robbed', but all I can say to you about that is: consider moving somewhere else, or changing your habits so you don't walk around places where you're likely to get robbed. It's not a problem for me.
I almost never have more than $100 in my wallet.
I don't go places where I'm likely at all to get mugged.
If I'm going to worry about dropping my wallet all the time then a CC wouldn't help me anyway now would it?
I've never had an ATM machine not dispense the right amount of money.
"What if the bank gets robbed", indeed! I think you worry way too much about the wrong things.
I've had to deal with 'dispute' processes before, and I'm out the money for WEEKS while they do that. I'd prefer not using plastic for anything I don't have to, and in fact the less I use plastic for anything, the less chance I'll get defrauded anyway. That's the whole point of this, to reduce my exposure as much as possible, not increase it. Every time you use plastic or electronic funds transfers of some sort you're exposing yourself to risk. I pay cash for something and walk away it's DONE and there is no more risk.
I specifically avoid PayPal because their business practices and some scandals there has been surrounding them don't make me feel secure whatsoever. Also it's just more steps necessary to pay or purchase anything, and so far as I know utility companies don't accept it anyway, so that's always been a non-starter.
I really don't care. The risk of having my entire life ripped away because some company or other got hacked looms much larger in my mind than someone mugging me for my wallet, which by the way never has more than $100 in it regardless (I don't walk around with thousands). Besides which I'm never anywhere that I have to worry about being mugged.
Are you here in the U.S.? If so then I'm surprised to the point of not believing you when you say you had to take an extra step just to pay with cash. Is that just the one Best Buy or is it all of them? Did they give you a reason why?
I'm not concerned about MitM attacks scraping CC information in realtime, I'm concerned about companies I purchase from or pay bills to getting hacked and CC/banking information being stolen that way, and especially point-of-sale systems, but paying cash instead of using those at all handles that part of the problem.
Communism and socialism look wonderful on paper, too, and if that's all there was to it, we'd all be living in one or the other and everything would be lovely. But both of those systems overlook some undeniable truths: human greed, human lust for power, and how power corrupts humans. So it is with your so-called 'universal basic income' and with the alleged automation allegedly taking everyones jobs. Corporations and the Rich won't give a crap about anyone but their profits, will weasel out of paying taxes like they always do, the country will become bankrupt and collapse, the poor will get poorer, the middle class will disappear into the ranks of the poor, and no one who isn't already rich and powerful will ever be anything other than poor -- and the rich and powerful will pay lip service to 'ending poverty' and do NOTHING about it, just like always. The poor will be used like a toilet like they always are. There won't be any 'being productive', there won't be any 'accomplishments', not unless you're one of the Privileged who can afford to do anything other than scrape by on your government dole and otherwise live like animals. This is not Star Trek, there is no great social awakening, we still have war everywhere, we still have racism and sexism and bigotry, we still have money and capitalism, and all the 'Universal Basic Income' in the UNIVERSE isn't going to change ANY of that. Stop living in a fantasy world! IT WON'T WORK!
What the hell does Trump think he's doing? Identifying all his 'enemies' within the 300,000,000 people in this country? What's next, Trump? Bringing back the McCarthy Committee? Loyalty tests? What a bunch of bullshit.
They're a news agency, they're held to a HIGHER STANDARD, and they have FAILED to live up to that standard. Also ANY business that quashes someones right to free speech in this country is looked upon poorly and can be SUED in civil court over it. So, basically, you're full of shit.
All you have to do is keep a population in such a high state of constant terror and then come along and promise them you'll Deliver Them From Evil and they'll follow you like you're the Pied Piper, all the way into the slaughterhouse. If you haven't noticed we're halfway there now.
What I see is this would destroy the Middle Class completely and create a no-mans-land between the Poor and the Rich that the Poor would never be able to cross. Let this go on for a couple generations and nobody would even remember what 'work' was or what it was about let alone be able to stick with it, ensuring that the Rich are never challenged or 'bothered' by any Uppity Middle Class types ever again. It'd likely be something like Feudalism mixed in with Idiocracy. I already see signs of people being led down a path of being taught to do things by rote instead of teaching them to think, encouraging superstition and mysticism and discouraging science and the search for real knowledge and real truth, and discouraging learning real skills (like how to drive a car).
Electric motors are very good at having low-end torque, which is why locomotives are diesel-electric instead of the diesel engine directly connecting to the drive wheels (not a train fan, so I'm guessing that's the reason why). Electric motors can be designed specifically with that in mind.
Would a WiFi jammer keep it at Level 2 charging for you?;-)
Slashdot Mirror
I see no reason why I should use a credit card for anything I'm buying IN PERSON and I don't understand why anyone would recommend that to me. The more I use plastic the more exposed to possible fraud and theft I am. I don't care about 'fraud protection' or any of that, how about I eliminate the risk completely by not using it at all if I don't absolutely have to? That's what's safest, not relying on random chance.
My bank charges for their 'bill pay' service and the one time I used it, it got there so late that it caused me no end of hassle. No thanks.
What if PayPal, Apple Pay, and Amazon get hacked, like everyone else is lately? Now you're screwed. Letting more people store your payment methods is not more secure, it's less secure. You're trusting the wrong people.
If I was going to do that I may as well just go pay bills in person.
'ShopSafe'
I want to reduce plastic use for paying for anything as much as I can. Among other things it's reduced the amount of time I spend on my own bookeeping down to a fraction of what it once was, and I like that. It also reduces my exposre to risk.
For example, you could get hit by a car while trying to pay a bill in person and die or end up in the with hospital with thousands of $$ in bills.
Sorry, but that's one of the stupidest excuses I've ever heard for what I'm assuming is laziness. I am not a recluse, I do not have social anxieties, I do not avoid going outside my house at all costs, and I am not sedentary.
Why the actual f*** would I not want to know exactly to the PENNY how much money I have in my checking account? More to the point why don't YOU? Do you love your bank so much that you trust them with your very existence? Or live in some other reality where there is no fraud or theft? FYI I have an Excel spreadsheet I use for my checking account and I use that to track and balance everything, not leave it all up to chance or 'just check online' for how much money I (allegedly, AT THAT MOMENT IN TIME) have. I think that's the height of stupidity and don't understand how anyone can tolerate it, or avoid getting overdrawn.
Sorry, but I read the rest of your comment, and you're the last person I'd ever take any advice from. Your practices invite disaster and you should change them. You're leaving your finances in an open-loop state, where you have to trust that your bank doesn't screw up, and that no one is defrauding you or stealing from you. All it will take is ONE TIME that they screw up or someone steals from you, and you'll find out what a house of cards your finances are; you'll never at that point figure out what went wrong and would have to close the account and open a new one, start from scratch. Meanwhile you end up overdrawn and your life is a disaster. No thanks! Please, get a clue and stop trusting others with your finances.
It's chip-and-PIN, so they swiped the card not inserted it, and establishments that allow tipping post-process the transaction after you totalize the receipt, so basically I'm saying you're talking out the side of your mouth -- or just are sadly misinformed. This revelation might cause you to re-evalulate how you do some things. What's really sad is you apparently then don't audit your CC bill every month otherwise you'd see the tips go through, so you're actually at HIGH risk of being defrauded. You might think about that.
If I have to worry about my banks ATM machine being so compromised, then we're all doomed anyway and should go back to hoarding gold and paying with gold instead of paper money or electronic money anyway. Don't be pedantic and don't be so pants-on-head literal.
As sad a commentary as it is on America in 2017: I'm a middle-aged white man, I have little to fear from police deciding to paw through my wallet and 'seize' (read as: STEAL) the less-than-a-hundred-dollars that's in there. I don't know where you live that the first thing that comes to mind for you is 'getting robbed', but all I can say to you about that is: consider moving somewhere else, or changing your habits so you don't walk around places where you're likely to get robbed. It's not a problem for me.
I almost never have more than $100 in my wallet.
I don't go places where I'm likely at all to get mugged.
If I'm going to worry about dropping my wallet all the time then a CC wouldn't help me anyway now would it?
I've never had an ATM machine not dispense the right amount of money.
"What if the bank gets robbed", indeed! I think you worry way too much about the wrong things.
I've had to deal with 'dispute' processes before, and I'm out the money for WEEKS while they do that. I'd prefer not using plastic for anything I don't have to, and in fact the less I use plastic for anything, the less chance I'll get defrauded anyway. That's the whole point of this, to reduce my exposure as much as possible, not increase it. Every time you use plastic or electronic funds transfers of some sort you're exposing yourself to risk. I pay cash for something and walk away it's DONE and there is no more risk.
I specifically avoid PayPal because their business practices and some scandals there has been surrounding them don't make me feel secure whatsoever. Also it's just more steps necessary to pay or purchase anything, and so far as I know utility companies don't accept it anyway, so that's always been a non-starter.
I really don't care. The risk of having my entire life ripped away because some company or other got hacked looms much larger in my mind than someone mugging me for my wallet, which by the way never has more than $100 in it regardless (I don't walk around with thousands). Besides which I'm never anywhere that I have to worry about being mugged.
Are you here in the U.S.? If so then I'm surprised to the point of not believing you when you say you had to take an extra step just to pay with cash. Is that just the one Best Buy or is it all of them? Did they give you a reason why?
I'm not concerned about MitM attacks scraping CC information in realtime, I'm concerned about companies I purchase from or pay bills to getting hacked and CC/banking information being stolen that way, and especially point-of-sale systems, but paying cash instead of using those at all handles that part of the problem.
Communism and socialism look wonderful on paper, too, and if that's all there was to it, we'd all be living in one or the other and everything would be lovely. But both of those systems overlook some undeniable truths: human greed, human lust for power, and how power corrupts humans. So it is with your so-called 'universal basic income' and with the alleged automation allegedly taking everyones jobs. Corporations and the Rich won't give a crap about anyone but their profits, will weasel out of paying taxes like they always do, the country will become bankrupt and collapse, the poor will get poorer, the middle class will disappear into the ranks of the poor, and no one who isn't already rich and powerful will ever be anything other than poor -- and the rich and powerful will pay lip service to 'ending poverty' and do NOTHING about it, just like always. The poor will be used like a toilet like they always are. There won't be any 'being productive', there won't be any 'accomplishments', not unless you're one of the Privileged who can afford to do anything other than scrape by on your government dole and otherwise live like animals. This is not Star Trek, there is no great social awakening, we still have war everywhere, we still have racism and sexism and bigotry, we still have money and capitalism, and all the 'Universal Basic Income' in the UNIVERSE isn't going to change ANY of that. Stop living in a fantasy world! IT WON'T WORK!
The only 'cloud' I associate with Microsoft is the miasma they continually produce.
What the hell does Trump think he's doing? Identifying all his 'enemies' within the 300,000,000 people in this country? What's next, Trump? Bringing back the McCarthy Committee? Loyalty tests? What a bunch of bullshit.
They're a news agency, they're held to a HIGHER STANDARD, and they have FAILED to live up to that standard. Also ANY business that quashes someones right to free speech in this country is looked upon poorly and can be SUED in civil court over it. So, basically, you're full of shit.
You're living in a FANTASY WORLD. Either that or you're a SHILL for the Rich who want the rest of us to be their SERFS.
How the actual FUCK can this happen in the United States? CNN should be ASHAMED and apologize to HIM!
All you have to do is keep a population in such a high state of constant terror and then come along and promise them you'll Deliver Them From Evil and they'll follow you like you're the Pied Piper, all the way into the slaughterhouse. If you haven't noticed we're halfway there now.
So-called 'UBI' is a recipe for disaster, plain and simple, and should be discouraged and fought against at ALL COSTS.
What I see is this would destroy the Middle Class completely and create a no-mans-land between the Poor and the Rich that the Poor would never be able to cross. Let this go on for a couple generations and nobody would even remember what 'work' was or what it was about let alone be able to stick with it, ensuring that the Rich are never challenged or 'bothered' by any Uppity Middle Class types ever again. It'd likely be something like Feudalism mixed in with Idiocracy. I already see signs of people being led down a path of being taught to do things by rote instead of teaching them to think, encouraging superstition and mysticism and discouraging science and the search for real knowledge and real truth, and discouraging learning real skills (like how to drive a car).
Electric motors are very good at having low-end torque, which is why locomotives are diesel-electric instead of the diesel engine directly connecting to the drive wheels (not a train fan, so I'm guessing that's the reason why). Electric motors can be designed specifically with that in mind.
;-)
Would a WiFi jammer keep it at Level 2 charging for you?