Actually, I'd like to see a per channel charge, if you could specify the channels you wanted. At $5/Month/Channel I'd be paying about $25-30/Month, provided tha channels I wanted could learn to behave.
private mailbox services are most useful for privacy
The lack of a direct address has its uses, but my primary reason for using one of these is that I order lots of expensive things that arrive by assorted couriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx, carrier turtle, etc.) and instead of getting a tag to pick it up, or having it left on my doorstep or with neighbors who may not remember right away, it gets signed for when needed and is watched by paid mail-watchers until I pick it up.
The largest item to date through there has been a large TV. I was able to leave it there for a few days while I made my own arrangements for pickup, and I was not at the mercy of the delivery service as to when to be home.
This also limits the damage caused by kids stuffing snowballs in the mailbox.:-)
Which means you could still lose the entire amount in that account to fraud -- a regular credit card will limit your liability to $50 (or less).
Some banks will do this as well. I have an account just for a debit card for the reason of isolating my main account while giving me a non-credit way of making remote purchases. I told them when I opened it that I was using it for a debit point, and they had no problem when I explained my logic to them. It seems that these bank employes had never considered that charges from check payees for bounced checks could dwarf the $50 limit the bank caps the direct loss at.
I am a privacy nut myself, but I do use some cards under some circumstances. Anyone who needs the records from my bookstore or dvd store to work out my tastes in either category is likely more dangerous to themselves than to me. Figuring out those patterns is not difficult if you talk to me for a few minutes. If I want something not to appear on any records, I use a different branch than usual, pay cash and deny having a card. Simple.
As for groceries and such, I have stores nearby where I can get better prices than the cards get you at the chains, and I don't have to give them any info at all.
Funny... I'm now to the point that whenever I walk into a room with a logo-free channel on, the first thing I ask is what channel it is so I can later find the show on my own TV if I'm interested.
You know of stations that don't do logos? I was not aware that there were any left. Which channels actually know how to behave in a civilized manner?
(I know it's drifted off-topic in this thread, but for me, this would be useful to know.)
In my area (Southeast Michigan), Comcast came up with an interesting wrinkle on Internet/TV cable service. They raised the rates on internet-only service by $10/month, but if you subscribe to a skeleton-basic service (minimal channels) they let you keep your original rate (plus franchise fees and other nonsense that does not apply to internet service.)
The upshot of this is your rate goes up $10/month on internet-only, or $3.50/month (the aforementioned fees) if you get the minimal basic+internet. The level of competence having not changed, I have not been billed for the stray fees even though they did trap my cable with filters to block all but the lower 27 or so channels. And even that took two passes, the first time the filter blocked the internet frequency.
Before that, I could get the whole channel space if I wired my TV in, but the logos on the channels bugged me so much that I took the TV out of the circuit. I keep the TV in the circuit now to check if the wire is connected when the internet service goes out.
One of my current hobbies is annoying the cable salesdroids with requests for a-la-carte subscription models, with the caution that only logo-free channels will even be considered. I expect that it will be a very long time before I have TV of any broadcast nature again. (My crrent service doesn't really count, I'm only in to keep the internet service priced less.)
I will simply maintain my usual attitude to such things. Devices conforming to any form of DRM are considered unfit for use until they can be modified to remove the restrictions. (Example: DVD, which is now fit for use as the restrictions no longer apply to anyone who really doesn't want them to.)
I went off of any form of broadcast (cable and sattelite counts here) TV a few years ago for other reasons. As of now, my incentive for digital TV is precisely zero.
As an extra twist, people will not be able to get support from me for restricted devices (with one obvious exception). This should reduce the incentive for people to get them. Not much, but every little bit helps.
Honestly, when I bought my DVD player, I bought an Apex so I could go around the region control (got the wrong bios [IIRC] for that particular feature).
When I first bought a DVD player, I was on a thin budget, so I bought shelf-return Panasonic A110 that was missing everything but the unit itself, got 60% off list, I got them to let me train my smart remote on a display remote, and bought a power cord at Radio Shack. This was after I knew modded units were available but before I could afford one, it was a stop-gap because of the price.
I eventually got a Pioneer 606D from an outfit in England that was the only place there was at the time. It was expensive, but it still works.
Finally getting to the point, I once deliberately bought a low-quality player. I bought the Apex 600A when the word got out about them. I got it precisely because it did the Macro/Region mod thing and because it was cheap. It is my "drag-around" deck. The one I take with me to video parties so that I can show friends things on non-region-1 discs. Because it was cheap, I won't be overly annoyed if it gets damaged from handling or stolen. It does not do the best picture, but it works.
There are times when cheap junker items serve a useful purpose, when they do, then I buy them.
Credit Unions are great. The only downside with mine is that it's out-of-state, which means you can't find an ATM that won't charge you (instead I do a $100 cash withdrawal on your debit card at Wal-mart after buying a couple bucks worth of stuff).
My credit union is also out-of-state to me, but they have one office I can reach, and one other thing that is helpful.
Ask your credit union if they are part of the Co-op Network, or you can check it at the site. In my area, every credit union ATM I have checked out in the last few months is affiliated, plus some (the web site will tell you wich) take deposits for other members, though this usually imposes a five-day hold regardless of your CUs usual policy. I don't get charged extra (too many in a month and I get hit, network notwithstanding) for withdrawals from Co-op Network ATMs. I have six of the things in a one-mile range from my house, two of which take deposits for me.
In the first response to mention it, boku was used in the french sense of beaucoup, as in many or much.
Re: Pokemon: In Japanese boku is the masculine form of the pronoun I. Yes, anime geek studying Japanese.
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I use my debit card as a credit card because my bank instituted a 25 cent per transaction charge for whenever I use my card and PIN, including when I withdraw money from their ATM machines!
I use my debit card in credit card mode because when the card arrived there was a big sticker on the carrier page warning me to do so or be charged some absurd amount (I remember $1.50, but that may be wrong) if I used it in debit mode.
I went one step further and got a seperate checking account at a bank instead of my credit union as I lack the financially suicidal tendencies to put a debit card on a live checking account.
When the bank asked why I was getting a checking account just for a debit card, I asked them if they would also cover the charges from the other side of the check process in a card mis-use situation. (By this I mean returned-paynment charges from the credit cards, interest, etc.) They understood my logic and asked no further questions along that line.
On the broader topic, I analyze most of my bills on-line every few days (where possible) and even little charges get questioned.
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Actually, I'd like to see a per channel charge, if you could specify the channels you wanted. At $5/Month/Channel I'd be paying about $25-30/Month, provided tha channels I wanted could learn to behave.
The lack of a direct address has its uses, but my primary reason for using one of these is that I order lots of expensive things that arrive by assorted couriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx, carrier turtle, etc.) and instead of getting a tag to pick it up, or having it left on my doorstep or with neighbors who may not remember right away, it gets signed for when needed and is watched by paid mail-watchers until I pick it up.
The largest item to date through there has been a large TV. I was able to leave it there for a few days while I made my own arrangements for pickup, and I was not at the mercy of the delivery service as to when to be home.
This also limits the damage caused by kids stuffing snowballs in the mailbox.
I am a privacy nut myself, but I do use some cards under some circumstances. Anyone who needs the records from my bookstore or dvd store to work out my tastes in either category is likely more dangerous to themselves than to me. Figuring out those patterns is not difficult if you talk to me for a few minutes. If I want something not to appear on any records, I use a different branch than usual, pay cash and deny having a card. Simple.
As for groceries and such, I have stores nearby where I can get better prices than the cards get you at the chains, and I don't have to give them any info at all.
(I know it's drifted off-topic in this thread, but for me, this would be useful to know.)
In my area (Southeast Michigan), Comcast came up with an interesting wrinkle on Internet/TV cable service. They raised the rates on internet-only service by $10/month, but if you subscribe to a skeleton-basic service (minimal channels) they let you keep your original rate (plus franchise fees and other nonsense that does not apply to internet service.)
The upshot of this is your rate goes up $10/month on internet-only, or $3.50/month (the aforementioned fees) if you get the minimal basic+internet. The level of competence having not changed, I have not been billed for the stray fees even though they did trap my cable with filters to block all but the lower 27 or so channels. And even that took two passes, the first time the filter blocked the internet frequency.
Before that, I could get the whole channel space if I wired my TV in, but the logos on the channels bugged me so much that I took the TV out of the circuit. I keep the TV in the circuit now to check if the wire is connected when the internet service goes out.
One of my current hobbies is annoying the cable salesdroids with requests for a-la-carte subscription models, with the caution that only logo-free channels will even be considered. I expect that it will be a very long time before I have TV of any broadcast nature again. (My crrent service doesn't really count, I'm only in to keep the internet service priced less.)
I will simply maintain my usual attitude to such things. Devices conforming to any form of DRM are considered unfit for use until they can be modified to remove the restrictions. (Example: DVD, which is now fit for use as the restrictions no longer apply to anyone who really doesn't want them to.)
I went off of any form of broadcast (cable and sattelite counts here) TV a few years ago for other reasons. As of now, my incentive for digital TV is precisely zero.
As an extra twist, people will not be able to get support from me for restricted devices (with one obvious exception). This should reduce the incentive for people to get them. Not much, but every little bit helps.
I eventually got a Pioneer 606D from an outfit in England that was the only place there was at the time. It was expensive, but it still works.
Finally getting to the point, I once deliberately bought a low-quality player. I bought the Apex 600A when the word got out about them. I got it precisely because it did the Macro/Region mod thing and because it was cheap. It is my "drag-around" deck. The one I take with me to video parties so that I can show friends things on non-region-1 discs. Because it was cheap, I won't be overly annoyed if it gets damaged from handling or stolen. It does not do the best picture, but it works.
There are times when cheap junker items serve a useful purpose, when they do, then I buy them.
Ask your credit union if they are part of the Co-op Network, or you can check it at the site. In my area, every credit union ATM I have checked out in the last few months is affiliated, plus some (the web site will tell you wich) take deposits for other members, though this usually imposes a five-day hold regardless of your CUs usual policy. I don't get charged extra (too many in a month and I get hit, network notwithstanding) for withdrawals from Co-op Network ATMs. I have six of the things in a one-mile range from my house, two of which take deposits for me.
Re: Pokemon: In Japanese boku is the masculine form of the pronoun I. Yes, anime geek studying Japanese.