Why do you assume it all works the same everywhere in the world?
This is not the US. For one, you CANNOT write your own "payment processing server" here. You have to use a third-party one (decidir.com, for example) to process your credit cards. Your own website can't connect with Visa's servers. Only "trusted" companies they choose can do that (decidir is owned by Equifax). In fact, there's no "amazon.com" equivalent here. Even big-name websites have to use Decidir, and even bigger names (electronics store) make you call and buy over the phone (because they have special deals with credit cards which Decidir can't handle).
To work with CC (physical only, can't do phone sales as a small merchant) I have to call a POS provider (POSNET or LAPOS, the latter owned by Visa) from which I lease (can't buy) a CC POS device. That provider is the one who deals with all cards. As a merchant, all I see is the money from the transaction 48 hours later in my bank account (except one special local card who pays just once a month). BTW, remember those VERY big companies I mentioned? They're still forced to use the POS device, and enter the data to their computer systems by hand AND staple the POS receipt to their own copy of the (fiscal) receipt.
Do you know how different Argentina is regarding other countries? You are required BY LAW to show ID when paying with a credit card (in the US, Visa says you can show it, but you can't be required to). You know why? Cause Visa doesn't give a fuck about chargebacks here. If someone steals your card, you ARE liable up to the minute you call and report it stolen. They WILL charge you whatever someone else bought with your card (and not the merchant, who should have asked for ID before accepting the card).
No need to suppose things. Comics are $5 here too, and manga are $8 or so. People buy them 1 or 2 at a time, as $5 is quite a lot of money (it's $20 argentine pesos. think more or less that every comic book costs you USD 20, you get the idea).
CC fees have nothing to do with the kind of business you're doing. They're a "one size fits all". Same as the interest rates, 40% annual is what I get with a "premium" credit card. You can't also apply to "phone" sales unless you're a recognizable multi-national chain (so your neighborhood pizza place can't take CCs over the phone). You also can't pay for internet shopping with a Debit (or banking) card - you need a real CC. Credit card issued "for the poor" (which have EVEN HIGHER rates, above 60%) only work within the country - or if you're lucky you get the ones that work in neighbor countries.
6% is what "most" cards charge, but as i mentioned earler, cards "for the poor" (ok, High Risk customers) you have to pay up to 15%. They also include "promos" for they customers (which you can refuse), like 12 "no interest payments". So who gets hit with the 60% interest rate for the 12 payments? The merchant, of course! So you're hit with a 75% "fee" so the customer gets your product in 12 "no interest" payments. Of course, all you get from this is that most shops downtown (clothes) work with 300%+ markup to compensate. In those places, if you don't accept the no-interest plans, you get A LOT less business.
AMEX are acquirer and issuer for all their merchants and all their cards.
Again, no. I have an AMEX card issued by Santander Rio. It's a "pack" of products that includes savings, checkings, overdraft, Visa, Amex and a few "bonuses".
This AMEX has a different customer phone number than the one "real" AMEX card. The statement for this card "looks" the same as the statement for the visa card from this bank, and comes in the same envelope as the bank statement. The one I was talking about in a previous message is from Standard Bank, as in this last one, the CC statement comes in a different envelope, and paper size, than the bank account statement.
The statement has the visa logo in all visa blue, with a visa card, visa this, visa that, "no cash? pay with PLAN V!". Visa also bundles a little leaflet with "promos for Visa customers" which shows up in two different visa statements i get from different banks.
The name of my bank is in a generic type printed (with the laser printer that prints the rest of the numbers) on the statement.
Now when i log in to my bank's Home Banking site, and go to "last statement" I get a popup window, which comes from the "visa.com.ar" domain.
So maybe they don't issue the card, and don't run the account, or anything. But they certainly are the ones who print the statement AND host the online statement website. So Visa is no "innocent bystander" in this bullshit.
So yeah, let's not blame visa. Let's add AMEX to the bullshit. They also charge extra for even getting the statement (mailed or e-mailed). And with them I do have (well used to, I canceled it) an "account". I didn't get that card from a bank, I got it straight from amex.
Visa insisted i join their "electronic statement". I got it free by mail, now i have to pay $5 a month to get it on my bank's website. Visa doesn't even send me an e-mail notification for that. And i can't go back to a paper statement anymore.
"change processing fee" is just fucked up shit. I have a shop here in Argentina and I don't get charged anything to deposit cash.
I work with cash only, because Momma Visa charges 3-6% for debit card and up to 15% for credit card. I sell comic books, these have a fixed 30% markup, so visa gets no money from me. I considered them, but i figured if i go that way it'll just mean that my current cash payers will turn to credit card, and in the end it will be a net loss.
a few months ago some woman walks with her kid and he picks up about $10 in comic books. so i tell her, sorry, we only accept cash. and she starts lecturing me "oh, in civilized countries EVERY business accepts credit cards". so i tell her "look, lady, in civilized countries, Visa doesn't charge you a 40% annual interest". she was too stupid to understand anyway.
Telefonica de Argentina installed a 128k wireless link to the Marambio base in 2004. Not sure what they get now, but i don't see why they wouldn't be able to go faster, almost a decade later.
No. You can try, but sometimes no matter what you do, you just can't fight it - and figthing just 1 corrupt government of many isn't worth your life.
But one can't say people "deserve" to live that way because "they chose to do so". Our former president won in 2003 with 25% of the votes. He was the candidate with the most votes (there were other 5 or so candidates too), and still 75% of the population didn't vote for him. There have been projects to change that crap from the election system. But that party is majority in congress so... they all end up in nothing.
Tell me how it's going for the Syrians right now, trying to rise against their government right now. You can't expect governments to look out the window and see the people protesting and say "uh, it seems we aren't doing a good job here. Well, time to pack our stuff" and go out the window and say "fellow countrymen, you have been heard, we're really sorry for the inconvenience we caused you, so we decided to resign. We're going to show up in court now for trial and await our punishment for our wrongdoings".
Maybe Fox News is filtering stuff out for you. Start reading here:
I was just playing the generalization game. Like he was with his "people allow government to do X" crap.
By his standards, the world is simple: it's your fault if your government does something evil, and you should suffer for it. By that simplification of the world we can also say that all americans are retards. And that every french is smelly, and every japanese is a rapist.
You know what's the worst part about it? Israel is constantly taunting Iran with their bullshit. They go and say they will do "whatever it takes" to "stop" Israel. Does that mean Israel is willing to nuke iran? To me it sounds like it. That, or they will use their henchmen, the americans, for that.
"Terrible economic crisis". From everyone else in the world, and especially from those countries your constant wars completely destroy their economies: FUCK YOU, FUCK YOUR MOTHER, YOUR FUCKING UNCLE SAM, AND FUCK YOUR WHINY LITTLE ASS, FUCKING AMERICUNT.
Now mod me down motherfuckers, it's all you can do. Fuck every last one of you.
In my city, in Argentina, 3 guys got in a cab. They made the driver take them to a small town, they told him to get off the car and stole his car.
The idiot told them the car had a GPS, so they beat the shit out of him to force them to tell him where it was. He didn't know, and was lucky they didn't kill him. Later that day the cops recovered the car. Two of the thieves were minors, so they can't be sent to jail. One was an adult.
The local cops beat the shit out of the 3 thieves, especially the 2 minors (as they will be released by a judge, minors do not go to jail under any circumstance here. Not even for multiple murders. They go to a juvenile center and get released as soon as they turn 18).
So I'm confused. It's a third world country where cops have to take matters in their own hands (breaking a kid's legs because he's a murderer and won't go to jail), but they do take GPS of a stolen car as evidence.
If you only do low-risk things, then sure -- you can grow you pile of dough now, but then another start-up google will come at some stage and pull the rug under your low-risk business.
Slashdot Mirror
Whatever. I've given you enough reasons and you still think you're right, then you should be right.
Congratulations, you won an argument on the internet. Have a nice day.
Why do you assume it all works the same everywhere in the world?
This is not the US. For one, you CANNOT write your own "payment processing server" here. You have to use a third-party one (decidir.com, for example) to process your credit cards. Your own website can't connect with Visa's servers. Only "trusted" companies they choose can do that (decidir is owned by Equifax). In fact, there's no "amazon.com" equivalent here. Even big-name websites have to use Decidir, and even bigger names (electronics store) make you call and buy over the phone (because they have special deals with credit cards which Decidir can't handle).
To work with CC (physical only, can't do phone sales as a small merchant) I have to call a POS provider (POSNET or LAPOS, the latter owned by Visa) from which I lease (can't buy) a CC POS device. That provider is the one who deals with all cards. As a merchant, all I see is the money from the transaction 48 hours later in my bank account (except one special local card who pays just once a month). BTW, remember those VERY big companies I mentioned? They're still forced to use the POS device, and enter the data to their computer systems by hand AND staple the POS receipt to their own copy of the (fiscal) receipt.
Do you know how different Argentina is regarding other countries? You are required BY LAW to show ID when paying with a credit card (in the US, Visa says you can show it, but you can't be required to). You know why? Cause Visa doesn't give a fuck about chargebacks here. If someone steals your card, you ARE liable up to the minute you call and report it stolen. They WILL charge you whatever someone else bought with your card (and not the merchant, who should have asked for ID before accepting the card).
No need to suppose things. Comics are $5 here too, and manga are $8 or so. People buy them 1 or 2 at a time, as $5 is quite a lot of money (it's $20 argentine pesos. think more or less that every comic book costs you USD 20, you get the idea).
CC fees have nothing to do with the kind of business you're doing. They're a "one size fits all". Same as the interest rates, 40% annual is what I get with a "premium" credit card. You can't also apply to "phone" sales unless you're a recognizable multi-national chain (so your neighborhood pizza place can't take CCs over the phone). You also can't pay for internet shopping with a Debit (or banking) card - you need a real CC. Credit card issued "for the poor" (which have EVEN HIGHER rates, above 60%) only work within the country - or if you're lucky you get the ones that work in neighbor countries.
6% is what "most" cards charge, but as i mentioned earler, cards "for the poor" (ok, High Risk customers) you have to pay up to 15%. They also include "promos" for they customers (which you can refuse), like 12 "no interest payments". So who gets hit with the 60% interest rate for the 12 payments? The merchant, of course! So you're hit with a 75% "fee" so the customer gets your product in 12 "no interest" payments. Of course, all you get from this is that most shops downtown (clothes) work with 300%+ markup to compensate. In those places, if you don't accept the no-interest plans, you get A LOT less business.
She didn't have *ANY* cash on her. She didn't have TEN fucking dollars.
Again, no.
I have an AMEX card issued by Santander Rio. It's a "pack" of products that includes savings, checkings, overdraft, Visa, Amex and a few "bonuses".
This AMEX has a different customer phone number than the one "real" AMEX card. The statement for this card "looks" the same as the statement for the visa card from this bank, and comes in the same envelope as the bank statement. The one I was talking about in a previous message is from Standard Bank, as in this last one, the CC statement comes in a different envelope, and paper size, than the bank account statement.
The statement has the visa logo in all visa blue, with a visa card, visa this, visa that, "no cash? pay with PLAN V!". Visa also bundles a little leaflet with "promos for Visa customers" which shows up in two different visa statements i get from different banks.
The name of my bank is in a generic type printed (with the laser printer that prints the rest of the numbers) on the statement.
Now when i log in to my bank's Home Banking site, and go to "last statement" I get a popup window, which comes from the "visa.com.ar" domain.
So maybe they don't issue the card, and don't run the account, or anything. But they certainly are the ones who print the statement AND host the online statement website. So Visa is no "innocent bystander" in this bullshit.
So yeah, let's not blame visa. Let's add AMEX to the bullshit. They also charge extra for even getting the statement (mailed or e-mailed). And with them I do have (well used to, I canceled it) an "account". I didn't get that card from a bank, I got it straight from amex.
Visa insisted i join their "electronic statement". I got it free by mail, now i have to pay $5 a month to get it on my bank's website. Visa doesn't even send me an e-mail notification for that. And i can't go back to a paper statement anymore.
"change processing fee" is just fucked up shit. I have a shop here in Argentina and I don't get charged anything to deposit cash.
I work with cash only, because Momma Visa charges 3-6% for debit card and up to 15% for credit card. I sell comic books, these have a fixed 30% markup, so visa gets no money from me. I considered them, but i figured if i go that way it'll just mean that my current cash payers will turn to credit card, and in the end it will be a net loss.
a few months ago some woman walks with her kid and he picks up about $10 in comic books. so i tell her, sorry, we only accept cash. and she starts lecturing me "oh, in civilized countries EVERY business accepts credit cards". so i tell her "look, lady, in civilized countries, Visa doesn't charge you a 40% annual interest". she was too stupid to understand anyway.
Telefonica de Argentina installed a 128k wireless link to the Marambio base in 2004. Not sure what they get now, but i don't see why they wouldn't be able to go faster, almost a decade later.
No. You can try, but sometimes no matter what you do, you just can't fight it - and figthing just 1 corrupt government of many isn't worth your life.
But one can't say people "deserve" to live that way because "they chose to do so". Our former president won in 2003 with 25% of the votes. He was the candidate with the most votes (there were other 5 or so candidates too), and still 75% of the population didn't vote for him. There have been projects to change that crap from the election system. But that party is majority in congress so... they all end up in nothing.
No. I'm pretty sure you're a retard.
Tell me how it's going for the Syrians right now, trying to rise against their government right now. You can't expect governments to look out the window and see the people protesting and say "uh, it seems we aren't doing a good job here. Well, time to pack our stuff" and go out the window and say "fellow countrymen, you have been heard, we're really sorry for the inconvenience we caused you, so we decided to resign. We're going to show up in court now for trial and await our punishment for our wrongdoings".
Maybe Fox News is filtering stuff out for you. Start reading here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Revolution_of_2011
I was just playing the generalization game. Like he was with his "people allow government to do X" crap.
By his standards, the world is simple: it's your fault if your government does something evil, and you should suffer for it. By that simplification of the world we can also say that all americans are retards. And that every french is smelly, and every japanese is a rapist.
You know what's the worst part about it? Israel is constantly taunting Iran with their bullshit. They go and say they will do "whatever it takes" to "stop" Israel. Does that mean Israel is willing to nuke iran? To me it sounds like it. That, or they will use their henchmen, the americans, for that.
You're an american idiot.
"Terrible economic crisis". From everyone else in the world, and especially from those countries your constant wars completely destroy their economies: FUCK YOU, FUCK YOUR MOTHER, YOUR FUCKING UNCLE SAM, AND FUCK YOUR WHINY LITTLE ASS, FUCKING AMERICUNT.
Now mod me down motherfuckers, it's all you can do. Fuck every last one of you.
To be fair, they (usually) only do the heavy beating to guys with a record.
In my city, in Argentina, 3 guys got in a cab. They made the driver take them to a small town, they told him to get off the car and stole his car.
The idiot told them the car had a GPS, so they beat the shit out of him to force them to tell him where it was. He didn't know, and was lucky they didn't kill him. Later that day the cops recovered the car. Two of the thieves were minors, so they can't be sent to jail. One was an adult.
The local cops beat the shit out of the 3 thieves, especially the 2 minors (as they will be released by a judge, minors do not go to jail under any circumstance here. Not even for multiple murders. They go to a juvenile center and get released as soon as they turn 18).
So I'm confused. It's a third world country where cops have to take matters in their own hands (breaking a kid's legs because he's a murderer and won't go to jail), but they do take GPS of a stolen car as evidence.
No, thankfully I don't live in the US. I'm in Argentina, we vote in odd years =D
Kony 2012.
LOL, the US can't invade China and bully them like they do with smaller countries to take their oil. That's the real reason for this whining.
See: Kodak.
Dude, people stop actors who play medical roles on TV and ask them medical questions. They have to explain they're not real doctors.
I see what you did there, Milhouse.
Being a regular PC it will run Windows...
Well, a console doesn't run standard PC titles, but you develop for XBOX 360 with Visual Studio and XNA. Compile, download to console, and play.
Windows Small Business Server.