[lug] Credit - was: [Letting folks pay from the web.]

[Nate Duehr]

On 2/2/2010 4:05 PM, Landon Cox wrote:
> I've had resellers of my product want to pay me by Amex just so they 
> could get *more* rewards than they would get with a Visa and knowing 
> full well an Amex purchase costs me, as a business owner, more also - 
> in other words, they knowingly wanted me to pay for their reward.  I 
> might as well have just given them a lower price for cash or I might 
> as well have raised my price to cover an Amex gouging discount 
> rate...something explicitly covered in merchant card service 
> agreements as something that will cause revocation of your merchant 
> services.

That's pretty sleazy for a reseller to do (that AMEX trick) but, as a 
"consumer" I do that all the time.  Some businesses don't accept AMEX 
because of it.  I'm okay with that.  But it's the one I try first, always.

I must admit, my AMEX is by far the best piece of plastic I olperate. 
(Can't say that I "own" it, it's their card after all.)  First off, 
being a geek their TRACKING is far far far better than Visa or MC... 
business type, categories, tip tracking... all done easily online.  
MasterCard and Visa only WISH they were even close.

It's also a Costco membership card, plus an AMEX that gives 3% cash back 
on fuel purchases (up to a limit) 2% on Restaurants, and 1% on 
everything else (also all dollar-amount limited so you can't book a $20K 
cruise and get 1% off...).

Just the 2% on restaurants means I can leave the extra 2% on top of my 
regular tip for a nicer tip for the wait staff, which is what I tend to 
do with it.  I worked as a busboy and waiter years and years ago, and I 
hated bad tips. And those folks work their ***es off for you.  Don't be 
a stingy tipper!  :-)

Because it's Costco card it also HAS to have your PHOTO on it, which is 
a "Good Thing(TM)" for that whole "security" issue we were talkin' 
about.  Not that anyone CHECKS it, but my ugly mug is right on the back 
of it.

On the flip side, I'd NEVER EVER carry a balance on it.  The interest 
rate on the thing is onerous.  I can smell it from here. LOL!

So... If I'm evil for using it, businesses should just stop accepting it.

I'll still buy Costco gas for the cars when I'm near a Costco and the 
self-serve fuel pumps at the airport take it for aviation fuel for my 
hobby/passion... filling up an 80 gallon tank (it's never empty, of 
course!) with it means serious kickback cash since "fuel" gets triggered 
by the vendor type, and a self-serve aviation fuel pump is most 
definitely "fuel".

The cash-back is a once-a-year voucher/check that can only be spent at 
Costco.  I'm fine with that too.  In fact, I rarely shop at Costco (a 
two-person household can buy paper products for a year and stuff them in 
the pantry in the basement, but obnoxiously sized foodstuffs and 
"family" packaging, aren't something I typically need) in our DINK 
household.  The kickback check paid for a new TV last year.

Maybe once or twice a year we do a "run" over there and buy 
bulk-packaged meats and things and spend a couple of hours repackaging 
everything to put it all in the freezer.  Or stocking up for a big party 
or something like that.  I think I have enough Ziplock bags of various 
sizes, to last a lifetime. I've also determined that the most used size 
is the Gallon bags.  :-) ;-)

Or as they joked on the Family Guy cartoon a few years back, "Oh look 
mom! They're having a sale on a 3-pack of PIANOS!"

Oh, and "Mexican Coke"... the stuff with real sugar in it, instead of 
high-fructose corn syrup.  I really shouldn't drink ANY Coke, but that 
stuff is straight out of my childhood and a bottle of that over ice in a 
tall glass when the ice has melted a bit... is sublime.

It DOES have a $50/year annual fee.  I doubt Costco sees much of that, 
but to me it's about a "wash" vs. just having a standard Costco 
membership card which last time I checked was like $35?  No big 
difference on the up-front cost, HUGE difference in return.

There's some AMEX beancounter who hates me somewhere, I'm sure.  
Probably a Costco one too.

The way to not be screwed by these companies is to analyze their "games" 
and use them to your own personal advantage.  When they change the 
rules, stop doing business with them.

And just to be clear, if I MUST carry a balance on a card, it's on a 
very reasonable interest rate card from a CREDIT UNION, never a bank.  
No annual fees.  No BS.  Just a card at a moderate rate that has a 
reasonable limit on it for "emergencies".

Credit Unions are the SANE banks these days, and have been for a while.  
No shareholders to answer to, no public stock price to prop up.  I 
luckily learned this prior to college when I was elligible to join one 
via one of my parents working at a particular company.  Nowadays, most 
of those "membership requirements" have been dropped, as long as you 
live in a certain geographic area.  And you can keep the accounts when 
you move, etc.

Sorry I know this is way far afield from Linux - I could talk about how 
much GNUCash really really really sucks for tracking investments, but I 
won't go there. :-)  It has gotten better over the years.

Quicken for Mac sucks too, and Intuit is about to release something 
truly horrible to replace it, unless the outcry from their customers has 
waived them off from that night carrier landing crash about to 
happen....  Sigh...

Quicken for Windows is light years ahead of everything out there, but I 
refuse to run it... because I don't do Windows unless required.... and 
my wife ESPECIALLY doesn't.  Making her fire up a VM to look at Quicken, 
she'd kill me. Ha.

Nate