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

[Maxwell Spangler]

> 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 

When I last compared credit card processors as a company accepting them
I found four pages of three columns listing the various rates for each
type of about a zillion cards.  The way the middleman price things does
not promote easy comparison hence less competition.  It's something you
want to pick once and forget about it because the numbers are so
frustrating.  A combination of per-transaction set fees as well as
percentages like .15 per transaction plus 1.782% of the full price.
Plus sometimes fees per authorizations and fees when your computer
batches your daily reconcillations in at night.  It's almost as bad as
buying a mattress.

With that being said, I don't recall the rates for rewards cards being
that bad -- I don't want people to get the idea that if you pay with a
stock VISA the biz pays 2.5% but if you pay with an Citi Platnium
American Airlines card the rate is 8 or 10%.. It's probably no more than
3-3.5%.  Not trying to excuse the CC companies I hate, just bringing
some facts to this.

On Tue, 2010-02-02 at 18:36 -0700, Nate Duehr wrote:
> 
> 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!  :-)

AMEN! Here in Colorado the tipped wage for a server is $4.22 and most
people don't realize that.  5-8 hour shift at $4.22 an hour with people
not buying much or bad tippers is an awful life.  But in North Carolina
where I ran my resturant it was $2.37 an hour and it WENT DOWN IN
2008. :-(  And no sick days, no health benefits, etc.  I enjoy tipping
well when I notice good personal service from a server!

> 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.

Citibank does this too, but I think they're evil.

My surprise recently has been Discover card.  On their website (in your
account settings) you can enable functions so that they will send you an
email if you have failed to make a payment within a few days of your due
date.  AS IF THEY WANT YOU TO MAKE PAYMENTS ON TIME.  I was shocked and
impressed.  So far I really, really like them and wish I hadn't
considered them second-class for so long.  I recommend them to others
now.

ps. virt-manager on fedora linux is a nice surprise and pretty
impressive.

-- 
Maxwell Spangler