POLITICS SCHMALITICS

[chasfh]

On 12/20/2022 at 4:21 PM, Tiger337 said:

I use Twitter frequently and I have always been able to see all kinds of extremist right wing rhetoric   None of their ideas were banned.  

You would not make a good red hat. 

[Tigerbomb13]

😂

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

😂

ironically, unless he is putting them out to rental, an individual collector like that actually insures that most of those cars never get driven. He's helping the environment by keeping all but one of them at a time parked in the garage - amirite?

[chasfh]

6 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

ironically, unless he is putting them out to rental, an individual collector like that actually insures that most of those cars never get driven. He's helping the environment by keeping all but one of them at a time parked in the garage - amirite?

You are right, to the degree that his owning the car is preventing someone else from owning the same car and who would intend to drive the car more than he.

[gehringer_2]

20 minutes ago, chasfh said:

You are right, to the degree that his owning the car is preventing someone else from owning the same car and who would intend to drive the car more than he.

Of course the converse is that if guys like that didn't buy them, even if just to park them, they might not get built at all. The possibilities are myriad though. If Bugatti can't sell one really terrible Veryon, maybe they build two less individually terrible but still in total terrible cars that two other people who buy them *will* drive. 

The mind boggles.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Of course the converse is that if guys like that didn't buy them, even if just to park them, they might not get built at all. The possibilities are myriad though. If Bugatti can't sell one really terrible Veryon, maybe they build two less individually terrible but still in total terrible cars that two other people who buy them *will* drive. 

The mind boggles.

I agree with the first sentence only if he custom-ordered the car. But if he accepted a car off a lot, then it already was built.

I custom-order my cars when it's time, so it's not so unlikely this guy does, too.

[pfife]

dude needs to custom order an ambulance to take him to the burn unit

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

I custom-order my cars when it's time, so it's not so unlikely this guy does, too.

never a bad time to order mulitple cars......

[Jim Cowan]

Greta said the "small dick" part out loud.

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]

 

[Screwball]

Congress Is Trying To Pass a Bill That Will End Credit Card Rewards Programs - Yahoo Finance

[Tigeraholic1]

16 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Congress Is Trying To Pass a Bill That Will End Credit Card Rewards Programs - Yahoo Finance

That would piss me off..... I have had a capital one card for about 12 years I use for my business. I have never paid a penny of interest (Pay off every month)I just checked this year and most years on average I get about 10K cash back. They gotta hate people like me.

[Deleterious]

Rewards cards are giant scams.  Huge shell game where the money always funnels back to the CC company.

Rewards cards charge the highest fees by far.  We adjust our prices to meet those higher fees when we sell the public some goods.  So now to get your cash back or travel points you are paying a higher price for the item you purchased.  So it saves you nothing.  Even though I am selling goods at a higher price, none of that is going into my pocket since I am just matching the higher interchange fees from the CC company.  The only winner here is the CC companies.

Some isolated incidents you will come out ahead.  Amex has a card with 6% back on groceries and streaming services.  Consumers definitely come out ahead on those type of deals.  But the 1%, 1.5% cash back deals, probably not.

[oblong]

I use my delta Amex on any bills that accept it and all groceries.  I pay it off each month.  Even with the annual fee I figured I come out ahead with our two to three trips a year.  

[ewsieg]

14 minutes ago, oblong said:

I use my delta Amex on any bills that accept it and all groceries.  I pay it off each month.  Even with the annual fee I figured I come out ahead with our two to three trips a year.  

I came out ahead this year.  My wife just visited her brother in Seattle earlier this month for less than 20 bucks in fee's.   Last year I put some big purchases on it and than we had some unexpected bills come in.  Even with a heavily discounted trip to Texas for the family I ended up losing about 100 bucks.  In thinking about it now, can't remember if I took the fee into consideration either.

[romad1]

12 minutes ago, ewsieg said:

I came out ahead this year.  My wife just visited her brother in Seattle earlier this month for less than 20 bucks in fee's.   Last year I put some big purchases on it and than we had some unexpected bills come in.  Even with a heavily discounted trip to Texas for the family I ended up losing about 100 bucks.  In thinking about it now, can't remember if I took the fee into consideration either.

I charge all sorts of things i don’t need and rack up a huge credit bill.  Then i wait for the government to bail me out.  

[Screwball]

41 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Rewards cards are giant scams.  Huge shell game where the money always funnels back to the CC company.

Rewards cards charge the highest fees by far.  We adjust our prices to meet those higher fees when we sell the public some goods.  So now to get your cash back or travel points you are paying a higher price for the item you purchased.  So it saves you nothing.  Even though I am selling goods at a higher price, none of that is going into my pocket since I am just matching the higher interchange fees from the CC company.  The only winner here is the CC companies.

Some isolated incidents you will come out ahead.  Amex has a card with 6% back on groceries and streaming services.  Consumers definitely come out ahead on those type of deals.  But the 1%, 1.5% cash back deals, probably not.

I have been told that, depending on the card (Mastercard vs. Capital One for example) they charge different fees. Is that true (since I don't work in the retail space)?

Also, I have heard that Capital One charges the highest fees, is that true?  A local gas station has a sign telling the minimum amount you could put on a card. I think it is 5 bucks.  People were using cards to buy a .75 cent coffee.  I imagine they were losing money on the transaction, but I don't know what the fees are.  I don't blame them.

I have been in places that have a "cash" price and a "credit" price.  I think that would be a good idea.  I have a buddy who owns a restaurant, and he won't accept any cards.  I think that is a really stupid idea.  Seems like you are really limiting your potential clientele.  But, it's his place so he can do what he wants.

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, Screwball said:

Congress Is Trying To Pass a Bill That Will End Credit Card Rewards Programs - Yahoo Finance

Great, Another bill to help mega-corporations and nobody else.  

[Tiger337]

55 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Rewards cards are giant scams.  Huge shell game where the money always funnels back to the CC company.

Rewards cards charge the highest fees by far.  We adjust our prices to meet those higher fees when we sell the public some goods.  So now to get your cash back or travel points you are paying a higher price for the item you purchased.  So it saves you nothing.  Even though I am selling goods at a higher price, none of that is going into my pocket since I am just matching the higher interchange fees from the CC company.  The only winner here is the CC companies.

Some isolated incidents you will come out ahead.  Amex has a card with 6% back on groceries and streaming services.  Consumers definitely come out ahead on those type of deals.  But the 1%, 1.5% cash back deals, probably not.

It's probably a scam for those who don't pay in full every month.  However, I pay in full every month, pay 0% interest and I get rewards.  Losing the rewards wouldn't destroy me, but it would hurt a little.  

[Screwball]

14 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Great, Another bill to help mega-corporations and nobody else.  

We have the best government money can buy.  And our taxes even pay the useless pukes.

[Deleterious]

7 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

It's probably a scam for those who don't pay in full every month.  However, I pay in full every month, pay 0% interest and I get rewards.  Losing the rewards wouldn't destroy me, but it would hurt a little.  

No.  That has nothing to do with this.  Paying or not paying things off doesn't come into play here.  

When you use a CC at a business we are charged a fee to process it.  I pass that fee onto you via higher prices.  Rewards cards have the highest fees, so we set prices off of those.  That means all of my items now cost more because of those rewards cards.  You pay a higher fee to buy an item.  I don't pocket the fee, it simply passes onto the CC company who is now the only winner in the deal.

[Screwball]

While I'm here; Exclusive: The Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud Exposed - How US military spending keeps rising even as the Pentagon flunks its audit.

FTA:

Quote

On November 15, Ernst & Young and other private firms that were hired to audit the Pentagon announced that they could not complete the job. Congress had ordered an independent audit of the Department of Defense, the government’s largest discretionary cost center—the Pentagon receives 54 cents out of every dollar in federal appropriations—after the Pentagon failed for decades to audit itself. The firms concluded, however, that the DoD’s financial records were riddled with so many bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors that a reliable audit was simply impossible.

Color me not at all shocked.

[Deleterious]

23 minutes ago, Screwball said:

I have been told that, depending on the card (Mastercard vs. Capital One for example) they charge different fees. Is that true (since I don't work in the retail space)?

Also, I have heard that Capital One charges the highest fees, is that true?  A local gas station has a sign telling the minimum amount you could put on a card. I think it is 5 bucks.  People were using cards to buy a .75 cent coffee.  I imagine they were losing money on the transaction, but I don't know what the fees are.  I don't blame them.

I have been in places that have a "cash" price and a "credit" price.  I think that would be a good idea.  I have a buddy who owns a restaurant, and he won't accept any cards.  I think that is a really stupid idea.  Seems like you are really limiting your potential clientele.  But, it's his place so he can do what he wants.

Yep.  All cards have different fees.  A single company will have different fees based on which card you have.  Just a straight up CC will have a lower transaction fee than a rewards card.  

American Express has the highest fees.  Visa, MC, and Discover all normally top out around 2.4% + 10 cents.  American Express is something like 3.3% + 10 cents.  Then each card has an assessment fee of .13-.15%.

A lot of the fees are based on volume.  Walmart is charged a much lower fee since they do billions in transactions a year compared to us that will only do a few million.  And the more volume you do the more negotiating power you have on fees.

Yeah, we could never go cash only.  80-85% of our sales are on credit/debit cards.

[ewsieg]

7 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Color me not at all shocked.

Hey, be a good American and look the other way.  

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

That would piss me off..... I have had a capital one card for about 12 years I use for my business. I have never paid a penny of interest (Pay off every month)I just checked this year and most years on average I get about 10K cash back. They gotta hate people like me.

LOL - all the credit card co rep is saying if you cut *our* profits, we will be less likely to run bonus programs - nothing in the legislation bans anything except the ability of the current operators to keep out competitors, which will likely reduce the size of the credit card surcharges current operators get away with. And the idea that it would help big retailers more than small is counterfactual. It's small businesses and low margin businesses that don't want you to use your credit card today because the surcharge, as evidenced by where you find cash discounts offered. Large retailers in general have more margin than small so I'd say the guy in the Yahoo story is pretty much spreading pure credit card co FUD.

https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-marshall-introduce-bipartisan-credit-card-competition-act

Edited December 30, 2022 by gehringer_2