eightzero

AppleInsider said:

Movies and TV shows purchased or rented from iTunes are moving to new Apple TV app, which will continue to work for future purchases or rentals of movies and TV episodes. 

What about Movies and TV Shows ripped into the iTunes library from a DVD?

mdirvin said:

I'm not sure the Amazon 5% cash back is that great.  Yes you can cherry pick items that are less at amazon, but most items can be found at least 5% cheaper elsewhere /w free shipping.  No prime needed at $119 per year.  Many smaller to intermediate  businesses don't charge TN sales tax as they don't do enough $$$ sales to trigger the requirement.  For me anyway I don't see any upside the the Amazon Card. As far as the interest rates go I haven't paid a CC company interest for at least two +  decades.

The sales tax issue is going to quickly go away as well. SCOTUS held that states can charge sales tax on a much broader basis, and you can expect states to pass statutes quickly to do just that. And Amazon will be one of the first targets for states to audit. 

lkrupp said:

If only the general population cared about privacy and security. They don’t. When something bad happens they expect to be made whole by their bank, their credit card company, somebody. So why care about privacy and security if there’s no real risk and no incentive to act?

It don't think it is that they don't care - it is that they are willing to give it up for perceived value. 

In the US, the entire risk of fraud is on the bank. Debtors need be reasonably diligent, but the FCRA protects consumers. And banks write off the losses as a cost of doing business. At 20%+ interest, this is easy to do. 

I saw an odd purchase on a card once. It was like $8, but just didn't recognize the address. So I called the bank. The clerk looked it up, and said, "I see that. I'll reverse the charge." I said, "no, i likely bought that, I just don't recognize the location. Tell me the address and name of the business." The clerk audibly sighed and said, "we are instructed to not spend time getting this information. It is faster to just reverse the charge." and essentially got to the "has this resolved your issue" part of the script and essentially hung up.

I image there is a record of this, and the system flags people trying to get a lot of free coffee.

beowulfschmidt said:

sflocal said:

6502 said:

I pay cash for all my cars. And, I sleep like a baby at night knowing I don't owe anyone a nickel. The borrower is slave to the lender. You are criticizing me for being fiscally sound? LOL. If you enjoy paying fees and interest be my guest. I know I'll never be sued for not being able to pay on a load I don't have.

Well that's just good for you.  Paying cash when you can use someone else's money is not sound planning as far as I'm concerned.  I bought my car a couple years ago with 0% financing.  I had the cash, but why take my $50K out of the market when I can keep it working for me?

The money I made on that $50K over the two years resulted in a significant "discount" on my car when I paid it off 8 months ago.  

To be fair though, most people don't have the opportunity to use other people's money like you did.  They have to let other people use their money.  And while I enjoy being able to pay cash for most things, there are times when it's just not advisable to do so.

It's not always best to pay cash, but it's usually better.

If you have a credit card, by definition, you are using someone else's money for a period of time. The rewards stuff is a model where those with the money are willing to share the swipe fees they get from a merchant with the debtor. And of course the long bet is that that the debtor will then be willing to pay for longer term use of that money.

I have not paid cash for any purchase in many, many years. I use other people's cash (the reward credit cards) and am rewarded for doing so to the tune of > $1000 year. 

A three-way wemo light switch would be very welcome. The real problem is going to be mounting it into the exiting wall box though. Most of my 3-ways are in a multi-switch cluster, and the wemo's are all wider than the stock switches; and require a special face plate to accommodate the wifi signal. So...like much of this smart home stuff, completely impractical for anything but new construction.