Using your credit card for the points? Don't make payments too soon!

[redpoint5]

Contactless payments via NFC (does that use the same radio as bluetooth?). Never heard of QR payments.

I hope to see an official US digital distributed-ledger currency in my lifetime.

I probably have a Pixel XL for ya if you wanted to play with Android. You do realize it's easy to create accounts with any name you'd like to provide.

[JSH]

Why are you making payments a couple days later? That sounds way too complicated.

I do the same thing as Redpoint. I use the card and have the the payment set for autopay from my checking account. Once a week I go into Mint and check my transactions to see if anything looks funny.

While rewards are nice the real money to be made is in the sign up bonus. We generally do 2-3 new cards a year for the bonus. The current card is a United Visa that gives 60,000 miles if you spend $3,000 in 3 months. That is roughly $1,000 in airline tickets. We don't bother with a card unless it pays at least $500 in a signing bonus. We cancel the card after the signing bonus pays out.

We also each have a Chase card that we keep to establish a long credit history for our credit ratings. Those each have a small charge per month to keep them active and again, that bill is on autopay.

Managing credit is important in the USA. Lots of things seemingly unrelated are priced differently based on credit rating. (Like insurance rates)

Luckily the rules for managing credit are pretty easy.
1. Pay your bills on time - every time (35% of score)
2. Keep your credit card balance low (Don't use more than about 30% of your available credit) (30% of score)
3. Establish a long credit history. (Keep at least one card basically forever) (15% of score)
4. Use different types of credit. Credit cards, auto loans, mortgage. (10% of score)
5. Keep your credit inquiries low (don't let people run your credit unless they need to) (10% of score)

#4 is the only thing that could cost someone money if they took a loan they didn't need to boost their score. Luckily it is only 10% of the total score so someone can have excellent credit without it. (740 or better)

[freebeard]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code_payment

QR code payment is a contactless payment method where payment is performed by scanning a QR code from a mobile app.[1] This is an alternative to doing electronic funds transfer at point of sale using a payment terminal.[2] This avoids a lot of the infrastructure traditionally associated with electronic payments such as payment cards, payment networks, payment terminal and merchant accounts.

To use a QR code payment the consumers scans the QR code displayed by the merchant with their phones to pay for their goods.[3] They enter the amount they have to pay and finally submit.[3] This is a more secure card-not-present method than others.[3]

I'm being dragged, kicking and screaming: wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Scope_of_surveillance_b y_public_institutions

[redpoint5]

I didn't read it, but the really paranoid can use a proxy, turn of location sharing, and who cares if they know where Donald Duck is currently located anyhow?

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), your demise will probably be of the regular sort; cancer or heart disease...

...and personally, as I've mentioned before, I'd prefer trouble to come find me if trouble needs to encounter stubborn opposition. I won't let trouble push me into the shadows for safety, because that's where it should live.

[Xist]

I have three months left of 0% APR, but they are still offering the same terms for new transfers, so I could use another card, and just transfer the balance.

Will they have different lines for the balances with different expiration dates?

When I pay my taxes I will put the rest of my school pay towards the credit card. I will have about two months of pay to put towards it, but then I will just have the one job for three months.

I plan on using a savings account that pays more than 0.25% next school year. Currently the account that pays the best without crazy requirements is 1.9%. I figure that I would earn about $140 in interest on that.

[redpoint5]

My high interest checking account has a requirement for 12 debit transactions per month and direct deposit. Not too crazy. I load my Amazon account with 12 $0.50 transactions on the card to meet the requirement. Just did that today in fact.

[freebeard]

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), your demise will probably be of the regular sort; cancer or heart disease...

Thank you for your support.

[redpoint5]

Hey, if it's looking like the irregular sort of demise, I'm willing to fight on that hill on behalf of others, with their blessing of course.

[Xist]

Bizarre. I received a dozen notifications for this while I was writing my notes, but when I finally have the time to catch up, there is one message.

freebeard, why are we talking about your eventual demise?

[redpoint5]

freebeard is of the tinfoilhat in normal person disguise type, or is it normal in a tinfoilhat disguise?

Either the Gooberment is going to know too much and disappear us, or AI is going to know too much and disappear us.