<rant>
1. News Flash: Large corporations are inhuman. Example: My wife purchased a few items on her infrequently used debit card totaling probably $150. Five days later she calls up Bank of America's customer service number. "How much money do I have available in my account?" she asks them, having forgotten about the prior purchases. They tell her she has around $200, so she uses the card to purchase a $175 item.
Now of course technically she should write all of her debit card purchases down in a ledger which she would balance after each purchase but she (and I too) thought that if she exceeded the amount of money available in her account while using a debit card, the debit card would fail to authorize due to insufficient funds. Not so.
Merchants submit their credit card charges in nightly batches, which are then posted by the bank during the next business day. If the merchant's bank is different than the consumer's bank, then additional time may pass while the two banks exchange info. This is what happened to my wife.
So a day or two after she made her final $175 purchase, the four prior purchases were posted. In quick succession she was charged four individual insufficient fund charges of $35 each for a total of $140 in bank charges.
Why do I think this is inhuman? Because the bank has the information. I can look at the internet page for my own debit card and see charges minutes after they are approved. They appear with a "pending" indicator to let me know that the charge is not yet final. I'll bet if I tried to go over my approved balance with my credit card that the charge would be declined.
I believe the bank is allowing those charges to go forward for the express purpose of collecting the insufficient fund fees, and while this may make good business sense for the bank it is antisocial behavior. It's also usurious because the stated purpose of the fees is to compensate the bank for incurred inconvenience--an inconvenience for which they are being very well compensated at $35/transaction.
In a world where I and my wife's business mattered to the bank they would not engage in such behavior--they would want to maintain a good relationship with us and with our friends and neighbors. But in today's world, we're all statistics. Goliath entities like Bank of America or Citibank would rather spend millions on re sculpting their corporate logos then on maintaining and improving relations with their existing customers.
The problem with unrestricted capitalism is that large corporations like Bank of America and Citibank are psychopathic and, without the helpful prodding of antitrust and other regulations, would soon merger their way into a single global monopoly.
Perhaps we can find some way to join a credit union.
2. Somebody's been sending around one of those viral emails claiming that Obama is a Muslim. He's not, but the idea that him being a Muslim would be a problem is offensive to me. To the person responsible for the email I say "get a life". There's a saying that goes something like this: Not all Republicans are xenophobes but all xenophobes are Republicans.
3. The TATA car company in India has announced a $2500 car. To me, the big news here is not that it costs $2500 but that it has a maximum speed of 50 mph. There are mothers who drive through our residential neighborhood at 50mph in their 175hp minivans, and some jerk went flying by me the other day in a 158hp Toyota Camry on the narrow two lane mountain road that I drive to work. So in my opinion less horsepower would be a very positive development for American cars. Too many Americans take out their pent up frustrations and anxieties via the gas pedal. A side benefit of less horsepower would be better gas mileage, which in turn would mean that Bush wouldn't have to work so hard to keep tensions in the Hormuz Strait at a peak.
</rant>
In other news, seven or eight years ago I had the pleasure of working with a very bright guy named Richard Wynn. Richard's final project for his MBA was a business venture for a company that would develop and place internet enabled grocery carts in grocery stores. He wasn't able to get funding for his idea, and he moved on. However, I was not surprised to see in today's SlashDot that Microsoft has seized on a very similar idea and will place media-enabled shopping cards in Safeway starting next year. It would be very cool if Richard were somehow involved in this project.
1. News Flash: Large corporations are inhuman. Example: My wife purchased a few items on her infrequently used debit card totaling probably $150. Five days later she calls up Bank of America's customer service number. "How much money do I have available in my account?" she asks them, having forgotten about the prior purchases. They tell her she has around $200, so she uses the card to purchase a $175 item.
Now of course technically she should write all of her debit card purchases down in a ledger which she would balance after each purchase but she (and I too) thought that if she exceeded the amount of money available in her account while using a debit card, the debit card would fail to authorize due to insufficient funds. Not so.
Merchants submit their credit card charges in nightly batches, which are then posted by the bank during the next business day. If the merchant's bank is different than the consumer's bank, then additional time may pass while the two banks exchange info. This is what happened to my wife.
So a day or two after she made her final $175 purchase, the four prior purchases were posted. In quick succession she was charged four individual insufficient fund charges of $35 each for a total of $140 in bank charges.
Why do I think this is inhuman? Because the bank has the information. I can look at the internet page for my own debit card and see charges minutes after they are approved. They appear with a "pending" indicator to let me know that the charge is not yet final. I'll bet if I tried to go over my approved balance with my credit card that the charge would be declined.
I believe the bank is allowing those charges to go forward for the express purpose of collecting the insufficient fund fees, and while this may make good business sense for the bank it is antisocial behavior. It's also usurious because the stated purpose of the fees is to compensate the bank for incurred inconvenience--an inconvenience for which they are being very well compensated at $35/transaction.
In a world where I and my wife's business mattered to the bank they would not engage in such behavior--they would want to maintain a good relationship with us and with our friends and neighbors. But in today's world, we're all statistics. Goliath entities like Bank of America or Citibank would rather spend millions on re sculpting their corporate logos then on maintaining and improving relations with their existing customers.
The problem with unrestricted capitalism is that large corporations like Bank of America and Citibank are psychopathic and, without the helpful prodding of antitrust and other regulations, would soon merger their way into a single global monopoly.
Perhaps we can find some way to join a credit union.
2. Somebody's been sending around one of those viral emails claiming that Obama is a Muslim. He's not, but the idea that him being a Muslim would be a problem is offensive to me. To the person responsible for the email I say "get a life". There's a saying that goes something like this: Not all Republicans are xenophobes but all xenophobes are Republicans.
3. The TATA car company in India has announced a $2500 car. To me, the big news here is not that it costs $2500 but that it has a maximum speed of 50 mph. There are mothers who drive through our residential neighborhood at 50mph in their 175hp minivans, and some jerk went flying by me the other day in a 158hp Toyota Camry on the narrow two lane mountain road that I drive to work. So in my opinion less horsepower would be a very positive development for American cars. Too many Americans take out their pent up frustrations and anxieties via the gas pedal. A side benefit of less horsepower would be better gas mileage, which in turn would mean that Bush wouldn't have to work so hard to keep tensions in the Hormuz Strait
</rant>
In other news, seven or eight years ago I had the pleasure of working with a very bright guy named Richard Wynn. Richard's final project for his MBA was a business venture for a company that would develop and place internet enabled grocery carts in grocery stores. He wasn't able to get funding for his idea, and he moved on. However, I was not surprised to see in today's SlashDot that Microsoft has seized on a very similar idea and will place media-enabled shopping cards in Safeway starting next year. It would be very cool if Richard were somehow involved in this project.
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