What you do is to get a credit card that offers virtual account numbers with a limited amount and expiration. You get a unique generated credit card number, expiration date, and CCV for each transaction. It's very fast and if the number gets stolen. or if the merchant is crooked, they don't have your real credit card number and the virtual card number won't work. I use these often if ordering online from sites that I am unfamiliar with.
Virtual cards are also good if you buy something where you have to cancel or they will do auto-renew, since they can't do auto renew. I bought a tablet with a $60 rebate if you signed up for a free McAffee subscription with a credit card for automatic renewal after one year. Of course I used a virtual card ($1 limit, two month expiration date).
Two of the two times I have had to get a new credit card it was because of breaches at brick and mortar stores, once at Home Depot, once at Target, and you can't use virtual cards there. I had only one breach from an online merchant (Bike Nashbar).
Citibank Double Cash (2% flat rate rebate) offers virtual account numbers, as do some other cards, but most cards don't have this feature. It's just not a good card to use outside the U.S. because of a high foreign transaction fee. Requires a high FICO score, I think 800+.
I went to HD to purchase some plywood. Wanted to have it ripped into 10" wide strips. Kid came to the saw -- cuz customers aren't capable of operating a saw that is *bound* to a table/rig! :-/
Told him what I wanted. He pulled out his tape rule and asked me to show him 10 inches... Alarmed, I took it upon myself to mark the plywood -- allowing 1/8" for each cut as I'm sure that wouldn't occur to him!
Different occasion, I purchased two (identical) $9.99 items at grocery store up the street. Had my $20+1+1 (cash) in my hands in anticipation of the bill. Little girl announces $40-something dollars and looks to me for payment.
I smile and bring my hand holding cash close to my chest (it's a routine I've developed over years of dealing with stupid clerks):
"What's wrong with this picture?" (smiling disarmingly) "Huh??" (clueless) "This is $9.99" (motioning to first bottle) "let's call it $10" "And this, too, is also $9.99" (motioning to second bottle -- same stuff!) "so lets call it $10, too! Ten plus ten... ?" (motioning to the $40 total displayed on the register) "Yeah?" (still clueless) "(sigh) Just ring it up again, please..."
Now, of course, SHE is annoyed because I'm making her do something she's already done (and we all know how hard ringing up two items can be!)
The issue in each case is how the two individuals had no "feel" for the numbers. I.e., seeing two items that were "about $10 each" should, in my mind, have caused the second cashier to be puzzled when the machine told her $40 -- instead of just parroting the display and asking me for $40.
I can understand the first kid being overzealous and putting marks at
10, 20, 30, 40 ... 90 inches along the 8 ft plywood sheet and, in doing so, leaving me with 9-7/8 wide strips. Or, a 10" strip followed by a bunch of 9-7/8 strips (depending on which side of his mark he cuts). I can understand him forgetting that the blade takes material away and failing to allow for that -- having *knowledge* that the customer might not!
But, I can't understand him being unable to use a ruler!
For higher priced items, the extra year of warranty that is offered by many credit cards is well worth the small hassle if a credit card is compromised. And it's not like a debit card where you can lose money from your account and then have to fight to get it back, it's just the hassle of getting a new credit card.
I recently called Amex because a point and shoot camera with a one year warranty had stopped working on a trip. I expected a hassle. There was none. They looked up the transaction and they did not even want the camera back, they just credited my account for the full cost. On higher value items they want some verification though, a quote for the repair cost.
There's also the 2% cash back on a good credit card. It really adds up over a year. We get back close to $1000 per year. Remember, the credit card company's commissions are essentially built in to all retail pricing already, so unless a company offers a cash discount it's better off financially to pay with a credit card.
Around 1975 I worked for the federal office of workers compensation in NYC. (Most of the injured employees were postal workers, because most federal employees coverred were postal employees)
Some were on permanent disability and once in a while cost of living increases had to be figured for their benfits. All 12 of us stopped what we were doing to figure them out. We each had a caluculator, but two of us had programmable calculators, each with an instruction manual. One used 2" wide cardboard strips, with holes that could be punched. I think i got that one. We also had worksheets that had to be filled out, one for each person on disabilty, in which we wrote down the original amont, the 3% increase, the sum. It was so frustrating to do that by hand when I had in front of me a programmable calculator, but when iirc I called it to his attention, he said to continue as I was.
I stayed in at lunch, reading the manual but an hour wasn't enough. I stayed late, even though no one stayed late, and read the manual and started punching holes (they had a stack of strips). Finally I came in on Saturday, even though afaik there was no procedure for coming in on Saturday, and I didn't expect to get paid for any of this overtime, but I didn't like being frustrated.
You could make long programs by using more than one strip in a row. And if you made an error, you could edit the program with scissors, cutting off the strip just before the bad instruction. One time I cut the strip so short, I put it in the slot and it didn't come out the other end!! I was scared, because I wasn't supposed to be there anyhow. This was in the tall office building built where the camera used to be for New Years Eve in Times Square, 45 and Broadway. I went down to the street and they had a drugstore at ground level. The drugstore sold philips screwdrivers. Whew. I went back and took the cover off the calculator, still afraid the janitor would see me and I'd never be able to convince anyone I knew what I was doing (since of course I'd never seen a programmable calculator before.)
Anyhow, it only took me an hour or two longer, and I was ready for Monday morning. I showed it to the boss, but he didnt' take my word. He had someone calculate several of them the old way while I ran the programmable calculator (which also printed the work sheet strip, enough to fulfill that requirement.) After 5 or more of these, he took everyone off calculating duty except one person with the good calculator. He couldn't do the work of 12, but he could do the work of 3 or 4, and we'd be done in time.
The other calculator used magnetic strips, about the same size as the paper, but the code was invisible, and the manual was harder to understand. Impossible without the manual. Oh yeah, it had storage areas, and you couldn't just say X * 1.Y% = answer. You could only move and add, no mulitiplying. But it would also print a paper strip and I think I got that working in a couple hours.
What's really bad is that I had surgery and recuperation and didnt' get back there adn didnt' train anyone else to do what I'd done, or even leave notes, or return to that job. The next time the % increase was likely different, and I'm not sure they could figure it out.
One of the first things new (no experience) guys in the cabinet shop got was a "big inch" , a piece of paper with an inch expanded to 8" and the 8ths , quarters etc drawn in . A good proportion couldn't relate that to the "regular inch" on their tape measure ... I had a helper (when I was doing insurance repairs for a contractor) that I had writing measurements down as I called them out . One of the measurements read "31 inches and 25 cents" ...
Your banking information is already online. Are you under the delusion that banks aren't using computer networks to store and transmit everyone's banking information?
LOL! I wonder when the last time Paintedcow received a cancelled check back with his bank statement? Is he puzzled over the clerk at some stores scanning his check and handing it back to him before saying "Thank you! Have a nice day!"?
It's his money and privacy so whatever he does or doesn't do is fine, I just hate to see some people have a false sense of security (or paranoia) simply because of ignorance.
Up to about 5 years or so ago I used to either do cash or checks for almost everything and seldom used a credit card. Then I found out about the cash back. Some cards even give from $ 20 to $ 50 just for getting their card and using it a few times. It is almost a pain to keep up with the cards as they give different ammouts depenting on where I shop. "Had" to get a Lowes card just to get the 5% off. I do pay off the cards each month so no interist to be paid. With many of the cards charging from 10 to 25 % I sure don't want to pay any extra.
With almost everything going to computers now, unless you only deal in cash, there is no real security.
I pay almost all the bills by computer and directly from the credit union. By charging almost everything by credit card (getting back a percentage) I have about 6 bills to pay every month. Couple of credit cards , phone, internet, power. Saves about $ 5 a month on stamps that way and no gas to go from place to place to pay a bill.
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