Useless Conversation

[FatuousTwat]

St. Germain - Sure Thing

Probably not a lot of peoples cup of tea.

[Righ]

I bought Tourist (the album that comes from) when it came out because I was working in Paris at the time. But I still used the same gag as Ironwood somewhere on the net recently.

[Ironwood]

I am, in many ways, totally unoriginal.

 

[lamaros]

My chips, thay're not very good. 

[Sir T]

Can I just say that when you spend 3 hours editing a sound file its not cool for a tech support guy to come in and casually shut the editing program down without saving the file. so he can run a cd scanning software. Yes that happened to me today.

[Merusk]

As a gamer the notion of 'save early, save often' should not be foreign to you, so I have to ask why you didn't.   Lord knows it's saved me weeks of cumulative work over the years in AutoCAD.

[Sir T]

Fair point. All I can say is that editing that particultar show always turns my head to mush. Its a show by some mentaly disabled people and I have to edit out them breathing and stammering every second to make it more broadcastable. Not exactly their fault but its EXTREAMLY tedious. I also have to add in music and other stuff. By the end I have a spiltting headache and I cant even think straight. I probably desperatly wanted to get it over and done with as quickly as possible.

Its also a question why he clicked "NO" when the dialog  came up that the file had been changed and did he want to save it.

Btw I'm this close to ranting on about the crap that's been going on at work lately. I'll control myself.

[Yegolev]

Can I just say that when you spend 3 hours editing a sound file its not cool for a tech support guy to come in and casually shut the editing program down without saving the file. so he can run a cd scanning software. Yes that happened to me today.

I'm curious what circumstances led to him using your machine?  Is it a public machine?

[Sir T]

I'm curious what circumstances led to him using your machine?  Is it a public machine?

It was in the training room, that I have to use for my editing work as they dont want me cluttering up the public office with me. Its fair enough as some office machines are supposed to be avalible to the volunteers. But he is the network admin and tech support guy and he basicly marched in and started running scans an all the machines without saying a word. I had to leave the room to deal with something.

When I came back he was sitting at the machine closing everything and he muttered at me if it was ok to close it the program and when I said ok (thinking I can work with it in the studio or something) he just hit close and casually clicked No. And even more madeningly he was running this scan on every other computer in the place so I could not start again.

[Sky]

Maybe they'll let you work in a real office now. I never close anyone's documents unless I'm sure they want them saved or not. Last night I had a drive imaging that was taking forever, I had an internal debate about whether to just start over in the morning or leave it imaging after I left. Because someone would walk over, ignore the progress bar, and just shut it off. "Hey, you left that computer on last night, so I shut it down for you!"

I've had to make up signs because we have a lot of very technically ignorant people (ie: job security?) that will just shut down scans and stuff if I leave the room to grab a screwdriver or something. I feel it's why the Fallon character is so funny. Because it's true.

[FatuousTwat]

I just coughed and a feather came out... Maybe I should get rid of my pillow.

[MrHat]

I just coughed and a feather came out... Maybe I should get rid of my pillow.

Or stop fellating Big Bird.

[FatuousTwat]

It was white.

[MrHat]

It was white.

Right.  You think all his feathers are yellow?

[FatuousTwat]

And how would you know?!

I'm gonna call him and get to the bottom of this... Errr...

[Strazos]

Hat loves money, that's how he knows.

[Signe]

Banks have always been dodgy in my opinion but so have most charities.  I just think everything is dodgy!  A bank with which I have a credit card that I haven't used in a couple of years but also haven't completely paid off, sent me a notice that they're going to raise my APR almost 6 percent.  They tried to do this once before and I closed the account.  It pisses me off when banks do this.  It's happened three times recently and I've closed every one of those accounts, just on principle.  I don't care about our credit rating.  We stopped using credit almost three years ago and only use cash or our bank debit card.  I'm not planning to buy a house or a car or finance any thing at all, so when banks mess with me, I don't let them bully me, I simply shut down the accounts.  Our credit rating is still well into the 700s though it did slip from what "they" consider excellent to simply very good.  Credit ratings might mean a bit to the institutions that you want some sort of financing from, but it means nothing to the banks who hold your debt.  So fuck them.  We live fine on the money we have and the money Righ earns. 

So anyway - my point:  This stupid bank wanted to raise the apr on a closed account which had only a balance and has not been used in three years.  They include an opt out which means that if you send a letter to refuse the change, they close the account and you just carry on paying it off as usual, at the same rate.  But we already danced this dance.  We closed the account.  They just wanted to see if we'd pay them more money for no reason or benefit to us.  It was a trick.  A sham.  It should be criminal, but it's not because they can do anything they like. (at least until 2010 maybe) Who do we blame for that?  Regan?  I don't know.  I even called them to ask what they think would possess me to give them a bailout.  She said, "if you have a balance, even if the account is closed, you are subject to this change".  She really said that! 

Anyway - my other point:  Be careful.  I've found that some banks send letters and some try and sneak the changes in the monthly statements.  One stuck it right in between spam advertising Omaha steaks and some other product that I don't remember.  Every bank that tries to do this to us, I refuse and close the account immediately.  Next week I'll pay off this card, too.  I'm obsessive about stuff so whenever this happens I write every agency I can think of.  I wrote horrible things about BoA, sent them copies, and they actually LOWERED my apr but it was too late.  I already sliced off their big giant hungry fingers.  Everyone should.  Banks suck.

[rattran]

Some banks suck. I've now got my accounts with a small, local bank. They've been quite pleasant to deal with each time I've done so. Even mentioning to me at one point I could set up to roll over a cd early and get the better rate right before one of the drops.

That said, I have no credit cards now, and am much happier for it. Every time I had to deal with a credit card bank it was tedious hassle. And BoA is the devil, they still owe me $120. Fuckers.

[Salamok]

capital one just jacked my rate from 9% to 17% for no reason, I opened a new card and balance transferred to that for 0% for the next 12 months.  Sure there was a 3% balance transfer fee but still it was worth it for me.  Only thing I am truly pissed about is having to jump through all these hoops to get the best deal and the fact that being a good long term customer means nothing to these people.  If I ever BK (not likely) I'll be sure and balance transfer everything back to capital one so they get stuck holding the ball.

[Signe]

No, it doesn't matter what your rating is, whether or not you've gone over your limit, missed payments or anything.  It's like a lottery or something.  They just keep adding to the list, hoping people won't  notice or will notice too late.  They've not been successful with us, but you have to wonder how many people never look at the bottom of their bill where they put adverts and then, three or four weeks later, it's too late.  It's coming time where these banks will be much more restricted and they're desperate to squeeze every last dime out of whoever they can before that happens.  It's been happening more and more and, from what I've been reading, this sort of behaviour has hit an all time high.  Hopefully, people aren't just complaining on the internet and are actually making a big stink everywhere about it.

[schild]

Guys.

I've found a hipster douchebag band I like.

The Virgins

No, I'm not kidding.

[Yegolev]

[voodoolily]

capital one just jacked my rate from 9% to 17% for no reason, I opened a new card and balance transferred to that for 0% for the next 12 months.  Sure there was a 3% balance transfer fee but still it was worth it for me.  Only thing I am truly pissed about is having to jump through all these hoops to get the best deal and the fact that being a good long term customer means nothing to these people.  If I ever BK (not likely) I'll be sure and balance transfer everything back to capital one so they get stuck holding the ball.

When they do that, sometimes you can just call them and tell that you do not accept the rate increase and get it reduced.

Also, they don't let you balance transfer to and from the same bank - what you do is this: you have to request the blank checks instead, write the check to yourself, and then send the payment from your personal checking account. Otherwise they don't let you.

Lastly, be warned that while it's a smart move from your perspective, balance transfers negatively affect your credit score. I should know! My score is over 800, no joke, after working my ass out of huge debt hole (including being sent to collections).

[Yegolev]

Fuck a credit score.

[voodoolily]

Envy's a bitch, innit.

[Yegolev]

Mine is over 700, but I don't plan on begging for a loan anytime soon.

[bhodi]

I hate hate being in debt to someone else. I have done everything in my power but eat ramen every night to pay down my mortgage. People say "Oh, credit cards count but mortgage doesn't".. bullshit. I've paid cash for every car I've bought since the first one. I have had credit card debt (in the order of 5k) once in my life, and that was when I was between jobs. As soon as I got a new job, I was dumping every cent I could into that until it was gone.

When I finally pay off my mortgage I am going to close the fuck out of all my accounts and throw a party. One credit card, one checking account, a home eq line of credit for emergencies, and my retirement/investments.

I cannot stand banks that take advantage of people beholden to them, and I refuse to be beholden to anyone if I there is any conceivable way I can avoid it. Every year it gets worse, with overdraft fees late fees processing fees termination fees transaction fees and completely shit rates of return.

I am lending them MY money and they charge me for the privilege in a variety of sneaky, underhanded ways? No thanks.

[voodoolily]

I have a couple credit cards, but no balance on any of them. It's why my score is so high - my credit:debt ratio is insane. I have a car payment, a student loan and the mortgage, that's it. 

[WayAbvPar]

Fuck banks. Use credit unions.

[apocrypha]

Some banks suck.

All banks suck. What do they do exactly? They don't produce *anything*. They just redistribute profits made by real labour.

While we're on the subject of scams, I keep getting calls to my mobile from a mobile number I don't recognise. If I answer them there's just silence. If I leave them to ring then they leave a voicemail that says "We have detected no response. Call this 0845 number to contact us and prevent further calls".  0845 numbers are revenue sharing numbers, i.e. the company you are ringing gets some of the money you pay to your phone company to phone that number. Obvious scam is obvious.

[Signe]

We've used a credit union since we moved here.  Unfortunately, we used other credit cards but we're fixing that now.  When I said I don't care about credit scores, I really mean it.  This whole "credit score" stuff is out of control.  Everyone wants to run your credit history for everything.  Oh, and too many credit score inquiries can badly affect your score, too!  Even charities run a credit history on people who contribute.  Geez. 

Credit ratings are being affected by strange and surreal criteria today, such as shopping habit changes.  It doesn't seem to be about math anymore.  Even closing down accounts because you find the banks to be dodgy adversely affects your rating.  People are actually afraid to discard old accounts because of it.  That's nuts.  Switching to the dollar stores to shop doesn't show you're being responsible with money.  It means you're having financial issues and they better attack your APR and get every cent they can before you run out of money.   Some crazy bank with bizarre criteria can blow up your score in seconds.  The more I read about credit scores and how they're being used, the better I feel about not giving a shit anymore

[Sky]

I use a local bank for most of my loans and a regional bank for my checking. They don't really pull shenanigans like the big banks do.

[WayAbvPar]

At least until a megabank comes along and buys them up. Then you are right fucked.

[Draegan]

I need to start looking for a new avatar.

[Yegolev]

I am suspicious that one thing is true about credit scores: a hard-up bank will give you a pass if you really want a big loan.  Not planning on testing this, just basing it on my experiences with a mortgage and a refi, plus other things like banks not wanting to go out of business these days.

The boy got his grades today, all threes.  This is on a 1-3 scale since he's pre-k.  I was rightly amazed, he's going to a very academically-highly-rated school.  We took him to McDonald's.   Can't put it on the Facebook because the other parents would see, and no one likes that.