Corporate assumptions or is it presumptions?

Based on the credit card I didn't ask for ("Corporate efficiency - unwanted, unreceived new card"), Visa is emailing me certificates for "FreeMonee Gifts".  "These Gifts are matched to your interests, allowing you to shop at hundreds of stores and restaurants."

The current offer is for $5 off for an online order of Omaha Steaks.  Where do they get the idea that I want to buy steaks online?  That I used my previous card at some restaurants?  How would they know I ordered steak?  More likely I had fish or chicken.  But I started a plant-based diet two-months ago; see "Serendipity leads to weight loss".

Allowing me "to shop at hundreds of stores and restaurants"?  Do I need their permission to shop at any of these stores and restaurants?  If I wanted to, would I need their "gift" of five dollars off to do so?  What it really means is enticing me "to shop at hundreds of stores and restaurants" that I might not visit otherwise.  Oh yes, using my credit card so Visa can collect more fees from the hundreds of stores and restaurants.  Adam Smith is correct again about deceiving the public.

What I really use my credit card for is recurring donations or subscriptions so that I don't get caught with an overdraft using my debit card.  I also use it for expenses that I didn't expect, like a big car repair.  Otherwise, I use cash, check, or debit card, preferring the first two because they save local businesses the card fees.

Corporate efficiency - unwanted, unreceived new card

I received a letter from Elan that my Visa card had been upgraded with all these new "super" features, none of which I really needed or wanted.  The letter stated that I should have already received my card and all I needed to do was activate it.

The problem was that I never received the card.  If I did, I might have thrown it out knowingly or unknowingly, but I doubt it.

Then I received an email touting all the benefits of the new card.  That was ten days ago.  I sent email to the local branch manager of the bank that issued the card; she replied she would check on it and asked me to call at the end of the week if I still had not received it.  I did not receive the card by Friday

Today I talked with somebody in the main office of the bank and she said they would request a new card for me and I should have it Wednesday.  Elan would charge a $15 lost card fee but the bank would give me credit for it.

Now I'm going to have to go through all the organizations that I have authorized to debit my credit card automatically and change my account number.  What a nuisance!

So, why did Elan decide I should have something that I didn't ask for?  Are they hoping that the "rewards" offered with the card would induce me to spend more?  I suppose lots of people will be overjoyed to be upgraded.

I guess the upside is that I can use the points to pay on the balance.  The mischievous part of me wants to use it every month.  Let's see, a $100 balance would give me 100 points.  Would that be a dollar, a dime, or a penny?  It reminds me of the people who overpaid charge card bills by one cent because they were not getting any response from the store about a problem.  A clerk processing the checks would notice, but a computer processing thousands of electronic payments would probably not notice.

Well, the computer might notice and send a message to somebody, but since so many companies won't allow spaces in a keyed-in card number, would any take the time to put in such a filter?

Tort reform: for whom?

One of the big pushes for "conservatives" is tort reform, but it seems they are only concerned with individuals suing large corporations and winning seven figure judgments (millions).  Have you noticed these same critics rarely call for tort reform of one corporation against another?  Or multiple corporations judgments won by multiple corporations? On the order of ten figures (billions)?

This is the judgment that was made against Visa, MasterCard, and several banks in favor of many merchants.  The judgment: 7.25 billion dollars!  See "Visa, MasterCard, banks in $7.25 billion retails settlement", Reuters via Yahoo! Finance, 2012-07-13.  Where is the cry for tort reform in this case?  But if that is not enough, Target and Wal-Mart have chimed in that the judgment is too lenient!  It is not changing a "broken" system.  See "Wal-Mart opposes proposed settlement on credit card fees", Rueters via Yahoo! Finance, 2012-07-27.

I haven't worked out the exact numbers, but if a credit card company charges merchants two percent on card transactions, pays the merchants within a week, and collects from the cardholder within a month, it is charging about 12% interest or better.  Considering that almost all the credit card processing is done by computer rather than an army of clerks transcribing charge slips, the processing costs per transaction are fractions of a cent.  Oh, and another place all the jobs have gone.  What a money machine!