The only time cash is frustrating for my wife and I are when we buy gas. So we use our debit card for that.
We also enjoy the "Dave Ramsey" system of envelopes. I admit we've slipped up a few times recently, but we found using the envelope system works out REALLY well. It just takes self control. But when you put $X in for eating out, and the envelope is empty...you have to be prepared to COOK! Which is something many people can't handle.

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Cat; the other white meat.

I got burned by a Department Store credit card back in the day. "Sign up, get XX% off!" "What the heck" I said, since I was spending $200.

I was spending $200 because I kept getting fliers for the store from the previous residents of the apartment. Marketing works, something caught my eye, and off I went.

Pretty much immediately after that, all of those fliers dried up. Then I didn't hear anything from anyone for 4 months. By then, it was a collection agency. I lived on "8th" street, they recorded it as "Ace" street and "that was that". So, in the end, that didn't work out. So I don't do those any more.

The point is simply that with a credit card, when the money is in dispute (for whatever reason), it's the banks money that's in dispute, not mine. With a debit card, it's the other way around. If someone steals my credit card and racks up $400, I still have $400 in my bank account until the claim is settled. With a debit card, it's not. Once settled, they will give it back. In the interim, I'm out $400. That's pretty sucky when that's your gas and grocery money, even for a day or two. Chargebacks can take even longer to resolve (but ideally have less impact, since you planned to spend that money anyway).

Banks are very good advocates for the consumer when it comes to fraud, and things work out eventually. But it's during that dispute phase that it matters. (There's also these odd shenanigans about different places that put "holds" or something on debit cards, to cover potential overages and what not -- I've only heard about them tangentially, as I've never encountered them).

Consumer credit can certainly be abused, but it's also a great tool when used responsibly.

Some (but not all) hotels do that. That would be bad for a debit card I think.

I saw a show recently that basically said that much of the fraud/theft of credit cards, debit cards, bank accounts, etc. almost never gets returned to the bank.

For example, if someone steals your card (CC, bank, debit, etc.) and charges $200, you get that $200 back. But the bank almost never gets it from the thief. In fact, it's mostly a write off. Just the cost of doing business. Of course we all pay for that in fees. The stuff we buy costs more because of it too (merchant fees). In fact, according to the show, banks don't take security seriously anywhere near as much as people think. Sure we have chips now but it's amazingly simple to get a CC, charge a bunch of stuff and never pay. Eventually a collection agency may find you. Most people aren't criminal masterminds. But there are literally tens of thousands of professional thieves stealing from the banks every day and we all pay the price.

When credit card companies offer credit cards to dead people and dogs, it's no wonder they loose so much money. Then again, technically, they aren't loosing any at all.

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Cat; the other white meat.

Here in the USA, a lot of gas stations do that. I'm not sure why, since one usually uses his card to activate the pump to purchase fuel.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Placing the hold is what activates the pump in the first place. The hold is supposed to be replaced by the actual purchase on the second swipe, but procedures are a bit sloppy in practice.

Second swipe, eh? In the UK, paying for fuel by pre-authorised debit/credit card instead of going to the kiosk afterwards (known as "pay at pump") only became prevalent after chip & pin payment supplanted the use of the magnetic stripe a decade ago. In our use case you pull up, insert your card, enter your pin, a hold of a notional amount is placed (to verify the card is valid and has some funds) then after you finish filling the hold is automatically replaced with the final bill.* So how exactly does the routine work over there?


*One supermarket/filling station got some bad press after trialing a hold on the maximum transaction value instead, but some banks were slow in releasing the hold, and customers took to social media to complain at the high values being "taken then later refunded" by the supermarket. They've gone back to a minimum hold value again.

I think smartphones are incredibly useful. I use mine as calculator, flashlight, photo and video camera, notepad (my phone comes with a stylus), grocery list, and navigation tool. Sometimes I even use it to (gasp) make phone calls!

===Jac

Wait, what? You can make phone calls? Will wonders never cease!

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Just found this post while looking for solution to the same mobile problem: browsing this forum on mobile is pain.

Here's an attachment of me trying to type this message:



Unfortunately, my sight is not as sharp as it used to be, so I find myself zooming in and out all the time. Reading large posts with lots of text is also a frustrating experience, since the text doesn't fit on the screen when zoomed in.

I tried Tapatalk - 6502.org is not listed there, possible due to PHPBB2 being really old.

I do use my mobile for almost all work-related communication: work chat, reading & replying to emails, code reviews.
I only use my laptop when I have to write actual code or do diagramming. As for 6502 forums, I spend 50% of time reading it from my mobile.

I tried writing my own mobile plugin that adds responsive CSS to this site for one of the browsers, but it proved to be too time-consuming, so I ditched the idea.

P. S. Sorry for any typos - by the time I finish writing thisvpost, my eyes will be too tired to do another proofread over this tiny text.

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/Andrew

deck65 - 6502 slab with screen and keyboard | ПК-88 - SBC based on KM1810VM88 (Ukrainian i8088 clone) | leo80 - simple Z80 SBC
nice65 - 6502 assembly linter | My parts, footprints & 3D models for KiCad/FreeCAD

I'm regularly using my phone to browse the forum, with Firefox on iOS. It's a bearable experience, but yeah the text is tiny.

One super annoying thing, though, is I keep getting logged out, presumably as I move across cell towers and my IP changes?

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BB816 Computer YouTube series

When I use mobile for this forum, I'll often turn it sideways and then zoom to fit the width of the right hand panels. (It's still not ideal, but I'm not complaining.)

I use a tablet (iPad) for reading forums 90% of the time. 6502.org works flawlessly on iPad.
Bill

The worst part of using this (or any) forum on mobile is that damn autocorrection.
It always tries to "correct" my English texts to German.

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ROR A? Where we're coding, we don't need A.