Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Credit Card Surcharges & Checkout fees in the Hood
A few months ago I went to a different barbershop to get a haircut; my regular barber was booked up and I really needed a haircut, so I went to one close to my home. After the nice stylish haircut I got, I pulled out my debit card to pay and to my surprise the cashier at the barbershop told me that I would have to pay an additional $2 dollars if I used a credit or debit card. I had no cash on me and had to use my debit card. I was pretty pissed off and swore that I would never do business with that barbershop again, which happens to be a very popular barbershop in Charlotte, NC. For this blog I will leave them nameless.
It was not until I went to another merchant months later; in which they also tacked on an extra surcharge to my purchase that I said enough with this! I am personally going to find out what my rights are as a consumer.
I did a little research and boy was I very pleased to find that these practices are prohibited by most credit card companies. If you fall victim to credit or debit card checkout fees or surcharges you have rights and you should use them. The credit card issuers like VISA, MasterCard and American Express are our allies and will help you.
What Can We Do To Stop This?
All we have to do is pick up the phone or get on the Internet and report them! If the merchant is found out to be violating the terms of using credit card issuers terms they could end up losing their credit and debit card processing privileges and/ or pay fines.
In a nutshell a merchant cannot charge you anymore for a product or service that you would pay with cash if you use a credit or debit card. Now a merchant can offer to give you a discount from normal prices if you pay with cash. I think that is fair.
You see technology has helped many businesses make more money and get sales they would normally loose because technology makes it easy to access your cash or credit 24 hours a day and not have to go to the bank and stand in line to get cash. Some business owners do not get it! Credit and debit cards make you more revenue. Merchants do this because the get charged a very small percentage or flat fee to process the credit or debit card so that the money gets safely transferred into their business bank account. Additionally, I see this happening much to often in urban cites; especially in Black communities. After reading my blog we can put an end to this ridiculousness!
It was not until I went to another merchant months later; in which they also tacked on an extra surcharge to my purchase that I said enough with this! I am personally going to find out what my rights are as a consumer.
I did a little research and boy was I very pleased to find that these practices are prohibited by most credit card companies. If you fall victim to credit or debit card checkout fees or surcharges you have rights and you should use them. The credit card issuers like VISA, MasterCard and American Express are our allies and will help you.
What Can We Do To Stop This?
All we have to do is pick up the phone or get on the Internet and report them! If the merchant is found out to be violating the terms of using credit card issuers terms they could end up losing their credit and debit card processing privileges and/ or pay fines.
In a nutshell a merchant cannot charge you anymore for a product or service that you would pay with cash if you use a credit or debit card. Now a merchant can offer to give you a discount from normal prices if you pay with cash. I think that is fair.
You see technology has helped many businesses make more money and get sales they would normally loose because technology makes it easy to access your cash or credit 24 hours a day and not have to go to the bank and stand in line to get cash. Some business owners do not get it! Credit and debit cards make you more revenue. Merchants do this because the get charged a very small percentage or flat fee to process the credit or debit card so that the money gets safely transferred into their business bank account. Additionally, I see this happening much to often in urban cites; especially in Black communities. After reading my blog we can put an end to this ridiculousness!
What is a Checkout Fee?
Photo Credit: VISA.com
Learn more about Visa & MasterCard Checkout Fees & Rules:
Mastercard Merchant Manual
VISA Warns Consumers about Retailer Checkout Fees
A merchant must not directly or indirectly require any MasterCard cardholder to pay a surcharge or any part of any merchant discount or any contemporaneous finance charge in connection with a MasterCard card transaction. A merchant may provide a discount to its customers for cash payments. A merchant is permitted to charge a fee (such as a bona fide commission, postage, expedited service or convenience fees, and the life) if the fee is imposed on all like transactions regardless of the form of payment used.
* A surcharge is any fee charge in connection with a MasterCard transaction that is not charged if another payment method is used.
* The merchant discount fee is the fee the merchant pays to its acquirer to acquire transactions.
A merchant must not require, or post signs indicating that it requires, a minimum or maximum transaction amount to accept a valid MasterCard card.
What to Do if You Are Charged Checkout Fees?
If you run across a merchant who adds on extra charges to use your credit card report them!
Report MasterCard Merchants (See Section Titled: 9.12.3 Minimum/Maximum Transaction Amount Prohibited)
Report VISA Merchants
State No Surcharge Laws Protect Consumers
Consumers who are subjected to checkout fees in states where they are protected by law may report the retailer to their state attorney general's office.
10 States also Protect Consumers with No Surcharge Laws
In 10 states it is prohibited by law for retailers to charge consumers a fee for using a credit card (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas). Consumers who are subjected to checkout fees in states where they are protected by law may report the retailer to their state attorney general's office.
Click a state below to read the laws on surcharging and find out where you can go if you suspect a violation.
State Laws & Attorney General Contact InformationCalifornia
- COLORADO
- Connecticut
- Florida
- Kansas
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New York
- Oklahoma
- Texas
Be safe out there being a consumer; peace!
Julius
Friday, August 13, 2010
NASA Turns to Amazon Cloud Services for Light Speed Processing
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had over 180,000 images from a Saturn mission that they tried to process on their own computer equipment. Well... According to JPL Chief Technology Officer, Soderstrom, it took:
"It took 15 days, straight 24-by-7 processing, and it still wasn't finished"
To test the hype of Cloud Computing, NASA pulled out a credit card and spun up 60 processors with Amazon Cloud Services.
The following Realization occurred for NASA:
- Amazon's cloud finished processing it in five hours
- Total cost of $200.
- That breaks down to .66 cent per minute of use to process 180,000 images; and anybody can use Amazon Cloud Services if you don't want to own the hardware and just want to rent some computing power.
"That was some real validation for sure."
Though the image processing didn't involve critical mission or sensitive information, Soderstrom says it showed what could be done with cloud computing. And, as JPL works closely with vendors, they developed a comfort level to place more sensitive data on the cloud.
"We have validated that it can be secure if you do it right, and it can certainly save a lot of time and money."
Time, Soderstrom says, is a huge deal:
"It's more than people anticipate, maybe the biggest benefit of all. You don't have to find space in the data center, but you can just rent time.Blog Source:
http://blogs.bankinfosecurity.com/posts.php?postID=663
Enjoy,
Julius
Google & God's Algorithm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
God's algorithm is a notion originating in discussions of ways to solve the Rubik's Cube puzzle, but which can also be applied to other combinatorial puzzles and mathematical games. It refers to any algorithm which produces a solution having the least possible number of moves, the idea being that an omniscient being would know an optimal step from any given configuration.
As study using a powerful computers provided by Google and using a complex mathematical algorithm showed that a Rubik's Cube can be solve from any starting Pattern in 20 moves or less.
The computers crunched through billions of possible cube positions in just a few weeks to determine the maximum number of moves to solve the puzzle.
Research in this area has determined the Rubik's Cube God Number in the Past.
1981 - Researches showed 52 moves would be enough to solve the cube from any pattern.
1992 - Researches showed 37 moves would be enough to solve the cube from any pattern.
Note: The current world record to solve the Rubik's cube is held by Dutch Erik Akkersdijk, who solved the puzzle in 7.08 seconds.
Read Entire Story:
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/study-uncovers-every-possible-rubik-s-cube-solution/1407748
Peace!
Julius
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