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Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

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321–330 of 360 posts

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

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post #309

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European (or at least Dutch) debit cards are not Visa or Mastercard. They are either Maestro or V Pay. These cards don't have a 16 digit card number and CVV that you can in online shops and pay with those. This has the advantage that these numbers also cannot be "stolen" and then used by criminals to buy things. Debit cards are really just for physical payment, where you either use contactless payment or by using a P…

Ah, I see. Well, just get Visa or MasterCard, even in Germany it's very easy these days.

Errr depends on the area. Sometimes they have EC but not VISA and then you look like a cashless moron (I literally only ever have minimal 'not a vagrant' cash in France, and never use it, especially since they added touch-pay for <20EUR and increased it to <50EUR during first lockdown).

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#322
post #245
post #238

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Ding ding ding. Much easier to get family migration visas too. Multiculturalism is a lot better than other comparable nations. Think of house prices as reflecting the "price of living in Australia".

Ironically, Australians have access to a special kind of visa that allows them to migrate very easily to the US, with work rights for your spouse and everything! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-3_visa

E3 is not for migration purpose, does make the jump easier at the start

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not American, so I have less insight than you perhaps, but I'd say America is much more affordable than Australia. In Australia most jobs are in Sydney and Melbourne. Perth is mostly for mining and Brisbane doesn't have many tech jobs. Real estate prices in Sydney and Melbourne are in the million(s), but incomes are ~100+k AUD. Some people earn 200k+ as a principal engineer, but that's pretty much it. In America…

Brisbane has plenty of tech jobs. I'm netting $250,000 inc bonuses as an SRE and the markets rife for oppertunity. Not FAANG either.

250k net means ~230k + super? Is this contracting? And may I ask your rank in org?

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#324
post #287

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> Insurance, points, cashback, chargebacks Dutch here. We don't have points or cashback. Purchases are insured with standard bank debit payments as well, as are chargebacks. I do own a credit card but that is purely for the occasional (usually US) webshop that doesn't accept European debit cards, or as a backup payment method on vacation (my debit card once broke on vacation and my family had to send me money through…

What kind of store doesn't accept "European" debit cards, but accepts credit cards? Visa and MasterCard debit should work anywhere online regardless of origin.

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Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

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In Australia millennials, are allergic to credit cards. Credit card usage in that demographic is really low. Instead they prefer BNPL services as a credit mechanism. Banks have also responded and offer credit cards that don’t act like normal credit cards[1] [1] https://www.commbank.com.au/credit-cards/commbank-neo.html

Maybe I’m wrong but I have the feeling that credit cards as a norm is really just an American thing. In Europe where I live, I know nobody who buys anything with a credit card or barely if there is a 0% rate promotion. Credit cards do exists here but they are the card some shop gave you for whatever reason that you’d better never use. What is interesting is that we use the term « credit card » to speak about our debi…

> In Europe where I live, I know nobody who buys anything with a credit card

Renting a car or making a hotel reservation without a credit card can be quite painful, even in Europe.

With a credit card the deposit is held on your card but the money never moves, with debit the money is gone from your account.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#326
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brisbane has plenty of tech jobs. I'm netting $250,000 inc bonuses as an SRE and the markets rife for oppertunity. Not FAANG either.

What sector are you in? According to linkedin and glassdoor senior engineers in Melbourne earn between 110k-160k. 250k is very high.

SREs are usually higher, up to about 180k last I checked, with the market getting really hot in the past 12 months, I would not be surprised if that number's passed the 200k mark now.

250k for non-contracting is indeed impressive. I'm guessing a trading firm, in that case, they are outliers, curious if they have presence in Brissie though.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#327
post #142

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I've received roughly $3000 in rewards from my credit card usage over the past six years. Not a life-changing amount, but not completely insignificant, either. I think the biggest thing that I've lost is data privacy, but I would think that debit cards incur the same cost. I've never used any of the benefits like extra insurance/warranty, but it's nice to know they exist. Chargebacks on debit cards are also much more…

You do realise that you have paid that $3000 in higher prices, right? The credit card companies and banks are not giving you free money.

Interested to hear you elaborate.

It might be different in different countries, but in the US you do not pay additional to use a credit card. As long as you pay on time each month many credit cards have zero fees or interest. Rewards can range from 1-5 percent cash back, which does add up.

Now if you are making a larger point about credit cards increasing the general cost of goods across the board as merchants incur the cost and pass along to the consumer to maintain margin, sure, but that ship sailed a long time ago. The only reasonable reaction from the consumer is to leverage the convenience, protections, and float afforded by credit cards, while maximizing any rewards afforded by said cards.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#328
post #325
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I’m wrong but I have the feeling that credit cards as a norm is really just an American thing. In Europe where I live, I know nobody who buys anything with a credit card or barely if there is a 0% rate promotion. Credit cards do exists here but they are the card some shop gave you for whatever reason that you’d better never use. What is interesting is that we use the term « credit card » to speak about our debi…

> In Europe where I live, I know nobody who buys anything with a credit card Renting a car or making a hotel reservation without a credit card can be quite painful, even in Europe. With a credit card the deposit is held on your card but the money never moves, with debit the money is gone from your account.

Renting a car or making a hotel reservation without a credit card can be quite painful, even in Europe.

I have lived in Europe basically my entire adult life and have never had a problem doing either of these with a debit card.

Re: Square to acquire Afterpay for $29B

#330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the reason you don't want to use Instagram?

It's not part of the public internet, that's probably the main problem, but I also have quite a strong aversion to things run by large corporations. At the moment I let google in, but that's it. (and they completely ruined my previous picasa-album sharing of my galleries of fractals, so I'm not hugely happy here either!) I am more interested to find a passionate niche of ppl that really love the journey than getting…

you can search for things on instagram on google and they appear in the results. you can browse instagram without an account, some of it.
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