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Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

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Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#501

Post by r00fus »

Bayart wrote: post #467
r00fus wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same forces that drove Tories to the extreme right also spent decades dividing Labour between itself. The first-past-the-post electoral system has no defense against well-funded interests essentially buying all the candidates. One could wonder if the substandard electoral system exists purely because of this flaw (or feature for the few powerful).

France has a completely different political structure and electoral system, and yet we've broadly seen the same phenomenon of the right wing's center of gravity always moving righter (is that even a word ?) and the left wing digging and splintering its way into irrelevance. The difference being that the electoral system produced a centrist rather than a populist (but in both cases Macron and BoJo are a pure product o…

France is essentially first-past-the-post with a single runoff for presidential (who is a very powerful executive like US model + he can dissolve parliament).

The dynamics are same prior to runoff because the plurality electoral system gives no representation to the majority that didn't vote for the winner (almost a given since there will be >2 candidates).

You'd need proportional representation and/or an electoral system like Borda,RCV,Star or instant runoff to significantly proof against spoiler mechanics that the wealthy can exploit.

Again, none of these measures guarantees against money corrupting electoral processes, just makes it more costly and unsure that any given corruptive effort pays off.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#502

Post by r00fus »

Bayart wrote: post #467
r00fus wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same forces that drove Tories to the extreme right also spent decades dividing Labour between itself. The first-past-the-post electoral system has no defense against well-funded interests essentially buying all the candidates. One could wonder if the substandard electoral system exists purely because of this flaw (or feature for the few powerful).

France has a completely different political structure and electoral system, and yet we've broadly seen the same phenomenon of the right wing's center of gravity always moving righter (is that even a word ?) and the left wing digging and splintering its way into irrelevance. The difference being that the electoral system produced a centrist rather than a populist (but in both cases Macron and BoJo are a pure product o…

Also BoJo is no centrist. He's spearheaded Brexit (some allege his buddies made bank by arbitraging currency futures pre/post vote), and he's been coordinating with Farage for a long time.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#503

Post by Tycho »

Bayart wrote: post #467
r00fus wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same forces that drove Tories to the extreme right also spent decades dividing Labour between itself. The first-past-the-post electoral system has no defense against well-funded interests essentially buying all the candidates. One could wonder if the substandard electoral system exists purely because of this flaw (or feature for the few powerful).

France has a completely different political structure and electoral system, and yet we've broadly seen the same phenomenon of the right wing's center of gravity always moving righter (is that even a word ?) and the left wing digging and splintering its way into irrelevance. The difference being that the electoral system produced a centrist rather than a populist (but in both cases Macron and BoJo are a pure product o…

The right wing moving righter? Hardly. It’s easy to see that politics has shifted drastically left. Political stances considered mainstream 30 years ago would end careers today. The so called “extreme right” Tory government, before the last reshuffle, had 3 of the 4 top government posts occupied by MPs from minority ethnicities. What you consider to be ‘moving righter’ is in fact just louder complaining due to the accelerating movement towards the left.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#504

Post by Bayart »

r00fus wrote: post #502
Bayart wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France has a completely different political structure and electoral system, and yet we've broadly seen the same phenomenon of the right wing's center of gravity always moving righter (is that even a word ?) and the left wing digging and splintering its way into irrelevance. The difference being that the electoral system produced a centrist rather than a populist (but in both cases Macron and BoJo are a pure product o…

Also BoJo is no centrist. He's spearheaded Brexit (some allege his buddies made bank by arbitraging currency futures pre/post vote), and he's been coordinating with Farage for a long time.

I can't fathom why you'd think I was alluding to BoJo as the centrist in the story.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#505

Post by blindfly »

mig39 wrote: post #499
poulsbohemian wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? Because here in the US it's visa only, no Mastercard.

Yup. https://www.costco.ca/capital-one-costco-mastercard.html

To complicate it even more, in Canada they will accept a Costco-issued Visa. As well all US debit cards I've tried with Visa Debit cause all kinds of confusion. Drives me nuts sometimes, especially during that period which my local warehouses were refusing to accept cash. Even if you're a US Costco member.

You can pay with Visa online, but if you return to a store they hand you cash. It's really weird how anti-Visa Costco is in Canada.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#506

Post by effie »

mbg721 wrote: post #307
mattowen_uk wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Never owned a credit card, don't have the slightest wish to do so. Bizarrely, never owning a credit card will negatively impact your credit rating.

The way this works in the US is nuts. I had to get a parent to co-sign the loan for my first car (or else they wouldn't lend me money at any rate), but then I spent a year paying a monthly fee to borrow my own money with a "secured credit card" and instantly I'm good for 40 grand, apparently.

Isn't it completely rational from the lender standpoint? First they make sure you will be profitable for them (involve other people who can be milked), then they offer you money and hope you can't pay back on time.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#507

Post by blibble »

wayoutthere wrote: post #480
throwaway2037 wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My reply is less harsh/dismissive than @hash9. Your last paragraph is powerful. I do think sometimes that I seriously underestimate the financial advantage that UK gains by having "selectively weak financial regulation" (my term). They are a like a Big Singapore, that pretends to be very well regulated, but looks the other way when autocrats want to buy 20M pound flats in Central London. I expect they will try to ext…

I wouldn’t count on this working out long term. If this becomes the main advantage the UK has, it just becomes a consolidated target for anti-corruption initiatives. A country like that is also not a good one to live in, so they should expect to lose Scotland, NI and Wales to the EU. You only need London to launder money.

Wales voted to leave the EU

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#508

Post by blibble »

gambiting wrote: post #205
tazjin wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monzo. It's the default in fact, since in order to get an overdraft you need to do a credit application.

I'm with Barclays and Lloyds, and neither can go into negative(well, technically they can I suppose, but it's extremely hard to do. Any debit card or direct debit transaction will just get declined if it's about to go below 0).

any offline transaction under your floor limit can put you into unauthorised overdraft

e.g. a train ticket purchase from a guard using a mobile terminal

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#509

Post by blibble »

gambiting wrote: post #344
lmm wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You called and the money was available for you to spend within 2 minutes? When it happened to me I had to go in and fill out a form and wait about a month (not easy on a student budget).

Yep. I rang and said there's a payment I don't recognize and that I didn't make, for Uber in Vietnam. The agent was like "yep, looks fraudulent, we'll cancel it right now and are sending a new card straight away". Money was back by the time I disconnected from the call. Second time it was someone buying stuff on PSN with my card, exact same situation - had the money back instantly.

if they disagree with your assessment it's a different story with a debit vs. credit card

the key difference is with the debit card it's your money that's been stolen, whereas with a credit card it's the bank's money

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#510

Post by effie »

tigershark wrote: post #333
input_sh wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's why: two debit cards, one for receiving money, one for spending money. Automated payment from the 1st one to the 2nd one once a month with a fixed amount you expect to spend in a month. Nothing to pay off, you're spending your own money, can't be overcharged, can't go below zero, if someone leaks your spending card they can't touch the majority of your money, no scummy business practices. Never owned a credit…

How is this better than having a single credit card that gives you automatic protection and insurance on everything that you buy without having to think to stay under your self imposed limit otherwise you have to manually top up the card with the amount that you need to spend?

You can set it up more easily in Europe, getting a credit card is not as easy here.
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