For Putin, Trump’s VP choice couldn’t be any clearer — J.D. Vance! A Yale-trained hillbilly who, like Trump, would abandon Ukraine . . . and whatever countries Putin moved to conquer next.
No need to read in full — that’s the nub of it.
A remarkable personal story of near-death experience.
Worth reading in full if you have the time this weekend.
This weekend we honor those who died fighting to preserve democracy — a form of government that Putin, Orban, Trump, Kim Jong Un and others in the Strongman Club don’t seem to revere. To help preserve democracy well short of dying, click here.
THAT BILT MASTERCARD
One of you is peeved; another, pleased.
Len: I signed up for the no-fee Bilt Mastercard at your suggestion.
It’s complicated to understand how to accrue points:
- 1 point per dollar, doubled on rent day (first of the month).
- Double that for Lyft? And something else?
- And triple on restaurants, even on other registered credit cards (but not 6x?) for local restaurants.
- And the rent day rewards show up in multiple dribs and drabs.
- And rent rewards aren’t doubled.
- And you don’t get any rewards unless you have five transactions in the statement period.
Fine. But then try to understand cashing them in!
- You can get a statement credit or rent payment credit. But it’s only $0.55/100 points!
- You can get a credit towards Amazon.com, but only $0.70/100 points.
- You can get 1 mile/dollar for some airlines, but how?
- You can use them to buy travel in the portal, which is hard to use.
You can set up autopay to avoid an accidental interest payment, but:
- You can’t use the Bilt app or website to do this. You need to set up a wellsfargo.com account.
- Their customer service is exceptionally poor. Almost as bad as a health insurance company’s.
- You need to use your cellphone to confirm your identity to login to the app, but they can’t authorize your (my?) phone by calling, you need to go to the ATM.
- Then you still can’t do it, because it’s a BiLT card not a Wells Fargo card.
- So you make an appointment with a banker and go in (again) and sit there while they (instead of you) are on hold, transferred back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth). To be fair, that part was oddly satisfying.
- Then they tell you they’ll call you to confirm (they won’t) and it will work in X business days (it won’t).
- Eventually it works (yay!) but it still won’t let you connect Credit Karma, so back to their customer support, suggestions to go to the ATM (still doesn’t work), suggestions to go make an appointment with a banker (still doesn’t work, lots of transfers, etc.).
- Eventually eventually you get a promise it’ll be fixed in one business day (it won’t) and they’ll call to confirm (they won’t).
To be fair, it’s thrilling to see whether or not the autopay will work and how much hassle it’ll be if it doesn’t.
Here’s my plan going forward, which is probably way too OCD for most:
- Keep random, small Amazon purchases in your cart.
- On rent day (or not, not a really big deal) purchase everything, one or two items at a time for a total of four orders, using Prime day delivery to get a $1.50 digital credit per order.
- Those, plus rent, meet the five-transaction minimum.
In no way has this been worth my time. I’m more upset about this recommendation than all the companies you recommended that are now out of business.
To which another of you responds:
-Earning points doesn’t need to be as complicated as Len’s making it out to be. Everything he mentions is a bonus. If he doesn’t want to take advantage of those extras, just ignore them and focus on the one-point-per-dollar on rent, which is the biggest benefit of all.
-Spending the points – best is either to redeem for travel on the Bilt travel portal (at a rate of 1.25 cents per point) or else to transfer to airline and hotel partners (which can be worth a lot more, especially if used on international business, etc.). See what The Points Guy has to say about this (scroll to the “Redeeming Bilt Rewards points” sections). Both are very easy to use on the Bilt app – I’ve done it. Cashing in other ways is lower value (but still worth it, since these are points that otherwise wouldn’t have been earned at all).
-Yes, autopay needs to be set up through Wells Fargo – but I’ve been able to manage my account online without difficulty, let alone needing to go to a branch. Sounds like Len has an issue with his existing WF login that caused him problems managing this new card.
-It’s easy to make 5 small charges a month. Five cups of coffee? That’s a small price you pay for earning 60,000 extra points on rent or condo charges.
I’ve looked at cards from both sides now/ From win or lose, but still somehow / It’s cards illusions I recall.
I really don’t know cards . . . at all.
Have a great weekend.
Editors Note: This article was originally published on May 24th, 2024 on andrewtobias.com, syndicated with permission.
Read the full article here
