O or E???...That's just wrong | Page 3 | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

christinad said
I think its a choice as to how much you value your privacy versus more return/convenience. If people valued their privacy, they wouldn't be opening multiple accounts at different institutions and opening themselves up to more privacy breaches. I'll bet its better from a privacy perspective to limit your digital footprint but people don't want to lose dollars. Similarly with credit cards there are ways you can protect yourself. For example, my understanding is you are supposed to only use 1 of your credit cards for online purchases. If I did some digging, i'll bet I could find more privacy tips. Yes, some might require some inconvenience or loss of interest. Its a choice.  

The number of accounts one has at different institutions is of no importance as long as the financial institutions have competent individuals to manage their systems. It is much easier to break into one's home computer than breaking into a financial institution. So a single account is enough for being a target of identity theft. Always have redundancy in your protection. Just like investing, never put all your eggs into one basket.

There is a relatively simple way to limit how much snooping gov. and businesses are doing; pay cash.

Also, like someone once said; with dogs, they insert a chip under the skin to track its movement. With humans, they insert the chip in their cell phones.

P.S. For the record; we have about 20 accounts in 8 financial institutions.

So, will the banks be buying up the telecommunications companies, or will it be the other way around?
I hope the government will put a stop to this, although I have very little confidence that they will lift a finger.
Smartphones are expensive. Not everyone wants one or can afford one. It shouldn't be necessary to buy into this in order to use your own money.
It's already creeping in here. Did you ever try paying cash for gas at Costco? No can do.

Bill: The credit card categories are established by Visa and Mastercard. I haven't attempted to check, but perhaps Visa has a different code for Walmart Superstores than MC.

Bill said
Norman1 & Loonie, you say it's all about the store's coding category and that all WalMart Superstores are coded as Grocery. So why when I go to the same Superstore with my VISA card, which gets me 4% on groceries, do I get the Visa card's non-grocery rate of 1% (no matter what I buy)? My experience goes against what you're saying. (If this was covered in another thread, can you provide the link? Thanks.)  

Loonie said
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Bill: The credit card categories are established by Visa and Mastercard. I haven't attempted to check, but perhaps Visa has a different code for Walmart Superstores than MC.

Bill, would there be a way get the Merchant Category Code (MCC) of those Visa purchases at the Walmart Superstore that only got 1% back?

PC MasterCard shows the text of the MCC (like Grocery Stores & Supermarkets) of the charges on their web site. PC MasterCard also has the actual MCC in the TSV download of those transactions. Maybe your Visa card has something similar.

Another possibility is that you had reached an annual limit for the 4% cash back. For example, the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite card offers 4% back on gas station and grocery store purchases. But, there is a $25,000 annual limit:

3. You will earn 4% cash back on the first $25,000 you spend annually at gas stations and grocery stores. 4% cash back applies at merchants which are classified in the Visa Inc. (Visa) network as Grocery Stores & Supermarkets, Service Stations (with or without ancillary services), and Automated Fuel Dispensers (Merchant Codes: 5411, 5541 & 5542). Some merchants may sell these products/services or are separate merchants who are located on the premises of these merchants, but are classified by Visa in another manner, in which case this added benefit would not apply.

Perhaps your purchases were made at a separate merchant in the same Walmart Superstore? I saw one superstore that had a McDonald's and an optician. The McDonald's and the optician may not put their credit card charges through the Walmart Superstore's credit card merchant account.

Bill, you could try just asking your Visa issuer why you aren't getting the same type of reward from them as you get from MC. It sounds like it's worth 2% to you. I still think it's most likely the code that's different, although most are the same for both companies.

For those who think one credit card is sufficient...
I was in a restaurant last week which ONLY takes Visa. We've been going there for years and I don't remember this being an issue before, so I think they must have ditched MC. What they told us was that the fees were too high with MC. Perhaps Visa is offering some merchants a deal at the moment. It's a very competitive market. Margins are very small unless you don't pay off the bills, but they definitely add up.

I'm aware the rate drops to 1% after the $20K or $80K limits have been hit, it's been 1% on the Supercentre purchases since day one.

Walmart Supercentres do have a different merchant category for their Visa charges than for their MasterCard charges.

I used my Home Trust Visa card at a Walmart Supercentre that is considered a Groceries merchant by the Tangerine MasterCard. The transaction web site for the Home Trust Preferred Visa shows the MCC for each transaction. The Walmart Supercentre charge appears with a merchant category of "Discount Stores".