Home Invasions: Your own fault? (Trees And Things)

thefadd: Re: Good times. Good times.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:10:30 EST

Oh, yeah. Honestly, I could be low. I don't remember any longer--it must be American Express or Discover--but one of the credit card companies has a no fee policy, just a percentage that can be as high as 4 or 5% per transaction which is why it's not accep

joshv: Re: Home Invasions: Your own fault?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:38:17 EST

Break-ins are just a fact of life where I live. My unit has been broken into twice since I moved in (one time my wife and I woke up to a invader shining a flashlight in our faces), and we have at least one break-in a year in the other units of the bu

pO157: Re: Good times. Good times.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:29:35 EST

Does it really go as high as 3%? I had no idea. That's crazy. So even with those airline miles cards the processors and banks are raking it in, even before paying out rewards and collecting interest.

No wonder they call Delaware the "Small Wonder." The

thefadd: Re: Good times. Good times.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:25:42 EST

Yeah--it's not like their cost could possibly exceed $.35 + 3% unless they have the absolute worst credit card processing deal in the history of commerce. The last rationale I heard was from a department claiming they needed the extra money to maintain the

pO157: Re: Good times. Good times.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:19:35 EST

It is such a scam, isn't it? I even contacted my council rep about it, and their response was along the lines of "Well, how else can the city recoup the costs of using Visa?" Because its not like companies put those costs into price structures.

It would

thefadd: Re: Good times. Good times.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:55:03 EST

The online fees from some of these city and municipal services are absolutely ridiculous. I've seen fees as much as $10 and $15 just to make a transaction happen online, amounting to well over 10%.

pO157: Good times. Good times.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:34:21 EST

Or a tax on paying tax. I shouldn't joke, my city is already there. Want to pay your property (or other) taxes online? That's a $3 or 2% fee, whichever is greater.

skeeter1: Re: There is no tax on necessities.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:18:22 EST

"Then why are those systems taxed if they are a basic necessity? Then again my state taxes clothing and the like, so who knows."

The only thing that my state (Ohio) doesn't tax (yet) is food. They tax everything else. 7.75% sales tax,

pO157: There is no tax on necessities.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:31:06 EST

Many states don't put a sales tax on clothing, food, toilet paper, etc.

My alarm is subject to sales tax on installation, parts, labor, monitoring and a yearly alarm tax. One of the alarm guys that came over for a recent upgrade got to talking and he s

pO157: Re: Registration of Home Security Systems.

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:15:25 EST

I have had similar experiences. We have had two (2) false alarms since we moved in, and both were before we paid a shit ton of money (ok, maybe a grand or two) on security system upgrades, adding features and to replace faulty wiring and the like. One was

skeeter1: Re: Home Invasions: Your own fault?

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:02:51 EST

"Well, it's actually happened to me twice."

To the best of my knowledge, it's only happened to me once, and I know who it was and why. The neighborhood juvenile delinquent left his skateboard ramp in my driveway overnight, and I put it in m

MayorBob: Registration of Home Security Systems.

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:32:49 EST

We just received a letter from the County government informing everyone who has a home security system (either burglar or fire) that they have to register same with the county. The county claims that police have had to respond to too many false alarms and

ckm: Re: Home Invasions: Your own fault?

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:09:57 EST

Well, it's actually happened to me twice. Once some random guy showed up in our back yard at 1am. We called the cops, but the guy disappeared before they had a chance to catch him. The other time someone kicked in a screen at 9am on a Monday.

thefadd: Re: Home Invasions: Your own fault?

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:33:43 EST

The prospect of home invasion is a very scary thing. Identity theft does not immediately effect our physical selves and we'd like to think that most disasters offer some warning time. That said, it does seem to me anecdotally that most home invasions origi