Category Archives: Uncategorized

Surcharge for Debit or Credit Cards? Why?!

With the world becoming increasingly automated and payments online becoming the norm, the option to pay bills without the use of a credit card or a debit card is becoming harder and harder. At least, if you want to maintain control over exactly when your bills are being paid out of your account.

Sure, you can set up direct deposits, if you know you’ll always have the right amount of money in your account when the company decides to ask for it. With so many more people living hand to mouth these days, that is becoming harder for some people. Also, given that some of the charges for keeping a credit card are increasing, having one of those and then having your salary paid into that account is harder as well. It seems, at least amongst younger people, that a debit card and a savings accounts are the only mean of paying bills that they have.

Why then do some companies still insist on having a surcharge on payments made via credit card or debit card?! Is it really that much more work for them to process the payment? Do they get charged for such payments at their end? How can they justify these extra charges?

I tried to find the Australian charges for retailers on credit card and debit card payments and came up with nothing. Which is unfortunate, because I think consumers would really like to know what is involved in a retailer accepting such payments. I know I for one would like to know whether an online business is screwing me over. If they only get charged x percentage of the transaction to accommodate that method of payment, why are they charging me three or four times that amount? I think everyone would benefit from a more transparent economic system… Well, except the major banks and credit companies… But surely they get enough as it is?

Oh dear, I think my “socialist” roots re showing again, better go and cover up that red.

FaceBook Beaten Into Submission.

We grumble about it. At each layout change or move of a button, we complain ad nauseum.

So why on earth do we still use FaceBook, if we hate it so much?

For one thing, it has such a large portion of our immediate population attached to it, that in order to know what is going on socially, we need to be on FB. How many times have you heard of an event that invites really only went out on the darn site?

Secondly, in this time-poor world we need all relevant social data in one place so as to minimise time spent trawling for details. It also gives us a nice one-stop-shop for “catching up” with friends in a minimalistic way. Little to no actual applied effort means we can feel good about ourselves for having sent a message to that friend just to see how they are.

However, those constant changes are really annoying. Just as you get used to where one thing is, it gets moved. And what is with all the privacy setting changes? I personally thought that if we made our settings one way, the site we made them on shouldn’t be able to just change them, or if they did, they should have to let us know…? Clearly not, as such information is generally passed on via friend connections.

I have been using an add-on called Social Fixer for a good few months now, to help me manage all the curfuffle that FaceBook seems set on including in my life. I am logged into FaceBook for the better part of most days, so it stands to reason that I make it as easy to use as possible.  It’s free to use, and darned easy. It is not, however, supported for Internet Explorer, though if you’re a real computer user, this shouldn’t be a problem. Let’s face it, no one who has a say about how their computer is run, and knows what a real web browser can do for them, uses IE.

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Lifehacker got a hold of Social Fixer and called it “… [an] essentially a panacea for the most common Facebook problems…” so it has to be good, right? Reading the rest of the LifeHacker article also gives you a fair few good ideas on how to simplify your FaceBook presence. Consider adopting frequent “friend” culls. Do you really know all of the people on that list? Also, check the apps you’ve given access to your account. do you still use all of them? If not, cull!

Just as a side-note, personally I think FaceBook only has a few more years left in it before the “next big thing” in social media comes along and steals its thunder. It will go the way of MySpace before too long, so don’t invest too much in it (monetarily or otherwise), and start thinking about slowly adopting a “removal” process to your data. Download those pics, notes, significant details or anything else you think you might miss if FB were to go belly up. You will find the move to the next big thing easier, and less frustrating. Also, it never hurts to have less of yourself on a site that refuses to acknowledge privacy as a real thing that shouldn’t be changeable unless by the end user.