Worst rip off as of late: Maybe it's just me but:

[Paper Roses]

Today I went shopping for birthday gifts for my teenage granddaughter. Quick trip to Macy's for a goodie she wanted, then a stop at CVS to pick up a gift card.
I wanted a gift card she could use anywhere so I looked at the Visa cards, plus a few others.
Geeze.

Who'd a thunk it! Activation fee for the non-store specific cards--$5.95. $50.00 card, add 6.00 to the cost to activate. Heck with that. Went to the bank and got a $50.00 bill.

These credit card companies get the money anyway, where is the justification to charge to activate the card.
Never again, I'll send cash or a check.
To me, this was a total rip off.

[SheilaT]

1. I think you might be able to buy a Visa card

from your bank. It seems to me that several years ago I did just that a couple of times. I seem to recall that my bank (Wells Fargo at the time) would sell them to me at either no cost or a buck or two and that there was no activation charge or any fees connected to it. But this was a while back.

After doing that a couple of times I decided it really made no sense, so these days I send a birthday card with a hundred dollar bill in it to my sons on their birthdays. If I ever have grandkids I'll do the same for them. Cash or check is definitely the way to go, and for a lot of young people these days a check is a huge hassle because they just don't use them as we used to.

Not to long ago a young (only 40!) friend of mine owed me maybe twenty dollars for something I'd purchased for her, and she wanted to do a transfer from her bank account to mine via smart phone. Only I don't have a smart phone. She was a bit surprised and apparently doesn't even have any checks, just pays everything on-line. Anyway, next time she stopped by her ATM she got me the money. But it was the total checklessness that surprised me.

I'm just grateful cash still exists.

[GeorgeGist]

2. Why do you hate America?

[rock]

3. Companies no longer provide service

Oh, they will sell you what we used to call service,