asciilifeform: mats: 'what part of 'free money' do they not like -- the part where it's free, or the part where it's money?'(tm)(r)(limonov).
asciilifeform: who the fuck in usa even has 'no reward %' creditcard? asciilifeform not recalls ever seeing one
mats: i've known a few people that just use a debit card
mats: you can run some debit cards as credit so you get some protection but no rewards
mats: they're often students, or have bad credit, or are generally afraid about using credit because they've seen other folks mismanage usage and end up owing many thousands of dollars in just interest
mats: a tradesman i use had his credit destroyed during the breakup of his marriage, ex wife put $15,000 in purchases on their joint card
mats: he spends thousands of dollars a week on materials and doesn't get any rewards or cash back
asciilifeform: mats: the bottom of that hell afaik is prepaid cards, where recharge costs x + 5$ or somesuch (and also no reward % etc), for the recently bankrupt
asciilifeform recalls hearing of prepaid electric meters etc. for same
mats: i know a greek guy that got an F-1 visa, studied in usa, worked for a while, couldn't get it renewed, loaded up his card with stuff worth almost five figs like described in mp's "universal plan for wealth", and went home without repaying
mats: he told me he did some research on forums with intl students and many indians reported that they got away with it
mats: pretty good poke in the eye on the way out
asciilifeform: mats: lulzy that they'd give a cc to 1 of these. then again usg backstops the money lenders ~infinitely, it aint as if they lose serious dough this way
asciilifeform: ( would you or any other reasonably sane human lend dough to a tourist? didn't think so lol )
mats: he was making like 70k i think it would be reasonable in a vacuum
asciilifeform: !q uptime
dulapbot: asciilifeform: time since my last reconnect : 118d 0h 27m