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There was a time when Discover would give you checks that you could use to transfer debt from other cards or accounts, which had a promotional rate of 0% for the life of that debt. I deposited one check into my checking account that filled up my discover card credit limit, then used that money to pay off my higher rate credit card debt. Then I did that a few more times until my entire Discover card balance was 0%. Then I paid off my other credit cards while that debt sat there accruing no interest penalty.
Also, the way the accounts worked was higher debt would be paid off first, so until I fully paid off that account, there was always some 0% debt below all the higher % debt.
Aglet
I had a pager that I didn’t want to pay the bill on when I went out of the country. I called them to turn the service off while I was gone. Instead of turning it off they just quit charging me. I realized that when I got back and had a bunch of pages. That continues for several years until I traded it away, still working, still not costing anything.
When I was in high school my friends and I were always finding creative ways to skip school and instead go out and do stuff. But, there was a limit of X days that you could be absent throughout the year, or else you’d have to make up the time by attending summer school.
In a conversation with some school admin staff I discovered that if you attend just one class during the day, any absence for the rest of the day was counted as 0.5 days in the attendance system.
So, we effectively doubled the number of days we could skip school by showing up for the first hour and then getting out to e.g. attend a dentist appointment.
If you get married the tradition is for one partner to change their last name to match so both have the same last name.
We didn’t do that, so we have different last names.
So when you sign up for services that offer (x) months free or discounted cost per unique household, you use one name, cancel, and sign up under the other name. They don’t know you’re married, don’t know if it’s a rental, or don’t know if it’s a roommate thing. So when we were poor AF we could save a lot of $ on services at least for a few months or so. Usually cable tv that offered a 6-month discount.
Where I live you can freely use your maiden name or your spouse’s name and switch between them whenever you want.
We didn’t like either of our last names so before getting married I legally changed mine so my Spouse could adopt it after the wedding, instead of both of us legally changing it after the wedding.
Even with the same last name they don’t know you’re married. We share a last name and have done this a few times before.
Well played, then.
Back in the day they were “selling” dollar coins through tv. It was legal tender so banks had to accept any deposit of it. The U.S. mint offered free shipping in the continental U.S.A.
Some smart folks started buying them with their credit card that offered air travel miles as a reward. Then they took all the coins and depositing them in their bank and paid off their CC. Rinse and repeat.
Yes they were out no money and had thousands of dollars worth airline miles.
One of the sub plots to Punch Drunk Love, and a true story.
You can’t cancel your reservation within 24 hours. You can rebook it. Okay, rebook it for one week out. Call back a day later, cancel.
Why wait the extra day, Just do it in the same call. They don’t get paid enough to give a shit. And if they do, you technically haven’t broken any rules.
Managers audit those calls. Source: I’ve worked in three call centers.
Yeah, I’m Canadian. Thus, non-confrontational by nature. Now, If I was answering a call and someone did that, I’d let them get away with it, 100%.
Not sure if these are exactly loopholes, but whatever.
Learning to shave with a straight razor will save you a fuckton of money on shaving products. Shaving soap makes each shave cost a cent at most. The downsides are the initial cost of the razor and strop, the initial learning curve, the upkeep, and the couple extra minutes necessary to shave with a straight razor (it’s not too much, but it does take a bit longer).
Learning to roast coffee will cut your coffee costs by 50% if you enjoy high quality arabica beans. Some of the best coffee I’ve ever had I roasted and brewed myself. The extra time investment and clean up necessary is pretty intensive though, and yeah, there’s an initial learning curve and equipment cost (though not too bad, you just need a stovetop, an old school stovetop popcorn popper, and a burr grinder).
You don’t have to go all the way to straight razor to get significant savings. Even just a safety razor basically cuts the cost per shave to nothing vs. modern cartridges. And it’s much easier to use.
My brother-in-law didn’t want to carry his jacket around at Disney World, and he didn’t want to get a locker for it, so he had his dad turn it in to lost and found. At the end of the day, before leaving the park, he picked it back up.
There was a burrito shop that had a frequent customer card that you could use to earn points towards a free menu item. You could register the card online and for whatever reason you could add multiple cards to the same account.
A friend of mine realized that if you registered a new card they would give you a decent chunk of points just for signing up, then you could merge that account in with your existing account and get free points.
Every chance he got he would grab handfuls of the cards, activate them all, and get tons of free food.
Don’t be a dick to service workers. Your entire life will be better.
This isn’t a loophole–just how any decent human being should behave.
If you want to cancel a subscription for whatever reason, worst comes to worst (dark pattern nonsense like trying to cancel an Adobe subscription) you can call your bank and request for a replacement card
I did this, a gym membership could “only be cancelled by the manager” I just went online and changed the credit card number on file. Moved away never looked back
However sometimes they allow cards that are being used for recurring subscriptions to keep going even if you’ve had the card replaced. I know from experience Chase does this
Tell them it was lost/stolen. Don’t dispute any existing charges, but for security reasons they should still block any new charges made against the old card.
Specifically ask the bank to revoke authorization codes.
It’s supposedly for convenience. More for the people charging me than me, but convenient nonetheless.
My American Express card was compromised a few weeks ago and while they sent me a new card I was still able to use the old one at stores, use mobile payments, and recurring payments could process. The only thing I couldn’t do was use it online. Even after I received the new card, recurring transactions were able to occur.
I learned this because I used to get drunk and lose my credit card.
If your bank can only deposit a certain amount of a check the same day and you need it all just cash it and deposit the cash
Orbot works with pipepipe
I enjoyed paying $1.50/mo for YouTube premium by signing up with a VPN to Turkey 🇹🇷 but that’s not a thing anymore 😢
What do you use it for? Adblock? Use uBlock Origin
Video download? Use yt-dlp, or one of its many GUIs, such as Tubular (Linux) or Seal (Android)
Why pay the bastards, just block their ads? Plus you can get sponsor block and bring back youtube dislike
VPN via Turkey used to work on other subs too. Often something like 1:10 discounts. Most of these loopholes are closed though.
It’s still very possible for iOS in app purchases if you use gift cards and a Turkey iTunes account. Some regional pricing has been adjusted but many have not
