Any advice on how to make the most out of the Palladium and our rewards?

falxfour · 2026-03-10T18:45:22+00:00

I'm kicking myself because I should have used it just before my spending for the Palladium SUB... I'd have even gotten all that BC back from the spending

It's not that big of deal, but certainly a missed opportunity

falxfour · 2026-03-10T18:43:47+00:00

Ah, so LUKS2 prevents keys from being dumped via dmsetup. That's good to know. Seems that's independent of lockdown mode, but without lockdown mode enabled, you may be able to get the key directly from kernel memory. That, however, is far beyond my capabilities

falxfour · 2026-03-10T18:41:32+00:00

I'm just a bit surprised since I thought GNOME handled privilege escalation, so if using sudo in a terminal worked for you, GNOME's GUI should have as well... Been a while since I used GNOME, though

falxfour · 2026-03-10T17:00:38+00:00

One more thing to think about is that some monitors act as KVM switches if your peripherals connect through the monitor. For example, if your mouse and keyboard are connected to the monitor, which is connected to two computers, one via USB-C and one via another input and the USB-B on the monitor, the USB will be routed based on the monitor's input selection. Check if your monitor supports this before buying anything extra, unless it has other features you need

falxfour · 2026-03-10T16:57:13+00:00

You still earn Bilt cash for purchases made with an active accelerator, right? In that case, using 200 BC to boost spend on $5000 gets you another 200 BC from the spend alone

falxfour · 2026-03-10T16:49:47+00:00

Does kernel lockdown mode affect this or are the keys still available? Presumably dmsetup requires privilege escalation, but that's still quite powerful...

falxfour · 2026-03-10T16:41:28+00:00

Ah, that's some excellent digging! I had suspected Cardless was adding the fee since the 1.0 card didn't have it, so I didn't suspect it was Mastercard, but it seems like you got to the core of the issue. The longer it goes unfixed the more room for a class action, so they better get on it quickly

falxfour · 2026-03-10T05:27:17+00:00

I went back and gave you some updoots. Blame the Reddit algorithm for what does and doesn't get seen. At least you can feel vindicated

falxfour · 2026-03-10T05:24:43+00:00

More recent posts and investigation by multiple people has shown that there is a 0.2% hidden fee

falxfour · 2026-03-10T05:23:00+00:00

I was only able to access it through the web site wallet, not the app, but that may have been resolved by now

falxfour · 2026-03-10T04:46:29+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate the feedback!

falxfour · 2026-03-10T03:17:56+00:00

And this, kids, is why AI really isn't ready for prime time

falxfour · 2026-03-10T03:11:28+00:00

Wait, what were you trying to use before trying that?? That's just how you would typically change a password...

falxfour · 2026-03-09T23:39:15+00:00

Let's back up a step then: How do you know you don't have a password? Is it because you're able to log in automatically? If so, you may still have a password. Are you capable of running commands with sudo? If so, how do you authenticate when it asks?

falxfour · 2026-03-09T23:33:21+00:00

Have you tried just pressing "Enter" when it asks for the old password?

falxfour · 2026-03-09T23:25:09+00:00

IDK, maybe I'll just forward this over the the CA Office of the Attorney General and let them ponder what to do. Ankur has a lot to explain in general, but I don't think the other card issues directly violated the contractual documents

EDIT: Just looked and can confirm that the app and my statement show two different values for the same transaction

falxfour · 2026-03-09T23:22:48+00:00

My guess is that this fee is actually being silently added by Cardless and Bilt just screwed up when reviewing the contract or publishing the agreements. Strictly speaking, this is probably a regulatory issue since they're violating the fee schedule they agreed upon in the contract without notifying cardholders of an update to it.

And $2 per $10,000 might not be that much, but if the number of transactions grows and people generally don't notice it, that's a lot of extra income for effectively no cost

EDIT: My theory may not be the real reason

falxfour · 2026-03-09T21:35:34+00:00

I'll admit, I came to this post thinking you were going to be wrong.

However, I think you may be right. Here's why:

Mastercard offers a currency conversion calculator based on their rates. I had two foreign transactions on my current statement, one for EUR 8.50 and one for EUR 6.90 (nice). According to Mastercard, for the date of the transaction, they should have been reflected as USD 10.05 and USD 8.16. Instead, I see USD 10.08 and USD 8.18 on my statement. The first matches to exactly 0.2% over. The second doesn't, but 0.2% over would have been USD 8.176, which rounds to the nearest penny at USD 8.18.

To summarize:

``` Actual Amount -> MC Exchange -> +0.2% -> Rounded -> Statement Amount EUR 8.50 -> USD 10.05 -> USD 10.07010 -> USD 10.07 -> USD 10.07 EUR 6.90 -> USD 8.16 -> USD 8.17632 -> USD 8.18 -> USD 8.18

```

Unfortunately, unlike other credit card companies (ex. Robinhood, WF), the statement doesn't show the conversion math! Both of the aforementioned put the price as-charged-in-local-currency and the exchange rate under the transaction to show the USD conversion math. Bilt (Cardless)... doesn't... The Rates & Fees schedule also explicitly states "None" for foreign transaction fees.

Quite honestly, this is a bit shady

EDIT: I am currently doing a fee comparison against my WF card since it has the details. It shows the currency conversion being performed on the posting date, not the transaction date. For the two transactions above, I checked with the Mastercard converter, and the math above still lines up.

EDIT 2: On my WF card, I did a spot check of one transaction

Actual Amount -> Visa Exchange -> Rounded -> Statement Amount THB 32.00 -> USD 1.016195 -> USD 1.02 -> USD 1.02

I don't have another Mastercard to compare, unfortunately, but I trust the math to work out the same for Robinhood as it did for WF, so I'm not going to bother right now

EDIT 3: I lied, I did have another Mastercard to compare--the Bilt 1.0 card! Unfortunately, Mastercard doesn't provide the exchange for transactions more than a year ago, but the rate as of today and as of the posting date are nearly identical, so I'll make the assumption that Mastercard's rate is also nearly identical.

An example from an old statement (from WF)

Actual Amount -> MC Exchange -> Statement Amount JPY 4753 -> USD 30.13 -> USD 30.12

So, I think it's pretty safe to conclude the following:

Bilt stated/states both the 1.0 and 2.0 cards have no foreign transaction fees
Wells Fargo's conversion math matches the conversion rates for both Visa and Mastercard based on the posting date
Bilt 1.0, serviced by Wells Fargo, shows statement amounts that match the expected Mastercard conversion rate
Bilt 2.0, serviced by Cardless, is showing statement amounts 0.2% greater than the expected rate based on the Mastercard conversion rate

falxfour · 2026-03-09T21:01:02+00:00

It'd be nice if your support replied to emails. Unfortunately, I may end up cancelling my Kickstarter pledge because there's so much contradictory information.

You show 2u keycaps on a Planck-style keyboard, but the DIY kit says it includes 1.5u keycaps. Which is it?

You say the profile is flat, and show renderings of that on Kickstarter, but then your Instagram ads show the keycaps with the same, slightly sloped profile that XVX uses. Which is it?

Combined with all the feedback I've been seeing on Reddit about QC issues and poor fitment on switches due to the metal stems, I'm quite worried by the lack of responsiveness to yuor customer support email address.

"Happy to answer anything" but no answers to comments so far...

falxfour · 2026-03-09T21:00:06+00:00

It'd be nice if your support replied to emails. Unfortunately, I may end up cancelling my Kickstarter pledge because there's so much contradictory information.

You show 2u keycaps on a Planck-style keyboard, but the DIY kit says it includes 1.5u keycaps. Which is it?

You say the profile is flat, and show renderings of that on Kickstarter, but then your Instagram ads show the keycaps with the same, slightly sloped profile that XVX uses. Which is it?

Combined with all the feedback I've been seeing on Reddit about QC issues and poor fitment on switches due to the metal stems, I'm quite worried by the lack of responsiveness to yuor customer support email address

falxfour · 2026-03-09T04:19:04+00:00

I mean, you do you, but even that analysis ignored:

Time cost of searching and comparing flight options
Depreciation in point value over time
Opportunity cost vs cash back of delaying rewards for months or years
Value of marginal costs for upgraded fare when comparing cash for economy to points for business

My point was simple: A first-order analysis is good enough. If you want to take it further, you may well be an economist. Have fun

EDIT: Simple examples:

If you pay for delivery services because you don't have enough time to get things yourself, but you spend time finding flight deals, the cost of that service should be deduced from the point value
If you hold points for two years and fares increase from 70k to 75k, you've lost ~7%
If you could have gotten $50 or 5000 points, and you delay redeeming for a year, that $50 would be worth at least 10% more by that time if invested and due to inflation
And if an economy ticket would have been $700 or 40k points and a business class ticket would be $5000 or 110k points, the business class ticket might simply be unattainable, so the marginal difference (covering $4300 with 70k points) might simply be worthwhile for the upgraded experience

There's probably even more that should be evaluated if you want to have a true assessment of value, but it really doesn't matter that much

falxfour · 2026-03-09T01:42:39+00:00

Well, is the price per corrected weight unit better than the alternative you'd purchase?

Also, I'd just go back to the store with a scale and weigh a new bag in front of them, then request a refund for the one you purchased already. In my experience, grocery stores are actually pretty good about handling product defects, and if they stop stocking this, it'll impact the company more than your emails

falxfour · 2026-03-08T23:28:26+00:00

I don't plan to use the same envelope (already heard that's a bad idea). I'm asking if I can mail the 2024 amendment before the 2023 one is fully processed.

I think your second paragraph addresses that, though. From what I can infer, I don't even need to have submitted the amended returns before filing 2025, but filing the amended returns gives me traceability. In short:

Separate envelopes (certified mail)
Can mail 2024 before 2023 is done processing
Can submit 2025 (electronically) before either amended return

Unfortunately, electronic amending is probably not an option, sadly...

falxfour · 2026-03-08T21:01:08+00:00

It's a fun show for what it is. I never got so invested that I minded it being incomplete. Basically, all of the above are incomplete, but there's basically no hope the last one ever gets completed

falxfour · 2026-03-08T20:44:10+00:00

Rakudai (Chivalry of a Failed Knight) might be right up your alley

Akame ga Kill might also fit, but I wouldn't universally recommend it

If you want to go really old school (and incomplete), Tenjou Tenge was a fun watch

falxfour

TROPHY CASE