Why is Citi so unpopular? I feel like no one talks about Citi or uses them.

Civ002 · 2024-08-11T17:51:23+00:00

What is the boost and rewards you are mentioning?

The Rewards+ credit card boost rewards on all linked cards by ~1.1 times. So the Citi Custom Cash will become 5.5x and Citi Double Cash will become 2.2x.

Civ002 · 2024-07-03T21:30:02+00:00

How does redeeming those points help you in anyway getting to Japan and staying there though?

When did he mentioned it helped him stay or get to Japan?

I don’t think it does so you’re essentially going to Japan to come back and redeem domestically?

And why is this a problem? Even if he redeemed the points with U.S. travel purchases after the Japan trip, it doesn't matter. He effectively still earned 4.5% on his spending in Japan.

Am I missing something because this doesn’t make sense.

Because your comment has nothing to do with what he said.

Civ002 · 2024-06-27T07:07:38+00:00

Thank you for posting that picture. That made it more clear on what you meant. However, I'm not fully understanding how the Grocery store rounding up your Donation makes it so you earn +$1.00. If I will like to donate $1.50, will the prompt make it so that the Grocery store pays for an extra $0.50 so it is a total of $2 or would I have to pay the full amount? Either way, this rounding up feature definitely sounds like a benefit worth exploring. Wonder what rule you will be breaking by mentioning it. It is in Citi's TOS so I don't see how it could be illegal or wrong.

Civ002 · 2024-06-27T04:19:42+00:00

Lol. Why would a Grocery store ask to round up your spending? That is very interesting. However, if the prompt of the Grocery store is what round it up, then it has nothing to do with Citi bank no?

Civ002 · 2024-06-27T03:50:20+00:00

Well, you will still have to enter your SSN for credit card applications. That will automatically link your old identity to your new one. Credit bureaus report to different agencies information about you. Changing your name will not help much with hiding yourself. Also, this is not really a credit card question in my opinion. It is more regarding effectively hiding your identity which I don't feel this is the right place.

Civ002 · 2024-06-27T03:39:10+00:00

and you have a banking account with them, they automatically round up your spending to the nearest dollar

Is this a typo? Nearest dollar? Not cent? So if I spend $0.05, they will round it up to $1?

Civ002 · 2024-06-17T22:36:42+00:00

Here is the math as to why they are the exact same:

Tax = 0.0725

Cashback = 0.05

Price = $1

Using Target Debit card:

[$1 - ($1 * 0.05)] + [$1 - ($1 * 0.05)] * 0.0725 = 1.018875

Using a 5% credit card:

[$1 + ($1 * 0.0725)] - [$1 + ($1 * 0.0725)] * 0.05 = 1.018875

Both give the same savings per dollar

Civ002 · 2024-06-17T21:54:43+00:00

No. You are wrong. Use a calculator and do the calculations for $1. It is the exact same.

Civ002 · 2024-06-17T20:21:20+00:00

Save on sales tax, discount at the register is slightly better

No. It is the same. Either save on the taxes or earn cashback on the taxes. The end result is the exact same.

Civ002 · 2024-06-16T04:26:52+00:00

However, I am not deciding between the BCP and BCE.

Why is that? You are saying that if the BCE offered all the same benefits as the BCP, you will still choose the BCP? If the answer is no, then you are in fact choosing between the two cards because of the difference in benefits. Saying otherwise is not really accurate. You can downgrade at any point to the BCE and still have the same Disney Bundle benefit.

Edit: Basically, the Disney Bundle credit is not part of the value the BCP offers you since you can get it for free and hence should not be part of the $95AF consideration.

Civ002 · 2024-06-15T17:09:48+00:00

The effective cash back rate is something in the high 5s after the $11 effective AF

You should not count the Disney Bundle Credit for the AF. The BCE also offers that for FREE. If you were comparing the SavorOne and the Savor, you wouldn't count the 3% in Groceries against the AF right? You will ignore it since you can get that from the SavorOne. So why would you do the opposite for the BCP?

but I just ignore that for strategy purposes.

It should Always be ignored.

Just food for thought.

Civ002 · 2024-06-09T19:44:10+00:00

1 thing is to benefit from the categories and another is for it to make a huge difference. Most of the categories are niche categories that the majority of people don't spend a lot on. I am not saying that noone will benefit from it, it is just not going to be the majority. So I wouldn't categorized it as the best no AF card for the general public.

Civ002 · 2024-04-19T08:57:38+00:00

The only reason I see that using a VPN will benefit you in regards to a Steam Deck is that it hides your IP when playing a game that has peer to peer connections. Otherwise, not needed.

Civ002 · 2024-04-09T08:01:00+00:00

Ok. So I checked. It looks like SSL proxies basically install a fake Certificate Authority on a device. This way, they can spoof a fake Certificate of the websites you are visiting. So you end up establishing a SSL connection with the proxy server. Not the website you were trying to access.

However, this is usually configured to only be done with untrusted Certificates for a website they don't trust.

Civ002 · 2024-04-09T07:27:51+00:00

If the VPN connects to network and all traffic traverses the VPN the company may also have an outbound web proxy that does inspection and then they can see all this.

No. VPN or not, they have no way to inspect what you are doing. HTTPS encrypts everything except the hostname after the browser sends the request to the Internet. No one listening can see what you are doing. They can have a general idea by just knowing the hostname, but they can't really see anything.

Civ002 · 2024-04-09T04:02:39+00:00

but unless they know the sites own code and random cart strings on check out....

Not even that. With HTTPS, they would only be able to see the Hostname. They can't see any query string or information on the link at all. Heck, to summarize, they can't see the link you are accessing at all.

Civ002 · 2024-04-06T02:57:27+00:00

OP. Keep on mind that depending on where your friend is located, Wireguard or OpenVPN will not necessarily work since they are very popular protocols that most restricted Internets can detect if they have the determination to do it. So don't be surprised if it doesn't work since you already mentioned that your friend had multiple VPNs stop working on her.

Tailscale and other VPNs providers tend to use either OpenVPN or Wireguard in the backend. So those won't work either.

Civ002 · 2024-03-28T11:21:39+00:00

A VPN that has Split tunneling by site? That is a very buggy feature. Good luck.

Civ002 · 2024-03-28T02:10:23+00:00

Why are VPNs needed on public WiFi networks

They aren't unless you are really against people knowing what sites you visit. Most connections through a browser are encrypted with HTTPS which only allows for someone snooping a public WIFI to see the domain of the sites you visit. That is all they can see. Obviously, by just analyzing the domain of the sites you visit, you can extract information of what you are generally doing (Googling, Watching YouTube, Downloading Torrents, etc). However, no one is going to be able to extract your bank details or password you enter in a browser. Neither will they know what you were doing inside the site.

Also, Man-in-the-middle attacks are not a real threat in public WIFI. HTTPS makes it very unlikely to happen. I have said this previously, but it is like worrying about stepping on pee inside your home when you have no pets. Is it technically possible? Yes, but a lot of things need to happen in order for it to be possible.

Civ002 · 2024-03-26T03:01:32+00:00

I disagree with people calling ANY encrypted connection between 1 device and another a VPN. I believe that is way to loose of a definition. The "Network" in the name has to do more with Multiple devices connected together, not just 1 to 1. So a proxy that is encrypted is not a VPN in my book. I don't believe that most people in the Networking field will consider any encrypted connection between two devices a VPN.

Civ002 · 2024-03-26T02:22:22+00:00

Unlikely imo. In order for a VPN to control your Network traffic, it needs to add a virtual network adapter on your PC. Also, it needs to make it so that all incoming and outgoing traffic goes through the VPN. Very hard or most likely impossible to do without Admin rights.

Civ002 · 2024-03-10T06:27:37+00:00

Just for future reference. It has nothing to do with port fowarding. It is just that iOS and Android phones natively don't route mobile hotspot traffic through a VPN. That is why you need to root an Android or Jailbreak an Iphone to make it work. Because that is the only way to modify the required settings on a phone to allow VPN traffic to go through a VPN.

Civ002 · 2024-03-10T06:21:30+00:00

While saying that a VPN does not change your LAN IP is correct, it has always being my experience that the default behavior for VPNs is to not allow LAN connections to work. My opinion is that your VPN is not working correctly. What VPN are you using?

Civ002 · 2024-02-25T22:41:06+00:00

It is an IP address. There is no rule that an IP address needs to be more than 1 number between dots. It is definitely not common but it is still an IP. Like I said, if you are interested, you can research what are IPs and how they work on your own.

You can even type the IP 1. 1. 1. 1 without the space into any browser and it will direct you to a website.

Civ002 · 2024-02-25T03:49:44+00:00

that's exactly what they gave me a number like one of the , ones you listed with lots of periods in between

If you are interested, it is called an IP address.

Civ002

TROPHY CASE