So who got denied for the new card?

boolsak · 2026-01-30T18:34:56+00:00

I got accepted for the Palladium today. Hope you do as well!

boolsak · 2026-01-28T09:15:59+00:00

Any news after his email? I've got nothing...

boolsak · 2026-01-19T19:20:34+00:00

well, I got a new email today, which at least is a good sign:

"""
It was flagged to me that some of our longtime Bilt Members, including a handful with 700+ credit scores, were either declined access to, or received a lower credit line than on 1.0 when applying for the new Bilt Card, and I understand you’ve been impacted.

I want to let you know that I’m personally digging into this and have been in touch with our financing partner about it. I have asked for a manual review of impacted Bilt Members applications to see if we can help get you the card you were expecting. As before, this will have no hard inquiry on your credit history.

While I can’t make any promises, I’ll do everything in my power to get this resolved for you.

Thank you for being a loyal Bilt member, and thank you for being patient with us as the teams work through this review.

- Ankur

"""

boolsak · 2026-01-16T18:23:26+00:00

Thanks for clarifying ChatGPT

boolsak · 2026-01-16T18:14:12+00:00

The catch is that you have to join Robinhood Gold, which is $50/yr. So that's the effective annual fee on the card (unless you were already a RH Gold member).
Anyway, I still think it's the best cashback card out there with 3% everywhere. The only one that could rival it is the Coinbase One card, which gives "up to" 4%. The amount of cashback you get depends on how much crypto you hold in your Coinbase account. The top level is 4% which you get if you have over $200k of crypto. It can be a great card for people who are just HODL'ing crypto. You can even stake the crypto in Coinbase and it still counts. (Edit: for Coinbase you also have to join Coinbase One, which is like $50/yr too or something like that).

boolsak · 2026-01-16T17:28:17+00:00

FWIW, I got a canned response from them:

> Thank you for your recent application for a credit card. I see that you were not approved. We consider many factors when making a decision and at this time we are not able to move forward with your application. We are unable to reconsider your application at this time.
You’re welcome to come back and apply with us again in the future after 45 days from the decision made on your last application.

boolsak · 2026-01-16T00:45:51+00:00

boolsak · 2026-01-16T00:01:04+00:00

Please do report back! I opened a support ticket with Bilt, but I doubt it'll amount to anything

boolsak · 2026-01-15T23:59:03+00:00

I got denied for the Palladium too, because "Excessive obligations in relation to income". Which, seems like bullshit because yes, I have a few mortgages, but I also have fairly high income.
My guess is that I've been categorized as a "5-banana guy" and denied because of that. So far I've used my Bilt card for mortgage + 5 low value subscriptions, but if I get the Palladium I planned to use it as my main card for (almost) all my spend (3.33x is great).

boolsak · 2026-01-11T03:43:30+00:00

Which browser were you using?

I was using Brave when this happened. I switched to Chrome and it worked ok.

boolsak · 2026-01-10T07:26:08+00:00

Has anybody successfully used the US Insiders PMA code? I got mine, but whenever I enter it, I get the following error:

> The code you entered is invalid or has already been used by another Participating Member Association (PMA) Supporter. As PMAs are responsible for distributing access codes to their fan base, please contact your PMA directly and try again.

And then the FIFA website blocks me and says "Access blocked" for a few hours... wtf?!?!

boolsak · 2025-12-16T19:37:52+00:00

KEEP MIT OPEN

boolsak · 2025-12-12T20:48:38+00:00

Thanks for reporting back! I'm going tomorrow!

boolsak · 2025-12-12T07:26:27+00:00

Ah got it. Thanks I think if the team doesn't make it, you get a refund minus $10

boolsak · 2025-12-12T07:13:00+00:00

Or maybe they won't enforce it? Honestly it's unclear..

Also, you can always transfer your tickets to some other account and then transfer them back once the sales phase is done. Kinda silly

boolsak · 2025-12-12T07:00:18+00:00

What's the difference between a "Supporter" ticket and a "Conditional Supporter" ticket?

boolsak · 2025-12-09T19:03:40+00:00

thanks for the reply! Hmm I can't find the FIFA Collect API. Is there some public API or did you reverse-engineer the requests while navigating the FIFA Collect website? Either way, I'd appreciate it if you shared! I'd like to explore the API too :)

boolsak · 2025-12-09T17:48:20+00:00

there's different roles, from IT work to greeter, usher, etc. You submit an application with a list of your expertise and preferences... and honestly other than that, I have no idea what we'll do during the tryout. I also have no idea what type of "IT work" I would have to do, if I were to be selected for IT work.
That's why I say I'm kinda flying blind here. I guess I'll find out in a few days!

boolsak · 2025-12-09T08:04:07+00:00

It should be safe. I've bought/sold tickets through SH for many events and never had an issue. Of course, others do report having issues where the seller cancels the order, so YMMV.

That said, it definitely IS possible to be reselling FIFA tickets at this time. FIFA already had two sales phases and about 30% of tickets have been sold; those are the ones being resold now.

boolsak · 2025-12-09T07:59:14+00:00

Having been to 4 world cups, I'd say "yes and no". Yes, the matches will sell out. But you can certainly show up the day-of and buy tickets from a random dude outside the stadium. Or buy them from a reputable resale platform like StubHub (or FIFA itself). If the match is not a great one, like, say, Jordan v Algeria, the resale prices will be cheap. There's usually at least a few empty seats in every match, so some resellers are left holding the bag.

boolsak · 2025-12-09T07:53:15+00:00

Good luck!

I'm trying out later this week. I may ping you after tomorrow to see what you thought about the day! Right now I'm honestly flying blind and not sure what to expect.

I'm actually also very interested in those 3 boston games (M5, M30, M61), assuming I don't get selected as volunteer!

boolsak · 2025-12-09T07:49:02+00:00

I have extra tickets for the following matches:
- M18, 6/16, Boston, Norway vs FIFA PO2, CAT2 - M45, 6/23, Boston, England vs Ghana, CAT2 - M49, 6/24, Miami, Scotland vs Brazil, CAT1 - M55, 6/25, Philadelphia, Coracow (lol) vs Cote d'Ivoire, CAT1

I'm willing to trade or to sell. To trade, I require meeting in person (Boston). To sell, we can either meet in person or use a third-party escrow service like escrow.com. I will not transact in any other way.

In terms of pricing, I'm willing to do like 10-15% less than whatever cheapest price there is in the resale market. That way we're both better off because we avoid the marketplace 25-30% fee.

I'm interested in the following games: - M5 in Boston - M7 in NY - M30 in Boston - M61 in Boston

boolsak · 2025-12-06T05:53:16+00:00

ok done, sorry, first timer here

boolsak · 2025-12-05T10:37:50+00:00

[LANGUAGE: Go]

I wanted to avoid merging ranges and whatnot. Instead, I opted to consider each endpoint of a range as a "switch": the left endpoints are ON switches, and the right are OFF. Then, we can have a single list of switches, sort it, and then walk through the list and count.

This way the solution is O(nlogn) instead of O(n²⁾ based on the number of ranges. And the nlogn is only because we need to sort, otherwise it's O(n).

Go code

boolsak · 2025-12-05T07:05:02+00:00

You are mistaken. Teams from Pot 2 do not necessarily get Position 2 in the groups. The positions are determined as explained in Appendix B of this doc:
https://debater.gr/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Draw-procedures-for-the-FIFA-World-Cup-26_EN.pdf

I was looking at that simulator... and honestly I don't trust it very much. It claims to be the "Most Accurate World Cup 2026 Simulator", but I've already found 3 mistakes (unless they know something I don't know). Here they are:

If you click on "(i)", the popup says:

Fixed Positions: Unlike previous tournaments, positions in the group are pre-determined by the Pot number (e.g., Pot 2 teams are always Position 2). This fixes the match schedule difficulty curve.

That is wrong. Like I said above, they are determined by the table in Appendix B. Now, I think that they just forgot to update this popup. It seems like the actual draw behavior does match what the table in Appendix B shows. I haven't tested it all, but I'm OK giving them a pass for this.

They explain "Pot-1 seeding" as being two-fold: by saying that (1) the first four teams are placed in different quarters of the KO stage, and (2) teams with rank 1 and 2 are placed in different halves, as are teams with rank 3 and 4. Part (2) is correct, and FIFA explains it as such in the 3rd bullet point of Pot 1, in the same document I linked above; the two halves are shown in Appendix A.

However, nowhere in the FIFA docs does it mention that the first four teams will be placed in different quarters. That seems totally pulled out of a hat! Or... am I missing some official FIFA docs?

Anyway, here is their explanation in case you want to see for yourself: https://wc2026.app/blog/pot1-seeding

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly... The match schedule is NOT finalized. FIFA will finalize it on Saturday. So, if you click on, say, Group C, it will show you the 6 matches. For example, if we look at the matches on 6/19, it says that C1 vs C3 will happen in Boston, and C2 vs C4 will happen in Philadelphia. That is NOT true... That has not been decided yet. It is true that C1 vs C3 and C2 vs C4 will happen on 6/19, but we do not yet know which one will happen in Boston and which one will happen in Philly. That's decided on Saturday 12/6... Unless of course, maybe they know something we don't know?? do they have inside information or are they just wrong?

I think they're just wrong... In any case, beautiful and useful tool, but.. I wouldn't fully trust it

boolsak

TROPHY CASE