I'm buying a new computer again! Probably keeping Merrick
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:39 pm
Because I have to upgrade (again) to play Watch Dogs, I'm buying a new computer. Literally, a new one instead of refurbished.
Here's the link to it on Amazon.com. Here is what it has:
* Six Core processor
* 8GB of memory
* 1 TB of disk space
* 3.5 GHZ FX 8300
* AMD Radeon HD 7730 graphics card w/1 GB of memory
$499
Amazon has a special on, I can finance it at 0% interest for several months. Okay, so I did my brother's taxes. This year I'm an election judge, so I'll get $450 from that, which both together more than pay for the new computer.
Hey, once I get it I'll even be able to seriously play Duke Nukem Forever, which I couldn't do because my graphics card in this Quad Core Acer is too slow.
This is the first time I've bought a brand new in the box computer in... Jesus H. Christ, TWENTY YEARS. I got an eMachines Windows 95 box back in 1995. (Or maybe it was 17 years and it was Windows 98.) Every computer I've bought since then was used or refurbished.
As I noted on my blog, every upgrade has been because I wanted to play a game. I went to a 286 in order to run Wolf 3D (I had to play it in monochrome; I couldn't afford to both upgrade the computer and the monitor until a few months later). I bought Pinback's computer from him when he upgraded in order to play Doom. I upgraded to a new computer to play Duke Nukem 3d. I bought a new computer to play Portal. I bought this Acer Aspire to play Duke Nukem Forever only it turned out the graphics card was too weak, and it just ran like a dog. But the computer was otherwise nice.
With the 0% interest charge until December on Chase Visa, I'm able to migrate and pay off the Merrick Bank card, which once my payment clears will have a $0 balance, immediately making the monthly payments to Chase worth an additional $30, the monthly interest I was paying Merrick.
I have no complaints, though. Merrick Bank has been honorable, they've always disclosed everything they did, including that the annual fee for the first year would be $72, they were very flexible in that they allowed me to pick my statement due date and (to get their tentacles even deeper into me) routinely granted me unrequested credit line increases, raising my initial limit over the last two years from about $750 to $2000.
My former credit card was a Sears Solutions MasterCard with HSBC, and in the three years I was with them they never raised my limit a dime over the $300, I had to fight with them every year because they kept wanting to re-impose the $59 annual fee even though the application I signed specifically said the annual fee was $0 (I actually kept a copy of the application), and wouldn't allow me to change my due date, even though it was the 8th of the month and my check comes in on the 3rd. So when I got Merrick, I used it to pay off HSBC and told them what they could do with their card.
But I'm going to keep Merrick Bank Visa even though they charge $6 a month while the Chase Visa card has a $0 annual fee, because when someone does right by me, I want to encourage it. I'm probably not going to ask them to drop the fee, which tells you how impressed I am, I consider myself "the cheapest son-of-a-bitch in town" and called up Register.com to find what they're charging me $4.95 a month, and discovered they've been billing me for e-mail forwarding. Got that removed; I didn't realize I'd ordered it.
But I've gotten back at HSBC twice. When I was living over at my sister's place in 2007, got my sister a Chase Ink Visa Business Card, they gave her a whopping $15,000 limit with no annual fee. So I called HSBC on her behalf and told them to close the account and send us a final bill. I was asked if there was anything wrong. I said, "No, your service has been fine and we'd have kept the card, it's just that your Visa card has a $300 limit and costs $59 a year, and we just got a Chase Visa which has a $15,000 limit and no fee." When the clerk on the phone graciously agreed to have HSBC waive and refund the annual fee, i said that was okay and we'd be happy remaining one of their customers.
So I deprived them of the interest on her account, the annual fee and cancelled my business with them.
Here's the link to it on Amazon.com. Here is what it has:
* Six Core processor
* 8GB of memory
* 1 TB of disk space
* 3.5 GHZ FX 8300
* AMD Radeon HD 7730 graphics card w/1 GB of memory
$499
Amazon has a special on, I can finance it at 0% interest for several months. Okay, so I did my brother's taxes. This year I'm an election judge, so I'll get $450 from that, which both together more than pay for the new computer.
Hey, once I get it I'll even be able to seriously play Duke Nukem Forever, which I couldn't do because my graphics card in this Quad Core Acer is too slow.
This is the first time I've bought a brand new in the box computer in... Jesus H. Christ, TWENTY YEARS. I got an eMachines Windows 95 box back in 1995. (Or maybe it was 17 years and it was Windows 98.) Every computer I've bought since then was used or refurbished.
As I noted on my blog, every upgrade has been because I wanted to play a game. I went to a 286 in order to run Wolf 3D (I had to play it in monochrome; I couldn't afford to both upgrade the computer and the monitor until a few months later). I bought Pinback's computer from him when he upgraded in order to play Doom. I upgraded to a new computer to play Duke Nukem 3d. I bought a new computer to play Portal. I bought this Acer Aspire to play Duke Nukem Forever only it turned out the graphics card was too weak, and it just ran like a dog. But the computer was otherwise nice.
With the 0% interest charge until December on Chase Visa, I'm able to migrate and pay off the Merrick Bank card, which once my payment clears will have a $0 balance, immediately making the monthly payments to Chase worth an additional $30, the monthly interest I was paying Merrick.
I have no complaints, though. Merrick Bank has been honorable, they've always disclosed everything they did, including that the annual fee for the first year would be $72, they were very flexible in that they allowed me to pick my statement due date and (to get their tentacles even deeper into me) routinely granted me unrequested credit line increases, raising my initial limit over the last two years from about $750 to $2000.
My former credit card was a Sears Solutions MasterCard with HSBC, and in the three years I was with them they never raised my limit a dime over the $300, I had to fight with them every year because they kept wanting to re-impose the $59 annual fee even though the application I signed specifically said the annual fee was $0 (I actually kept a copy of the application), and wouldn't allow me to change my due date, even though it was the 8th of the month and my check comes in on the 3rd. So when I got Merrick, I used it to pay off HSBC and told them what they could do with their card.
But I'm going to keep Merrick Bank Visa even though they charge $6 a month while the Chase Visa card has a $0 annual fee, because when someone does right by me, I want to encourage it. I'm probably not going to ask them to drop the fee, which tells you how impressed I am, I consider myself "the cheapest son-of-a-bitch in town" and called up Register.com to find what they're charging me $4.95 a month, and discovered they've been billing me for e-mail forwarding. Got that removed; I didn't realize I'd ordered it.
But I've gotten back at HSBC twice. When I was living over at my sister's place in 2007, got my sister a Chase Ink Visa Business Card, they gave her a whopping $15,000 limit with no annual fee. So I called HSBC on her behalf and told them to close the account and send us a final bill. I was asked if there was anything wrong. I said, "No, your service has been fine and we'd have kept the card, it's just that your Visa card has a $300 limit and costs $59 a year, and we just got a Chase Visa which has a $15,000 limit and no fee." When the clerk on the phone graciously agreed to have HSBC waive and refund the annual fee, i said that was okay and we'd be happy remaining one of their customers.
So I deprived them of the interest on her account, the annual fee and cancelled my business with them.