Posts made by Almighty1

@craig10x - Capital One is a even worse insult because back then, all they would give me is $500 and never raised it.

I have what is known as the HSBC Cash Rewards World (can’t remember the exact name) MasterCard which was originally a HSBC Premier World MasterCard when I signed up as a Premier Client but never brought any assets so I dropped out of the program after 3 months and they moved me to their HSBC Fly or something World MasterCard, both started with $7500 for the credit line which was back in 1997 or 1998. Then they automatically raised me to $8500 during the past few years when I haven’t even used the card. I have not try asking for a CLI yet.

Have a question, for anyone out there with a XFinity branded Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, do you know what your voicemail # is set to when you hold down the 1 key in the dialer which should be shown also in the settings menu of the Phone/Dialer app? Also, does anyone know if Video Calling works with the S8/S+ or any other phone on XFinity Mobile for that matter? Thanks!

Thanks, might want to mention the requirements or links for each of the offers.

Thanks @Burgerwars for the answer. Was trying to figure out what each of them were priced at.

@chyvan - Did you do a travel alert on the debit card first because that is probably what happened.

I always redeem in cash and it has never been taxed yet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/tax-bill-spawns-new-holiday-ritual-waiting-in-line-to-pay-taxes/2017/12/27/1e7ea59a-eb12-11e7-b698-91d4e35920a3_story.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=digg&utm_term=.097f0b6b66ec

And this is what the IRS said yesterday…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/tax-bill-spawns-new-holiday-ritual-waiting-in-line-to-pay-taxes/2017/12/27/1e7ea59a-eb12-11e7-b698-91d4e35920a3_story.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=digg&utm_term=.097f0b6b66ec

Is there a difference between investing in BitCoin vs BitCoin Cash that I heard someone talk about?

One of my friends who actively looks into cyber currency said Ripple would be one to get into as it is backed by people who are either well known bankers or government officials.

In my case, hard to say since I have QLD, DDM and AAPL. The first two has 600% gains and the second one has 11,000% gains so if I sell, basically 100% of the amount is gained so is there a strategy to sell and still use it again to make money while having cash from the sale?

There was another update on December 10, 2017

Update for the LG X Charge M322V10n
summary 1. Phone usability and functionality has been further improved

No difference really from what I can tell…

@principalmember said in Steps to take in 2017 for the upcoming tax changes:

It’s common to see many out there advising paying your January payment early (next week) to realize the extra interest deduction in 2017.

People don’t know what the hell they are doing. Only the January payment will count towards the interest for 2017. The January payment represents interest for Dec and hence it is legit to do that. At the end of the day, you don’t control generating the “mortgage interest statement” - your bank does.

Exactly, the one who generates and reports the 1098 to the IRS is the one who determines that and the amount.

@adolfin - I thought Mortgage Interest was not part of the $10k SALT cap while Property Tax was.

Actually, how accurate is what CNBC is saying in this link:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/19/5-deductions-taxpayers-will-miss-the-most-in-the-tax-bill.html

It seems like only property taxes would be a bigger concern and there are still ways around it as in my case, both me and my mom are JTWROS so if there was $12k in property taxes, all one has to do is shift the property taxes so whatever is left over is deducted by the other person.

As far as mortgages is concerned:
"Mortgage interest
Starting in 2018, homeowners can take a mortgage interest deduction on a loan of up to $750,000, down from the current law’s limit of $1 million.

“If you have a mortgage of $800,000, you can deduct [interest] on the first $750,000,” said Nicole M. Kaeding, an economist at the Tax Foundation.

Individuals who take out home equity loans will no longer be able to deduct that interest under the new bill."

so I was right about only Home Equity Line of Credit or anything with the word “Home Equity” in the name of the loan will just not be deductible. So mortgage interest deduction is still allowed, just you can deduct interest up to $750k worth of principle instead of $1 Million and using the same trick as above, one can shift the remaining part to the other person. And it doesn’t effect me because my loan as a new mortgage was $487,200 and now it’s $400,000.

Besides, just use the same trick the rich uses. Deduct everything 100% as a business being a LLC or as a sole proprietor without the limits.

So I was really asking for a example rather as using acquisition indebtedness is confusing. This is almost like reading legal documents as all it really says is the you can only deduct the first $750k of the loan amount so only people who have loans exceeding $750k would need to worry for margin interest since they can’t deduct the rest but if they can afford a $750k loan and meet the requirements for the Debt to Income ratio for it, that $250k that they can no longer deduct probably means nothing to them as the rich can just either have it paid from the business side and then deduct 100% of it.

Still a bit confused since I really am trying to find out what indebtedness means as it’s obvious one cannot deduct principle. So are they saying that there will no longer be form 1098’s?

@gwraigty - Thanks. What exactly does acquisition indebtedness mean? Also, is home equity the same as as a mortgage interest since I would have thought home equity would mean things like HELOC where the Home Equity is actually in the name of the product?

I’m in CA and haven’t followed the changes exactly. For property taxes and also mortgage deductions, are they limiting based on dollar amount or are they limiting it based on a % of income? What about Capital Gains taxes? Any changes to that since Trump got elected, my networth actually went up 75% from stock investments alone which gain over $1 Million from that time.

Called BofA again and it seems my calculation is correct and basically they said that even if my mom drops from the Platinum Honors tier on January 1, 2018 for not meeting the $100,000 average balance on December 31, 2017, I would need a balance of $145,000 on January 1, 2018 so that the average 3 month daily balance on that date will be $100,000 assuming I don’t take anything out so t0 hat at the end of the statement cycle which is basically the last business day of the month, it would meet the $100,000 requirement and she would get upgraded back to the Platinum Tier automatically on February 1, 2018 as they always upgrade those that meet the requirements every month if they are already in the Preferred Rewards program. They also said the Cash Rewards bonus is $262.50 and the Preferred Rewards status for the 75% bonus is only needed during redemption of the reward. Ofcourse the $65,000 needed to earn the extra $112.50 would be earning $70.00 in interest at 1.30% elsewhere so in reality, it’s really only $42.50 more and not $112.50 extra compared to the initial $150.00 bonus.

Just got off the phone with Bank of America Preferred Rewards Customer Service and basically they were clueless on what the daily balance had to be on December 31, 2017 or even how to calculate it. I will be doing a ACH push from Fidelity Investments to BofA in the next day or two so I want to make sure I am calculating this correctly using the same method meed18 used. The balance on the account is $82,448.44 except to be on the safe side leaving some headroom, we will call this $80,000 as the balance basically was bouncing between $81,000 to $86,000 since October 1, 2017 and has never actually reached $80,000 so that level should be safe and I already know how much money will come out before December 31, 2017. It basically goes down about $2,000 a month but this month is higher due to property taxes which is included in the deduction I will mention which will be done on December 27, 2017. I will just use December 27, 2017 as the reference point even though the ACH will probably be in the account a few business days before that and basically I will be deducting $7,052.30 from the account which probably wouldn’t matter as the ACH deposit will include another $8,000.00 so that will cancel out the deduction to play it safe.

October 31 days + November 30 days + December 31 days = 92 days.
October 31 days + November 30 days + December 1-27 = 88 days.
$100,000 x 92 = $9,200,000
$80,000 x 88 = $7,040,000
$9,200,000 - $7,040,000 = $2,160,000
92-88 = 4
$2,160,000 / 4 = $540,000
$540,000 + $8,000 to cover the December 27, 2017 $7,052.30 deduction

So am I correct I would need a $540,000 + $8,000 = $548,000 total balance on December 31, 2017 which means I would need to transfer $478,000 just so my mom can stay a Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors Client? Or did I calculate this incorrectly? This doesn’t seem cost effective if the only reason to get her that status for another 3 months is for the Bank of America® Cash Rewards credit card which gives $150 for spending $500 during the first 3 months and an addition 75% bonus for being in the Platinum Honors Tier which would be $262.50.

Yeah, they sent a letter to the secondary account holder because she only has this account for the balance while I have other accounts to exceed the requirement and it does say it has to meet the requirement on December 31, 2017. For some reason, I thought they would just make secondary account holders eligible based on the assets of the primary.

Thanks meed18, hopefully that amount is correct since basically it seems like for October 1-November 30, 2017, there is a shortage of $20,000 per month x 2 = $40,000 and then for December, there would also be a shortage of $20,000 which totals $60,000 or a total of $1,400,000.00 is needed at the end of December 31, 2017 which is about $8k less than what is needed.

Does anyone know how often BofA actually check the balances since assuming it meets the criteria on December 31, 2017, when will they usually do the next review as I noticed the account has been under $100,000 for atleast 6 months before they sent the letter to the secondary account holder who had no other accounts.

I have a question on the Bank of America Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors tier which requires a 3 month average balance of $100,000. Basically, what if the average monthly balance from October 1, 2017 to December 4, 2017 is $80,000. How much does one need to deposit so that it will meet the $100,000 average on December 31, 2017 to keep the status? Thanks!

@frugalpete

Haven’t looked into it because the risk is higher than QLD which is 2x leveraged, so not even sure how the performance compares.

I always thought that any checks would have to be drawn in U.S. Funds so Canadian checks would not work unless it was drawn in U.S. Funds. If it was in Canadian funds, you can get charged some fee and then the conversion which may or may not be in your favor.

I also wonder about making transactions with the debit card, if they count the transaction date or the post date as far as the December 1, 2017 date is concerned.

@david-scubadiver

I think it’s a YMMV, I bought both QLD and DDM in March of 2009 and both have been up and continuing to go up. 8 years should be long term enough so it really depends on the price you buy at and when you buy which is more important. However, I woudn’t buy at todays prices.

Yeah, would be interesting to know how it works…

Why would you want to get $30 per month on spending $3,000 per month when you can get 2%-5% elsewhere for spending the same amount.

The thing is I seem to have better luck with the free ETFs offered by Schwab and Fidelity vs the ones offered at TD Ameritrade.

@wmnetid - cost was $6413.85 for 135 shares on December 29, 2010 and the loss now is $446.85 at near 7%. I have actually had it for years. Seems like Vanguard’s Emerging markets loses money compared to iShares Emerging Markets (EEM) held at Fidelity for example. I think my concern is more I have to do the cost basis for another security for taxes if I sold. So actually, the non-Vanguard funds may actually perform better and it seems like it is easier to recover the losses and instead turn it to gains elsewhere.

They sent the new deposit agreement online which reads as follows:

Product Impacted: Cashback Checking Account

(a) The following terms apply to Cashback Bonus rewards earned prior to December 1, 2017: You may earn Checking Cashback Bonus rewards based on qualifying activity in your Cashback Checking Account. Eligible customers will earn Checking Cashback Bonus rewards of $0.10 for:
(i) each debit card purchase transaction,
(ii) each check written that clears the Checking Account, or
(iii) each Online Bill Pay transaction that is initiated in the Discover Bank Account Center and is successfully completed.

Customers can earn Checking Cashback Bonus rewards on up to 100 transactions per calendar month, in any combination of the above.

Customers are limited to being an owner, whether individual or joint, to a maximum of five (5) Cashback Checking Accounts.

ACH transactions, including when a physical check is converted to an ACH debit transaction, are not eligible for Cashback Bonus rewards.

Checking Cashback Bonus rewards will be earned monthly and posted to your Checking Cashback Bonus account on the Business Day following your statement end date. Your Checking Account must be open when Bonus rewards are posted.

(b) The following terms apply to Checking Cashback Bonus rewards earned on December 1, 2017 or after:
You may earn Checking Cashback Bonus Rewards based on qualifying debit card purchases made using your Discover Cashback Checking Account debit card. You will earn Checking Cashback Bonus rewards of 1% of the qualifying debit card purchases on up to $3,000 in purchases per calendar month.

Qualifying debit card purchases include
(i) Point-of-sale purchases made with your debit card, excluding any cash over portion of the purchase and
(ii) Online purchases made with your debit card, except bill payment or funding, depositing or payment of any prepaid card or account or a deposit account.

In addition, debit card purchases that are not eligible for 1% Checking Cashback Bonus rewards include:
(i) Any transaction conducted at an ATM,
(ii) The purchase of money orders or other cash-equivalents,* and
(iii) Peer-to-Peer (P2P) payments.**

In addition to the three exclusions above, purchases made using third-party payment accounts (services such as Venmo® or PayPal™ who also provide P2P payments) may not be eligible for cashback rewards.

*Cash-equivalents include, but are not limited to: currency, coins, negotiable items not yet deposited, U.S. treasury bills and commercial paper.
**P2P payments are defined as electronic money transfers made from one individual’s bank account or credit card to another individual’s bank account or credit card through a P2P payment application.

I also sent them a secure message before I received that and this was what they said:

"Effective December 1, 2017, there will be an update to the Cashback Checking rewards. These changes will allow you to earn Checking Cashback Bonus rewards of 1% of qualifying debit card purchases on up to $3,000 in purchases per calendar month. The Checking Cashback Bonus can be earned through both point-of-sale and online purchases. This means you will no longer earn Cashback Bonus for checks and bill payments.

Please note, the following debit card transactions will not be eligible to earn rewards:
-Any transaction conducted at an ATM
-The cash over portion of any point-of-sale purchase
-The purchase of money orders, or cash-equivalents (currency, coins, negotiable items not yet deposited, U.S. treasury bills and commercial paper)
-Peer-to-Peer (P2P) payments
-Purchases made using third-party payment accounts (services such as Venmo® or PayPal?)

Cashback Bonus will continue to be earned monthly and posted to your Cashback Bonus balance on the Business Day following your statement end date.

For a complete list of changes on all products, please refer to the recent secure message we sent detailing the Deposit Account Agreement changes."

So looks like the cashback for bill payments and checks is gone, so much for the cashback checking part as it’s only on the debit card now which is useless. I already sent them my feedback that I will be using credit cards instead which provides higher cash back as the $0.10 per transaction on debit, checks and bill pay were the good features on the account.

New android update for the LG x charge vM322V10k

Is this only on the debit card, wonder if they will still pay $0.10 per transaction for checks and online bill pay?

Hmm, what would you do if you bought VWO and it’s losing money at 6% after the dividend reinvestments, sell it while it’s free, buy something else or hold on to it and sell later and pay the commissions?

Latest PRL is 15533. The PRL versions seems to always be 2 less than the Verizon Wireless version.

Hey all, glad to be here and first time labeled as a refugee… Good work everyone!

If one is getting poor latency which will result in poor data speeds, they should comment in the thread here at Xfinity’s own forums:
http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Xfinity-Mobile/XFinity-Mobile-data-network-latency-not-within-published-specs/td-p/2978601

@marcopolomle said in XFINITY Mobile deal discussion (as the deal has expired):

I am unable to figure out how does “XFINITY WiFi Hotspots app” actually works on a non-XFinity Mobile branded phone.
I installed it and logged into my account but all it does is show the hotspots and only connects to " xfinity hotspots" as compared to “XFINITY hotspots”?
What am I doing wrong here?

Good question. I have actually used the app on my LG G4 VS986 (Verizon Wireless branded) phone since February 2016 and I can see it autoconnects to Xfinity Wifi hotspots automatically except a majority of the time, it seems like the data is not transferring probably because of the poor signal strength since I know these are basically the XFinity and Comcast Business Internet gateway router/modems that is providing the signals. I didn’t note which type it is except from what I read, the capital XFINITY are the supposedly the secured hotspots. Here is a thread that talks more about it:
http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Xfinity-Mobile/What-does-the-Xfinity-WiFi-hotspot-app-really-do/td-p/2964011

There is also some information on this thread and post #84 gives info on how to get the secured XFINITY hotspots working:
http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Xfinity-Mobile/LG-X-Charge-isn-t-automatically-connecting-to-home-or-wifi/td-p/2949041

That is based on this XFinity article:
https://www.xfinity.com/support/internet/secure-vs-open-xfinity-wifi/

@miserly said in XFINITY Mobile deal discussion (as the deal has expired):

so can i order 5 LG X for $5, get new numbers and use the sim in 5 BYOD for almost free (100mb data)?
and is the 100mb data shared between devices?

ETA
i see that the phone discount is no longer offered.

Yes to the first question if it was on or before September 13, 2017. After that the 5 devices will cost $180 each. And the answer to the 2nd question is yes except for the devices on the $45 unlimited data plan.