Well, while I am thinking about this Target Visa - I just pulled out my Target Card. FYI - they do not have any expiration date on the card. (Mine says cardholder since 1995.) I dialed 18006592396 and punched in my acct number, then pushed the "Service rep" option. I hooked and then told her I was seeing the new Visa on the Target page and what was the deal? She asked me to verify for security my basic acct info - then said, "You can continue using your Target card, and when they roll it out in San Francisco, you will be contacted by letter - stating that your current Target Card will go to "auto-closure" status, and the superb new Visa will sent. When you activate the Visa, it ends the current Target Card account. We then talked about the smart chip reader in general. I also told her I had sent in my name and email on the Visa acct mgmt page and it took it. (She said good - but I think that has no real bearing). If they are rolling this out by potential demand from the email returns, RNB may deploy their rollout faster in an area where they got a lot of response - ex - San Fran area. She was very sweet on the phone - also because she was saw from my acct info that she was talking to a great acct member - since 1995 - with a perfect history.....ARF ARf LOL! We talked further - she was not in a rush - and I casually mentioned what I did in Internet - then little by little - approximately how much I made (in case she wanted to note my file LOL). I told her her I wanted to get the reader as soon as possible - even though it doesn't do much yet. BUT - it is changing the entire VISA payment network. These Smart Chips need acknowledgment of data handoffs at both the sending and receiving terminals. Visa has to pay for huge internal HARDWARE changes to enhance the chips. JUST TO AMUSE EVERYONE: The chip on these smart cards have 64Kb processing power. 15 years ago, you needed a very large desktop (IBM?) - hooked to a huge mainframe - to process the same data - and it took a heck of a lot longer. Businesses paid billions for computer development since those years. I believe Target and Visa are sharing costs with the hardware - the chips and the readers for users - and hardware upgrades into the Visa network. They NEED to convert everyone - because when they migrate from one platform to another, the old platform normally is dismantled or rehoned for other uses. It is significantly more cost effective for Target to change everyone. I believe Target will convert over every Target Guest that is current and good. Those go on the first pull - don't waste time or expense if a few bad ones get through. Phase two relook at the bounced ones, and update or pull credit for final determination. SMART CHIP IDEA? Dogman commentary.... In my opinion, I believe there will eventually be one universal card that a person carries. The chip will have storage information directly from the credit bureaus - downloaded to the CARD. You have 4 accts: AMEX Nextcard Cap One Diners and have 3 financial accts: Fidelity - equities Bank of America checking /savings CITI Certificates - with penalties for early withdrawals You go to make a "get $1000 cash" transaction: Shove the card into the ATM. Your chip evaluates all accounts, determines that if you take the cash off of Cap one, you pay. If you take it on margin, against the last 30 day historical period of your equity funds, there is no cost. If....all possibilities are evaluated - based on the financial goals you have entered into your PC. The cash is received, and the smart chip network and smart chip on the card gave you your cash free of charges. YOU NEED TO GET TO HAWAII - Shove the card into your home reader, punch in your time and date. The chip looks closely at AMEX because of the Membership Rewards points. It knows that a reward I want, a TV, is only 3 transactions away. It looks at Diners and sees the free three night stay at Hilton if you charge this way. SNAP. It selects Nextcard because it sees that if you do not use Nextcard 2 times a year, an annual fee of $59 will be charged. It sees you had used it once, and you had a 19 day period left B4 the fee would be incurred. An email would have been sent to your PDA, or PC that you needed to make one transaction by Sept 18 to avoid a renewal annual fee. YOU BOOK A ROOM at Lake Tahoe - because of the demand - but 72 hours cancellation required for no charges to your UCard. When you snapped the reservation by reader, the UChip you entered the cancellation policy. You don't go and your computer or PDS flashes an instant message - do you confirm Y or N ??? I touch N. The chip cancels the reservation. =========== Anyway - this is the type of fun stuff Dogman likes! You can see I am really a kid that loves new technology! Arfingly back on track now - Dogman
So all my accounts, with all the false information reported about them through the credit bureaus, will be on one card? Big Brother finally gets his revenge. I can't even take cash out of an ATM without his approval. Compared to that, even Aspire Visa looks inviting. Thank God for unreported accounts. And thank God for the current "inefficient" system of multiple cards and multiple types of cards (Visa , MC, AmEx, retail, gas, ATM cards, etc.) Information about me is power over me. When power is dispersed, it can be limited. When it's concentrated in one place, it can do a lot of harm.
Re: Just Talked W/Target Services R Dogman, great post! Anyway... I don't like "it" to determine/decide. What if I want to use Amex now and I know I will use Nextcard later -and still avoid the fee. That thing knows nothing about my plans and thoughts... Also Big Brother could decide that I can't afford the "get $1000 cash" transaction today/this week/this month..... I am really a little girl that loves new technology! DON'T LET 'BIG BROTHER' INTO YOUR COMPUTER. hugz!
Re: Just Talked W/Target Services R dogman It selects Nextcard because it sees that if you do not use Nextcard 2 times a year, an annual fee of $59 will be charged. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now I got to worry that my wife's card is going to cost me $59 sitting in the sock drawer? I decided to keep it @ $0.00 for help with F.I.C.O. (balance/limit ratio)...
Re: Just Talked W/Target Services R I hope Target offers me a choice?I will stick with their retail card.I don't need another Visa card.
Re: Just Talked W/Target Services R Hmm, so did you ask her out or not? ::my know-it-all mode has been turned on... be warned:: ACTUALLY, Dogman, arf arf, you are ::cough:: wrong. Fifteen years ago was 1986, and the biggest selling computer from 1984-1987 was, are you ready, the veritable Commodore 64, which had ::cough:: 64k of RAM (just like the Target VISA). I paid $500+ for my little Commodore 64. Looks like the Target VISA is free. On the other hand, I joined CompuServe and began my online adventures with that little machine; I'll bet it would be exceedingly difficult to log onto an online service with the Target VISA card. Now, if you had said 25 years ago instead of only 15, you'd have been right. In 1976, the biggest selling personal computers were the Altair 8800 and 8800b, the Processor Technology SOL, and the Imsai 8080 (the one Matthew Broderick played with in the movie "War Games"). Those had only 8k or 16k of RAM (32k if you were really, really rich). I still have my Altair 8800 (well, it was my dad's), by the way, a real collector's item. (In early 1976, the Apple II still hadn't quite been launched, so Apple was hardly a player with the breadboarded Apple I, of which they only sold around 500 units.) Now, what this has to do with credit is a mystery even to me. And, of course, this has nothing to do with psychology, unless these paragraphs serve to merely prove my own neuroses (and my irritatingly complete fund of information). Thank you for listening. ::my know-it-all mode has been turned back off now::
Fascinating Stuff - I mean it! I have been in CA since 1981 - when San Jose was a sparse dog town 50 miles south of San Francisco - the real CITY! Homes in Santa Clara - about where many HP buildings sit today, were about $40K. Needless to say, it turned silicon into gold and has rolled ever since. That 3 brdm home in a small yard now is $1M something. It is very different now that dot.com isn't even a party word any more. There are pink slip parties where brilliant people congregate and network - to hope to find a job. Did you live around Palo Alto or Menlo Park? Sure sounds like you might! When it was rolling out, I did not even understand the Altair or its critical importance - Apple happened - I hooked when I got a Compaq box. Fascinating - that Altair will be worth a fortune. c ya - thanks bud - dogman
Hi RichGuy. Interesting huh? I would envision maybe people would use a Microsoft Money program - where every priority of any type could be set by the user. Surphie thought about wanting to use one specific card icon on the UCard. I would see it as directing the result - kind of like the Palm desktop software - where you type in whatever then synch to the PDA. It would also be easily adaptable to birth records and DL, it could easily include all welfare payments and benefit limits for that segment. It could easily be hooked to medical records and benefits. It is starting NOW! Thanks for your input - let's face it - even Providian and AMEX and Fleet are doing it - and they are forcing this industry forward. arf - dog
You'd be very interesting to .... talk to RichGuy. You bring up some very valid points. arfingly yours - dogman
Hi Surphie I answered kinda above about your thoughts. We would need to be able to set the priority. Also interesting is what the credit card companies could do to make certain that other people saw THEIR LOGO on your universal card. It would be interesting if , when you subscribe to AMEX and get their account, you put the hologrphic card into the reader, and simply download the AMEX ICON onto the card. OK....now we are thinking that our all purpose UCard could be a card with 20 logos of different companies - each uploads the info to the smart chip and it installs the new AMEX acct data onto the Card. hmmmm.... c ya dogman
Re: You'd be very interesting to .... Thank you, Dogman. And yes, of course it's interesting. There is a positive side to new technology like this. It COULD be used to help people, but I fear that the concentration of all information at a single source could have nasty legal, social, and political consequences. Also, from a technological standpoint alone, the removal of all redundancy from the financial system would raise the stakes of any input error, any equipment failure. Suppose I go to an ATM and, due to one of many possible reasons, I can't get cash from my credit card? So I dig into my wallet for another credit card, or my ATM card...but wait! They don't exist any more. Something to think about?
Re: Just Talked W/Target Services R Dogman,I lived in a apartment in San Jose in 79-a two bedroom,two bathroom for 240 a month.Now around 2000 a month UNBELIEVABLE.
BRAD - jeez $240! I live at top of Twin Peaks under Sutro Tower - you know the red SF radio tower. I got a 2 bdrm - dead on view of downtown SF skyline - for $1200 - 6 years back. I now, under rent control, pay $1319. The ONE bdrm on top - was rented by a Yahoo guy in the options heyday - for $2500. I saw 2 bdrms in this neighborhood for $5000 - mine would have gone for that if I had moved - which I won't because of rent control. One lady in this building NOW pays $600 (she got in yrs ago - sounds like your timeframe) and the landlord offered her 10K immediately to move. She didn't take it LOL! BUT NOW - there are apts available everywhere in the City - its truly depressed. c ya dogman
