- (UPDATED – Response Sent Out) Are There Issues with The Plastic Merchant? Reports Are Not Looking Good! by Miles to Memories. I retweeted an earlier report of this from Miles Per Day, but some readers were wondering why we didn’t have a dedicated post on this. TBH, I don’t use TPM so don’t really have much to add.
- Earn Southwest Or La Quinta Points With Marathon Gas & MakeItCount by Frequent Miler. Doesn’t seem it will be as useful as some of the other programs, but still worth signing up if you use Marathon.
- Everyday sexism, Aviation edition by Paxex Aero. Listening to that video was so incredibly awkward. Also friendly reminder that any sexist comments are not welcome.
- Cash Payments Will No Longer Be Accepted for Credit Cards at Citi Branches (Effective July 21) by Travel With Grant. I’m sure we already did a post on this, but I couldn’t find it so maybe I just thought about writing one up but never actually did it. Either way fingers crossed this doesn’t affect other types of payments with Citi.
Deals expiring at the end of today (view the full deal calendar here):
- [Targeted & CT, DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV] M&T Bank $200 Checking Bonus (TJ)
- [Targeted?][NY, MA, RI, and CT Only] Webster Bank $100- $350 Checking Bonus
Deals expiring at end of tomorrow:
Isn’t it illegal to not accept cash as payment? I recall reading somewhere that a creditor must absolve a debtor of their debt if they’re not willing to accept legal tender
This is an AML implementation. Haven’t read the story above but you are still able to make cash payments at ATMs with daily limits. A pin (identification) is required.
+1
DoC, with all due respect, and appreciation for the many significant contributions you make to this travel/credit/hacker space, since when do you follow the criteria that you only post about something if you actually use it?
Moreover, ThePlasticMerchant has been a regular subject of this forum, including it’s previous relatively minor problems. You’ve often featured posts on gift card exchanges, and your many Amazon and Ebay posts (with your referral links on them) are meant primarily, no doubt, for those of us actively involved in gift card trading. (In fact, Mike @ TPM back when he used to send out alerts about gift card deals would often favorably reference DoctorofCredit — almost as if you, or one of you was already in the TPM fold.
Ah, the fact that TPM was showing SEVERE signs of distress deserved at least an alert from you. Mark O. over at MilestoMemories could also have copped out and said, I don’t do business there, so no need to post about it. Instead, he posted an early “public service announcement,” recognizing (as you should have) that a lot of readers in this space would have a serious “interest” in the subject. DDG picked it up within the hour…. I nearly listed over 1k of BB cards on TPM — but luckily caught Danny’s post, and spared me that loss.
Your venerable site has for a year or so been (for a lot of us) a first-stop, go-to-site for monitoring developments all across this realm, especially for those of us who have lives elsewhere. 🙂 You earned that. But no more…. You really let us down by avoiding even a short, basic PSA post on this.
Do hope you’ll rethink the really lame excuse that you don’t use TPM (??) or that you had nothing to add….. If that’s your new stock criteria, this no longer will be a go-to site.
No one cares that you’re outraged.
Really? troll. This wasn’t about me….. it’s about DoC dropping the ball and not caring about his readers. Hell of a lot of TPM individual customers are now out thousands, with no likely recourse…. Happens I was largely spared — thanks to an alert from other web sites. That DoC chose to stay silent…. yes, as you say, maybe he (like you) didn’t care..
The man is/was on vacation. Nobody is responsible for keeping the public informed on a third party’s status to begin with, much less when they’re trying to take a vacation. I’m sure DoC will be happy to refund you the fee you’ve paid for using this site…
…..
Could not disagree with you more about doc not caring about readers. This site puts in more effort than any of us would. Have to do DD when it comes to this stuff.
-1 Please stop reading DOC then – I’m sure he’ll refund your membership fee.
To say I don’t care about readers is frankly quite insulting. Just because you think this is an important issue to cover doesn’t mean everybody else does.
Will, I disagree with the escot on this. DoC is one of my most trusted sites for credit card & bank account info. Please keep doing what you are doing & thanks!
-daily reader
“[D]ropping the ball”? LOL. Show me where that clause is in the contract that this site is obligated to report/alert on each and every one of such incidents, however unfortunate/widely-impacting it might be.
You have to do your own DD and not rely on Doc for everything.
I don’t think Doc is in the business of criticizing or endorsing other small businesses. And I’ve never seen a post from him on TPM or any other exchanges. Chuck will sometimes reference “private buyers.” I don’t think Doc did anything wrong.
Rather than just complaining why didn’t you email him and request a story about it? DoC puts out 6+ posts EVERDAY, they can’t cover everything. If you are interested in something then message him. Clearly (as the comments below show) people know that DoC can’t be the source of everything so do your own due diligence. If DoC doesn’t use the service then how much information can they have about what goes on??
The problem is with you when you allow your self to rely on others for everything.
I’m OK with this not being your go to site anymore. I’m on vacation at the moment, I retweeted when Miles Per Day had a tweet on it and then I linked to this post. I literally had nothing to add to this discussion at all, I don’t use TPM and have never used it. Furthermore from a quick glance at my e-mail I don’t have any e-mails from readers about it.
There was one or two comments (I think from you) about it and that’s it. I’m sorry you feel this way but at the end of the day no one blogger is going to cover everything. I cover things I find interesting and things that I think readers will find interesting.
William,
I am actually glad that you did not cover the rise and the fall of this shady gift card broker.
I actually think you should research this case and have it as an example of how risky some of participants of this game are.
Now, if you do happen to cover a company, product, service that end up being not what was promised – we do hope you would warn your readers about the issues. So far I think you do exactly that, so thank you!
DoC is an incredible team! He sacrificed profit and selling out to give people somewhere you can trust. He has no obligation to remind you selling GCs through a 3rd party with a history of bounced checks and poor communication may be risky and repeat the same history in the present.
Wow! Literally every “verdict” section is designed to help readers evaluate an offer. I don’t know how he could care about readers anymore than he does. To second the point @ferris made, Will turns down an amazing amount of money in referral links to remain unbiased and more reader friendly.
Will deserves an apology for the insult.
++++1