My favorite credit card auxiliary benefits, ranked by Free-quent Flyer. Totally disagree with his hate for the IHG free night certificate, but I do appreciate his points about the differences between the two.
How I was banned from Boxed.com by Miles Per Day. I was starting to get worried that Vinh had lost his touch, but looks like he is back with another shut down! These posts are always worth reading to try and determine what you could do differently to avoid a shut down.
FizzBuzz: One Simple Interview Question by Tom Scott. Love Tom’s videos. “Don’t leave too much of a mess for whoever comes along to maintain your code”, words to live by.
I’ve used FizzBuzz for interviews before, but I like to ask questions like “programmatically find a file with a folder that can contain many files and folders”. It’s always shocking how many candidates cannot complete that task, even after you help them with hints like “use recursion”.
A simpler favorite is computing factorials in a number of different ways. In fact, I love giving simple questions and asking the person to do it another way. That can easily let you know if they have a brain or have simply memorized a solution.
Here’s the thing–I actually have multiple pieces of rock-solid evidence that Vinh’s a pretty good person. The personal attacks from some of the commenters here are over the top and unnecessary. I think y’all can be better. Just sayin’.
Agreed, we’re all in this hobby to make/save money, but at a certain point it becomes exploitative. It’s also counterproductive in the long run, it’s jerks like this that cause their loss department to institute a bunch of draconian rules.
It seems like a lot of people (including many commentators on DoC) do this kind of stuff. MPD referred to how he actually asked his buddies how much he could get away with.
MM (@guest_451602)
August 2, 2017 09:49
#451602
Sort of a weird argument by Free-quent Flyer re: IHG vs Hyatt. Bottom line: a free night at a IHG, no strings attached, is pretty sweet, while a free night at Hyatts 1-4 is cool but somewhat limiting. I get what he’s trying to say, but individual free night certs have inherent value, and not everyone needs to string together multiple nights like he’s proposing. Honestly, speaking of value, I don’t tend to get much of it from that blog, and I hope it’s not part of the new “Best of” blog series you’re doing.
So he has >50 Amex cards?! How did he acquire that many (plus AU cards I’m guessing)? And what in the world did he think would happen with that kind of volume? :/
You mean think moving all your Amex CL to to BBP to float a bunch of MS at 0% for free and put it in the S&P to get 10 percent return might have some potential issues he didn’t address?
I’ve used FizzBuzz for interviews before, but I like to ask questions like “programmatically find a file with a folder that can contain many files and folders”. It’s always shocking how many candidates cannot complete that task, even after you help them with hints like “use recursion”.
A simpler favorite is computing factorials in a number of different ways. In fact, I love giving simple questions and asking the person to do it another way. That can easily let you know if they have a brain or have simply memorized a solution.
So much hate for Vinh. Lol to see how everyone here believes they’re not doing anything wrong, but he’s a bottom feeder.
You make a good point but how do know that Tony does anything “wrong”?
Take a look at this comment where I similarly responded to some guy and all I heard was crickets.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/things-keep-mind-regarding-75000-point-citi-prestige-offer/#comment-447922
Here’s the thing–I actually have multiple pieces of rock-solid evidence that Vinh’s a pretty good person. The personal attacks from some of the commenters here are over the top and unnecessary. I think y’all can be better. Just sayin’.
Agreed, think the attacks are completely unnecessary and it’s not the type of community I’m proud of.
While some people may have been over the top, how can a “pretty good” person think this way about a company that did nothing wrong.
“I hope they go bankrupt before Costco or anyone else buys them out.”
Vinh is a straight up bottom feeder with little to no morals…
“And good riddance to Boxed! I hope they go bankrupt before Costco or anyone else buys them out.”
That line sums up his character in a nutshell
Agreed, we’re all in this hobby to make/save money, but at a certain point it becomes exploitative. It’s also counterproductive in the long run, it’s jerks like this that cause their loss department to institute a bunch of draconian rules.
It seems like a lot of people (including many commentators on DoC) do this kind of stuff. MPD referred to how he actually asked his buddies how much he could get away with.
Sort of a weird argument by Free-quent Flyer re: IHG vs Hyatt. Bottom line: a free night at a IHG, no strings attached, is pretty sweet, while a free night at Hyatts 1-4 is cool but somewhat limiting. I get what he’s trying to say, but individual free night certs have inherent value, and not everyone needs to string together multiple nights like he’s proposing. Honestly, speaking of value, I don’t tend to get much of it from that blog, and I hope it’s not part of the new “Best of” blog series you’re doing.
Every time you post an article by that Vinh guy, I become more and more convinced that he’s a moron.
This.
So he has >50 Amex cards?! How did he acquire that many (plus AU cards I’m guessing)? And what in the world did he think would happen with that kind of volume? :/
AU abuse. This guy is just an all around scumbag.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
You mean think moving all your Amex CL to to BBP to float a bunch of MS at 0% for free and put it in the S&P to get 10 percent return might have some potential issues he didn’t address?
How does he get a 10% return investing in the S&P?
If you cherry pick from the most recent months of the S&P 500, starting from Nov 2016 until today, the S&P 500 has gone up 18.2%
Avg return of S&P historically is around 8%, since the 70s around 10%.
What I really don’t like is this line: “I hope they go bankrupt before Costco or anyone else buys them out.”
He’s the one that abused the promo and now he’s upset that Boxed took action.