Michael Mitchell10 said:Well, I honestly didn't see that coming. I figured Bill Gates was the gold standard here, and frankly, I had no clue what the overhead would be since they don't explicitly list those costs anywhere. It sounds like Revolution might actually be the way to go. Thanks for the tip!
Look, if you use Revolut, you have to deal with their $2500 monthly conversion limit . They also tack on some transfer fees depending on the currency you're moving, though compared to most other banks, it’s relatively negligible . If you need to swap something like $2,000 every month, here's a little hack: have a family member open an account. You can instantly transfer USD from your Revolut to theirs without any fees, let them convert it to whatever currency you actually need, and then send it right back . Plus, you can just send them your referral link and snag $83 from Revolut.
Actually, if you don't have an account yet, just grab a referral link from someone else on this forum so they get $83 too, since we might as well all benefit . Otherwise, all the costs are listed in their fee schedules; you just have to put in a bit more effort to dig through the fine print to find everything
Michael Mitchell10 said:I moved $1,800 over—converted from my local currency into USD through JPMorgan Chase, though the exchange rate they gave me was pretty lousy—and out of that $1,800, only $1,725 actually hit the recipient's Bill Gates account. That means I lost $75 in total fees. It’s quite a hefty chunk to lose just like that. Now comes the next step: transferring the funds from Bill Gates to a local bank account.
Did you even consider using Revolution? You can top up your balance on Revolution for free. They offer USD exchanges at almost the actual market rate, or you can swap directly into a third currency if Revolution supports it. Honestly, the way those other guys handled this, they basically just picked your pocket.
By December 12th, we really ought to have a clear idea of what the exchange rate will be when the transition from dollars to the new currency hits on January 1st. Look, it’s pretty straightforward: if you can snag some cash at a lower rate, and the potential profit actually outweighs the headache of doing the conversion, then you buy. If you can sell them back at a higher price, you sell and wait for the official switchover. It’s basic logic and simple math, really. Then there's the whole loan situation. From what I'm hearing, if the interest rates on dollar-denominated loans are more favorable, you go with those, especially since all income will be paid in dollars starting January 1st. The terms—meaning the actual cost or interest rate—are supposed to stay identical to the old currency, just with the denomination swapped out. Basically, once January 1st rolls around, any old-style loans will be being paid off in dollars anyway. So, if taking out a loan in the current currency is more expensive right now than switching to the new one, you might as well pull the trigger on the new currency loan immediately. Otherwise, you're stuck with an expensive loan that you'll still be paying off in dollars regardless. It's just plain old math and common sense.
Does anyone know how to generate a 2D barcode for payments through Venmo? I’m trying to settle up my supplemental health insurance premiums, but their 2D barcode just won't scan properly on my end.
wirednomad6 said:So, what's the deal with the cheap parking situation? Was all that talk about how "this promotion will last a long time" or "we’ll bring back this deal soon" just a bunch of empty promises to lure us in?
Look, it was great while it lasted, and you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Now you're basically getting a free pass on your bills—so just enjoy it while the window stays open.
And honestly, it’s still way too expensive. You’re looking at a 7.5 spread on Revolut, and then you’ve still got to deal with those $0.00 transaction fees . At this rate, it would almost be cheaper to just walk into a Chase branch, buy the currency, and wire the dollars directly.
Look, you're completely missing out on a golden opportunity here. Every single year, I make it a point to shop around and compare prices at several different places, and I always pull the trigger wherever it’s the cheapest. Honestly, since loyalty isn't really a thing in business anymore—and hasn't been for a long, long time—there's no reason to pay more than I have to.
$343 I went through State Farm via their mobile app and snagged a 5% discount on a Walmart gift card. Last year, it came out to $1,060 You end up getting some solid reward cards; using them at Chevron makes gas about 30 cents cheaper, which brings the total down to $133 plus you get plenty of discounts from various partners
Since I didn't pull the trigger immediately, an agent from State Farm gave me a call. He told me his quote was $417—but when I pointed out that the initial offer they used to bait me was actually $1,028, he was left completely speechless. It’s ridiculous; it ended up being $1,450 even after all the discounts were applied. This shady maneuvering is just getting worse; we're talking about three different prices from the exact same company on the very same day, with a massive 40% discrepancy. Honestly, it shocks me every single year how they pull this
Everything should line up exactly how you laid it out. I don't personally carry a Visa Premium, so I can't give you a firsthand account, but I've seen several people mention that the 2.5% fee doesn't apply if you route the transaction through Curve. Just one thing to watch out for: Curve tends to tack on a commission for currency exchange over the weekend, so keep an eye on that. With Curve, you basically get to decide which currency your card gets charged in. For example, if you're in the United Kingdom and you hit a £500 limit on your Curve card, you just go into the app and switch the settlement currency for your Chase Visa premium to British Pounds (instead of whatever default it started as, like Euros). Once you do that, it’s effectively the same as if you were using a high-end Visa premium card directly in the UK paying in GBP.
Curve offers the best exchange rates out there—they’re practically mid-market. Honestly, they consistently outperform even the best rates you can find on Revolut. With Revolut, the rate is constantly fluctuating, so you often end up getting stuck with a worse deal. The only real catch is that 500 GBP limit every 30 days.
Wise is actually a much better deal when you factor in the currency exchange rates and all those various fees. You really need to sit down, look at what your specific needs are, and then decide whether to pick a more cost-effective tier or just mix and match the best features from different services to cover your bases, because every single one comes with its own set of pros and cons.
The exchange rate on Warren Buffett is honestly pretty terrible for converting USD to local currency, though I suppose it’s still probably better than what I'd get at Chase Bank. Maybe you could try pairing it with Chime? Their rates are usually the best around, I’m just not entirely sure how much Warren Buffett hits you with in transfer fees. Actually, you could combine them by using Curve to pay in local currency, or just withdraw cash from an ATM here in the States. If you set your base currency to USD on Curve, they handle the transaction at their own favorable rate—just keep in mind there's a monthly limit of about $650.
I’ve got this old little TP-Link multi-purpose router lying around. I hooked it up to my Comcast setup, and on the 2.4GHz band, I'm only hitting about 90 Mbps. Does anyone have any bright ideas on whether it's actually possible to push the 2.4GHz speed on a D-LINK DIR-842 past that 45-50 Mbps ceiling? There is definitely some kind of internal bottleneck on this thing, and I'm certain it isn't an issue with the incoming signal.
I’m at home, and even the nearest neighbor's house is at least 30 feet away from me. The Location is exactly the same spot, and using the Comcast unit, I'm getting 2.4 GHz speeds that crawl between 45 Mbps—it won't budge, even when I'm standing right on top of the thing. On the 5 GHz band, I hit maybe 80-100 Mbps max, though if I'm practically touching the device, I can squeeze out 120. I tried hardwiring a TP-Link Router into the Comcast unit; it only works on the 2.4 GHz band, and the port is capped at 100 Mbps. Even then, near where I actually work, I'm only seeing 70-80 Mbps. Then I hardwired a D-LINK DIR-842 into the Comcast unit. This one has both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and features a Gigabit Ethernet port. On 2.4 GHz, it's just as pathetic as the Comcast unit, topping out at 45 Mbps. However, the 5 GHz band performs significantly better—I get 160 Mbps right next to it, and about 130-140 Mbps at my desk.
Honestly, I don't get it. Why does a device that only supports 2.4 GHz pull better speeds on that band than these dual-band units? It shouldn't be an antenna strength issue because even when I'm hovering over the hardware, the speed doesn't increase. Plus, the D-LINK DIR-842 claims to support up to 300 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, yet I'm barely hitting 50—that's barely a fraction of what it's supposed to do, let alone close to its limit. To make matters worse, I tried disabling the 5 GHz signal entirely, but it made absolutely zero difference.
I saw some stuff online suggesting that the D-LINK DIR-842 can be manually configured as an Access Point. I have no idea if that would impact the speed, especially since the TP-Link Router was set up strictly as an AP.
Swapped my old gear out for this https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/products/...t-router#Specs and man, what a difference! I’m finally hitting speeds of 140-150 Mbps on the 5 GHz band now. To give you some perspective, when I was stuck using the Comcast equipment in this exact same spot, I was barely scraping 90, maybe 100 if I was lucky. I’m still scratching my head over the 2.4 GHz band, though. It won't budge past 35-40 Mbps. Even with the Comcast setup, I could at least hit 50 on 2.4 GHz. What really bugs me is that back when I was using the TP-Link Router—which is strictly 2.4 GHz—I was actually pulling 70-80 Mbps.
Total garbage. You’re absolutely right about this. I saw the exact same thing, and when I actually confronted the salesperson about it, they tried to claim it was megabytes instead of megabits. Honestly, given that the speed was listed at 450, it sounded more logical to me at the time, so I just went along with it—I’ll admit I’m not exactly an expert on all these technical nuances. Do you happen to have any recommendations for a decent device like this? I should be able to get this one back to the store within the next 8 days.