A Friday Chat About Buying Washing Machines on Store Credit Cards

Photo credit: Anthony Woodside, CC BY 2.0.

THE OTHER GINGER: Hi!!!!!!!

NICOLE: Hello! Happy Friday!

THE OTHER GINGER: Yay! Almost weekend!

NICOLE: Are you ready for THE ECLIPSE?

THE OTHER GINGER: Kind of. I live in the path of totality but don’t know hardly anyone soooooo… Are you in the path?

NICOLE: I’m a little north of the path. We’ll get, like, a 3/4 eclipse.

THE OTHER GINGER: That’s what I thought. Still cool. My glasses are apparently NASA and ISO? They are from the state park system.

NICOLE: Wow. Were they free?

THE OTHER GINGER: A coworker got them at a run (5 or 10K) she did. So they were free, or subsidized. Did you find any?

NICOLE: Hahaha I should take up running. I did some investigating yesterday and it looks like Seattle is pretty much sold out. And of course I can’t order on Amazon.

THE OTHER GINGER: Don’t. Don’t burn your eyes! Make a pinhole thing!

NICOLE: I think I will be fine. I will not look directly at the sun. The internet has advised me to look at crescent-shaped shadows on leaves.

THE OTHER GINGER: Hahahaha hahahaha!

NICOLE: I will also watch the NASA livestream, since most of my eclipsing will be done indoors. It’s during the workday!

THE OTHER GINGER: Ha. I think the city is only doing tourism on Monday. I need to plan for the semester but I plan to spend at least two hours on eclipse-related things.

NICOLE: Gotta ask: what is there really to do besides look up (or down, depending on whether you have glasses) and say “yup, that’s an eclipse?”

THE OTHER GINGER: No. I’m going to some storytelling myth thing probably designed for kids at the campus library.

NICOLE: Oh, VERY COOL.

THE OTHER GINGER: I love libraries and I look like a student so it’ll work out. Gotta take benefits from the patriarchy when I can (of people not thinking young women can be profs).

NICOLE: MAKE THE PATRIARCHY PAY ON THE FIRST DATE!

THE OTHER GINGER: Ha! Today is feminist tee shirt Friday, so I’m wearing one with a blazer and jeans to a meeting.

NICOLE: What does it read?

THE OTHER GINGER: This one is new. It says ni santas ni putas solo mujeres. Not saints not whores only women.
It’s from Feminist Apparel which is problematic, and upholding the gender binary, but it was a gift card.

NICOLE: My shirt has birds on it and it’s from Old Navy which is just as problematic. They probably uphold the gender binary too.

THE OTHER GINGER: Hahahahaha birds. Just laughing about Portlandia.

NICOLE: I’m not even in Portland right now! But yes, these are very Portland-esque birds. Swoopy wings.

THE OTHER GINGER: Ha. Can we talk about store cards briefly?

NICOLE: Totally!

THE OTHER GINGER: So I moved, and am going to get reimbursed but movers are expensive. I also needed (wanted) a washing machine and Craigslist wasn’t working. The Wirecutter recommended a washing machine, and to get it I got a store card. Nothing down, no interest for six months as long as you pay in full at the end. All is fine. Except you have to call to get unenrolled from the bogus card security, which was an extra $20 per month. And! The interest is insane! Basically predatory. That’s all.

NICOLE: Oh, those store cards are terrible, but you can get some good deals if you pay stuff back in full. I hadn’t heard about the card security thing before, I wonder how many cards do that.

THE OTHER GINGER: Don’t know. I saw Amazon has the option.

NICOLE: Huh, here’s how Amazon explains it:

The Card Security program is an optional debt cancellation product covering your Synchrony Bank Credit Card Agreement. It provides you with debt relief by canceling your outstanding Account balance, up to $10,000 upon the occurrence of a covered event.

But aren’t credit cards supposed to do that anyway? If there’s fraud on your card, it cancels the fraud?

THE OTHER GINGER: That’s what I thought. I’ve only had debit fraud, so the bank always covers. With my Canadian bank, no problem. U.S. tiny bank? Took a week! Not okay!

NICOLE: USA! USA! And on that note, I don’t want to keep either of us from our weekends, so let me wish you and Team Billfold a Happy Friday and a safe eclipse next week!

THE OTHER GINGER: Okay! This made my life.

NICOLE: We should do it again sometime!

If you’d like to be part of an upcoming Friday Chat, email nicole@thebillfold.com.

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