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For those in the chat who react by saying “this should be law!” Laws have unintended consequences. Also I subscribe to a number of services I barely ever use,
by cdolan 6y ago
For those in the chat who react by saying “this should be law!”
Laws have unintended consequences.
Also I subscribe to a number of services I barely ever use, generally because I got in with an account very early on, and the price I’m paying is usually 1/5 or less of the current retail price. I do not want companies to proactively cancel my service.
“Thats Absurd!” You may say... well for about 10 years I kept my original AT&T unthrottled and unlimited plan goong on an iPhone, then iPad, until my credit card expired and the payment lapsed. Of course my account want instantly closed and my grandfathered plan unavailable.
Did I use more than 30 GB a month? No. Could i buy that plan again around 2017-2018? Nope. I was happy to secure that for $20/mo.
Do I want companies to have more red tape and penalties, such that they proactively shut down accounts from legacy plans? Absolutely not, get off my lawn.
- fedups 6y agoPlanet money had a story where a similar superficially good idea ended up with Etrade selling a man's Amazon stock and deactivating his account after he didn't log in for a certain period of time. He was able to reclaim about $8000 for stock that would be worth ~$100k today. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/799345159 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/799345159
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y agoThis is mildly infuriating because the whole point of long term investing is to buy a stock, and well, do nothing -- besides hold it for decades. The stock should continue being held whether a user logs in or not.
- jedberg 6y ago> The stock should continue being held whether a user logs in or not. FWIW ETrade agrees with this. It wasn't their policy that closed the account, it was a law that was in theory to protect consumers... from themselves?
- kevas 6y agoShouldn’t that have gone to the state’s Auditor & Controller’s Unclaimed Property dept? If you look at California’s Unclaimed Prop., you’ll see shares sitting in there. Heck, I have a few shares I need to claim.
- jedberg 6y agoYes, but different states have different rules. Apparently in that guy's state, they won't take shares, only cash value of shares.
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y agoThis could work for you, in the chance an investment didn't pan out and you're liquidated at the top. But for long periods of time, cash loses value to inflation. Seems off that states wouldn't accept shares. They're not as liquid as cash, but not far from it.
- brianpan 6y agoIf I remember it did go to unclaimed property. The problem is that the stock today was worth much more than the selling price when they closed his account (and he intended it to be a long term holding).
- xmprt 6y agoSounds like a lot of this could be fixed if the policy was to not sell the stock.
- cdolan 6y agoPerfect example. I forgot about this until now but I recall listening to this episode. Thank you!
- jackdh 6y agoFor interested people. He didn't actually reclaim the $8000. Instead he is still fighting to get it's full potential worth.
- bcrosby95 6y agoMy wife has an old gym membership for 24 hour fitness. She pays $120/year. Never uses it. Figures it's good "whoops, you're homeless" insurance - it's a place you can get dressed and take a shower.
- kchr 6y agoWow, that's one use of the gym card I never considered. Genious.
- antoinec 6y agoNot sure where it was, but I remember reading about someone saying, from experience, that when you are about to become homeless, signing up for a yearly gym membership is one of the best things to do (for this specific reason!).
- jedberg 6y agoI got one of those free personal trainer sessions at the gym once. In chatting with my personal trainer, I discovered that he lives in an RV outside the gym, and uses the gym to shower every morning and uses their bathroom so he doesn't have to spend money emptying/filling his tanks on his RV. A solar panel on the roof covered his electricity. Basically by being employed by the gym and living in an RV he had no recurring expenses expect car insurance.
- dehrmann 6y agoAre you in the Bay Area? Mountain View has a lot of people living in RVs, and I've seen RVs in the Walmart parking lot by the 24 Hour Fitness, there.
- jedberg 6y agoYes. This was in Sunnyvale. There is a lot of RV living in Mt. View. For a while Google sanctioned living in an RV in their parking lot for their employees, but they seem to have clamped down on that. The cops started to ticket people on El Camino too, but I think they stopped doing that during the lockdown.