Ask Lemmy

Aglet

Back in the day they were “selling” dollar coins through tv. It was legal tender so banks had to accept any deposit of it. The U.S. mint offered free shipping in the continental U.S.A.

Some smart folks started buying them with their credit card that offered air travel miles as a reward. Then they took all the coins and depositing them in their bank and paid off their CC. Rinse and repeat.

Yes they were out no money and had thousands of dollars worth airline miles.

You can't cancel your reservation within 24 hours. You can rebook it. Okay, rebook it for one week out. Call back a day later, cancel.

I remember there was a time when you could use the self-serve kiosk at McDonald's, order a bunch of plain cheeseburgers and remove everything so it was just a bun and it would credit back enough money that you could get a whole meal (plus a bunch of empty buns) for free.

My brother-in-law didn't want to carry his jacket around at Disney World, and he didn't want to get a locker for it, so he had his dad turn it in to lost and found. At the end of the day, before leaving the park, he picked it back up.

Don’t be a dick to service workers. Your entire life will be better.

Alright, so, in Texas you're not allowed to own an opossum as a pet. There is no license for owning a pet opossum (they're "fur-bearing animals"). However, there is a license that'll let you kill opossums for their fur. Furthermore, said license allows you to trap them. The interesting part is that there's no legal requirement for you to actually kill the opossum if you trap one. You can trap the opossum and take possession of it for however long you like.

So basically a hunting license (might have been a trapping license?) lets you effectively own an opossum as a pet in Texas!

Edit: also, yes, opossums are as soft as they look, which is why people used to hunt them for their fur. I got a chance to pet one and it was about as soft, if not softer, than a cat. Also very boney, like cats.

There was a burrito shop that had a frequent customer card that you could use to earn points towards a free menu item. You could register the card online and for whatever reason you could add multiple cards to the same account.

A friend of mine realized that if you registered a new card they would give you a decent chunk of points just for signing up, then you could merge that account in with your existing account and get free points.

Every chance he got he would grab handfuls of the cards, activate them all, and get tons of free food.

Not drinking isn't one of the 12 steps

In the USA the FASFA is used to determine how much financial aid (grants, or zero interest loans) someone can get for university

Unfortunately it looks at parents assets as well as the adult students assets.

Unless

• over the age of 25
• military veteran
• married

So the loop hole here is obvious, two students should get married, then their financial need will be totally unmet and get the highest level of benefits

If you want to cancel a subscription for whatever reason, worst comes to worst (dark pattern nonsense like trying to cancel an Adobe subscription) you can call your bank and request for a replacement card

Not sure if these are exactly loopholes, but whatever.

Learning to shave with a straight razor will save you a fuckton of money on shaving products. Shaving soap makes each shave cost a cent at most. The downsides are the initial cost of the razor and strop, the initial learning curve, the upkeep, and the couple extra minutes necessary to shave with a straight razor (it's not too much, but it does take a bit longer).

Learning to roast coffee will cut your coffee costs by 50% if you enjoy high quality arabica beans. Some of the best coffee I've ever had I roasted and brewed myself. The extra time investment and clean up necessary is pretty intensive though, and yeah, there's an initial learning curve and equipment cost (though not too bad, you just need a stovetop, an old school stovetop popcorn popper, and a burr grinder).

Currently I found a glitch to get near-free infinite mobile data usable in my country via 3 different mobile carriers giving me far superior coverage as well.

I got a Czech T-Mobile SIM card with the purpose of receiving SMS verification codes. Unlike cards in my country, Czech ones don't need ID card registration. The cheapest one was an IoT SIM card, so that's what I took. I found I could get signal basically everywhere with it, since they have multiple roaming partners (Slovak Telekom, O2 and Orange).
For shits and giggles, I've used that 200MB it came with since it's available in EU as well. And that's when I discovered the 64/32 kbps limit after using up the data isn't getting applied outside of Czech Republic. It just still goes at full speed.
Charged at 0.00CZK:

The difference with IoT and regular SIMs is that low speed. IoT SIM cards get that reduced speed while regular ones have a hard cut-off with more data amount. Attempt with regular SIM after using up the data:

So really, I can just fully use 80MB for 39CZK (1.59USD) and keep going:

But there is a caveat: Permanent roaming charges. If for the past 4 months the SIM is used more than 50% abroad, T-Mobile can start charging these charges. This year it's €1.30/GB without VAT. But I can probably just keep getting new SIM cards each few months.

But I am being nice and still mostly using my regular carrier with 300GB of data. I rather keep this as backup. The wholesale market data cap is that €1.30/GB in 2025, so the carrier could get charged up to €390 for that same amount by their roaming partner. Regardless, I am not giving them equivalent of €1.55 for just 80MB either.

If your bank can only deposit a certain amount of a check the same day and you need it all just cash it and deposit the cash

The ROTH IRA (USA) requires earned income to be allowed to deposit (add) money. There is no rule that the money earned is the money deposed. If your kid has a job, and you have extra money, look into opening a ROTH with them. Kid spends their money (or not), and deposits your money in their account. Bingo setting kid up for old age.

I am not a tax accountant.