About Us:
Daily Traversal started out as a personal blog, but became something else, something... more. We post whatever kind of links grab our fancy, which tends to be entertaining web things, time wasters, bits of technology, and obligatory culture. We also don't moderate our content, pleasing only our selves, so DT should be considered NSFW if you work in that kind of place. If you'd like to send us a link or drop us a line, you can do so via our email address: DailyTraversal@gmail.com. Cheers!
Other Blogs:
Metafilter
MonkeyFilter
Fark.com
Linkdump
List of Linkdumps
BoingBoing
LinkFilter
The Chump
This Modern World
Bruce Sterling
Neil Gaiman
William Gibson
Dave Barry
RSS | ATOM
Who Links Here
Contributors
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
Allies
The Cunning Linguist
Citizen Lunchbox!
Mindless Bit Spew
mattw.fn_blog()
Joe Nowak
Lake Allison
VikiBabbles
Dragonize MetaMedia
|
 Frank |
 Viki |
Friday, December 10, 2004
frontline: secret history of the credit card
"Frontline" has an amazing documentary about credit cards, and the things you probably did not know about them. The program, over an hour long, is online, in both WMV and Real formats. Plus, the accompanying site sums up a lot of the information.
For instance:
In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court in Smiley vs. Citibank lifted the existing restrictions on late penalty fees. Back then, fees ran to $5 or $10, and usually did not exceed $15. After the Court's decision, fees soared, reaching upwards of $30. Since then, the amount of revenue the companies generate from fees (including late charges, over-the-limit fees, and charges for returned checks) has doubled.
Very scary, and the precise reason I live in a cash-based budget, i.e. I don't own a single credit card, or, besides my newly acquired student loans, one dollar of debt.
Link [via lifi]
