Those terminals "don't work" yet. The hardware as you mentioned is there (slot/RFID) but it needs to be enabled by the software loaded to the POS for it to work.
Mastercard calls it the "Automatic Billing Updater" [1].
For non-fraud related reissues, it's not a flaw but actually an enhancement: you don't have to remember to update your card information whenever your card expires.
I'll just add that starting in October, the merchants will be liable for magstripe transactions completed with counterfeit cards but not for those coming from other type of frauds (e.g lost/stolen cards) as long as the merchants have proper card acceptance procedures.
Tabs being treated like apps is definitely annoying. However, you can fix that by going to the chrome settings and turning off the "Merge tabs and apps" switch.
I built a small app that retrieves data from a remote server, builds a summary and then pushes it to a local html file.
Number of people that tried it when I told them that to make it work they had to download python, pip, paramiko and install the pycrypto binary? Zero. Number of people that tried it after I just gave them a zip file with an executable? No longer zero.
I tried different libraries but Nuitka was the only one that made everything work seamlessly. I owe this guy a beer.
Edit: I no longer owe Kay a beer. I found the donation link on his website.
If you exceed the limit of your current storage plan, you won’t be able to upload additional content but you'll still be able to view, download and delete your files, photos, and personal videos for at least three months.
During this time you can:
...Renew or sign-up for Amazon Prime to enjoy the Prime Photos benefit...
I would add that if the "FICO score forced you to take on debt" it would give a better score to someone with a 95% debt to credit line ratio than to an otherwise equal individual with only a 5% debt to credit line ratio. In reality, the opposite is true.
Having said that, for you to have a valid FICO score, you do need to have at least six months of credit history (credit card, loan, mortgage or otherwise).
That is mostly the case for consumer loans. For commercial lending, the parametric score is just one factor of the overall underwriting analysis which, among other things, has loan officers talking directly to clients about their businesses.
If by "companies behind the card" you mean banks, the reason they send you a plastic with a new account number when there's an issue is not only to protect you (although you aren't liable for fraudulent charges it's not precisely the best use of your time to go through the process) but also to protect themselves. A non-trivial amount of the fraud claims is absorbed by the issuing banks.
I wouldn't categorize CC numbers as public information though, just ask Target or Home Depot.
I don't know how it works for Amazon, but my guess is that only for the products that get a lot of traffic (e.g. kindle) you have enough "honest" opinions to get rid of the bias.
Not necessarily. For FICO scoring purposes, you may carry a balance and still never pay a dime in interest: FICO considers your balance at the end your cycle, not the balance after your due date.
For example, if I have a balance of $800 when my statement was generated, my bank is going to report that $800 to the credit bureaus and FICO will calculate my credit score accordingly. So, for this cycle at least, it doesn't matter that I pay in full before my due date (thus avoiding any interest expense), my credit report will show an $800 balance on my account. This is why it's more likely to experience big month-to-month jumps in your credit score when you have fewer accounts/lower credit lines.
I do agree with you, I think that not carrying a balance doesn't have any negative impact on your credit score.
It's hard to know exactly goes into the credit score calculation since the algorithm is proprietary but, anecdotally, you can carry a small balance (e.g. <10% of your credit line) without it having a negative impact on your credit score.
Lenders do rely on a variety of factors when deciding who to lend money to but the credit score (as in FICO in the US) doesn't depend "on where you are and what you're planning to do with it".
Actually, with all the press regarding recent data breaches (e.g. Target) you might see it happening before that. Some Chase and Citi cards are now being issued with chip.