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Work on the Shinkansen with special office cars

Prefacing that Japan is not open to foreign tourists currently, but this post is for future reference. The coronavirus pandemic affected Japan heavily, like many other regions in the world, but along with it came the rising trend of remote work. In response, several Shinkansen bullet train operators in Japan started providing a remote work train service.

For example, the Tohoku, Joetsu, and Hokuriku Shinkansen trains, which service Kanazawa, Niigata, and the Tohoku region of Japan started an office car service. In the office car, passengers are explicitly allowed to make phone calls and join online meetings from the train, which are activities normally discouraged on trains in general in Japan. There’s no extra charge for this service, you just need to explicitly reserve a special car on the train. You should be able to reserve this with the various JR Passes as well, either the nationwide pass or the JR East Pass. I haven’t ridden this myself, but you can read more details here: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/11/e3350c504173-jr-east-launches-bullet-train-office-cars-amid-telework-demand.html Continue reading →

You can order the new American Express Platinum designs now

Starting today, January 20, 2022, you can order one of the two Art x Platinum designs for your American Express Platinum consumer card (not Business Platinums currently).

Sign in to your account, click on your Platinum card, and go to Account Services > Replace a Card > I want to change my Card’s design. It only worked for my vanilla Plat; it doesn’t seem like we can replace Schwab or other Plats yet. Continue reading →

eMed review and reimbursement through insurance

I’ve been using eMed, a telemedicine service utilizing the Abbott BINAXNow COVID-19 rapid antigen test kit (which is NOT a molecular NAAT/PCR test), several times over 4 months now to fulfill the 1 day COVID test requirement on international flights to the US. This kit is officially accepted by the CDC for travel to the United States, and as of Dec 6, 2021, a COVID-19 test (molecular or antigen like this one) is required within 1 calendar day of flight departure to the US. Previously, they accepted a test within 72 hours of departure. Continue reading →

Saving on luxury goods in Milan, Italy and getting the VAT refund in Chiasso

Recently I was in Europe with a few travel companions that are really into luxury goods. Apparently Europe is the place to get them for a huge savings, and I accompanied them while shopping in Vienna, Milan, and Zurich. I’m not into luxury goods, but I learned a lot in the process that I thought I would share for anyone who might want a one-off luxury product for themselves or interested in getting started on reselling these. Continue reading →

Buying cheaper COVID-19 rapid tests in Europe

I recently got back from Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. My travel companion said his friends were asking him to buy COVID-19 rapid antigen tests abroad because they were cheaper and more abundant there Unfortunately, they asked when we were already on our last stop in Zurich, Switzerland, so we didn’t check the other countries. Switzerland is known to be expensive (honestly, I loved Switzerland and didn’t feel that it was extraordinarily expensive compared to major urban cities in the US like SF or NY), but we went out to check the local pharmacies anyways. We were shocked to find that it actually was cheaper and more abundantly available than in the US. Here are some datapoints on what we found: Continue reading →

Using United Travel Bank funds with corporate discounts (e.g. FoundersCard)

If you’re like me, you freshly loaded up your United Travel Bank with your eligible Amex cards in the new year to use up the associated travel credits. Say you’ve also signed up for FoundersCard to get the discount on United bookings. United says that you can’t use Travel Bank funds to book when using corporate discounts, but is that correct? When I go through the booking flow on the web, that’s the case: Continue reading →

Practical tips for margin lending with Interactive Brokers

Recently I’ve gotten into margin lending as a form of leverage. Why would you want to do that? This great post from Mr. Money Mustache goes into how it works and some reasons why you might want to do it. But mostly, the interest rates are incredibly low (a base rate of around 1.1% which adjusts based on interest rates), so it’s a fast and cheap way to get liquidity to put to other uses. To me, I consider it safe as long as you aren’t using it to spend or invest beyond your means, and are just taking advantage of the low interest rates. For example, to get liquidity from your equity without selling it off and incurring capital gains taxes, or to get liquidity during a market dip to buy at the dip without selling existing equity. Personally, I am using margin lending to earn a much higher interest rate (19.5%) with Anchor Protocol, or the other day I needed to meet a capital call and funds were being too slow to transfer from other sources. Continue reading →

How to request reopening a US Bank credit card

Here’s a quick guide on how to request the reopening of a US Bank credit card that either you closed or was closed due to inactivity. Sorry, don’t think this helps if your card was closed because you got banned. 😅

Unlike other banks, US Bank is a little more old school and requires a written request to reopen a closed account. Here is what you need:

  1. Reopening may require a credit inquiry, but the account would be reopened with the same card number and same credit line, so it’s not considered a new account on your credit report, in case you are worried about 5/24.
  2. On your written request, include the following:
    1. Sentence requesting the reopening of your account.
    2. Account number (credit card number).
    3. Individual annual income.
    4. Other sources of annual income you would like to report.
    5. Monthly housing payment.
    6. For the above, rent or own?
    7. Signature, name, and date.
    Mail or Fax to:
    • Cardmember Service
    • PO Box 6361
    • Fargo, ND 58125-6361
    • FAX: 1-800-670-4834

    Pro-Tip: You can take your document to any US Bank branch and they will fax it to the number for you for free. If you would like to do it from home and don’t have a fax machine, I love using HelloFax (5 free fax pages when you sign up with my link). It’s simple and fast! Just don’t select the option to send it in high quality/color, because this sends them a fax containing a link to the document rather than faxing them the document itself. Continue reading →

PSA: California codes the Chase x Gopuff credit incorrectly

Update sometime in 2022 it now codes correctly for everyone even if it says Beverages & More, Inc, HOWEVER charges less than $10 no longer get credited. Must be over $10.

Update 1/25/22 – Chase and GoPuff still have not resolved this issue for Californians yet, it’s still showing up as BevMo and not getting credited back. Chase deflects the blame back to GoPuff, saying they cannot control how a merchant codes. GoPuff keeps saying they’ve passed the issue on to their engineers, but nothing has come of it in months. Continue reading →

Trip Report: Miraval Tucson Arizona, one year later

A little over a year ago, I went to Miraval Tucson Arizona for the first time (trip report here). It was before vaccinations, and my first time traveling since the pandemic started. A lot has happened in the last year, we have vaccinations now and even boosters. I was invited to go to Miraval again with a friend (second time for both of us) last week with the current BOGO deal that they run every year. We had an awesome time and it was a slightly different experience than before since I did different activities this time. Continue reading →

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