There’s not a whole lot of suggested reads for this week, but a little of everything – from news about the hopeful Capital One / Discover acquisition, a massively disruptive power outage at London’s Heathrow, and a new, multi-country trail in Eastern Europe.
Report: DOJ Finds Capital One-Discover Deal Would Harm Subprime Competition
This article says that the Department of Justice has deemed the planned Capital One / Discover acquisition “anticompetitive”. This is despite most of the stockholders of both companies voting to approve, as well as the Delaware State Bank Commission approving as well.
Heathrow resumes some flights after fire and power outage shut down London airport
London’s Heathrow Airport had unwelcome excitement and massive disruptions to their normal operations when a fire at a nearby electrical substation caused a power outage late Thursday night. The interruptions are (at the time of writing this) ongoing, and the impact will likely be felt across the world. According to this article, the estimate for interrupted flights was set around 1,300, affecting an estimated 200,000 passengers! Were any of you impacted by this unfortunate interruption?
First of all, I completely agree with this article referring to Georgia as “wildly underrated”. It’s one of my favorite destinations (which you can read more about here). And the Transcaucasian Way just makes it even better. The Transcaucasian Way will be a 1,864 mile trail that traverses not only Georgia, but will touch on Armenia and Azerbaijan as well. This article provides a bit more insight into how you can plan a 7-10 day hike in the 87 miles of completed trail in the Upper Svaneti region, or a shorter 46 mile option from the Imereti lowlands to the Racha highlands. Either option sounds like a great way to see beautiful mountain views. The former will take you through mountain villages all along the way while the latter would require camping. Choose your own adventure! (And make sure to spend a little time in Tblisi too!)
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I am so happy that the merger did not get approval. Capital One provides the best quality credit card customer service, i.e, handles transaction disputes quickly via phone on a 3 way call, excellent rates, no annual fee charges, etc. Whereas Discover credit card services are terrible. I had a card for just a week their, and when I called to speak to customer service, they seemed to be very illiterate, and as Americans. The guy could not answer my question about the balance correctly. I closed my Discover card account. Delaware is not quite what I expected it to be. It’s a melting pot ghetto staff, mostly red and black Jamaicans.
You are who you are
What do you mean ghetto staff mostly red and black Jamaican?
Ok, now I have to go hiking in Georgia.
I have Capital One Venture X and 2 platinum cards….i hate discover.
Discover is not accepted anywhere anyways we’re better off and Cap1 is too without being lowered in quality by such a scamming discover which is one of the worst card banks.
I hate Cap1, understaffed, cheating customers on interest, being investigated. Discover is much better organized, even the digital services
I have both and it works great for me. I get cashback with my discover accounts. Cap one has atms I can deposit cash if I need it. If cap one offered cash back and money market accounts that would be a gamechanger. I like the customer service with discover, I can speak to a really nice person anytime.
To apply for visa American Express and credit one and MasterCard s
I’m hoping that it doesn’t go through, capitalone has the worst customer service, Discover deserves better, I don’t want to see Discover go down hill.
I was with ING when Capital One took them over. Downhill from there (lower CD rates, etc.) Moved all CDs to Ally and Discover as they matured. Will do the same with my Discover CDs and credit card if things were to be approved.
I was with ING as well, interest rates plummeted after the merger. Discover savings is at 4%, I don’t want to see the same happen again.