u/NateNate60

Why YSK: Not life-changing but it can save you a little bit of money.

Insurance companies charge more if they bill you monthly compared to if you pay for the entire duration of the policy upfront in one go. Sometimes, the difference is nominal or nothing, but other times, it's actually significant. So if this is something you can afford to do, you should check if a discount is offered, and if it is, take it.

This doesn't affect your cancellation rights. If you cancel an insurance policy despite having paid for it in full, the insurer will mail you a prorated refund.

This tip works in the US with several major insurers.

I hate am mildly annoyed by wallets that don't round stablecoin values to 1.00. If the stablecoin's price is within like 0.1-0.2%, just round it to 1, ffs. Because that way, when you're sending it, you don't have to remember to always check whether you're sending 100 USDC, or $100 worth of USDC (and then it actually sends 99.9744 USDC).

I bought a 2027 Bolt LT in May but found out five minutes ago that the car purchase would earn a significant number of the GM rewards points which can be redeemed for accessories.

I didn't know about the rewards programme and when I checked the My Chevrolet app, and pressed the button to enroll in it, no points.

How to get points?

I bought my bolt a few months ago, and I've been happy with it, but about a month ago I noticed that it was failing to connect to the Internet. Cellular service was fine where I was (in the middle of the city), but none of the apps were able to connect to the Internet. Strangely, the OnStar button still worked, so I used it to call OnStar and the agent had me do the reset by pressing the end call button for 30 seconds. It worked, and I happily thought the problem was resolved.

Until this week, when I took my Bolt to Canada. No issues until after I crossed the Canadian border. Then suddenly, the cell connection dropped. Not even a hotspot connection to my cell phone worked. And even worse, the built-in Google Maps navigation system reported an offline map as being available, but refused to navigate using it, endlessly saying "loading route" despite the fact that it knew it was offline by showing the crossed-out cloud icon on the route.

Monday: Two calls to OnStar customer support both resulted in the representatives throwing up their hands and saying to take it to a dealer, though the first one said that they would do something on the backend to connect my car to the TELUS network, since AT&T obviously has no reception in Canada. The Canadian dealer I took it to said they had no appointments available until the day before I returned to the US. Worse, one of the OnStar representatives told me to clear the cache and data for the Google Maps application, removing even the offline maps and leaving just a grey screen on Google Maps. This left me unable to use the navigation system at all, in a foreign country. I had to use Google Maps on my phone but since there's no obvious place to put the phone on the dash where I can see it, I had to just go by voice directions only, which led to many missed exits and wrong turns.

Tuesday: The cellular connection suddenly worked again in Canada, but only during the morning. When I got back into the car in the afternoon it had disconnected again.

Wednesday: Woke up to the cellular connection being down. I visited Point Roberts, Washington (a small US exclave) and thought that I'd at least be able to do something there. Nope. My cell phone connected back to US cellular networks in Point Roberts but the car was still unable to load any maps. Went back into Canada with the cellular connection still down.

Thursday: Suddenly it decided to work again. Still in Canada. Bonus event! Some idiot rear-ended me in Vancouver! Luckily not too much damage, but I learned there is apparently NO LIABILITY for car crashes there, regardless of who is at fault!

Friday: Received a call-back from a Level 2 rep from OnStar saying that they did something on the back-end. It continued to work after I drove the car back over the border into the US.

The car is working again currently, but I'm now I'm seriously doubting the reliability of this car's navigation systems. If it had Android Auto, I could at least fall back to using my cell phone in the onboard navigation failed. But now that's not even an option.

I drove my car here from the United States and was involved in a rear-end collision by another driver. My car was the car in front. My car is registered in the USA, and I am not insured by ICBC. The other driver's car is registered in British Columbia, and it is my understanding that all BC drivers are insured by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.

Pursuant to advice from my (American) insurer, I called in a claim to ICBC. I was informed by the representative that BC has enacted limits to liability for damage to motor vehicles, and even if the other driver is deemed to be at fault, ICBC will not pay for the damage.

I asked for this in writing and received the following e-mail:

Hello [            ],

We would like to advise you that effective May 1, 2021, British Columbia introduced limits on recovery
rights under tort for vehicle damage and injuries incurred in a crash. This applies to crashes involving two
or more vehicles that occur within British Columbia, including non-B.C. vehicles, which means there is no
legal right to recover your vehicle damage nor injury related payments arising from this crash.
Payment for non-responsible vehicle damage is included in B.C.'s mandatory Basic insurance, meaning
that each insurer pays for the repair costs of its customer's vehicle regardless of fault. Consequently, in
accordance with Division 2, Limits on Actions, of Part 11 of the Insurance (Vehicle) Act, ICBC is unable to
pay for the damages to your customer's vehicle, nor injuries sustained by your customer if the BC vehicle
is found liable for the accident. Please report your
incident to your insurance provider instead. You may forward this email to your insurance adjuster.

Thank you,
ICBC

The quoted section of law seems to only mention bodily injury though, of which there is none. My car is insured through an American insurer, who I think will likely refuse coverage for the vehicle damage if I'm not found to be at fault.

Am I just out of luck here?

Edit (side question): What's the deal with people arguing over ICBC's responsibility adjudications and the thousands of CRT appeals against ICBC findings of responsibility, if who is responsible for a crash doesn't actually change who is paying for things?

I poked my head in there yesterday and found the following games:

• Free Bet Blackjack. C$15 min. Didn't investigate further.
• Low-limit blackjack: C$5 min (≈ US$3 !!), C$100 max. Six-deck continuous shuffle machine. Blackjack pays 3:2, insurance offered, dealer has no hole card, lose only original bet on dealer's blackjack, late (?) surrender allowed, split any number of hands, double any two cards.

Dealer does not return cards to CSM until discard tray gets full. About 1 deck.

Game speed is slow due to many casual players.

Possibly just barely beatable and not extremely profitable but suitable for practice and favourable rules means you can sit there all day and maybe lose $10 in EV.

Scannable ID required at the door but I doubt you'll get heat playing a $5 CSM game. Gambling age is 19 in BC. US driving licence was accepted.

The correct behaviour for the Ross Island Bridge is to zipper merge, which is what gets the most people onto the bridge in the least amount of time and in the safest way possible. Luckily most people are pretty good at doing this.

The legal behaviour for the Ross Island Bridge is that the approaches have a stop sign have to come to a complete stop, give way, and wait for a gap in the oncoming traffic before going onto the bridge. Nobody does this, and if you did, during peak hours you would be waiting essentially for the rest of the day.

The problem with the stop signs is that eventually you get a person who ruins the flow by actually attempting to wait for a gap in the traffic. And they clog up that lane until someone from the "main" road indicates them to go by coming to a complete stop and waving them through or by blinking their headlamps.

If there's any place for a sign to explicitly tell people to zipper merge, this is the one.

https://preview.redd.it/p8h6m7vo4veh1.png?width=705&format=png&auto=webp&s=940572e9ee4ac16935949fb184a98740003bd9ac