by Anura Guruge
on October 1, 2024

---

---

Got this via e-mail this morning. I had no idea. I knew I had had it for a long time but had no idea it was that long ago. But, October 1991 was SIX-YEARS after I got here! So, this was NOT my first U.S. credit card. That I know.

My very first U.S. credit card was a ‘SEARS’ card (with something like a $150 credit limit)!

When I came here in February 1985 I had NO U.S. credit record. I had not lived in the U.S. as an adult. I had to establish a U.S. credit record. WOW.

That I had a number of U.K. credit cards like AMEX & “Diner’s Club” didn’t matter. U.K. credit ‘scores’ didn’t count in the U.S. Luckily I could continue using my UK cards PLUS I had a corporate card. SMILE. So, I was all set.

My first U.S. (non-SEARS) credit card was from ‘Maryland Bank’ (MBNA). That was around 1986. They were acquired by ‘Bank of America‘ and I automatically became a BofA customers. BofA considers me as having been a customer since 1986! SMILE. I used to have BofA CCs that said “customer since 1986“. SMILE.

by Anura Guruge
on October 1, 2024

---

---

---

I got an e-mail today reminding me that they will soon be gone. I felt bad.

They had served us well for well over a decade.

It was a wonderful, innovative VoIP solution — permitting you to meld together a landline with VoIP. From an old-fashioned, landline phone you could either make (and receive) calls either via your landline or the Internet (over VoIP).

You would designate whether you wanted the landline or Internet to your primary. You could make calls over your primary (e.g., VoIP) just by dialing the number. To make calls over the other, (say landline) you had to prefix the numer with *71 (or something like that). Wasn’t difficult. Worked well. Calls coming over either the landline or Internet would ring on the landline phone. It was GREAT.

Yes, setting it up could be fiddly. Plus, way down the road they made all of us upgrade to new hardware. But, given how much service we had got from them, this was tolerable.

These days with unlimited cell plans we can do without. Which is what we did.