Recap: Goldman Sachs Probe, Wyndham Resort Fee Settlement & More

 

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    William Charles
  • On November 11, 2019, 10:00

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  • Pimp's n- Hos award - (Lie's and statistics sponsership category)

    Just got this email from Bonvoy:

    "Marriott Bonvoy™ has been nominated for seven Readers' Choice categories in The Points Guy Awards."

    VOTE FOR MARRIOTT BONVOY

    Cast your vote. Thanks to you, we're nominated for the following categories:
    ✓ Best Hotel Loyalty Program

    ✓ Best Hotel Elite Status

    ✓ Best Hotel Cobranded Credit Card

    ✓ Best Premium Travel Credit Card

    ✓ Best Credit Card Perk

    ✓ Best New/Refreshed Credit Card

    ✓ Best Transferable Points Currency

    LMAO

  • "The companies have agreed to disclose the resort fee on a “Rooms and Rates” page, which will have the fee visible on the page as opposed to visible via a hyperlink. The companies have agreed to include this fee disclosure page for at least two years."

    So, after 2 years, what, it goes back to being hidden?

  • The Goldman story highlights how progress will be heavily stunted by regulation. If an machine-learning algorithm, with no programed bias, outputs biased results it means either 1. the inputs are biased (e.g. FICO is biases against race/gender), 2. the result is just noise because there haven't been enough results or 3. the biased statistic is relevant for credit-worthiness.

    In case 1. this will go away overtime as the algorithm learns to minimize the value of that input. Case 2. this will go away over time with more results. And case 3. correct credit decisions will be made.

    By making UNINTENTIONAL discrimination illegal (as the article says is the case in NY and heavily promoted by the quotes) you force companies to a) use antiquated models which have been "proven" non-discriminatory or b) add bias to the outputs to ensure you "statistically" don't discriminate.

    • It's not discrimination if it's borne out by facts even if it looks discriminatory. For example:

      Childbirth is very hard on a woman's body and admittedly women go through more than men for bringing kids into this world. But it's not sexist or women wouldnt be linining up to get pregnant. So don't pull the sexist crap how much you sacrifice for childbirth. You made that willing choice with one other guy. Don't pull your sexist crap with rest of the guys who played no part in your willing choice to get pregnant. We don't care. It's between you and your kids father.

  • The Marriott statistic is likely them saying "Do you prefer [insert XYZ thing that the bonvoy program has] or nothing?" and then saying "Look people prefer bonvoy over SPG" on that basis. As always, Marriott Math = Fake News

  • the goldman sachs thing is just ridiculous. its one blue checkmark from twitter clamoring for attention and you've now given him more of it. its not a serious story, its propaganda from ultra-woke twitter attention whores. the leftists need to get their story straight, one day they tell us men and women are the same and binary gender doesnt actually exist. the next day they claim that binary gender based discrimination is so rampant that even the credit algos cant help but be sexist! this kind of absurd thinking reaching the mainstream is why trump is a welcome breath of fresh air to many. if you dont understand just imagine this issue being raised at a democratic debate and all the nuanced deep-thinking calls for more government oversight youd get from the likes of pocahontas and pete bootbuddy. now imagine trump being asked and you can just imagine him saying "Thats a load of B***sh**!", as rational people everywhere laugh and applaud

    • At first I saw the one tweet from @dhh (and @stevewoz's response) and I was thinking yeah, if the facts they present are correct then there might be something to the story.

      But then I read the rest of the tweets from @dhh and damn that guy is ignorant.

      He's complaining repeatedly that front line CSRs can't see the algorithm that decides on one's credit limit. Does he really expect people hired to help customers with basic tasks to have access to highly complex trade secrets?

      He's complaining that payments on the account don't immediately raise the credit limit. I agree that can be frustrating but that's far from the only issuer doing that (he'd probably have sued Synchrony by now if he had a card with them).

      He's directing all his hate towards Apple rather than Goldman Sachs. At first I thought that was because he didn't understand who did what, but when someone pointed this out, his response was that Apple is supposed to be revolutionary and therefore common practices shouldn't be used as excuses. I... don't even know what to reply to that. I'm a pretty big Apple hater myself and even I wouldn't fault Apple there.

      He paid $25 to get his credit score from TransUnion (and of course that resulted in a few more tweets of him complaining). Someone please mention CreditKarma to him?

      • Credit Karma issues Vantage scores from TU and EFX . Most lenders use (and paid scores are typically) FICO scores when assessing credit risk/worthiness

        • I don't know where you're going with this.

          I mentioned Credit Karma because the contents of one's credit report, which Credit Karma will give you, matter much more than the score itself. Especially since that score is solely based on said contents to begin with.

          Trying to compare two lending decisions just by looking at the FICO scores achieves nothing since having a higher score than someone who was approved doesn't necessarily mean you'll be approved yourself.

          And even if you still want to be stubborn and insist that getting TransUnion's FICO score is primordial here, well my point was that you don't have to pay $25 for it and that still stands: Discover will give it to you for free, even if you're not a cardholder.

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