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I feel compelled to speak about a "Kol Koreh" signed by a number of Rabbis making the rounds and being published together with an alleged "translation" or "explanation" of the hebrew side.
On the Hebrew side it speaks out against the credit card application farms and their methods as I wrote in point 2 here: http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/46584
However on the English side the author writes out against buying gift cards and every other method of manufactured spend to earn miles.
I figured it was worth investigating what exactly the Rabbis signed off on. I called and asked Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, the Rosh Yeshiva in Philadelphia, whether he agreed with the English side. He said he never saw an English side and that it was terrible that it would imply that he was agreeing with anything that wasn't explicitly written on the Hebrew side. And he said that it has to be corrected so that people don't get that impression.
He does not feel that "all methods of manufacturing spend for miles are abusive," and indeed if there are legal ways to do it, then people should go right ahead and earn the miles.
I also called Rav Dov Kahan, founder of Bais Din Maysharim in Lakewood. He also did not agree that "all methods of manufactured spend are abusive" but felt that methods in which each party (the store and the credit card in the case of a gift card purchase) say that you can do so and it's not against any of their terms, would be permissible and that isn't what the Kol Koreh was targeting.
-Dan
Reply #194
Rav Kamenetsky just called me back.
He says aderaba, if people can find a way to purchase miles via stores who charge for gift cards and and they can get miles then good for them. Nothing wrong with that kind of MS at all and he had no idea why the author would deceive him like that.
The problem he signed against was the companies opening cards for people and their methods, nothing else.
Reply #280
The only kind of MS that R' Kaminetzky said isn't "yashur" and that he was signing onto was for refundable items.
He wasn't told anything about any other kind of MS.
On the Hebrew side it speaks out against the credit card application farms and their methods as I wrote in point 2 here: http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/46584
However on the English side the author writes out against buying gift cards and every other method of manufactured spend to earn miles.
I figured it was worth investigating what exactly the Rabbis signed off on. I called and asked Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, the Rosh Yeshiva in Philadelphia, whether he agreed with the English side. He said he never saw an English side and that it was terrible that it would imply that he was agreeing with anything that wasn't explicitly written on the Hebrew side. And he said that it has to be corrected so that people don't get that impression.
He does not feel that "all methods of manufacturing spend for miles are abusive," and indeed if there are legal ways to do it, then people should go right ahead and earn the miles.
I also called Rav Dov Kahan, founder of Bais Din Maysharim in Lakewood. He also did not agree that "all methods of manufactured spend are abusive" but felt that methods in which each party (the store and the credit card in the case of a gift card purchase) say that you can do so and it's not against any of their terms, would be permissible and that isn't what the Kol Koreh was targeting.
-Dan
Reply #194
Rav Kamenetsky just called me back.
He says aderaba, if people can find a way to purchase miles via stores who charge for gift cards and and they can get miles then good for them. Nothing wrong with that kind of MS at all and he had no idea why the author would deceive him like that.
The problem he signed against was the companies opening cards for people and their methods, nothing else.
Reply #280
The only kind of MS that R' Kaminetzky said isn't "yashur" and that he was signing onto was for refundable items.
He wasn't told anything about any other kind of MS.
« Last edited by Dan on July 10, 2014, 09:49:35 PM »
