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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 25th, 2023

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  • Been with ING for… hell, 20ish years? My only issues with them are:

    • They’re slow to adopt new tech. Tap payments, Google Wallet/ApplePay integration, etc. takes a bit longer than the major banks.
    • They screwed me over once on what should have been a routine (and totally affordable) mortgage extension to finance some renovations. I’m still a bit salty about it, but it was mid-covid and I suspect their competitors would have been just as cagey and risk-averse at the time.

    For day-to-day regular transaction account stuff they’ve been super chill, and their front-line customer service is surprisingly decent.




  • Is the heat pump system continuous/unlimited, or tank-based? I have enjoyed the luxury of never running out of hot water on gas, but weighed against squandering a finite resource and/or destroying the planet it’s hardly a necessity for our two-person household.

    As for cooking, I’ve heard nothing but good things about modern induction setups and a rapidly growing body of research highlighting the toxic byproducts of gas stoves/ovens - even when turned off - due to inevitable leaks from imperfect seals and aging equipment.

    The last big argument for gas cooking seems to be wok burners, but I just did a quick google and not only is wok induction a thing now, but it looks sci-fi af so I’m here for it. They’re not cheap yet, but I imagine that’s only a matter of time as adoption picks up.



  • Our previous landlord has 10+ properties and owns a building company; far as I can tell he targets dilapidated old houses on oversized plots of land, knocks 'em down and barfs up cardboard duplex new builds in their place. They look great - aircon, high ceilings, stone countertops, fancy appliances, etc. - but everything behind that is as shoddy as he can get away with and then some. Rain flooding THROUGH the walls, black mould, unsealed window frames, creaking floors, unlockable doors, dead outlets… Getting anything fixed was like pulling teeth, and literally all he cared about was maximum immediate profit with as little effort as possible.

    The biggest favour that parasite ever did for us was jacking up the rent enough to force us out, because we only discovered the rampant black mould problem while we were packing up. Bullet narrowly dodged, and I learned a bunch of super valuable red flags to look out for (and under, and behind) next time.

    By contrast, our current landlord is an absolute legend and the best I’ve ever encountered. He has a day-job in Defense so not a hardcore investor, and this was his family home before we became the first tenants to live here. The place is solid brick and built to owner-occupier standards, his parents are our neighbours, we chat over the fence whenever he’s over there for a bbq, RE is super chill, and repairs generally take a few days at most. We know how lucky we are, but I really wish this was the norm, not the exception.