QUOTE (Ayeohx @ May 21 2009, 08:39 AM)

I'm still a bit confused about something. Say I get a certified credstick from a bank for 5000 nuyen. I believe that it cost me 5500 total.
Actually, that's 5k + the cost of the credstick (25

). The convenience fee depends on how impolite your GM is feeling.
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Can I choose to transfer more money to it without involving the bank (and incuring more fees)? Say from my offshore account to the credstick?
An offshore account, by definition, would involve some sort of banking entity. Pretty much any transfer of funds to or from a credstick involves a bank, unless you're physically handing the thing over, which is the entire point.
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And is there a limit of 5000 nuyen the the stick can hold?
Depends on the type, see the Certified Credstick Table.
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I was always under the impression that you could not directly transfer money to a credstick yourself, only the bank could transfer nuyen to it. For the most part, you could only take nuyen out of credstick. Is this right?
No such limitation is ever given, so no. Frankly, it's your cred, you can do what you want with it.
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Also, after the bank creates the certified credstick does the bank have anything else to do with the funds on that stick or is it totally out of the system?
The bank undoubtedly keeps a record of the transaction and what nuyen were downloaded in the credstick, which someone following the money trail can find later, but aside from that they're pretty well out of it.
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Why would they transfer the actual files to a cert credstick? Isn't that just ASKING for trouble?
Whenever you insist on a degree on anonymity in financial transactions, you're encouraging trouble, but it's a service that remains in demand.
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Also, wouldn't it be alot easier to make certified credsticks work like those Visa gift card things? Basically, it's the same as a bank account, but it has a specific amount of money in it and it's not registered to anyone so anyone who is holding it can use it.
Different animal. The money in the gift card's account is still being held by a bank or credit card company, and that company registers all transactions and maintains total control of the cash. If that company suspects wrongdoing, they can actually stop you from accessing the funds at any time. A credstick, by comparison, is as close as cash-in-hand as you get with electronic currencies.
(I could go into the nature of credit and inflation and how your gift card might not actually be dealing with "real money," but that's a minor point.)
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I wonder why they went out of their way to make certified cerdsticks (a little bit) forgeable. Certified credsticks using a completely different transaction method than other ones is very strange.
One part retromancy, to start with. Holdover from previous editions. The entire concept of certified credsticks is essentially to replicate the anonymous nature of physical currency ownership.
For example, let's say you find a hundred dollar bill on the sidewalk. You pick it up. As far as anyone is concerned, that cash is yours, right? Who can prove otherwise? Well, if some mad old millionaire wrote down all the serial numbers of all his hundred dollar bills he could contest it, but that's probably not going to stop you from going into the nearest convenience store and buying a pack of oat bran muffins and a tall boy.
A certified credstick works pretty much the same way. If you scavenge it off of Mr Johnson's corpse, it's yours. Since cash has gone the way of the dodo, this is pretty much the only way to handle such post-mortem transactions.
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Can you pay like... a street thug with 10Y from a certified stick (with 5K on it)? How's that work? We've always just handwaved it and had money able to work when it needed to.
Said street thug would need some sort of account, which essentially means they need a commlink (and no, being a technomancer doesn't count, unless you want to show me where the credstick port is).