Tell me why I shouldn't move to Florida (Hudson: credit, camp)

[InGateway]

Originally Posted by Cardiff by the Sea

Sketchy people are everywhere here. Sketchy is a kind word. I typically refer to them as trashy. The high percentage of trashy people really got to me last summer and early fall. Then the large influx of snowbirds diluted them down and it stopped bothering me.

I notice it in the number of missing teeth and the high levels of petty crime and the junky houses. Last night I found the wicker coffee table of my dreams on craigslist. I made arrangements to pick it up at 11 am this morning after the sellers got home from church. While they were at church, someone stole it out of their driveway. That is the kind of petty crime you get here.

I moved here from California and the lower class in Florida are much lower than in California and they are much more widely dispersed. In CA there were nice neighborhoods and not so nice neighborhoods. Here everything is much more inter-mixed. Really upscale houses next to shacks with junk filled yards. That is the reason that people like deed restricted neighborhoods. A couple months ago, I drove by to look at a property we might have been interested in as a rental. It was a great house for the money, but next door there were 5 18-20 year old men playing basketball. One found a way to work mother-f into the conversation 5 times before I could even get out of the car and another 3 times as I walked around the out side of the house. Thought to myself, I don't think this would make a good family rental unless the tenants were deaf.

My mother lived in Arkansas which is one of the poorer states in the nation. I would say that the lower class in Florida is lower and trashier than the lower class in Arkansas. There people were poor but not vulgar.

You can be poor and have class. There is a definite lack of class here. It is almost like there is an additional class that is above homeless but below the working class that I am familiar with other places.

They seem to survive by scamming. There was an article in the paper about one woman's scam. She claimed to be locked out of her car and needed money to call a locksmith. She attributed her forgetfulness to her recent surgery and she pulled up her shirt to show her marks her bandages from this surgery. She would hit people for $80-90. In one case mentioned in the article, she actually scammed both a husband and his wife separately on different days at the same location.

Hubby and I are landlords. One of our tenants referred a friend of a friend to us as we have a unit coming open. Hubby asked this person about her criminal record. "It's nothing. Just a few felonies. Petty theft. About three years ago." When we do background checks, we insist on looking at the drivers license. People will misspell their names or transpose numbers so that they don't come up in the background checks.

And there are so many unlicensed contractors here that the police do stings. Even the sales pitches you get from reputable firms have the PT Barnum feel to them.

There are lots and lots of wonderful people here. In fact, the quality of the people is why we moved here from CA--people are more warm and sincere. But you have to be prepared for the other side of it.

See, everything has tradeoffs. I found CA to be a living hell personally. I spent time in the Sacramento/Roseville/Auburn area and you want to talk about trailer parks galore, go to Auburn. A ton of ratchet trash in those parts and Grass Valley.. I can go on and on. Carmichael is patchy and bad now too and so is Rancho Cordova. Id say those are worse than FL even. Many nights I walk these streets here in Gateway, I dont hear much noise at all. Theres lowlifes here but out there in CA, they just tend to hide it better. Although I had some jerk flick a cigarette out the window at me in Carmichael before when I was walking and he had no regard for someone walking.. I let him know about it, got mad and he flicked a cigarette at me and they sped off.. At least you wont find that kind of crap here. That was like a hit and run move. Oh and I can get into the hollywood nazi scene too, again another thing you wont see here really. See I have a bit of a firey side and I am not afraid to show it so FL is better to me. California felt emotion less often times and stale. I couldnt relate to it. Its as if you could tell things were dumpy but the people weren't that hard really in the ghettos. I looked at many as soft as munchkins and even the so called "hard" folks never wore their emotions on their sleeves.

[03bluecoupe]

Originally Posted by Florida or Bust....

and skimming at the ATM machines and gas stations.

ok, those scams are new news to me. I've heard of key stroke recorders or cameras focused on the keypads being put onto ATMs, is that what you mean by ATM Skimming?

What's skimming at the gas station? The pump shows that you got more gas than you actually did?

[jean_ji]

They are readers put onto the ATMS or gas pumps that aren't always easily noticeable and get the numbers off all CC or debit cards that are inserted. I live in the Hudson Valley in the summer and it happens there too, actually everywhere. It's one of the reasons I use my Speed Pass at Mobil stations if one is available and I try to avoid using CC's at gas pumps.

I'm one of the 50 million customers who had my data hacked with Anthem Health's security breach (unencrypted stored data) and I have my credit frozen with all three reporting agencies for the foreseeable future, so I'm more cautious than usual these days.

[Florida or Bust....]

Originally Posted by 03bluecoupe

ok, those scams are new news to me. I've heard of key stroke recorders or cameras focused on the keypads being put onto ATMs, is that what you mean by ATM Skimming?

What's skimming at the gas station? The pump shows that you got more gas than you actually did?

Do a search to see what the skimming equipment looks like and educate yourself to know what to look for, unless you already did that. At the gas stations, they are usually placed on the far end of the pumps. At the banks if you use an outside ATM machine, take a look to see if there is a skimmer before using. There are ways to reduced the risk of your credit card being compromised. It's just another thing to think about as you go about your day.

I do find this scam more common here, then when I lived up North.

[03bluecoupe]

Originally Posted by jean_ji

They are readers put onto the ATMS or gas pumps that aren't always easily noticeable and get the numbers off all CC or debit cards that are inserted. I live in the Hudson Valley in the summer and it happens there too, actually everywhere. It's one of the reasons I use my Speed Pass at Mobil stations if one is available and I try to avoid using CC's at gas pumps.

I'm one of the 50 million customers who had my data hacked with Anthem Health's security breach (unencrypted stored data) and I have my credit frozen with all three reporting agencies for the foreseeable future, so I'm more cautious than usual these days.

Thanks, I'm aware of the readers, I thought something else was going on. I'm also one of of the potential Anthem "victims" but didn't go as far as freezing. I did sign up for their AllClear PRO service though and I'm VERY vigilant about monitoring. Good luck.

As for Emperor Cuomos land - we're out of his domain asap.

[jean_ji]

Originally Posted by 03bluecoupe

Thanks, I'm aware of the readers, I thought something else was going on. I'm also one of of the potential Anthem "victims" but didn't go as far as freezing. I did sign up for their AllClear PRO service though and I'm VERY vigilant about monitoring. Good luck.

As for Emperor Cuomos land - we're out of his domain asap.

If you're moving to a new area, now is not the time to freeze your credit.

Anthem isn't the only large company that doesn't encrypt stored data since it costs $$, so we'll stay frozen, probably permanently. When we saw they were notifying by mail because of compromised emails, we went proactive with the first reports. Our letter from them arrived last week, because of our mail being forwarded here. Our FL address is our primary address, but somewhere in their fathomless database they came up with the NY address to send the notice to, although we got a letter at this address concerning a recent doctor visit.

FL has recently been named as one of the top states for fraud and identity theft, so being vigilant and monitoring is needed here and also for any other location now.

[03bluecoupe]

^^^^ jean - check DM's please.

[Who Dat]

Originally Posted by Old Gal

Who Dat, when my husband decided to retire I told him we were moving somewhere with a more temperate climate. His response was, no state income tax - he used to live in SoCal. Well, the Texas coast is out because a) property anywhere near the coast is a lot more expensive than Florida and then you still have to contend with high property taxes and high cost of insurance here in Texas. So Florida kind of made it by default - no offense because I have absolutely no doubt that there are a lot of really nice people in Florida particularly if this forum in any indication. I know that you also have what are referred to in Texas terms as rednecks - we have a lot of those too - and some of them are really nice people. At least it appears that Florida and the Venice area have the vast majority of what we are looking for. We have stayed in N. Texas because of family and good jobs.

When I was a high school kid in the 80's we would go up to Venice for football. It was very much a "cowtown" as we called it because it was largely unpopulated and most of the business there involved livestock or farming.

Obviously things have changed and it is no longer a cowtown but I'm sure there is some of that lifestyle still around. That's not necessarily a bad thing, many times they are laid back and easy going. I highly doubt there's any "Deliverance" type of families up there.

[kiggy]

Everytime I go down to FL from NH, I have to call my credit card company to let them know I am doing so. Otherwise, my credit card is automatically declined once I enter Florida, which may be the credit card fraud capital of the world. At least in my credit card company's estimation. You'd think that I was in Honduras or something.

[Old Gal]

Interesting about the credit card company. I know every time we travel I always alert my credit card company at their request.