Elevators - Mini Rant

Elevators. I spent the last month in a hotel, so I know quite a bit about them now. The main thing, however, is this: WAIT FOR THE PEOPLE ON THE ELEVATOR TO GET OFF BEFORE YOU GET ON. You think this would be a common courtesy. Hell, you think this would be plain physics: if there are already twelve people waiting to get out into the Lobby, chances are you attempting to push yourself on first isn't going to help matters any.

And my bank fails again...

Accidentally get double-charged while using your card? Better hope you're not traveling when it happens.

My job sent me on a month-long business trip this week at the last minute, so in preparation for my new temporary position, I headed out and bought some new clothes the day before I left. When being rung up, the first register had problems with the credit card machine, so they switched me to a second counter and I was on my way.

However, after arriving at my new job, I noticed that both transactions had posted to my account. I emailed customer support, and got a form letter back instructing me to call the customer support line instead.

Filled with dread, I took out 45 minutes of my work day to wait on hold. Finally, I was patched through to a sales associated. Unfortunately, in order to dispute a transaction, they have to send paper documents to my house - and apparently can't send them to a temporary address. So, all in all, I'm stuck with a rather large double bill for the next freakin' month until I get home.

At least I have enough money to carry it for now - good thing it wasn't my plane ticket or car rental - then I'd be in real trouble.

Money Mondays: The Extended Edition

I've been working a lot more hours at my 'real life jobs', which makes for a lack of updates, but as it's Monday and I have the day off, I figured it was time for another edition of Money Mondays. And there's lots of stuff since last time. Let's start with the online survey world:

Opinion Outpost - this website is constantly getting good reviews, but I have to admit I almost unsubscribed from this one. It took about two months for me to qualify for any surveys, but within the last few weeks, I’ve had much better luck and actually racked up $11.50 this month! Their minimum payout is $5, so like with Lightspeed a few weeks ago, this is well over usual expectations. The site only pays by check or by Amazon Gift Code, but I received my check in about two weeks.

SurveySpot - this is a tricky one. For years, this site received spectacular reviews, but opinions have drastically fallen since changing to a point system in late 2009. I joined since the change over, and did notice it taking forever for points to be credited, and an absurd amount of surveys only rewarding sweepstakes entries. My suggestion, if you have the time, is to spend your first month and try them all to build up a good history with the company, then just spend time on the ones that actually credit points after that. I managed to cash out instantly via PayPal for $12.00 this week, so it might be worth it to some people to slog through all those bogus invites for the paying ones.

Synovate - this is another unobtrusive site that emails relevant surveys on occasion to it’s members, and I was able to cash out for $5.00 a few weeks ago. Still waiting on the check for this one, though.

Lightspeed - cashed out again for another $5. This time, however, it’s took a bit longer for the PayPal payment to show up. It looks like they just switched to a new ordering system, so they may be working the kinks out.

Viewpoints - If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen my urge to join this review site a few weeks ago. While in general this site doesn’t reward writers directly all the time, if you subscribe via MyPoints you can earn up to 500 points in your account. In addition to that, Viewpoints was also directly offering a limited time promotion to contribute 10 new reviews and earn a $10 Amazon Gift Card. I completed the program, so again, I’ll confirm if I actually get the card. In any case, if you like to write, it’s an easy job.

Speaking of MyPoints, my first gift card arrived this week too, and I’m about two weeks away from cashing out my next.

And finally, I managed to write another winning review and score an extra $10 in the process last month.

So if you’ve been keeping track, since starting to do online surveys in my free time from the end of November 2009, I have cashed out $75.50. This does not include the other 10-15 panels I’ve subscribed to where I haven’t met the minimum payout threshold, yet, either. So far, I have to say my experience overall with just making a little extra spending money on the side in my spare time has been very positive - I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a little extra cash.

In the meantime, the free stuff continues to flow in. I’ve received two free samples of Prilosec, three packets of Emergen-C (which is great timing, too, as I seem to be developing some sort of cold this week), some dried plumbs, some artificial sweeteners (gonna try that in my coffee at work this week) and some shampoo & conditioner. One thing I should note at this point, however, that while a lot of the advertisements for these products will show small or travel-sized packaging, in real life I would say about half of the things I’ve received have actually been much smaller - usually just a small package with ‘one serving’, as it were. For instance, the Gold Bond lotion was really just a small plastic/foil packet. Several of the colognes I received were just one-use pads attached to postcards. So don’t be surprised if you don’t get the exact product pictured - but hey...it’s still free.

Never Paid On Time...

So why is it that it's perfectly acceptable for your employer to not pay on time, but you rack up absurd penalties for turning around and paying your bills late?

As I've mentioned before, I do a lot of freelancing, so I have had quite a few experiences with employers paying me from anywhere to a day to eight weeks late. My frustration increases when these paychecks arrive late...but I still have to pay my rent, insurance, and utilities on time.

I've talked to several experts in the financial realm - accountants, lawyers, etc., and unfortunately there's not an easy answer. If an employer hasn't paid you, you can indeed file a complaint in small claims court, but that can take weeks or months to go through - way past when your bills are due. Or, if a contractor doesn't pay you at all, you can write off you missing check as a tax deduction...but again, that's not really helping with the here and now.

Oh, and the best part is the whole direct deposit thing. I have NEVER been employed by any company who gets this right the first time. I usually go through one to three pay periods before someone gets off their lazy ass and actually types in my information. In the meantime...I'm just waiting for another late check.

Pedestrian Woes

We had a discussion earlier this week about other pet peeves on Twitter, and @andymurd brought up bad pedestrian behavior. Since you're already used to my bitching about bad driving, a lot of these may sound familiar, because they follow the same rules:

1) If you're walking slow or stopping frequently, then stay to the right. This applies to everything from shopping malls to busy sidewalks, to escalators. Other people might actually know where they are going or, *gasp!*, have some place to be, so just get out of the way and let the rest of society get on with their lives.

2) Speaking of escalators, don't freakin' STOP after getting off the steps and look around to see which way to go. There are people behind you, remember? No one is having fun walking backwards on those things while you get your bearings, so just take a few steps and get out of the way while you figure out where you are.

3) Groups: if the sidewalk is only wide enough to let 4 people through, then don't try cramming your whole group together in one line. Other people need to walk on the sidewalk at some point, too, you know.

All in all, just use some common sense. Realize you're not the only one there. Understand that other people have places to go, too.

Driving Rant #4.5: A Day in the Life of...

Today we take a brief pause in the planned line of subjects for a full blown rant about my drive home from work today.

I knew the day wasn’t starting out well when I couldn’t even leave the parking garage. I park in the same garage for work every day I’m there, but for some reason today the parking attendant decided to be a head case and demanded to see my ID along with my check card. So I gave it to her...she looked at it, looked at me, and said "That don’t look like you!" Ugh. I’m wearing glasses today, and not in that photo. So after about five minutes of arguing back and forth, reciting my address, and showing her two other forms of ID, she finally lets me pay and go. I mean seriously - I think if someone was using a stolen wallet they’d have better things to buy than overpriced city parking space.

I managed to get about two blocks from the garage when I’m stopped behind a Fed-Ex tractor trailer completely blocking traffic. Now, this is Main Street - there is a fair amount of traffic coming in the opposite direction. So I wait, and I wait, and I wait - in the meantime, a city cop pulls up behind me in line. Finally, a small space opens up in oncoming traffic, and as I begin to pull into the lane, the cop behind me turns into the lane and passes me, narrowly missing the driver side of my car. In the meantime, oncoming traffic approaches, and the cop and the oncoming car are at a standstill next to the tractor trailer. Now, keep in mind the cop is obviously the one going the wrong way - instead of backing up and letting the correct traffic go through, he turns on his lights and sirens and makes all of the oncoming traffic back up so that he can get through. He then turns of his lights and sirens, and continues down the road at a leisurely pace - while the rest of us are still stuck behind the goddamned truck.

As for the truck - dude, seriously, even if the loading dock is full, do NOT block freakin’ Main Street to unload your packages. There is a side street not 20 feet ahead of you that you can pull into and not disrupt one of the major arteries of downtown traffic.

After that fiasco, I headed towards the interstate on one of the main roadways, and got behind a lady who came to a dead stop at a green light in the middle of the three lane road. She then signals to turn right, and as I’m about to pass her on the left, she then swerves to the left at the last minute and signals a turn in that direction. I stop, she doesn’t move, and then the light turns red.

She then proceeds to turn right as originally planned (still in the middle lane, btw), and I’m stuck for a whole light cycle.

I FINALLY make it to the interstate (keep in mind this is just over two miles from my work place, and it has already taken me over half and hour to get there), and merge on - and than am almost immediately run off the road by a handicapped driver who cut in front of me and then slammed on her brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of her.

Two minutes later, I watch a see of red brake lights light up in front of me as a dump truck crosses four lanes of interstate traffic at once to make a last minute left exit.

It was like America’s Worst Driver’s all rolled into one episode for my viewing pleasure. Oh, wait, there wasn’t any snow. Well, there’s some forecasted again for Wednesday.

Money Mondays, v2.0

(Posting a day early as my internet at home is still out because of recent weather...not sure if I'd be able to tomorrow!)

As promised, here’s a little update about some convenient ways to make or save a little bit of cash online, which may be especially useful to those of you with smaller or unstable incomes, like myself:

Mypoints.com - as predicted, I ‘cashed out’ for a $10 Panera gift card the other week. So far, I think I have to say this is my favorite online cash cow - I get points for reading emails, writing reviews on certain websites, or using a few internet applications (like a weather channel desktop app or their own search toolbar). Not a lot of work at all. And get this - after I requested my gift card (which was right around 1500 points), I got a 500 point bonus for ordering the card. Yes, that’s right...I’m already a third of the way to my next one! All this for doing their smaller, ‘no purchase required’ offers; if you actually use their interface to place orders through their supported merchants (and there are a lot of them), you can rack up thousands of points on each order, which could essentially make your purchases free or close to it. Definitely recommending registering with this one.

Netverdix - I hadn't mentioned this before, but this is a smaller but well-reviewed survey site. They don't send many survey invites, but qualifying is easy, and there is no minimum to cash out. So I took a short survey back in December and automatically received a check from them this week for it. (Ok, ok...it was only two dollars, but hey - that's a cup of coffee for work tomorrow, eh?)

Free stuff updates - Hey, look what’s in the mail! I got a free energy drink mix, a book about wine, two fragrance samples (from StartSampling.com), and a sample of GoldBond Lotion from Wal-mart.

Getting paid for your junkmail? Not so much. I registered for a company that supposedly will pay you for certain junkmail and spam email (specifically, anything relating to finances - banks, credit, insurance, etc.) at the suggestion of some of my online pals. While they have (and continue to have) a very positive experience with the company, I can only assume the business is not taking new consumers on as I have yet to get any response from them after registering. Total bummer, too, since I get so much junk mail that would qualify.

Bad Driving Rant #4: Driving in the Snow

There is a time and a place to practice driving in the snow. On the interstate, in seven inches of ice and snow, in your Prelude, is not it.

So I just recently moved to a coastal area that's not prone to snow, but lo and behold, last week we had six inches dumped on us. I come from an area where snow and ice was the norm during the winter months, so I dug my SUV out of the driveway, and slowly headed on into work.

I admit to being momentarily shocked that the interstates weren't even plowed - but then I remembered my city probably didn't even own plows. So I stayed in four wheel drive and leisurely made my way down the road.

I live 17 miles away from my work place. I counted 34 wrecked, disabled, or stuck cars just on my way in that day. Seriously - did you think your lightweight 2-cylinder sports car was gonna get any traction OR clearance in half a foot of snow?

Some tips to drivers unaccustomed to driving in the snow:

1) If you don't have four-wheel drive, stay home.

2) If you don't have any experience driving in the snow, stay home.

3) Slamming on your breaks in the snow or ice is a sure fire way to NOT stop. If you need to stop or make a turn, simply let off the accelerator early and slowly glide into a stop.

4) Leave at least 100 yards between you and any other vehicle. Even if you think you're in control of your car, you still don't know about that other guy.

5) If you have a pick-up truck, put some bricks or rocks in the back so that you actually have enough weight to not go fish-tailing all over creation.

Of course, as usual - unless you really have to drive in that stuff, just stay home with some hot coffee and a good book.

Bad Driving Rant #3: Cops Who Speed

Hypocrisy, much? Gah.

I had to go out of town for work the other day to pick up some equipment, so I spent pretty much my entire day on the interstate. Seeing as it's the end of the month and the states need to make their ticket quotas, the troopers were out in full force with their speed traps.

Likewise, I counted no less than six individual instances were I was easily out-paced by a cop by at least 10mph, when I was right at the speed limit, or even a little above.

Keep in mind, obviously, I'm not talking about police vehicles on their way to a scene or an arrest with their lights and sirens on. No, no...just cruising down the road like the rest of us.

I was reminded of a specific instance a few years ago when I was coming back from vacation, and got pulled over for speeding. The cop gave me a hard time, but at least let me go with just a warning. As we pulled back into traffic, he immediately sped up and passed me, and I watched as he weaved in and out of the three lanes of interstate traffic, and finally turned left into the emergency vehicle turn-around ahead of us. I figured he had just gotten a call, and was on his way to an accident or some such thing. Nope. As I past, he had already set up a new speed trap (maybe I'm being a little self-important, but was it to try to nab me again?). Given the fact that we both pulled out into traffic at the same time just a few minutes earlier, you can imagine how fast he must have been going in order to get that far ahead of me in such a short period of time. Not to mention, again, the driving maneuvers that would have been categorized as "reckless" had anyone other than him done them.

There was also the time when I was driving back to college for the first time on my own; I had just gotten a new car, and it was my first real 'road trip' of any length. I reached part of the highway where there was construction and each direction was reduced to one lane of traffic. As I entered the work zone, a cop drove up behind me and road my ass the entire mile and a half of construction. I was, obviously, both freaking out AND doing the exact work zone speed limit - because you know that if I had sped up in order to appease his need to speed, he would have pulled me over for that fat $250 ticket. (Who cares about the tailgating?)

Oh, and what about that time in high school (I kid you not) when I watched a cop car speed past my parents' car...and turn into the Dunkin' Donuts? Seriously, it happened.

Bad Driving Rant #2: Stopping in the Middle of the Road

I don't care if you're lost or you missed your turn...just pull off to the side of the road or turn around!

I was on my way to the post office today over my lunch break, and this bimbo who is turning into the parking lot in front of me comes to a total halt at the entrance of the lot, completely blocking both lanes of traffic, while she reads the parking notice sign next to the building. Seriously...SERIOUSLY? Just park, for f*ck's sake!

Another "favorite" is the idiots who are in the right lane and realize they need to make the next left turn, so instead of just going past the turn and merging in a sane and legal fashion and turning around, they slam on their breaks and put on the blinker - expecting the traffic behind them to let them cross three lanes to make that turn. I mean, come on - can you really not spare that extra two minutes to drive to the next exit and make a u-turn?!

I'm sorry, but no one is that important or in that much of a hurry to just stop in the middle of the freakin' road. Either pull over or turn around, and get out of everyone else's - who DO know where they're going - way.

Introducing: Money Mondays

So while the original (and still primary) purpose of this blog was to, simply, rant about everyday annoyances, I've gotten a surprising amount of email and Twitter feedback on my posts regarding random things to help make or save a bit of money. So every few weeks, I figured I'd post a little update about some of the stuff I've mentioned in the past, and how it's working out for me.

Paid Surveys
Hey, I've been paid. Twice now. As in, the money is in my PayPal account. So here are my results so far, and how a few others are shaping out:

1. Lightspeed - I racked up enough points to make $10 in my first month. Note that the lowest payout is $5, so I even beat the minimum here. I've been the happiest with this panel - they send a few surveys a week, most of which I qualify for and complete, and most of which are 20 minutes or less.
2. I wrote a review of some of the survey sites I use and a website paid me $10 for my article. Sweet!
3. MyPoints - I'm a measly 20 points away from a $10 gift certificate. I get 5 points for every email I read from them, so I should be placing an order for that thing the day after tomorrow.
4. InboxDollars & SendEarnings (click links on the right to help me out, mkay?) - essentially the same company, they also pay you to read emails and take a few surveys. I'm approaching $10, and the payout is $30...I should cash out sometime this summer...and all just for reading a few extra emails each day.
5. A sneaky trick for those of you who are dealing with the whole Toluna / Greenfield / Your2Cents merger - if you're sick of the low point yet way too long surveys, just log in everyday and take the paid polls. You get anywhere from 15 - 150 points per poll. Not a lot, but that's a good way to inch towards your payout while they get the survey fiasco fixed.

Free Stuff
It's too early to have received anything...but spam. As expected, a few of the things I've found have resulted in an influx of spam to my email. Good thing I'm already using a bogus email address! So be prepared if you start doing this.

Here's a few neat things I've found this week:
1. Free Book from Crown Publishing - they've got three to choose from, just pick one that looks interesting to you!
2. Free Cologne from Swiss Army - free sample of Swiss Army (yes, the people that make those watches and knives) cologne.
3. New website to add to the watch list: MySavings.com. Again, you have to register for this to get the links, but it's worth it. Lot's of stuff added daily on this one.
4. Save the Date(s): February 5th - get a free KIND bar at Starbucks (their new granola bar). February 23rd - get a free short stack of pancakes at IHOP.
5. Prilosec OTC Sample - mmn, free heartburn medicine...for those of us who just can't stay away from the spicy food.

Again, I'll let you know if/when I actually receive any of this stuff. Keep your fingers crossed, or go ahead and give it a go with me and sign up for some of these things now.

In the next Money Mondays edition: getting paid for your junk mail? Sounds too good to be true. Hopefully I'll find out soon...

Bad Driving Rant #1: Driving Too Slow

If you and/or your vehicle are incapable of reaching and maintaining the speed limit, then get off the road.

Myth #1: Driving slower is safer.

Fact #1: Most of the time, it in fact is not. For instance, say you're driving on a highway in the mountains of southwestern Virginia, where the speed limit is 55. Those roads have quite a few large turns, limiting the visibility to only a 50 or 100 yards at certain points. So say you're going 35mph, and the guy coming up behind you is maintaining 55mph...he comes up behind you suddenly...do you think he's going to have time to stop or swerve around you?
This also applies to you idiots who slam on the brakes on the interstate when it starts to rain. In case you slept through that part of Driver's Ed, the road is in fact it's MOST slippery condition the first few minutes that it starts to rain. So all that brake slamming is really just rear-ending waiting to happen.

Myth #1: It's perfectly legal to drive as slow as I want.

Fact #1: In many states, driving between 15mph and 25mph below the speed limit is considered reckless driving. Other states actually have posted minimum speeds on major highways and interstates. Even more states have laws stating that you "cannot drive so slow that you hinder the flow of traffic." Think about that, dude, next time you decide to drive 5mph under the speed limit on the left side of the interstate and have seven cars backed up behind you.

Every once in awhile when I rant about this in person, I hear things like "Well, some people's cars aren't in very good shape," or "sometimes older people are too afraid to drive at that speed." My answer is, "Why should my life be put in danger because someone else is incapable of driving safely?" Your rights end when my rights begin, so if driving the speed limit is really that difficult for you, then find another means of transportation.

Save Money, Get it for Free

So in my quest to make/save money while partially unemployed, I've stumbled upon some legit sites that offer random freebies that are just there for the asking. So, while like my post about online surveys earlier, you won't be making any huge monetary strides with these - every little bit helps, right? Here's some sites I've found that so far seem useful:

SavingsAndCoupons.com - you have to sign up for the links, but there's a pretty extensive listing of random items you can follow through and request.
Free-Product-Samples - a blog with extensive and somewhat frequent updates about offers.
Walmart's Free Samples - Walmart even has a listing of items.
StartSampling.com - a fairly good list of interesting offers.
Bargainist.com - updated every few days or so.
Shop4Freebies.com - updated daily.
FreeGrabber.com - updated daily, or close to it.

Now, you might be thinking, why bother? How is a few samples arriving at my door in two months gonna help? Well, as I mentioned above, this isn't a huge solution. But my thought process is, if I can save a few bucks next month by not having to buy a few necessities at the store, then that extra $10 or $20 might make all the difference. For instance, today I saw offers for medications (heartburn, cold remedies, digestive aids), household products (laundry detergent, dryer sheets, window cleaner), personal products (feminine products, colognes, shampoo, lotion), business supplies (flash drives, pens, sticky notes), and even food products (toaster pastries, sweeteners, health food snacks). So imagine that in two months you're still having a hard time finding work...but instead of having to go to the store, you at least have some samples to last you through until another week and your next paycheck arrives.

At least that's my idea, anyways.

Some recommendations:

1) If you already have a PO Box, use it. I'm not sure how much junk mail any one company might send, so at least keep it confined to somewhere other than your house.

2) Use a separate email addy. If you're like me, you already have one for those online surveys you're doing in your free time, so that might be a good place to send any potential spam.

And finally, to wrap up this entry - I'm on Twitter, now! Add @SHIKrants to your following list and be notified as soon as I get irritated and rant about something new.

Eating My Words

So you know how I said in my post a few days ago about the Craigslist scams that I hadn't heard of anyone ever having to submit to a credit report in order for a job? Well, I have to retract that statement.

One of my friends just recently had a job offer REVOKED after the company did a credit check and found two outstanding accounts.

My friend, like many others, has some overdue bills. The economy is tough. People made stupid decisions when they were younger. Hell, some people just forget to write the checks every month. (In my case, thank God for automatic bill pay!) What I don't understand is...how does having an eight year old hospital bill affect your ability to do your job? I mean, I guess I could understand if you were working with money, giving financial advice, etc. But for a help desk technician? Really?!

Let me get this straight - you didn't hire him because he has bad credit. He has bad credit because he didn't pay all of his bills. He can continue to not pay his bills by not having a job...

...and then who breaks the cycle? The government? He can try to pay off his bills on unemployment, I guess, but I have a feeling most people would like to see their tax dollars better spent.

Bad Advertising is Like No Advertising...

I went to an open call for a job interview today for some part time work, and boy what a waste of time that was! After Google-mapping the directions, I found myself in a residential neighborhood a half an hour later - definitely not at the corporate office I was supposed to be looking for. After returning home and verifying the address, I attempted to call the number that had been listed with the job ad, and though it's well within office hours - it went straight to voice mail!

So hey, all you employers - the next time you spend all that time (and money!) on advertising for new employees - make sure you enable them to actually apply for the job. Thanks.

Returned Statement Fees, Returned

To follow up from an earlier post, I did indeed [finally] receive a reply from my bank about the returned statement fees that had been accruing in my account. You see, after the first month, I switched to e-statements...but then I noticed I continued to receive a monthly fee for returned mail! Fortunately, the bank admitted their mistakes and refunded the fees in full. Another score for the little guy.

Always remember - the only one looking out for you is you.

Et tu, Craigslist?

As someone who is self-employed, I've always been a huge fan of Craigslist. But if you've visited the site recently, you've been bombarded with warnings about the recent scams plaguing the site. And if you're looking for work, you've been bombarded with the resulting spam.

I've spent a good deal of time over the holidays planning for upcoming work, and no matter how good I think I've become at spotting a phony posting, I'm still receiving about five spam replies a week, asking for me to buy my credit report in order to 'proceed with the hiring process.'

First of all, in case anyone is wondering, I have heard that occasionally some employers want to check your credit report, but I have yet to meet anyone where that's actually happened. Secondly, any company who is going to do that is going to do it themselves, and would probably have a business account with their preferred agency to do that very thing.

But moving back to the original problem - how to eliminate applying for bogus jobs? Unless Craigslist starts to implement paying for posting for all of it's cities, the spammers are going to continue to undermine the site. But there are a few things you can do:

1. If there is an actual email address posted, do a Google search for that email. Most of the spammer emails are showing up on a site called flakelist.org which maintains a database of confirmed spammers. If the spammer is relatively new, you can still spot a fake by pulling up multiple posts in different regions by the same email. Also, just a hint: firstnamelastnamerandomnumber@gmail.com is probably not real.

2. If the posting is using the Craigslist default emailing system, try grabbing a section of text and doing a similar Google search. But, by nature, these might be harder to weed out.

3. Help a brotha' out. If you determine a posting is illegitimate, then flag the posting as spam. If everyone helps monitor the site, maybe at some point these spammers will get tired and move on.

In the meantime, good luck in that job hunt.

Unemployed? Scrape by with Online Surveys...

In 'real life' I run a business and do quite a bit of freelancing, but over the last year finding work has becoming more and more difficult. Over the holidays, I finally played around a bit with paid online surveys. Like most people, I figured all of them were scams until a friend of mine mentioned she was actually making a little bit of cash in her free time with them. So, as usual, with a little bit of internet research under my belt, I gave it a shot.

Tip #1: The first thing you should know is, don't quit your day job. I read several good websites and blogs, and the 'full-time online paid survey professionals' generally agree that the most anyone can reasonably expect to make is about $200 a month. While that definitely won't pay your bills, that's still a nice dent. Hell, that would cover my health insurance each month. So instead of playing MindJolt games in the evening before heading to bed, I've been trying my hand at spending an hour or so each day, filling out surveys.

Tip #2: You gotta put in a LOT for a little reward. At least to start. First, you need to sign up for around 15 - 20 legitimate sites. (Legitimate = rated well by others AND not charging you for joining.) Second, each site may require anywhere from six to sixty pages of interest forms for you to fill out so that surveys can be best matched to you. Thirdly, you must establish a good history with many of the companies. Most companies will send you few surveys to start with, and once you have successfully and diligently responded to surveys with little to no reward - then you start receiving invites for the paying / points surveys!

Tip #3: Create a separate email account. While I've yet to receive any type of spam from any company, there are A LOT of surveys to sort out, and having a new email account is very helpful.

After a month, I've earned a bit of spare change, and would recommend the following sites currently based on my own experiences:

Global Test Market - surveys emailed weekly
InboxDollars - get paid $0.02 for each email you read
Lightspeed Panel - surveys emailed weekly
MyPoints - get paid to read emails, give reviews, and points on purchases (comment for an invite)
Toluna - surveys emailed weekly (comment for an invite)

(Why an invite? Help me stay employed, people.)

Anyways, so far so good - I'll post a new update every month or so and tell you if I'm, ahem, slamming my head into my keyboard yet.

A new APR of YourArmAndYourLeg%

Welcome back from the break in December! With the holidays and the 'real life job', I took a month hiatus, but I imagine I'll have plenty to gripe about 2010. With that said, let's welcome in the new year with a rant that is affecting many more than me, I'm sure.

I got two lovely letters in the mail a few days ago from my bank. One was informing me of new legislation that had passed that imposed limits on banks from arbitrarily raising APR's or minimum payments, which goes into effect in June 2010.

The other letter was informing me that my APR was being raised by over 300% in February 2010, unless I chose to protest the raise and close my account.

I hopped online and did a bit of research, and found I'm not alone. Many banks pulled this in the second quarter of 2009, and a second wave hit at the end of the year. I'll refrain from ranting on the idiocy of passing a law that essentially forced the banks' hands instead of restraining them completely (I do try not to get too politically involved here, for now), but I will pass along the tips I learned in my research:

Don't completely close your account. Go ahead and pay down or transfer your balance if you can, and for heaven's sake DON'T charge anything new to your card. Once you protest the APR hike, you can continue to pay down your balance at your OLD rate, so long as you don't purchase anything new. Once your card is paid off, leave the account open but unused. Every six months, make a small purchase and pay it off completely that month. This way, your credit rating is saved by still having the 'active' account, but the greedy bank gets nothin' from you.

In the meantime, I'm looking for a credit union.