I Found A Bank That Will Take Me!!

Edit: I thought Umpqua only had two branches. That is beyond not true. My new bank has WAY more than two branches. They’re all over Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and Northern California. Check it out for yourself: http://www.umpquabank.com/locator/new/ Ok, carry on with the post.

I am now a member at Umpqua Bank, “the greatest bank in the world”. And I have to say, they’re pretty cool. Here’s how it happened:

The regular readers here know I’ve been on a quest since September of 2011 to find a new place to move my banking. At first it was about our “too big to fail” banks and their attitudes around customer service, fee rollouts, etc. I decided to move out of Wells Fargo. It was a difficult choice in a way, because my family banked at Wells for years when I was a kid, and they have branches everywhere I have people.

But I have been learning that where you have your money matters ethically, even if you don’t have much.

I started by looking to join a credit union. Boy did that backfire on me. None of the credit unions wanted me. Once because my credit score wasn’t high enough (looking at you Salal, with your minimum 600 score requirement). Another time Chexsystems blocked me out.

So, after feeling like the school nerd trying in vain to get a date with the prom queen, I sucked it up again and started looking at local banks.

Fanslave v. Fandealer

Hey folks:

You may have seen the Fandealer banner I put up on the side of my blog. Fandealer is a site where people can get paid for liking Facebook pages or +1 something on Google, following Twitter accounts, or liking Youtube videos. It’s similar to Fanslave, another “pay for Like” service. So, which one do I like better?

I’d have to go with FanDealer, and here’s why.

First, Fanslave is strictly Facebook likes, while Fandealer also works with Google, Twitter, and Youtube. This means more chances to earn money. Second, Fanslave has been down quite a few times since I joined. It can also be a little hard to use. Fandealer, on the other hand, is a sharp, clean, easy to use site.

The hard thing about both sites is that earning money is a really slow process. Even logging in every single day since I joined has only earned me around 2 Euro on each site. You can’t cash out until you’ve earned 15 euro. If my earnings rate holds steady, it’ll probably be four months before I can cash out.

I think the main point here, aside from Fandealer is the higher quality of the two sites, is that neither of these should be used as primary income gainers. Even though it only takes five minutes to deal with each site, it’s still a bit of a time suck for the amount of reward.

Log in for the fun of getting paid to like pages. But do realize that if you’re concerned about your facebook security and would rather keep your page private, this isn’t for you.

 

My Review: Virgin Mobile Service Is Excellent!

Hey everyone:

So I’ve been with Virgin Mobile for around 6 months now. I jumped ship for fear that T-Mobile was going to get eaten by the Death Star. And there was no way I was going to be an AT&T customer ever again.

Man, I should have jumped AGES ago. I love being with Virgin Mobile!

I’m sure some of you remember this ad:

I have to tell you, it is a cool party. Here’s what’s gone on so far:

1) I’ve had my battery replaced for free (including shipping both ways) when I had a phone problem. No haggling, no assumption that I did something wrong to my phone first.

2) As long as it’s not too close to my pay by date, I can shift my plan up or down whenever I feel like it.

3) I can email or call them directly, but I also have the option of help in person at Best Buy.

The biggest issue I know people have is paying for the fee to dump their plan and the price of the new phone right off the bat. I was lucky in that I had gotten a lump sum disability check, so I was able to pay all that upfront without too much hurt.

All I can say is even if you have to save up for a few months, it’s worth it in the long run. I pay $35/month right now, plus tax which brings the total up to $38.33. For that I get unlimited data, web, and text plus 300 minutes a month. $49 will get me 1200 minutes, and $62-65ish will bring unlimited everything. I’ll never go back to a contract phone again.

Mrs. Linc is jealous…she stayed on T Mobile and pays between $90-100/month for 700 minutes and unlimited everything else. If we could afford it right now, she would jump ship too.

And did I mention I can get calls and texts in a couple of places I couldn’t before? Yep…

 

Let’s See: Fanslave

Hey folks:

Don’t worry, I’ve started to do research on rental assistance resources for my readers, because that seems to be a hot search topic right now. So you’ll have either a post or a separate page (prolly both) very soon.

In the meantime, something odd caught my eye. A couple of weeks ago, I paid $5 to get 1,000 facebook fans for my nonprofit’s page. And I’m not ashamed of it either. But that got me thinking: If folks are selling facebook likes, then there should be a way to get PAID for liking pages. And lo, there is.

Fanslave: http://www.fanslave.net/ref.php?ref=268115

Fanslave lets you sign up and get paid (usually about 3 cents a shot) to click like on Facebook fan pages. I figure it’s worth a tryout, even though it’s not much money per click. I’m on FB a lot anyway, may as well do something with it.

You can click on that link and check it out for yourselves, and I’ll keep you updated here as well.