Stickin' to the (phone) man!

I have DSL Hi-Speed Internet (the Slowskys not withstanding) with my local monopoly phone company. I purchased their modem / wireless router about a 1 1/2 years ago and have enjoyed reliable and cheaper service since then.

When I recently returned from a 1-week vacation, I noticed the modem was flashing all kinds of crazy lights. Usually it's just 2 or 3 solid green lights. So I knew it had lost the DSL connection. I unplugged it for 30 seconds and then plugged it in again. Same crazy flashing lights. So I unplugged it and went to bed. The next morning I plugged it in and the thing was completely dead. No lights at all.

So I called the monopoly phone company tech support and they inform me that yup, my modem is dead. It'll be $80 + tax and shipping for a new one. I'll have to call the estore to order. Not being too crazy about this idea, I check out my cable company. They're running a special for $19.99 a month for 6 months, and a $30 modem.

So I call the monopoly phone company again and tell them I wish to cancel. After getting the right person, they of course ask why. And I tell them. My modem crapped out and I'm not going to spend $90+ for a new one. I suspected they would cave and send me a new one for free, just to retain me as a customer, and that's exactly what they did. Today I'm looking at my shiny new, and free, DSL modem.

Moral of the story is, don't be afraid to cancel services. The only caveat is, you have to be a customer in good standing. Businesses know that it's much more expensive to get a new customer than retain one. It's worth it to them to give upgrades or improvements to keep you as a customer.

I routinely do this with credit cards and get all sorts of nice freebies. The credit cards will almost always offer me free money. 0% for X many months. Oh and by the way, tell them you want them to waive or cap the transfer fee. Last go around I got 2 cards to loan me a total of $45k for 10 months, for only a $75 fee. I made close to $200 a month in interest alone.

Free ID Theft Monitoring from Paypal and Equifax

Paypal and Equifax have teamed up to provide a free ID theft monitoring system. Here's what it says it does

Early warnings. Automatic notification through email, in the event there’s a new account opened that impacts your credit file or a significant balance change to one of your existing accounts.

To sign up, go to Paypal and then find the link on the page that reads "Free Alerts to Help Protect You From ID Theft." You'll be taken to another page where you'll see the icon to Get Equifax Credit Alerts. Click on that and then fill out the forms and create an account at Equifax. Again, this is free, although they do offer a full featured credit monitoring system option that you are free to turn down.

Seems like a good service that will cost you nothing.

Zoho Applications for Small Groups or Businesses

There's a little known company out there providing a whole host of useful online applications called Zoho. Like Google that offers online word processing and spreadsheet programs, Zoho offers them, and much much more. Their additions include a Presentation program, Wiki, Notebook, Project Management, Database, Planner, polls, tests, and Chat.

But best of all, they offer a CRM application called Zoho CRM. It's an online Customer Relations Manager that is very similar to Salesforce.com. It's not as polished, but it has virtually all the same functionality.

What I love about Zoho is that all of these programs, including the CRM, are free to use to individuals, small groups or small businesses. It's not until you start signing on 4 or more people to these applications that they start to charge anything. Even the CRM is only $12 per month after you've gone past the first 3 free users. Cheap compared to Salesforce.com If you have need of online applications for individuals, small groups or need small business tools, for free or very cheap, check out Zoho. I can't believe they haven't been bought out yet by the likes of Yahoo or Google.

Online Storage

The Wall Street Journal had a good article on Online Storage and how about numerous companies are trying to get us to store our important data online as a back-up. Frankly, this is an idea whose time has come. If your computer dies, or you accidentally delete an important file and don't have an onsite back up, or god forbid if your place burns to the ground taking your computer and back ups with it, what will you do? With online storage, you simply fire up the computer, login and retrieve your important data.

If you already pay for virus and malware protection on your computer, paying to back up important data shouldn't be a foreign concept. Isn't that what is really important on your computer anyway?

There are numerous ones offering a taste for free, offering anywhere from 1 to 5GB for free, and then of course charging $50 to $100 a year for much more storage. Here's some I already knew about:

Xdrive - 5 GB online storage for free from AOL. All it takes is an AOL account, which is now free as well. You can designate files to share as well. $100 per year for 50 GB
Mozy - 2 GB for free. Has the virtue of encrypting your data with Blowfish, a well respected ciper, so only you can read your data. $50 buys you all the storage you can eat.
Carbonite - No free plan. Unlimited for $50. Has utility that automatically backs up your documents for you all the time.

There are several others, each with it's own specialty. Also I'd like to mention Yahoo Photos, which allows unlimited photo storage, and the ability to get those photos back at full resolution, although only 1 at a time. Still, it's free too, and you can view, share and order prints as well.

Right now, I'm currently in the process of backing up all my music and documents to Xdrive, and my photos to Yahoo Photos. What great services, and for free if your need is small, or cheap if you have lots to back up.