Increase your chances to earn from surveys

I was cleaning up my email tonight and realised, having been living my life rather than breathlessly awaiting a new survey, that I had missed a heap of points earning opportunities with Opinions paid and Lightspeed research. So I hit the From sort on the email and began opening all my survey invitations. What I noticed was that Opinions paid is pretty generous with the points if you are screened out. Quite often 50 is the minimum you will earn for at least attempting the survey. So even though due to my lack of vigilance meaning the surveys were closed or just being screened out, I missed out on about $20 worth of points (arrgh) I still  gained something for my time. Lightspeed had sent me many reminders I had somehow missed, but hey I got a few points there too.

The Mad Money moral is- respond to surveys fast before they fill the quota for your type of person and check in regularly. I find I am offered more surveys if I visit the site often. Even if the due date is over click on the email link anyway as you may get lucky and score some points just for trying.


Lightspeed research also has quick polls and Matches worth doing. You do not earn points but it helps them to select surveys to suit your profile. Just log in to the members page. What Do You Think recently ran a promo offering 70 of their points for joining Opinions paid- kind of crossbreeding surveys. If you log on often to WDYT you can often catch banners worth 10 points each when you click on them. They send me plenty of emails for which I earn points by clicking and a fair few mini polls worth 10 points. Occasionally there are sign up deals worth more, or longer surveys.

My Secret Life as an Easter bunny

Photographs are by Andrew Gould who is a very good photographer by the way.

I am just too shy to include any with my face in them.

They were taken in my first year as the Avatar of Christmas, when I mysteriously turned into a living human tree...

Many years ago when I was young, less skilled but willing to turn my hand to anything, a friend was making $25 an hour spruiking. Doing what? you ask. Basically standing outside a shop in the city, microphone in hand, talking the talk about the products on offer at a shop, the type of which we would now call a $2 shop. Selling cosmetics, pseudo designer perfumes, handbags, costume jewelry and the like. As an amateur actress, I was intrigued. As a financially challenged student I was very interested. I joined the agency ( had an interview) and was sent on several jobs. One was being a piece of fruit at a promotion being held at a race course, handing out reciepes. One spectacularly hot day in the Easter period, I was a huge pink bunny promenading in Cronulla, giving out little Easter eggs. This was really fun, interacting with young kids, taking photos with tourists, and enjoying the local shoppers enjoyment...until I was bunny mugged. I am not joking - some nasty young persons ran into me bodily and grabbed handfuls of eggs. They could have just asked! I say 'persons' as with a huge pink head on and rivulets of sweat in my eyes establishing gender was not an option. Those costume heads are hot and heavy.

I had two or three jobs in total I think. I suspect I was a pretty average performer and there is plenty of competition for anything remotely like an acting job.

I was also interviewed for Gorilla grams but had to miss out on that one as I did not have a car. Pity... I think I would have enjoyed that.

If you like this kind of work there seem to be opportunities at theme parks like Wet and Wild, Movie World and the like. Possibly Luna Park too. Fairies, Clowns and Magicians seem to abound in the pages of Sydney's Child magazine offering to make your child's birthday party a hit.

Please post your comments especially if you have had similar jobs...belly dance a gram, costume work, or handing out flyers.

My costume work is now limited to the annual Christmas Season, when I dress up as the Spirit of Christmas for the pleasure of students and staff, sometimes collecting money for charities like TEAR Australia.

Shopping to make money Homescan and CC points

Just scanned in the groceries which made me realise at Woolies they forgot to give us a receipt. Most annoying because I like to check what I have spent, make sure there were no overrpicings especially as I am a great fan of specials and twofers- as in 2 for the price of 1 or a discount for bulk buys. It meant I had to estimate some of the prices so I hope I don't end up getting nothing for my efforts due to errors.



My Dear Daughter and Son are still enjoying the numbers practice when entering data but I am sure this will soon be another boring job for Mummy.



This is definitely a time consuming activity- firstly you have to select primary shooper and any who came with you, then the shop, then scan each item, then enter number bought, then price, then if on promotion. If it is fresh food there is a second bar code from the shopper guide. At the end you have to enter the total.



I do not think this is worth my while or yours, unless you are a) desperate for some shopping vouchers and b) you do not have any other odd job money earning opportunities c) you do one big shop a month so this is a once amonth job.

I am having trouble navigating my own blog and just lost a load of text. The gist is that I am up to $40 approximately worth of Shopping voucher points on my Woolworths Everyday Money card. I have managed to pay the balance in full every month so this is actually a bonus rather than an expensive exercise. The interest rate is very high- hence my desire to pay in full each month.
My tip is that most Rewards type cards have very high interest rates, so do read the fine print before applying. This one had a promotion including a "free" $50 voucher for signing up within a certain time and one year fee free. After that I'll need to earn around $50 in vouchers per year to break even. Vouchers are sent out quarterly, but points do not expire. I have various expenses which I am happy to go on a CC as I then have a record of them, and compnaies are usually pretty good about sorting out any suspicious charges as long as you catch them soon enough. So far so good.

Must admit though it is still easy to overspend with a credit card, so I am in two minds about the value of more shopping vouchers.

I recently paid for part of the shopping ($20 worth) with a Wish gift card from Valued Opinions research. I sometimes wonder if it doesn't just encourage me to spend more though.

An excellent site for avoiding rip off work from home deals

I was browsing the net and just came across this site full of excellent advice for avoiding rip and scam deals on making money from home and other fraudsters favorite lurks.

http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/general.htm

It is an American site but the advice I think is sound regardless. I shall add any similarly useful links to the post- so read again in a few days. Could save you time and money.

Odd jobs at uni

Universities are wonderful places to grow up, discover who you are and where you want to go in life, and while you are at it, earn a living doing many weird and wonderful things. There are a surprising number of seasonal and on going casual jobs available to students and most unis have their own student job centre. Waiting tables at Uni function centres is common, lugging for bands, cleaning, dishwashing, bar work. Think about the skills you have and go have a look at the job boards. Join clubs and societies you are itnerested and learn saleable skills that way too. The better known you are to university staff the more chance of work coming your way.



My odd jobs included:



Manning a polling booth for Union elections About $15 an hour 20 odd years ago

Putting up theatre posters $50 for a couple of hours wrok

Submitting articles and photos for the student magazines- I used to earn $5-10 a submission

Photographing drama club productions-varying amounts. More fun and experience than anything else.

Free gifts with purchase

I first got addicted to Free gifts with purchase, I think, when I started browsing http://www.efragrance.com/ via http://www.rewardscentral.com.au/ They offer excellent designer perfumes at reasonable prices, with excellent discounts in the sales section. I love good perfume- Opium and Rive Gauche by Yves St Laurent, Tea Rose by the Perfumer's Workshop are my 3 absolute loves, but a good rose perfume of ant description will soon turn my nostrils (as opposed to my head). I could walk out the door nude but so shoes and perfume and not feel naked. Adding the option to earn points at Rewards central and I admit I am hooked, but what has always pushed me over the shopping edge is their free gifts with purchase. When DVDS were still pricey they would often offer the latest release as a gift for spending $50 or more. They also always give you at least one or two little samples of the latest perfumes, and some more scent card samples. I would justify the purchases to myself thinking I'd watch the DVD once and then on sell it. Other Free gifts have included branded tote bags and clutch purses full of extra samples, tennis balls, cocktail shakers, small versions of good quality perfumes, jewelry, lotions etc.

Well you know what? Never did on sell a DVD but I have kept some and given away others. I did actually sell a couple of unopened perfume samples on ebay for about $2 though. Some of the free gifts with purchase like perfumes and bags I have given as gifts.

The stupidity factor : Thinking I can make money by spending it on luxury consumer goods. I have ebayed some of my regretted purchases during "oh my god the bills are coming!" times, and generally made a loss.

The pleasure/value factor:
What Rewards central is offering is effectively a discount- and sometimes a quite good one. efragrance is, in my opinion, a good site which sells genuine designer perfumes at reduced prices, has good sales, and does constantly offer discounts, promotional gifts and samples. They also deliver very fast in my experience. So now I use them regularly for the Xmas and other gift shopping, waiting till the Sister in laws favorite is on sale, taking advantage of an % percent off sale or a free dvd promotion when I am planning to purchase anyway. And I always go via Rewards central to get that little extra discount.


Another good site for freebies is http://www.onlyozgroceries.com.au/ They specialise in Australian manufactured groceries and deliver via Australia post. Recnetly they got through my shopper defences by offering a freebie apron pack for Carman's excellent muesli bars and museli ( buy four products get an apron, magnetic shopping note pad, Aldi type shopping trolley token, plastic bag clip, shopping bag and pencil) as well as a 7.5 litre saucepan for pasta if I bought 10 San remo products.

Sounds reasonable doesn't it, as these are prodcuts we would use anyway?

Foolishness factor
But.... we do not actually need all of the stuff all at once. We can get these items at a local supermarket and not pay delivery...there may be items I need more urgently.

Pleasure/Value factor
I get to try new products for free. I wouldn't normally buy energy drinks, and now I have tasted Wicked, I still won't as the taste is not for me. Great bottle design though.
I like being able to easily buy All Australian Products. Oz Only Groceries has a coding system so you can see exactly to what extent the product is made here.
They use recycleable packaging. They seem to be a decent bunch of people trying to run an ethical business. I'd rather pay a bit more at times to them than always be feeding the two major mega company supermarket chains.
Convenience- I don't want to spend all weekend in the shopping mall.

And I do love receiving boxes through the post. Childish but true!

Watch out though- my first ever free gift with purchase 20 odd years ago was a digital watch with film processing. When I picked it up I discovered the processing cost was much inflated to cover the cost of the gift!

Nielson Homescan

I kept on receiving offers via several different survey companies to join Nielson Homescan program. Some of these offers included incentive points if I joined- Like X number of points WDYT if i signed up. But whenever I tried to fill in the lenghthy application (I mean names, date of birth, height weight you name it of all family members plus shopping habits) the program would go Phutt at some point. So I gave up. Eventually they msut have got the gremlins out and fool that I am, applied. This was followed sometime alter by an email saying someone would be in touch. They were, by mobile, while I was juggling a ciggie, my work bag and trying to help dear hubby get the kids into the car while they were trying to share their school day. Anyway long conversation with many requests for repetition later, I was "Signed on" so to speak with a commitment of 6 months, and the probability that it would take that long to earn a reward- like a $20 Myer voucher or similar. About 2 weeks later my scanner package arrived. I ignored it for a while with other things to do but eventually set it up.

Of course the kids love it because it has a yellow button and a red light for scanning. Scanning requires a fair bit of input- primary shopper, additional persons on the shop, which shop, scanning , number of items and price. That isn't too bad, but what irks me is trying to add the total, as I do not always have a receipt handy. I won 100 points for using it within the first two weeks of arrival, and with 2 birthdays in June,(50 points each) 50 points per month for all shopping being scanned, we may actually earn a voucher within 3 months. There are various competitions but frankly I prefer better incentives. 110 points gets you a Nielson branded manicure set- well no thanks I can pay $5 for one at the $2 shop. i'll stick with it as it is early days yet.

The Good: Reliable company, bonus points, kids are enjoying scanning and this can be used to increase their numeracy. They are not asking you to buy anything and provide all equipment.
The Bad: A bit finnicky, time intensive and not really high incentives relative to effort.

Overall: If you have plenty of time on your hands & enjoy gadgets then I'd go for it.

Update: Still hanging in there and had fun with my daughter scanning the other evening. I am now up to 1/3 of a $20 voucher.

How to spot the good ones- Online Market Research companies

On line Market research- filling in surveys or testing products- won't make you rich fast. So why do it?



Because...

• It's fun. I teach research report writing and part of this is how to compose a good questionnaire. Having read literally hundreds of them and thought about how they select and reject candidates via the initial questions has enhanced my teaching. Sometimes the poorly constructed surveys crack me up.
• The legitimate companies do reward you for your time. Over a period of several years Iegitimate I have "earned" around $1000 in shopping vouchers, cash and movie tickets or other "prizes" I have found useful.
• Influence product development and advertising. If you are sick of pointless products on the shelves, or condescending ads, this is one way to let companies know

How can I tell a compnay is worth my time and effort?

Firstly good companies like Lightspeed research make it quite clear there is no point joining if you are looking to get rich quick. They want people who really do like honestly sharing their opinions. They are upfront in their emails about the predicted time and the compensation offered. They offer at least some points and a competition entry to win a fair stash of cash or another valuable prize if you are screened out. Valued Opinions is particularly good at screening you fairly quickly so you don't waste too much time if you aren't suitable. They also offer quick polls or other mini questionaires to see if they can match you to any more suitable surveys.

Secondly they will NEVER ask you to buy something or sign up for so many gold, silver and bronze offers. They do not ask for banking or Credit card details nor do they on sell your private contact details.

Thirdly they will often offer multiple opportunities to earn points like Rewardscentral
Here you can play games, read emails, do mini surveys, longer surveys, bid on unique lowest bid auctions, write articles for their e-magazine and so quite quickly earn points. I stay with them because they are fun. They also give points for e shopping via their site, which equates to a 2- 5% discount most times. Points bonuses for referring friends as well. They offer cash, vouchers and other rewards.

Finally they usually offer some decent "prizes" or cash out option for a reasonable level of points. For example AC Neilson offers movie vouchers from 125 points, which is achievable sometime in one or two surveys. 2000-2500 points is a typical level for a $20 gift voucher. Lightspeedresearch offers paypal payments of $5 from 575 points which equates to 2 -3 surveys.

My personal favorites and what I have earned:

Opinions paid. probably $60 in shopping vouchers over several years.

Rewards Central and My Opinions (linked- same company two different sites) about $300 cash /cheques over many years (more than 5 I think)

Lightspeed research -about $80 over 2 years. Cash paid via Paypal.

Valued Opinions- about $60 in shopping vouchers over 18 months

AC Nielsen- a 2 packets of pencils, movie tickets, shopping vouchers, some other items over many, many years (around 10?)



Legitimate companies but not my personal "faves"

Global test market

Ciao- perfectly legitimate but I seem to keep being screened out after actually giving a lot of time and useful info about products. Not reasonable in my book.

Market view- Haven't done any in a while. No complaints.
Zoom- used to be pretty good but I ended up signed on to so many sites I stopped reading all my surveys,


Ones I find a bit suss because they require purchases and or do not pay out till quite high amounts are earned.

Fatcat- mostly the "surveys' are for products I have no wish to buy. Eg teeth whitening systems, screens to attach to tvs, etc

Ashopfor- I have earned around $30 but can't claim it till it reaches $50. I did shop via them recently but mysteriously my points never arrived... rather disappointed.

Those receive a $500 shopping voucher if you sign up for 3 gold offers, 2 silver, 1 bronze or some such arrangement. The only good thing about this was I took up a children's book deal with Scholastic (Dora the Explorer) and was vert happy with the free books and the products in general. Most of the other products were for services I didn't want, like weight loss, gambling sites, text message services that cost an arm and a leg etc and I found I couldn't fulfill the conditions for the voucher. I'd love to know if anyone ever did.

MENTAL HEALTH WARNING
One night I realised 3 times I had growled at my young son to let me finish some lengthy group of surveys, believing I was earning needed cash. This was when he was coming in and asking me to come and play. I finally realised I was losing the plot and missing the point- wasting time doing surveys instead of interacting with him. I still reget that night but I am glad I got a life and now spend more time with him and only do surveys when he is in bed or during school hours. It ain't never going to make me rich, but I admit there were times when the extra $20 shopping voucher came in very handy.

Legitimate work which pays poorly

Summary: a review of several legitimate but perhaps not worth your time and effort jobs I have tried or heard of.

1. Collecting for charity in exchange for a % of what you collect
2. Distributing catalogues in mail boxes
3. Door to Door surveys- eg Morgan Gallup poll
4. Selling roses in restaurants
5. Cold call sales from a call centre.

Many, many years ago pre-children, I answered an ad in the papers for collecting door to door for the house with No Steps, a legitimate Aussie charity for thsoe who are dependent on wheel chairs. As I was a student at the time with not much work experience this was the kind of job I could easily actually get. Basically it was all day Saturday, walking the streets I had been allocated, knocking on doors and asking for donations, in exchange for 30% of what I collected. From 3 Saturdays the most I earned was $10 and the least was very little. I gave it a miss then.

Many people thought we were scammign despite ID as there had been a spate of such scams of late. When I am fairly aggressively asked in the street to donate by Credit Card to legitimate charities I wonder if those collectors are paid a commission.

I would rather do this for free for the Salvos, for example on their door knock day, than for payment. The exercise was good though.

Now distributing catalogues I must say I have considered but not done. My lovely friends at Simple savings on the forum have done it and it sounds like a great deal of work for the return. I believe the walking is good, and can be done with kids quite often as long as there aren't too many hills. It is the preparation of slotting the catalogues inside one another which is very time consuming. Delivering the local paper I suspect would be a little easier on the neck and back.

Still in my uni days, I did apply to do Morgan Gallup polling. I liked the idea as you are collecting data not selling things. Until I saw the HUGE manual and the complex instructions...I must say I was broke at the time but decided against it. As a young woman too I was a bit wary of going door to door mainly in the evenings.

I attended an interview for selling roses in restaurants once. Thought it could be a lark. Well I kid you not, a rose sold for $10 paid the seller $1...not a job for the thin skinned or faint hearted, especially as customers are often annyed at having a meal interrupted by unsolicited offers. I was much kinder to rose sellers after that!

Once again interviewed for a pleasant enough company but when I read the application and saw the room full of laminate temporary tables and phones, with young people passionately selling Australiana soft toys I decided that it was not for me. Especially as the badly photocopied application asked about my Hobbies and Sporting interests. Yes, I know they need to know you are outgoing,resilient and well spoken but come on! My personal interests are my own...was I really going to admit to being Vampire story reading fantatic with a penchant for Agatha Christie novels, and a passion for arguing? Not very sporty of me. I think most of the wage if not all was on a commission basis. I like to be paid for my time not used.

All these experiences motivated me to keep on studying and to reflect on what skills I did have and use them, so really I am grateful to all those I met. Job interview experience of any type is also very valuable as it familiarises you with typical questions and develops your confidence.

Stupid Strategy - entering data for illicit purposes

Summary: poorly paid and of dubious legality.



You may have seen ads on line for "data entry" jobs which say they'll pay you well. No experience needed etc. Some of these are actually asking you to participate in a process designed to hack into other websites. The idea is that you, a human being, can read the deliberately distorted picture codes used to keep online shoppers data secure. Imagine you are trying to set up a blog here. You get to a certain point, and you are asked to type in a code which is represented as a picture- it may be the words chocolate frog but they are twisted, and clearly a graphic rather than normal typing. This is done because a computer unlike a human being, cannot "read" this picture as text. Those who wish to get into secure or confidential areas of sites without permission want human beings to interpret these codes and send the data back to them. Then they can use a comptuer program to raid information from many of these sites very, very quickly.



There are websites dedicated to selling this data to others- I found this out when following the suggestion of a friend about doing the data entry for payment. She had thought it was a low paid but legitimate job, because that is how it is worded. They offer something like $2 per 50-100 "translated" which is a very low rate indeed, especially for helping someone else to behave nefariously. I signed up for one of these websites only to find they were offering to sell me translated codes. After talking to the highly computer literate beloved pet husband, I soon realised this was NOT something I wanted to be part of. He did point out that for sight impaired users of the 'Net, there are always voice recording versions attached to the legitimate websites secure areas, so these users can enter the code and go about their business. In other words, they hear and then type the code word. So there really is no legitimate reason I can see for doing this kind of "data entry".

What's this blog all about ?

• Welcome gentle reader, to my first ever blog.
  
  I have been enjoying being part of the Simple Savings community for a few years now, discussing all manner of ways to save money, make money, stretch a dollar, make a meal out of a bare cupboard and generally enjoy the fruits of frugality modern style. While chatting on the forum about my search for odd ways to make some extra cash in addition to the day job without leaving home, my online mates suggested I blog about this process rather than just add to our thread as part of the members only section of Simple Savings.
  
  What do I define as "Strange ways to earn cash?" Well not the truly bizarre just yet, though i'd love to hear any weird,wacky and wonderful work you may have done. Rather, I have always been fascinated by the making money from home opportunities which are so often advertised in community newspapers, online and in magazines. Most, I have always assumed, are too good to be true. If it were really easy to make 2000 a week with no education and a few hours a day, why would anyone share this secret? But still, curiosity, the longing to clear debt, the inner shopholic who just wants to be able to spend when she feels like it, drives me to investigate these extreme claims, to seek, ever hopefully, the leprachaun's gold at the end of the rainbow, the million to one shot that might make me some cash without tooo much effort. This blog is going to describe honestly what I have found out, through my own experience, about the various offers and opportunities to earn cash online via market research companies, competitions, data entry of the illicit kind and any other experiences I have had with odd jobs both on and off line. All the opinions will be just that: my personal experiences and views of various organisations. All earnings figures I may mention will be literally what I have earned OR not earned, and I will try to estimate how long it took accurately.
  
  Why did I get interested in earning an extra pittance when I already work full time ?
  
  I was on maternity leave with my first child, at half pay, and very anxious about money. Partly because that's me- like my father, I express affection in part through money and providing materially for my family. Love is power, money is power, so share both with those you love most deeply. I started by reading Simple Savings newsletters, hunting down bargains, or sending off barcodes of Huggies nappies to exchange for freebies such as baby tents or cuddly toys. I began to ebay outgrown baby's clothes and other items- making plenty of mistakes like under estimating postage, undervaluing or overvaluing goods and worst of all- cruising the site and BUYING MORE STUFF.
  
  While I gradually learnt how to bulk buy, only buy on special, to cook from scratch more, we still found being parents was a very expensive process as well as exhausitng when work for both of us was combined with it. Add in buying our first car and moving house after my daughter was born and soon there was debt to be managed. I became proficient at tracking cc debt on excel and finally realised if we continued as we were were would end up bankrupt in a few years. This is when I got serious and started to reiview the stupidity of some of the "make money/ get something for nothing strategies" I had been using.
  
  Stupid Strategy No 1. The Pursuit of Fly Buys bonus points and credit card rewards..
  
  Summary:
  
  Each point is worth about 1/100 of a cent (AU) if you are lucky. They expire eventually. It takes 2500 points to earn a $20 voucher. This equals $5 per 2 points or $6250 in ordinary spending. Less if you happen to buy lots of bonus points probably overpriced goods, true... A discount if you like of 0.00032 %.
  And they take ages to credit the bonus points....
  
  What I have "earned" from them:

• One small BBQ after around 5 years.
  Several petrol discount vouchers- from memory 10c a litre off, at a time when petrol had just risen to $1- took at least a year during my obsessive flash the flybuys card phase
• One or possibly 2 Coles $20 vouchers- several years
• I think a cordless phone which I gave to my mum...unless that was some other promotion

What it cost me:

Many many thousands of $$ in Interest paid on the Credit card as well as orginal expenditure, some of which yes, I would have spent anyway as we used to use Coles as our main grocery shop before I discovered Aldi. Much of this expenditure could have been avoided though- easter eggs we didn't need, branded products I would not normally buy, excess purchases.

When I first signed up for flybuys I was sensible. I was only going to earn points on groceries we would buy anyway. After several years, literally, and due to a Flybuys promotion, we ended up with a small Webber BBQ, which I think we still possess, some 20 years hence. As my fiscal anxiety grew, my longing for the improbable freebie began to delude the mathematical part of my brain and soon points lust took over. I began to regularly read the Bonus points section fothe flybus website and look for ways to modify my shopping to suit. Now I have never been a brand snob- if it is cheap and it works, I am happy. If i discover it is killing seals, poisoning rivers or discouraging breastfeeding, I'll give it up but still seek a cheap alternative.

So what was I thinking when I started bulk buys of Colgate products and Napisan, getting really annoyed when I would realise I had misunderstood a promotion and missed out on bonus points for buying more cleaning products than I would use in a lifetime ? I do not clean! Ask the Dear Husband, whose dishwashing skills redefine sexual pleasure...I am not a woman who sank into his arms and ended up with my arms in the sink...rather a role reversal there I am afraid.

I ended up deeply in debt, at first on a National Bank credit card, which was linked to Flybuys, thusencoruaging me to use it and not cash. Later after the Gold Card fiasco, in which someone charged $6K of gold jewelry to a card which I had never received, I switched to Westpac's Altitudes rewards card. This too led me to overspend, while fantasising about the wonderful free gifts I would "earn". I have paid in interest and annual card fees, many thousands of $ more than these "free gifts" were worth. Near the end of this insanity, I was saving points on the Westpac card to try to earn my son an upmarket looking pedal car, only to find that the redemption offer ended just before I had earned enough points at last. I spent on crap I did not need, while not buying a video camera with which to film my babies, because I thought it was "too expensive"....That was another item I kept dreaming of redeeming my points for...

Feel free to add your stories of points lust and its outcomes. I know some people manage their cards more successfully than I ever did.