The offers that require a credit card pay the best -- there's a surprise, right? But my question is: will debit cards work? Anybody tried it?
Yes for quite a few they do work. I will only use a pre-paid debit card for the simple fact that I have a terrible memory. Alot of the offers are for a "free" trial but you pay for shipping or processing or some other small fee, then if you decide you want to keep the product/service after so many days or weeks or whatever they charge you the full price or monthly fee then. Well, sometimes (a lot of the time) I forget what I have signed up for or when they are going to charge me. So if I use a credit card and I forget about it they will be able to charge me whether I want them to or not even if it is a product/service I am no longer using or am not happy with. Whereas if I use a debit card I have more control. If it is something that i definitely want to keep I am more likely to remember and deposit money onto my card, however if it is something I do not wish to keep there will be no money on the card for them to take if I forget to call and cancel at the end of my trial period. If they do attempt to charge my card I will get an e-mail about it and I can just make a deposit if I want to keep it or it also reminds me to cancel if I don't. With all that being said, I have ran across a couple of offers that will not accept pre-paid debit card.
Actually, you are not supposed to use pre-paid debit cards for offers. Some websites will shut down your account for fraud if you do. Bank debit cards are fine; I use them all the time.
If you can't keep track of trial offers, try using a spreadsheet, or even a simple notebook with the date you do the offer, how many days the trial is for, the contact information if you need to cancel, and any other pertinent information. this is what I've been doing for years, for hundreds of trial offers, and it works great. Also, I tape little pieces of paper with the same information to my computer, so I can always see at a glance what trials are set to expire. I set my cancellation date a couple of days before the end of the trial, in case they try to bill early.