Forfeiting $300

I received a notice from Google AdSense — whose ads were appearing on the right-hand side of this blog — that they could not pay me for click-throughs because there was “no form of payment” on file with them. I had previously been receiving the occasional check from Google, so this was puzzling information.

This was not a spam email — this was legitimate. So I dutifully logged onto Google AdSense to correct this information. Sure enough, for some reason I didn’t have a form of payment chosen. Weird.

I also learned, quite to my surprise, that I have $300 on file, waiting to be paid. Wow.

So I clicked on “Add New Form of Payment”…

…where I was asked to fill in my bank information so the funds could be electronically deposited.

Um, no. I didn’t want an electronic deposit, I preferred a check. But I learned that check payments are no longer an option. The exact phrasing is, “Check payments are no longer supported in countries where Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is available. EFT payments are faster, more efficient, and the most environmentally-friendly form of payment.”

None of the other options were available either — Western Union Quick Cash or “EFT via Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).”

In short, my only option is to hand Google our bank information or not get paid. I would rather shave myself bald than hand Google my bank information.

So buh-bye $300. As I write this, my husband is poised and ready to remove Google AdSense ads from my blog.

POSTSCRIPT: As I was preparing this blog post for publication, an eerie thing happened. None of the screenshots I took of the payment issues showed up. My “preview” screen looked like this:

I actually had to take screenshots of the screenshots for them to appear.

Who knows, perhaps I violated some obscure and deeply-buried clause in Google’s fine print, something like Thou Shalt Not Criticize Google or something. (If this blog suddenly disappears, you’ll know I’m right.)

I’ve toyed with the idea of moving this blog to another platform, but am frustrated mainly because I can’t find another platform that supports the large and colorful photos I like to post on the masthead. Other platforms have photo mastheads, of course, but nothing as large.

I would welcome reader input on this issue.

Grrrr.

Source: http://www.rural-revolution.com/2014/03/forfeiting-300.html