What's the Catch?

You know how it goes....you get a phone call or maybe an email with an amazing offer in big, bold print: "Get a $500 JC Penney Gift Card NOW!" Uh huh.

I've recently signed up with a number of interet survey sites as kind of an experiment. Supposedly some people make a pretty decent income doing these things. So I thought, "What the hay?" So far, I'm not seeing it. For one thing, most of them give you a sign-up bonus of about $5. Sweet, right? Pfffft. I got to thinking about it the other day and, after a couple of weeks, if it weren't for those sign-up bonuses, I'd only have a few dollars in each account. And usually they have a minimum to cash out, $20-$30 on average. HA! It'll take me several months to get that. Half the time, I don't even qualify for the survey, so I get squat. On two of the sites, they offer daily surveys for 50 cents each. I haven't even been able to get the surveys to load on either site for days! Me thinks I'm wasting my time.

So anyway, I guess as a result of all this signing-up I've been doing, I got a call on my cell the other night on the way to Joey's birthday dinner. I'd won a $500 internet shopping spree! WHAT?!?! GET OUT!!! Yeah, it gets better. Now, in addition to this shopping spree, they wanted to give me not one, but FIVE magazines, all FREE! No way. All I had to do was pay shipping and handling. Hmmm. You know there is always a catch, right? Bingo! That still didn't sound half bad. After all, someone just has to mention shopping and I get all goofy. In fact, I almost did the deal. After I got off the phone, I managed to get out that little calculator in my brain. Shipping = $1.99 per week. The magazine subscriptions were for 60 months (I originally thought she said 16.). 60 months times about $8.00 per month and what do you get? That's right, approximately $480. So, I had to spend $480 to get $500. WHAAAT? Don't worry, I got out of it. Sometimes I'm a little slower on the uptake than I'd like to admit.

I also get these email offers just like that. Tonight one came in for a $500 JC Penney gift card. Read that TEENY TINY little print and all you have to do is complete 25 different offers that require you to purhase a bunch of stuff you don't even need or want for more than the stupid gift card is worth. How is that a good deal?!?!