I have made $70 in about 18 days, but I haven't been serious most of the time, just having fun! Orac, I was also doing a particular hit lots of time and I have been blocked too!
this is a question for click above... i turk a lot too and i'm stuck with money earned at the end of each month that i can't access because they have a $500/month threshold (it carries over to the next month but then you're in the same boat again). amazon requires that you supply a credit card to 'enhance' your account for this purpose - i am trying to get advice from anyone who has done so, as i am not a credit card user. any advice would be helpful, and no, they don't consider a debit card as a credit card.
response to shego - i live in the u.s., no legal issue, just never had, wanted or needed a credit card. the deal with mturk is (and it was news to me as i can't recall reading it in their policies) that they don't transfer more than $500/month into your account, so if you earn more than that, the excess is 'in limbo' till the next month. i'm just trying to find someone who has been in the situation, because it seems kind of crazy that a place that pays 3 cents a task would honestly expect workers to have credit cards.
So what you are saying is that you can only transfer 500 a month maximum from amazon to your bank account? I didn't know that! I've yet to make that much in one month. Kudos to you!
There's an easy way to get around the $500/month limit. If you upgrade to an Amazon Payments Business account, you can transfer thousands monthly without a problem. Of course, if you don't already have a business I would never suggest lying and saying you do, but if you're making enough of an income from turking to afford registering a small business then it might be worth looking into.
ergo - thanks for the replies. quick question - isn't a business account with amazon pretty much the 'enhanced' account that requires a credit card? it's the credit card that's got me hung up, although i'm working on it [apparently no one at amazon gets how someone could survive w/o one... well, that's probably why i'm able to live on their pennies per hour, tee hee.]
Nope, it's just the regular Personal account. US-based turkers who haven't entered a credit card are assigned some sort of limited Personal account, which you can upgrade to the full thing by adding a credit card. The Business account requires all the same procedures as the Personal account, with the addition of answering questions about the nature of your business and how much money you intend to take in each month. Then there's an Ultra account for high-volume businesses. Like Shego mentioned, you could get a secured card. I keep seeing ads for RushCard.com, which offers a prepaid debit Visa. I think you need to pay something like $20 to activate it, then $1 anytime you use it for a purchase. There are probably others out there with similar setups. Any of them should be sufficient for satisfying Amazon's procedure.
I have a secured debit card. I have a bank account now, but I had lost my ID at one point and couldn't do anything. It was horrible. So I signed up for a pre-paid debit card online. I can even get direct deposit on it; which is how I receive my child support arrears. Also, Bank of America lets you sign up for a bank account online without proof of ID. You do need to know your social security number though. That was a lifesaver for me!