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Revision 1 as of 2005-09-12 13:10:25

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MemberManual / PayingDues

1. Figuring out how much you owe

On our old server, Abulafia, hosted at [http://www.xiolink.com/ Xiolink], we pay $49.95/mo. for rack space and $4/GB for bandwidth, as long as we use between 10 and 99 GB of bandwidth per month. We mostly share this cost among all members on a monthly basis, with the exception that we account separately for above-average use of Apache web bandwidth. Specifically, users pay at-cost for Apache bandwidth usage above 200 MB in a month. In general, accounting is bad, and paying by the GB of bandwidth is a pain, so we're glad to move to this new server!

Here, we pay $150.05/mo. for the whole hosting package, including 1000 GB of bandwidth. This will probably stay pretty stable, with the exception that we hope to sign up for InterServer's $25/mo. network backup service, if they ever start offering it again. Though no one has yet been billed for hosting charges on the new server, we expect to divide it evenly among members.

2. How to pay

The easiest way is by [http://www.paypal.com PayPal] to payment@hcoop.net. Remember that PayPal deducts [http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees-outside service fees], so that we will receive and credit you for less than you type in to send. While the fees may seem steep, I think they may actually be the best fees you'll find for online transfers of our volume. Your credit card company imposes similar fees, but you just don't see them because merchants jack up their prices to compensate! However, if you have a better suggestion for how to accept payment online, then we're all ears.

We will also accept physical payments, like mailed checks or international money orders or whatever you find necessary, though it is significantly more of a pain for us. If you feel that you can't pay with PayPal, [https://members.hcoop.net/portal/issue?cat=2&cmd=new open a support ticket] explaining exactly which payment method you want to use and why you can't use PayPal. Many people refuse to use PayPal because of "horror stories" that they've heard, but I've yet to meet anyone who personally has experienced anything bad of this kind from PayPal. It really is quite a safe and convenient way of sending and receiving money.