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I'm a big believer in the automated monthly donation. It's painless. You set up an amount with your credit card and forget about it. I posted here a few days ago that if we had just 6,000 Freepers giving $5/mo, Free Republic would meet their budget and there would be no Freepathons. That $5/mo adds up to $60/yr and coming from 6,000 Freepers - that adds up to the full $360,000 annual goal.

I suppose there are a few out there for which $5/mo would be a hardship but I have to think that they would be a very, very small minority. I'm currently kicking in $35/mo so have six of you guys covered!

I should also mention that the monthly automated donations are probably TOO convenient. Reason is that twice now, to my embarrassment, Free Republic stopped getting my donation because either my credit card expired or got issued a new expiration date. I admit to not tracking my expenses that carefully. I put my Free Republic donation on a card I used for incidentals so I just pay the bill and never even bother looking at the statement. Like I said, I set it up and forget about it.

Now when that happens, most vendors I have automated payments setup for will quickly clamor for my attention by saying "Hey dude, we aren't getting your automated payment any more. What's up with that?"

But the people of Free Republic are too nice to do that. So when the payment stops, it just well, stops. And nobody tells me. Meanwhile, I'm thinking I'm doing my duty and Freeping happily along. Then someday I take a peek at my statement and realize to my horror that nothing is coming out for Free Republic.

So I wish that the Free Republic would sent an email to those whose automated payments stopped so that we can get our payments back on track right away. It can be a super polite email along the lines of "Dear valued Freeper, we know that you have generously donated xx amount each month but we notice that the payments have stopped...could we please trouble you to confirm that this was your intention?" I think that would help with the cash flow here a bit.

$5/mo as an automated payment. If just 6,000 of us did that, no more Freepathons. And since I'm giving $35 (last time I checked), we need 5,993 other Freepers to kick in the $5/mo. Probably a lot less than that as I know we have many other monthly donators here.

I read you post and it makes a lot of sense. None the less, some folks don’t like to allow access to their account.

I’d rather not debate it here, so I appreciate your comments.

So I wish that the Free Republic would sent an email to those whose automated payments stopped so that we can get our payments back on track right away. It can be a super polite email along the lines of "Dear valued Freeper, we know that you have generously donated xx amount each month but we notice that the payments have stopped...could we please trouble you to confirm that this was your intention?" I think that would help with the cash flow here a bit.

One way that would help with that would be, if you are not current on your donations, then you don't get to post. You will only be able to lurk.