Your payment accounts, all in one place

The email address you should use

One address, used everywhere. Not your main personal inbox if you can help it — the volume of paid email will bury everything else.

Why it matters: when you cash out, the program checks that the name and address on the payout match the account. If you registered under one email and cash out under another, the withdrawal gets held for review. Same email everywhere removes that entire category of problem.

Where to keep your password list

You are about to have six accounts, and reusing one password across them is how people lose them. Three options that actually work:

• A password manager. The honest answer. Bitwarden, 1Password, or the one built into your browser. One master password, everything else generated and remembered for you.
• A paper list in a drawer. Genuinely fine, and better than reusing passwords. Write the program, the email and the password. Keep it out of sight of a window.
• Browser autofill, accepted. When a program offers to save the login, say yes. It is local to your device and it means you will actually come back.

How the balances actually work

Each program holds your money in its own balance until you request a payout. That balance is not in your bank and it is not insured. Three habits protect it:

1. Cash out at the minimum, every time. The moment you clear the threshold, withdraw. A balance sitting in an account is exposed to that program changing its terms, closing your account, or going under.
2. Do not chase the higher tier. Programs sometimes pay a bonus if you wait for a bigger cash-out. That bonus is a loan you are giving them.
3. Record the date of every cash-out. If a payout has not arrived within the stated window, you need the date to chase it. No date, no complaint.

What your register should look like in a month

Six programs, one email address, six saved logins, and a note of the minimum cash-out on each. That is the whole system. It is not complicated — it is just the difference between people who collect and people who sign up and forget.

Minimums and payout methods are set by each program and change without notice. Always read the payout page inside the program's own account area before you count on a number.

Keep the record, keep the money

Members who lose money on these programs almost never lose it because a program refused to pay. They lose it because they forgot which email they registered with, could not get back into the account, and abandoned a balance. The register above is the fix for that. Fill it in the day you join, and it takes four minutes.