Looking for a host...

[Savant]

Looking to find a low cost host.

I have my own domain name already, and it includes the cost of a nameserver to redirect my domain to any address specified. It also includes all the email aliases and subdomains I could ever use, so I do not need that in a host. As such I don't want to pay for a host that has those features since I don't need them.

Basically I need more space than I do bandwidth. While 100-200MEG would be nice, I don't need 5-10GIG in bandwidth since I don't draw that kind of traffic. I probably don't exceed 1GIG. (I only average about 3000 or so page views a month)

I don't need MySQL, SSI, frontpage extensions, data backup or any other fancy stuff. (although RealVideo support would be nice, it's not essential) Just a site with FTP access and I'd be happy.

Only other requirements are that I want something for under $50 a year, and the host must be willing to accept payment by money order. While I have a credit card, I only use it for in person transactions now. Needless to say, if the host won't accept my money order, then I certainly wouldn't trust them anyway.

I'm one of the many currently using free hosts, and it just isn't cutting it. If it wasn't for file size limitations on free servers, I would likely keep using them. (I have a few files that range up to 10MEG in size) However I really can't justify putting a pile of cash into a site that is only for personal use.

Anyone have any ideas?

Regards,

Savant

[gyrbo]

I guess valuablehost would be best, they offer a lot of space, with less bandwidth.

[besta]

To be honest with you, I dont see any disadvantage of paying by credit card, at least not with web hosting services. Most web hosts provide very secure payment system.

If you order by credit card, here is what you get...
1. Save you time to setup your account
2. You will probably miss out the "money back guarantee" , if you dont like the service.
3. You will have far less web hosts to pick.
4. Can always do a "charge back" if you feel you have been cheated by your host.

[WorldWarGeneral]

And in anycase, a lot of hosts (like valuablehost) use seperate merchant's for credit card transactions. These merchants are usually large companies. Besides, no host reccommended here would ever cheat you out of money. I think Valuablehost accepts checks/moneyorders anyway though. There was a thread here a few days ago about host that accept money orders You might want to try to locate it because that listed some hosts that don't require credit cards.

[Valuablehost]

Hi,

Currently we are changing our check/money orders procedure, but dim8.net accepts money orders & checks.

Regards,
ValuableHost :p

[Robert]

Yes, we do accept credit cards, money orders/checks and paypal.com.

Valuablehost - who do you use for accepting credit cards?

[Savant]

To be honest with you, I dont see any disadvantage of paying by credit card, at least not with web hosting services. Most web hosts provide very secure payment system.

If you order by credit card, here is what you get...
1. Save you time to setup your account
2. You will probably miss out the "money back guarantee" , if you dont like the service.
3. You will have far less web hosts to pick.
4. Can always do a "charge back" if you feel you have been cheated by your host.


Besta: The fact is that I dealt with a provider that had a '100%' guarantee on credit card safety. That is, 100% until they were hacked. What happened then?

1. I had to cancel my credit card, hand it into the bank, and wait a week for replacements.
2. I had to sign an affidavit stating that one charge was not made by me, to get it reversed.
3. I had to contact the few in person companies that I deal with to change my pre-authorized billing to reflect the new card number.
4. Overall it was a lot of grief, and not worth the trouble when a money order is just as good.

Did the provider that got hacked reimburse me for the time I had to take off from work to get this all done? No, of course not.

That doesn't include the fact that as companies go out of business, they tend to make 'mistakes' like double billing (which happened with my 'major' ISP) which again is a hassle to get reversed. Or they treat credit card info like an asset.

I can understand if a company doesn't want to accept a CHECK, since they can bounce very easily, but a money order is as good as cash.

All the guarantees in the world won't mean squat when the system gets hacked. At that point I'm on my own, the company that had my credit card info just sends me a letter saying their 'database was compromised' and then *I* get all the grief? No thanks.

If my CASH (IE. Money Order) isn't good enough for a company, then I would NEVER trust them with my credit card information anyway.


gyrbo: valuablehost currently refuses to accept money orders.


WorldWarGeneral: I'm not implying that any particular host that is 'recommended' here would intentionally cheat anyone out of money. I do have to wonder where their priorities are if they refuse to accept 'cash' (money orders) and only accept credit cards.

It reminds me of a time I went to a car rental place. I have NEVER liked 'mandatory' credit card usage, and I try and discourage it as much as possible. So when they asked for a credit card I said I wanted to leave a cash deposit instead. They declined. I then asked them how much they would charge to the card as a guarantee. They said $500. So I said I would leave $500 there. They declined again. I said that a credit card might only have a small limit and that the $500 might be all you can get, but what if I left you a $10,000 deposit? (I showed him my bank book indicating I had more than that available.) They declined.

A company would rather take a credit card which may only get them $500 if they need to reclaim that money, but would turn down $10,000 in a cash deposit? Does that make ANY sense?

Obviously they want the card information for the WRONG reasons.

My beef is that too many companies don't respect credit card information. They collect it like a statistic, when they should just use it once and discard the data.

Many companies use it for 'security' purposes when ALL Major credit card companies will tell you that it was NOT designed to be used that way.

What will companies do when disposable credit cards come to the forefront? Yuno, these are credit cards that can only be used ONCE, and then the number is useless. How will that be any different from a money order?

Even Amazon takes checks/money orders. They realized that a profitable business needs to have options, and they have made a point to give the customer a better choice of payment options. They don't ship until payment is payment is received, but that is certainly reasonable.


In any case, all it takes is ONE time for your credit card information to be stolen before you realize how insecure things are.

Regards,

Savant

[Webdude]

I can tell you we do not take money orders (except on 'per basis'). Credit cards can be automatically rebilled (unlike money orders) and requires less resources (employees, etc). We currently are not setup to do billing by snail mail as money orders would have to be done, although we will be soon.

It all depends on the company. Some companies wont honor cancels, 30 day gurantees, etc. Those are the ones that make the rest of us look bad. Unfortunatly, there's not much we can do about those guys :(

[Robert]

We accept money orders/checks under 2 conditions:

1) you can only pay for 1 year of hosting, no monthly payments.
2) you must pay within 14 days of your account creation.

We provide a 30-day money back, but w/ some limits.

Wedude, any idea what kind of software you will be using to do payments via snail mail?

Thanks.

[Valuablehost]

We use paysystems.com, but we are changing to our bank with a merchant account :)

Regards,
ValuableHost


Originally posted by robert
Yes, we do accept credit cards, money orders/checks and paypal.com.

Valuablehost - who do you use for accepting credit cards?

[Webdude]

Quickbooks Pro & Stamps.com I think. (hey, ya gotta pay the post office too..LOL) I don't know how exactly they will do it. You can bet I won't have anything to do with it. There some girls in the office that will do it..


Originally posted by robert
Wedude, any idea what kind of software you will be using to do payments via snail mail?

[megagente]

Sometimes money order is better for starting companies, but there is a time that credit cards are better. I think generic debit cards could be a solution.