Our newspaper doesn't have an online edition. I guess that Georgia is behind the times. I can cut and paste, though. In fact, I might have already put a copy on here. Let me go check.
It's a weekly column about how to save money and tends to be about 50% tech (esp. cord cutting), with the rest being travel and home related. It's a folksy kind of column and lots of people tell me that they've clipped and saved all of them, over the years.
Here is the article:
There’s an innovative company, out of Chicago, called CellNUVO. They’re a Sprint reseller and you earn credits toward free cellphone service by watching ads on your phone. (Don’t stop reading, yet!) I like what they’re doing and wanted to share a little bit about their business model. They could be a good fit for you!
Basically, you download an app onto an Android device (phone or tablet). If you’re an iPhone owner fear not-- they’re working on the iPhone version and it should be out, soon. The ads last from about 2 to 30 seconds and award you anywhere from 2 to 30 credits (called “silver” in the CellNUVO ecosystem). As you accumulate credits they become available to fund minutes, text messages and megabytes.
The app, itself, is not used to make calls or send texts or anything-- it’s just the platform for earning credits and watching ads. In fact, the app doesn’t even have to be installed on the Sprint phone that’s connected to the CellNUVO service. You can earn credits on any Android device and they’ll be used by your Sprint phone whenever you make a call, send a text, or connect to the internet.
You’re probably wondering how hard it is to earn credits. Is it worth it? In my opinion, if you’re a light to medium user of talk and text and rarely surf the internet, unless you’re connected to WiFi, then you’ll really like CellNUVO.
One minute of talk time uses 20 credits/silver. One text message uses 3 silver. I can usually earn 1000 silver in about 15 minutes (while I’m watching TV) and that would give me 50 minutes of talk time, 333 text messages, or some combination thereof. That’s a pretty sustainable arrangement. Data costs 20 silver per megabyte, so 1000 silver could also be used to pay for 50MB. Unfortunately, you can use up 50MB in a flash so, to me, you wouldn’t want to use your precious silver to surf the internet.
CellNUVO makes it VERY easy to be a customer. First of all, your silver never expires. You could build up lots of silver on a movie-watching Saturday and they’ll never go away. It’s like unlimited rollover. Your only obligation, to keep your account active, is to earn at least 1 silver per month, which is about a 5 second commitment of your time. You can’t get more reasonable than that.
Second, they’re a small company and are very accessible. The company is owned by Tom Mannix and if you have a question or complaint you can email him directly by sending a message to tom@cellnuvo.com. He’s a night-owl, like me, so he’ll probably respond to your email in the middle of the night. Most requests should be sent to support@cellnuvo.com, of course, but it’s nice to know that you have access to the big man, if needed.
Third, they let you try it out, with no commitment, ahead of time. Simply download the CellNUVO app, from the Google Play Store, enter the word “TRIAL” as the activation code, and you can start earning silver. If you decide to sign up a Sprint-capable phone you’ll get to keep the credits that you’ve earned.
Fourth, if you know someone who’s a CellNUVO customer you can bypass the $29 one-time activation fee by using their referral code-- and they’ll even get some bonus credits, each month, for referring you. (If you don’t know anyone on CellNUVO you’re welcome to use my referral code: 8T35Z7CJ) If you sign up a second phone you can refer yourself and get free bonus credits on your first phone, every month!
I’ve been a CellNUVO customer for about 4 months and I haven’t spent a single penny. It truly is free cellphone service.
One caveat that you should be aware of is that the ads use data, while you watch them, so you should only try to earn silver when you’re connected to WiFi. Otherwise it’ll feel like you’re trying to fill a bathtub while the drain is open. Also, the inventory of ads can vary. Some days there are plenty and some days there aren’t. You should “get when the getting is good.”
I’ve accumulated 500,000 silver, so far-- yes, I’m a little crazy-- which is enough for 25,000 minutes of talking. I told you it was easy! See you next week!
Nice article. The night owls get all the fun with cellnuvo.
exactly. this citi ad disgusts me. even if i tap no thanks, i have already seen part of the ad. it should award at least 2 points like other static ads to those who tap no thanks.
All- we are working on the Citi issue. We will have further details on resolution shortly.
Maybe there can be a run of oppenheimer ads that are 150 silver each. To make up for all the citi ads?
Nice article Chelle. Concise, informative, and helpful. Keep up the good work helping people save money!
too many citi credit card ads
I can't believe it they can't fix the problem with City ads for 5-6 days. Last communication with CellNuvo Support was 10 hours ago, still the same problem. Either they do not want to fix it, or they did it for purpose to boost revenue.
I personally think that is totally uncalled for .
Tom has been nothing but upfront and honest with us.
Obviously they are having issues.
You are accusing Tom of cheating us. Do you have proof?
If not why don't you give Tom the benefit of the doubt and sit back and wait.
Also how can tom cheat us? It is a free program with NO activation fee. You get Free Sprint service. And maybe in the future you get free phones and other goodies. Yes we spend our time and effort. You can easily just by pass the Citi ads. We also get free referrals.
You never heard you get more with Honey then Vinegar?
If we are nice maybe Tom will make it up to us by putting a lot of those new oppenheimer ads that are 150 silver each.
Tom has done nothing in my view to warrant such treatment.
Personally I don't think tom would be so unethical, but your argument cannot hold water.
Hello-
Sadly, we are human and not the only people trying to resolve this issue. A number of companies come together to provide our service. We have contacted all groups involved and are working towards a quick resolution. It will take a little time. Until then, please try one or all of the following:
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Hard close/force stop the app and reload.
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Reboot the phone.
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Clear the cache and reload but do NOT clear data.
The goal is to have the upstream provider send different content and basically "refresh" the individual's connection to our server and your device.
CellNUVO is a very small company and every customer is probably very important to them.
Purposely not paying ads would gain them a few dollars but would cost them very valuable customers who would theoretically swipe many ads during their time with CellNUVO.
It's highly unlikely that this is something they're doing on purpose and, since the ads are served by a third party, it's very possible that the problem is upstream and not in their direct control.
Remember-- CellNUVO isn't really paying us for swiping the ads. They're sharing the revenue that THEY get when we swipe ads. It's to their benefit to have as many people swiping as many ads as possible.
That's how they make money.
I have a GrooveIP account and I see the same ads, there, that I see on CellNUVO, which is why I believe that they get served by a third party and passed through CellNUVO to our apps.
I think we should give them time to get things sorted out. It could be that THEY'RE running into poor customer service from the company they deal with.
Ha! CellNUVO squeezed in the above response while I was typing my comment into my phone-- so some of my remarks were already stale by the time I posted them.
FYI to CellNUVO:
I have repeatedly force closed the app, cleared cache, reset Google ad ID, rebooted-- it's definitely not an end user problem.
I did the same before and no change
It is on Cellnuvo's side imho
I don't know how your systems work so just guessing here but from the end users perspective the citi ad appears and we can watch it and complete it. The cellnuvo app then does not credit the silver. This leads me to suspect it is more likely a cellnuvo issue than a partner one.
Sure it might be difficult to get the partner to stop the particular ad. I can understand that.
However is there not something you can tweak to get your scoring system to recognize the ad was viewed and credit the silver appropriately? I imagine your app has code that says if X ad is completed then credit 30 silver. Not sure what could make it not credit the silver... You've probably already looked into this though.
On my device at the end of the ad there is the usual slight movement of the screen to indicate some attempt to credit the silver but then it doesn't change the balance.
UPDATE-
Our ad partner did some testing on their end and confirmed the Citibank campaign has a issue of not rewarding users. They have now excluded the campaign.
We are addressing missing Silver with the ad partner but at this time it is not yet resolved.
Citi is about all I'm getting. No more kiip. Coast guard or snickers once a blue moon.
Tom says they have now excluded the ad. I'm still getting them - anyone else?