It's been about 1 year now that I've been doing this. I paid for my P411 and TER accounts for 1 year straight. Definitely worth having I'd say. However, I'm finding myself in a difficult situation now that the accounts are almost up for renewal.

TER is up for renewal. And it's a bit easier to justify not maintaining a TER VIP account for 1 year since I don't have any OKs or references or reviews here. How do most people deal with their TER VIP accounts? Do you pay per month you need VIP to get your research done? Also would I lose all my favorites if I lose VIP?

P411 is up for renewable as well.
Looking at my OKs I have 4 that are still active, but it's almost a year later. Not sure how much use they'd be at this point as references. Other providers I've seen were either in agencies, are UTR, etc so I wouldn't be able to use as references. If I let my P411 account expire do I lose all my OKs, searches, and favorites? Or is the info still there if I decide to activate a month later after it expires?

Another concern I had about P411....they came up in the news a few months back in Denver, Colorado. Granted it's been 2-3 months now, but I'm wondering what that means as a client.

 
Last thing I wanted to ask was regarding credit card. I made the silly mistake of using my actual card last time. I feel I should be a bit more secure and wondered how others tend to pay for TER and P411.

you can not access your favorites list BUT when you re-up or get a problem report accepted or write a New review (not a re-review) the favorites list & all your notes is still there.  
I generate a bucket list...  which I keep in my private e-mail...  in between VIP times..

Your favorites and whitelist still exist on TER if you go back to basic membership - you just can't add new favorites, or send PM's, or see ratings/full reviews on basic.

If you don't plan to see anyone for a while, it may make sense to wait for a bit and renew TER before you are planning to see someone again so you can do research.
       
I'd keep P411 active.  I'm not sure what happens if you drop your account but probably you would not be listed as a long-term member, and if you decide to see someone on the spur of the moment it's good to have that as a reference you can use - even if the OK's are all old.  

As for the P411 / news thing - they resolved that, it's not been an issue as far as I can tell.
    P411 allows for Western Union, and some other ways to pay by cash.

There's no choice besides credit cards with TER currently.  I have to admit that has kept me from buying a quarterly/yearly VIP again after my VIP expired.  It's pretty annoying as you only get VIP for two weeks after a review, then it goes back to basic again.

It depends on whether you think the value is worth the cost.  

Sounds to me like you haven't used them all that much and don't think you will in the future.  In which case it probably isn't cost effective to renew.

OTOH, if you think you will continue whore mongering, I would renew.  I find them both extremely valuable for the cost.  I've used my credit card for both and never had an issue.

Buy a reloadable card at Walmart. Both accept TER and P411 accept them

Well early on I was using it a lot. But mid-year I kind of told myself I had to take a break. So I used it mostly to check out ads, but restrained myself from doing anything further.

I think the value is worth it. It sounds like even a P411 with old OKs is still better than none it seems which definitely helps make it easier to renew.

Which brand of reload able card?