untyping: S3 Doesn't Count the Pennies (Yet)

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August 21, 2007

S3 Doesn't Count the Pennies (Yet)

This is post is from Dave, though it is posted under my name -- Noel

I use Amazon S3 as an off-site backup for data on my desktop computer. S3 has two principle advantages: there's no upper limit on the amount of data you can transmit or store, and it's very cheap... sometimes a little too cheap.

Two days ago I received an auto-generated warning from S3 about my account status:

Greetings from Amazon Web Services,

AWS was unable to charge your account based on the payment information you provided. Please update your payment method information using the Your Web Services Account section of the AWS web site.

Sincerely,

Amazon Web Services

There were a few extra details in there that convinced me that this wasn't spam, but that was the gist of it. I logged on to my account to find that my balance was a whopping $0.01. A single cent!

I checked my credit card details and they seemed to be okay. I re-entered them to be on the safe side, and then emailed AWS asking them to re-try the payment and let me know if it failed again. I received this response:

Thank you for contacting AWS regarding the payment issue related to your August 1st bill. We have found that some credit card issuers decline charges of $0.01 (USD), especially when the amount is converted to another currency. AWS is working on a solution for this issue. In the meantime, please contact AWS directly at webservices@amazon.com if this issue should occur again.

The $0.01 (USD) charge on your August 1st bill has been forgiven, and your account is in good standing.

A month's backups, totally free of charge - that's value for money. I shall be recommending S3 to all my friends.

Posted by Noel at August 21, 2007 12:05 PM

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Comments

In marked contrast, Amazon EC2 is nice, but very coarse-grained for long-running tasks: leaving a single instance running will cost you around $75 a month minimum.

Posted by: Leo Comerford at August 21, 2007 05:43 PM

I thought there was a monthly charge for storage?

Posted by: Jeff Macdonald at August 21, 2007 09:30 PM

What software are you using to do the backups? I too have been toying with the idea of backing up to S3 (I already have an account there). I'm guessing you're using duplicity ...

Posted by: Eric Hanchrow at August 22, 2007 12:34 AM

Jeff: there is a monthly charge. In this case is was 1c.

Eric: I use JetS3t and s3sync. I think the other chaps use JungleDisk

Posted by: Noel at August 24, 2007 01:02 PM