Though i am not using any paid service yet , but yes ! i too don't trust to post my personal things on freebees.
No matter how many of them claims for secureness but still i avoid posting important stuff.

I guess to certain extent we all ASSUME/EXPECT that paid services will do a better job at handling our data or offering better services but I am not sure if that's the case always i.e paid services offering good service and data security and freeones not doing both or either.

I don't use any paid service for personal needs per se but then I am not much into certain things but yes I don't mind purchasing music, films or books as a way to appreciate the author, directors etc. Not sure if it's apt for this context :)

Being that it's a 'pay for' service doesn't at all make me think it's a more secure or a better site at all.

I've been looking for a remote back up service that would handle the amount of stuff I have. (terrabytes worth) and paid for services are not even on my radar, lol.

Only thing I pay for is my own dedicated remote webserver.

Usually, when you have to pay for a service, it's because they are new and don't yet have the volume to pay their bills on ads alone, or don't even have an ad based model put together.

I know this cause it's the position I'm in with my web app, lol.

p/s
I'm looking for photo hosting sites that pay ME for the luxury of having my photos there. I mean really, you gotta flip the table on all these sites sooner or later. :-p

http://www.shareapic.net/ref.php?owner=DevLano

Why waste money to have that false sense of security? ;) I use free services. I have to warn you guys, though. Photobucket is pure evil!

I realize that paying for a service does not guarantee anything. But it does give me rights. The right to bother them with questions and other stuff if they lose my data. And that fact makes me more comfortable with using payed services...

But still, no guarantee that ur data is actually totally safe...

@DevLano: that is a nice concept, the photosite

The only free service (well free so far!) I trust is GMail. All my mail goes into Gmail than from there it forwards out. I'm using Google's massive space as my mail archive. But honestly if it were to go poof it wouldn't get me all that upset. I pay for sites that give me a unique service like Toodledo.com, PostLater.com and Jott.com - Speaking of which, would love to see PostLater.com support on kwippy. Is there a post.api that can be used? hmm.. should probably turn that into its own post.

@pfmonaco: wow, never heard of any of those services.need to explore 'em

I will use a paid service if it makes my life easier, like mobile phone service and web hosting. As far as data storage, I'd be apt to use Google's mail archive and have my own external hardrives.

I guess Google has me by the tail in that I trust the years of data I have poured into their servers will never go away. Makes me wonder.....

Here is the only thing I pay for online besides site hosting:

Flickr.
I care about my photos, and more importantly the once-a-year payment works for me. The last thing I need is another monthly obligation. The price point is right on. I am considdering paying for Remember The Milk as well to obtain a pro account because I use it so much and will be getting the Storm on Friday (you have to pay for use of the Blackberry app).

I'm with theinfamousgdub on this--Flickr all the way. I've thought about ipernity because they have more features, but I have too many family and friends on Flickr. Frankly, I don't like that I have to pay to keep access to more than 200 of my photos--once I pay for the space I should not lose it in a year. Especially since storage is so absurdly cheap now. Still, I generally like Flickr's features, so I don't mind paying too much.

Yes- I pay for flickr pro and wordtracker amongst others. Occasionally the extra features are worth the $ and in wordtracker's case, it more than pays for itself. :)

I never really gave it much thought until now, but free isn't always better. If I used flickr more I would pay for the pro version. I don't think I would pay for email.

I'm considering to get me an evernote account as well. I make extensive use of it, and i think it is fair to support them. It is not that expensive, right? Since there is no ads on there, i think it is good to support them. Not just for security of my data, but also to give them a reason to exist. Let's face it, if you'd start a kick ass service, which is free of ads and free of charge, and you have 100000's of users, it would be nice if you could make ur living out of it and put all of ur effort into that service. Or u think i'm an idiot thinking like this?

yes. i pay for pr0n. ;D

kidding.

I do not use paid services. I use for example 'free software' and pay back with promotion and link love. Actually I do not believe in what is generally considered as 'paying' cause mostly it is just a form of RENTING. And of course I do not believe in anything that's 'free.
Ok, and now the hair splitting starts. Some might consider renting as a form of paying, as you have to pay for something that you don't own.
Personally I consider 'paying' as a this for that, as a kind of trade.
Thus meaning a change of ownership.
Well, yes, someone should write a book on that and start teaching me. And there are most probably plenty of books about this already.
Educators are welcome to teach me a lesson.

I pay for a few....... I do pay for Photobucket.......

No, but if I need to, I would.

I pay for convenience and features...or not pay if I don't find it worthwhile.

@robin I totally agree with you. I would rather pay then see a bunch of adds, or a good service go away.

Can't think of any net services I've ever paid for, except a few. One year I had Writer's Market online + book. I used paid antivirus and antispyware. I also joined a writer's group (very small annual dues) in order to be part of a critique group online.

I had to get rid of paid antivirus/antispyware, because it was taking over my hard drive space. I now use the free antivirus/antispyware.

I store or back up photos on CD.