I did it for about two years until I kept getting repeatedly kicked for my blood work being below the acceptable threshold (I think its the Iron and probably a bit of under hydration during the summer months, I can’t remember).

The amount of cash would vary greatly due to bonuses which were temporary. The place I went to didn’t always automatically apply some of these types of incentives and you’d have to remember to show somebody the email/app screen so that a tech could apply the bonus to your account.

At the place that is near me, if you donated twice in a calendar week you’d get the max non bonus payment (75$ US) but the first donation of the week was a very low dollar amount (25$) and the second donation would be the higher one (50$).

College town, so when school is in session (or when COVID was taken seriously in the USA) the wait time would be something like a 1 hour minimum (and I think I waited almost 3 hours before) just to get into a bed.

If anything goes wrong, you typically don’t get paid. If a technician messes up and makes a big bruise on your arm during one visit that is still visible on the next visit, that arm can’t be used. Get kicked too many times in a row and you’re locked out for a while and you may need to go through another physical before being cleared to donate again.

My wife would usually go in with me until some nerve thing was getting agitated from… something. Not sure if it was the needle in the arm, some other effect of the anti-coagulant, or just having to sit with your arm at a particular position for at least an hour (more if the techs are swamped and it takes a while to get you unhooked.)

Its possible to have a bad reaction to the anti-coagulant (usually fixable by taking some cheapo antacids for the calcium-something-or-other before getting pumped or when you start feel the negative effects start).

Be really sure you are aware of when the place closes for the holidays as that can mess up your ability to get the max weekly payment. I’d feel like dog shit for the rest of the day and it didn’t help that its almost a 2 hour round trip for me. So I’d be trying to do grocery shopping and some other errands afterwards and feeling really light headed and then get home to do outside work and moving very slowly to keep falling down.

So its great if you have easy transport to and from the place and have a pretty flexible day schedule and aren’t super reliant on it for paying necessities and don’t have any negative reactions.