For a little less than a year I’ve been needing to buy a new mattress. Mine is old, it doesn’t support my back, and for the past month has been the cause of much severe back pain. Since the holidays are upon us, I’ve decided to ask my family to chip in toward getting a new mattress, which is going to cost somewhere in the realm of $500 even though it is only a full size bed. Bah.

My dilemma is this: I want to give them an easy way to send me money electronically. PayPal is out because they take a portion of the money in fees. I’m willing to pay some fees, but they take too much. I was thinking of some system like Kickstarter, where it keeps track of how much has been raised so far. But I feel like that is for actual projects, not just a personal “I want this thing.” Given that Mary had such a terrible time with Fundable.com, I’m a little afraid to try another similar site without knowing anything about them.

Does anyone out there know of a site where people can send money and see how close the fund is to the final goal and etc? I’m looking at ChipIn.com right now but, again, I know nothing about them and I am wary.